Finished Gallery Wall

A while ago, I had the idea to make a gallery type wall above my couch. I cut out a variety of sizes of picture frames out of newspaper (I called them "mock pictures"), and hung them on my wall with painter's tape. I spent a couple of days moving them around, trying to get a good configuration of what I liked. Then I ordered my frames. I had shopped around a lot for a good price on frames, and found the best deal for all of them was from Ikea, even after the cost of having them shipped to me. They came with mats, and I was able to order different sizes, since I like everything to be all match-y.

Once the frames came, I used the newspaper cutouts and marked where the holes are on the original frames, and used the newspaper to measure, then had my husband put my nails in the wall. Once the nails were in, I ripped off the newspaper frame.

After those were done, I got access to my wedding pictures, so I ordered my photos (I always seem to find the best deals and coupon codes from Snapfish, I love them!). My prints came the next week, so I put them in the frames and hung them up! It definitely was a lot of waiting for the impatient me!

Now, I will talk about this for a minute. It is very far from perfect. The pictures are not evenly spaced apart, the smaller ones do not match up perfectly in a line like I wanted. However, I knew this project was going to end up like that, to be honest. I had a really hard time measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again. The newspaper looked good and lined up, but the frames... not so much.

My husband and I fiddled around with this wall for hours one Sunday, and I refused to put any more holes in the walls to get them perfect. So, I'm learning to be fine with the imperfections. I may go back later and maybe secure the smaller ones better with Command strips, because with our upstairs neighbor stomping up the stairs, and Amelia bumping into the wall, they sometimes get nudged sideways, making them uneven. It has been a struggle, walking by and straightening them out several times a week. I was trying to avoid the strips, because they are obscenely expensive for what I need - but I am starting to think I may have no choice!

But all things considered, they turned out better than I expected them to be. I like to think that you can't see the issues with them unless you try to look for them, but I'm not sure that is true. LOL!

Amelia at 11.5 Months

My love, Amelia, is almost one year old this month! She officially turns one on March 29th. I fully intend on making her a few little puppy cupcakes for her, and possibly and new toy for her to enjoy. It seems like just yesterday that we had gone to pick her up from the breeder, cleaning up her vomit when she got car sick on the way home, having all those sleepless nights, the every ten minute potty breaks... while I do not miss a lot of the puppy stuff, I would not trade it for the world!

It seems just one day, I looked at her, and saw what a beautiful, wonderful dog she had become. There was a period in her puppyhood that I got really frustrated with her, she was nipping constantly, she would pee in the house, even though we had JUST came back in from standing out there for 10 minutes. It was entirely no fault of hers, she was a puppy, and that is what puppies do. However, I thought that it would never end. But one day, I took her over to a friend's house, and would not let her out of my sight, in fear of her peeing in their new house. She shocked me when she started pawing at the sliding glass door, and ran right out to go potty outside. Since that day, our accidents in the apartment became fewer and fewer, as we finally "got" potty training.

She looks photogenic, but in reality, she is far from it. I will give you all a tip on how to get reasonably good photos of dogs: give them something to chew on. Seriously, if I attempt to get pictures of her without something for her to do, she will just waltz up to the camera, sniff it, and not go away. It makes for disastrous photos, because I really like to get at her level to take photos. I have never been a fan of taking photos from above. So, I shove something in her face (for this session, it was a deer antler), and I will just start snapping. I will probably take about two hundred pictures in a fifteen minute period, then finding which photos I love the most once I download them on to my computer.

We also recently got her officially AKC registered (which, if you ask me, was a complete waste of $40), and after another $31, she got registered with the city as well. We were definitely a little late in doing so, but money never really allowed it until now. Miraculously, we also avoided late fees. Bonus! She's all current and official now! We chose her AKC name to be "Stewart's Miss Amelia," because well... she is. :)

Our Wedding Pictures

As my readers know, I got married to my husband last year. It wasn't a huge thing, just a simple, tiny ceremony at the county courthouse, and a dinner at a fancy restaurant afterwards. I had a close friend who is trying to get into the photography business offer to take our photos. She took the pictures, but shortly after, she got incredibly busy with various events in her life. I didn't get the photos until last week. (But that's okay, I wasn't in a hurry to get them).

