Green Gallery Wall {a study in landscape}

My living room has been a slow work in progress ever since we moved in to this house seven years ago.  We've experimented with a few different rugs, replaced old furniture, added a new (old) chandelier, painted the walls white, and I've tweaked and shifted things around almost daily. 

(That's one of my gifts weaknesses--don't judge!)

I recently redesigned the one big boring wall in the room by creating a gallery wall of original art. Four of the paintings are mine (three oil and one watercolor) and one painting I bought on ebay.

 The composition of the paintings on the wall was tough to figure out. After lots of unsuccessful experimenting with the four oil paintings, I realized I needed one more little one, so I rummaged around in my stash and found the watercolor which I had painted years ago.

I traced the shape of each frame on brown packing paper and cut them out to use as templates on the wall.

Once I decided on the composition, I taped them up to make sure I liked how they were centered and how they filled the space.  Then Scott and I hung the frames with a few minor adjustments and came up with this ~

 The painting on the top left is the watercolor I painted in college. It's a landscape from a photo I took in the mountains outside of Quito, Equador. The top middle is an oil I did a few months ago from a shot I took this summer while we were vacationing on the Oregon coast. The painting on the top right was done in college as well, a study of a Van Gogh. I painted the one on the bottom right a few years ago for an art show at our church.

They are tied together through color and theme, but vary a bit in style. I like gallery walls that are more random, too, but I'm loving the repeated green fields and ocean imagery in this collection.
I think it brightens up the room, and the added height and gold accents relate to the chandelier and make the room feel a little bigger to me.

Pretty Plate Wall {high impact ~ low risk}

 When I was visiting my sister, Carrie, this fall we were inspired to jazz up her kinda-boring kitchen 

with a plate wall. I'd been wanting to try one for a while, but I've run out of wall space at my house. 

Carrie was up for some low-risk (inexpensive) decorating, so we had a great time throwing this together.

What you will need:

10-15 plates (or more?) - All of these were already owned or cost around $2 - $5 or so.
plate hangers - We used the wire ones you can get at hardware stores.
butcher paper
a digital camera
hammer and nails



How we did it:

1. We started by collecting plates. Carrie had six of these plates already, but we went to Marshall's and Home Goods to pick up the rest. We were looking for a combination of bright, bold colors, lots of texture, and a mixture of patterns and solids. (You should check out all the plate walls on Pinterest to figure out what colors and styles you like.)

 (one of our earlier layouts)

2. We played around with the composition on the floor. I'd take a picture when the layout seemed close, then tweak it a little more, take a pic, compare, tweak, pic, etc., until we settled on a composition we liked. 

3. This step could be combined with two to simplify things, but we were putting this together over a few days time so we separated the steps. I measured the space we wanted to fill on the wall, then rolled out a length of butcher paper in the same dimensions on the floor. Using the picture I'd taken as a guide, I set the plates out in the composition we'd chosen. Then I traced around each plate, drawing circles on the paper to create a template. Once that was finished I taped the paper template to the kitchen wall.

4. I chose a plate to start with (it doesn't matter which one). First, I attached the plate holder to the back. Then I held it up to the corresponding circle on the template and marked where the nail should go. (I continued using the picture on my camera as a guide.) Then I nailed right through the paper and hung the plate. I repeated that process until all the plates were hung, but the paper was still taped to the wall with nails poking through it. Finally, I took all the plates off the wall, tore off the paper (leaving the nails in all the right places, of course) and re-hung the plates.
 

Pretty jazzy, right? Well, just in the last hours before I left to return home I was hit by a second wave of inspiration ~ that old IKEA table was calling out for a quick and easy update. 

But, alas, I had run out of time.

So when I went back last weekend (to visit my sweet new little cuddly nephew) I hit the ground running 

with a plan. I lightly sanded the table, painted it green and did a few coats of wipe-on polyurethane 

on the first day. The next day I applied another coat of polyurethane to the top with a brush. 

(I wanted to be sure to get a good strong top coat since the table gets such constant use.)

The next day it was finished in all its bright, spring-green, freshness.

 I love how Carrie's kitchen turned out and it was so fun and easy to do.

If you're contemplating an inexpensive, high-impact change--I say go for it!

What do you have to lose?

Hobbit Party {or what happens when both your parents are nerds}

Last weekend we celebrated Jack's sixth birthday. Love that kid. 

In the last three years we've read The Hobbit (twice) and most of The Lord of the Rings 

(we're half-way through The Return of the King). He has an awesome attention span 

and he loves to snuggle up and hear a good story.

(Please excuse the ridiculous number of photos in this post. 

I wanted to provide some details for all you Hobbit party-planners out there.)

Scott and I had a great time coming up with how to have a Hobbit party. (We're nerdy like that.)

I penned (with my fountain pen--nerd again) invitations using the text from the note Thorin leaves on Bilbo's mantle, inviting all the burglars on the adventure.

When they arrived at "The Green Dragon Inn" we fed them a hobbit-y kind of a lunch: 

sandwiches on freshly baked biscuits, 

fruit, pumpkin scones with cream and jam, and cups of root beer.

Over lunch, I gave the kids a little summary of the story ~ 

a quest to defeat Smaug and win back Thorin's treasure. 

Each "burglar" received his own map with the trail marked in red. 

I labeled each of the challenges they would face on their quest.