So, I'll share a few of my most favorites here. It was a really stressful day, I wasn't quite myself. I have trouble with being the center of attention, and having people focus on me, so I was extremely fidgety. Also, it was my wedding day, and I didn't have my family there, as they were still in  California, so it was also emotional for me. My friend photographer tried her hardest to keep my spirits up and she definitely did the best she could, with me being as (not) photogenic as I am.

She suggested this pose to me, and I was weary about doing it, because I swore up and down that he was going to drop me! But, it turned out to be my most favorite photo of all the ones she took. I love the way the dress moved, and it really looked like we were having fun! I love this photo, I definitely plan on putting an enlarged version of this on my wall.

Another one of my favorites. She had found a bench within the courthouse that was next to a window. We sat on the bench, and she snapped this one. I love this photo. I think it captures our happiness for that day brilliantly. I wanted to go around and get photos for my family, and his, and found out that this photo was definitely one of the favorites between everyone. Everyone wanted a copy of this photo. I agree with all of them, this photo is fantastic. I even ordered a print of this one for the husband to take to his desk at work.

Another sweet photo of us, outside the courthouse. By this point, my $3 shoes were killing my feet, but my friend kept me going, snapping photos the whole time. She really did a fantastic job at our photos. I don't know what we would have done without her, we probably would have had a lot of cell phone photos, really.

A full length photo of the two of us. This shows off our wedding clothing rather well. I really tried my best to match each other. I think I did pretty well, I had even tried to match my nail polish. Haha, I was completely obsessive over trying to get everything to match well.

Lastly, a solitary photo of me. While my photographer friend took fabulous photos, I find myself finding all sorts of flaws with me. I really wish that I had took longer to find a necklace that matched my hair piece better. A necklace probably would have made my chest not look so large. Should have gotten teeth whiteners, Should have put on makeup that day. I am probably the only one who feels that way about them, because I know that I'm the only one who focuses on every flaw in me.

Decorating Tiles With the Silhouette

Recently, I decided that I wanted to really make my apartment a little more like a home. We have been here almost a full year, and we have basically nothing on our walls, except for some spray painted letters. My apartment just doesn't feel lived in. So, I made the decision to really invest in some pieces to make it a little more home-y.

First on my list of things to have: coasters! Since I prefer to do it myself when I can, I went to our local Home Depot and picked up some of the cheapest kitchen floor tiles that I could find. I got four small 3x3 glossy ceramic tiles, priced at only .13 cents each. Then, purchased a design from the Silhouette store and used my machine to cut it out on permanent vinyl. I sized each design at two and a half inches, and adhered them to each tile. Lastly, I cut out little square pieces of white felt and glued them to the back corners, so they don't clink against each other, and scratch surfaces up.

They turned out great! While I had a couple issues - one has an air bubble that I can't get out, and another coaster is missing the dot for the "i". All things considered, they look fabulous. They look very formal, very wedding-like. With the white and the metallic vinyl, I couldn't have asked for a better combination. (Not to mention, these would probably make great wedding gifts!)

Next project, I wanted a tile just for a simple display. Again, a single, super cheap tile from Home Depot, and a small easel, made for a wonderful foundation to put a phrase on. The easel, I think they are most common for displaying plates, and I found mine at Gordman's. However, I did notice them to be slightly cheaper at Hobby Lobby with a coupon.

I added a different phrase, again purchased from the Silhouette Design Store, cut out in permanent vinyl. My tile was 12x12, and the phrase probably would have looked a lot better larger, but this was as big as my machine could cut. We do what we can, with what we have, right?

A good start to making a bare apartment a nice place to live, I think! It's been FAR to long since I made an attempt at decorating the place I call home.

One Year Anniversary

Can you believe that a little over one year ago, the husband and I were married at the courthouse? Seems like it was just yesterday that I was trying on dresses at David's Bridal, getting frustrated over the fact I couldn't find a hair piece I liked, and feeling like my feet were going to fall off as I tried to learn how to walk in high heels. Obviously, we have had our ups and downs, as they say the first year of marriage is the most difficult. But, we're still here!

A benefit of having our anniversary three days after Valentine's day is that all the "love" items in stores go on clearance, which make it fabulously cheap for our anniversary! (I didn't plan it that way, I swear!)

For our first year together, we decided to book ourselves a hotel room at our local Hilton Garden Inn, a treat for us, as we never got to go to our "Honeymoon," if you will. We did have a hotel booked after our wedding, but right before we were married, we got a call that an apartment opened up where we had applied to move to, and all money went to moving costs. So, unfortunately, our honeymoon never really got to happen.

We had a fabulous time, as with every time we visit the Hilton, the rooms are always clean, the sheets smell good, they have wonderful details in the rooms (like a Keurig!). We went with a special package that included a full breakfast for two in the morning, and champagne in the room.

You definitely can't beat a couple nights in a hotel room, a perfect vacation from my cats, who keep me up all night, and my super needy puppy, who takes up the entire bed every night.

Here's to the next year!

Monogramming with the Silhouette

For Christmas, I received a fabulous gift - a Silhouette Portrait! It is just like the Cameo, just a couple inches smaller. I have been playing with cutting paper over the past few weeks, and finally received some vinyl to experiment with. However, recently, I have really taken a liking to monogramming. I purchased an app called Monogram It! for my Android phone (apparently, it's also for iPhone, too), and I started off monogramming my phone wallpaper, but that was not good enough. I wanted to do more! So what was my first vinyl project? A monogrammed ring dish!

The dish is a small porcelain "dip bowl" that was only $2 from Target. I used the app to create a monogram, emailed the image to myself, then traced it into the Silhouette Studio software to cut my vinyl. Once cut, It took me a few tries to get it just right into the dish, and even now it doesn't seem perfectly centered. But, after several attempts, I got frustrated and just decided it was good enough. Haha! It is just for us, so I figure it doesn't need to be perfect.

My husband takes his wedding ring off when he washes his hands, or showers, so I thought the ring dish would be a really cute place for him (and me!) to put our rings when we need to take them off. (Let us not mention the fact that he lost his ring twice over the last 2 weeks. First time, he fell in the snow, and it flew off - we had to wait until the snow melted outside to find it. And more recently, he lost it at the dog park while throwing a frisbee - we had to go back to find it. We were VERY lucky to have found it, both times.)

Anyway, next, I wanted to monogram my phone! This turned out much better, I think. I am totally pleased with how the back of my phone turned out. I keep a clear case over my phone, and this will be completely visible, even with the case on.


I love my Silhouette Portrait, I feel like I can do so much with it! Pretty much anything I can think of to make with it will make fabulous gifts and fun trinkets, not to mention make my smash booking and junk journaling so much better!

Thrift Store Finds

Recently, my love for Smash Booking has turned into something called junk journaling. Junk journaling is all about taking stuff normal people would throw away, such as cereal boxes, old magazines, scraps of fabric, and turning them into a journal. Junk journals usually have pockets, envelopes, and literally anything else you can bind into one. I love the idea, because to be completely honest: we never have any spare money, so crafting without a budget for it is really hard! The fact that I can do my crafts, which is just made from things we normally throw away is awesome.

I don't normally carry cash (perhaps it is the Californian in me who grew up in bad neighborhoods, I prefer to carry cards), so we don't normally go to thrift stores, or anything of the like. Since, the majority of them do not like to allow debit cards on small purchases.

We had a couple extra dollars one day, and I talked my husband into taking me thrifting. We headed out to one of the biggest thrift stores that I know. Well, actually, its a large consignment store, but they have a huge variety of things there! I was after two things: lace ribbon and piano sheet music. Tyler was such a trooper, he was looking through practically every box and every book in each booth. We were there for about 2 hours, looking through everything. But we didn't come out empty handed!

My first find was this lace. Very beautiful scrap pieces of lace, which I love. I am on a huge lace kick right now, I love it!

However, my biggest score was these. Little individual pamphlet things, of sheet music. They were the more expensive purchase, but I absolutely love them! They are very old, I have no clue what songs they are, but they literally took my breath away when I saw them on the shelf. They were everything I was looking for. I just know I am going to have a hard time in parting with these beauties.