Our party activities were as follows:

• Stone Troll Tag
• Riddles in the Dark
• Spiders and Flies
• Barrels out of Bond
• The Black Arrow

 After each activity we consulted the map and I had the kids figure out what came next. Then I explained a bit of the story to go with that activity.

Stone Troll Tag: We played a game of freeze tag. Scott was the "troll" trying to freeze the kids by tagging them. They played until I announced that the sun had risen and Scott was turned into stone. Then I gave each child a blue glow-in-the-dark sword ("Sting") from the trolls' treasure trove. (Gotta love the dollar store.)

Riddles in the Dark: We asked the kids riddles which gave them the right to go into Gollum's cave. Scott constructed a cave out of six large black garbage bags, opened up and duct taped together to make a giant bag. (This may qualify him as the biggest nerd, or coolest dad, you decide.) 

He left a large hole (child-size) at one end for the entrance. He left a small hole (the size of our fan) at the other end. Duct tape the small hole around the edges of the fan and when it's turned on it should fill the "bag" with air, inflating it into a giant cave.

Disclaimer: I thought this idea was insane when he described it to me--it sounded like a death trap. 

(What? We're going to have a bunch of kids crawl in to a giant garbage bag?) 

Once he had it set up, it made perfect sense and didn't seem risky to me. 

That said, make the evaluation yourself and do this activity at your own risk.

We put the gold rings (on brown ribbon) around inside the cave and I painted a gollum to go at the far end. The kids had to crawl inside with their glowing "stings" and find their rings.

I found a package of the gold rings in the jewelry section at Michael's. They are key-chain-type rings.

Spiders and Flies: Halloween cobweb decoration and dollar store spiders 

made a spider tunnel for the kids to break through.

Creepy!

Barrels out of Bond: I picked up Arrowhead water bottles to serve as our barrels. I wished I could have found something that looked more barrel-like, but no luck. The kids had to get the barrels from the elven king's hall (the spa) to the end of Long Lake (the pool) using pool noodles and other tools (no hands).

This required some good teamwork, and luckily no one fell in.

The Black Arrow: The final challenge was defeating Smaug by shooting him with Jack's archery set. (Not a nerd to be seen here--this is just cool!)

Each child had a few chances to shoot at the target.

And after the thrill of victory . . .

each child got his share of the treasure (a bag of chocolate gold coins).

I'm hoping these hobbits are inspired to read Tolkien's great book 

now that they've had a little taste of the adventure. 

Jack had a great time. I'm so thankful for his wonderful friends 

and for the sweet six year old he has become.

Today's Project

Someday, maybe I'll write a hectic, jam-packed post about all the goings on of the last several months, with reflective bits about my conflicted experience of online activity, and sweet bits about how the children have grown, and all kinds of other bits about spring and summer, rest and travel and school and . . . .

But, honestly, at this point all that catch-up and explanation is just creating a giant writer's block.

So, I'll just share today's project.

May you know the abiding peace that comes with believing ~

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.

Lamentations 3:22

Inspiration for this project came from Dana Tanamachi's amazing chalk creations.

Chalkboard Inspiration

Inspired by Dana Tanamachi's amazing chalkboard creations, as mentioned by these two bloggers, 

I decided to jazz up my dining room chalkboard this week.

I've enjoyed keeping a passage of scripture or some other poetry or lyrics displayed in this busy space. Hopefully, these true and restful words can give my soul a moment of pause and reflection 

even while I'm wiping mashed eggs off the floor or giving a spelling test (or both).

The look I was trying to achieve with this hymn took some pre-planning on paper in order to determine how the phrases could fit together in an eclectic way while still being readable and balanced. 

I especially like how the word "Grace" stands out in the center of the board.

Praise God for the sufficiency of Jesus' blood and rightousness, 

and the sure anchor of his unchanging grace which holds us safe, 

even in the midst of the whelming flood. 

 I'm looking forward to seeing this daily reminder in the weeks to come.

Keep Calm and Carry On {the backstory}

Ever wondered where the "Keep Calm and Carry On" slogan came from? 

This little documentary is interesting and even a bit inspiring.

 Did you see that bookstore?
Brilliant.

Mustard Yellow Table {love it or hate it?}

Lately I've been loving bright, mustard yellow. I think it started with a scarf I got last summer and now it has resulted in a little table transformation in our living room. Scott and I originally picked up this sturdy end table a few years ago from friends who were moving and I refinished it in a creamy white. I pretty quickly realized the white was too "antique" for me and the table just looked blah.

After collecting some images of little French tables on Pinterest and mulling it over (secretly) for quite a while, I decided to paint it a bright mustard yellow. 

 Scott said, "It's very yellow." I said, "Trust your wife."

Next, I sanded off some of the new paint, revealing some of the old white paint 

and the pale bare wood underneath.

Then, in order to give it a more aged look, I stained the exposed wood.

A final coat of wipe-on polyeurethane finished the job and gave it a hard, durable seal.

The whole project took just a few hours, with most of that time spent waiting for the paint to dry. I bought only a little sample jar of Valspar's "jackson square" paint (from the allen + roth collection at Lowe's) and that was plenty to do the job. The stain and polyeurethane were leftovers from other projects.

And now I have a much more interesting little corner in our living room.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people would think this kind of furniture refinishing is rather unfortunate--

who would want this garish, mismatched table in their home?

Well, call me crazy, but I do!

So what do you think?

Love it, or hate it?