Another Nesting Update: Gallery Wall

Happy Thursday, readers!  I don't have a ton of time tonight because I am sooooooo sleepy, so this post is going to be a little short slash boring.

Remember the nesting post from a while back where we were trying to figure out what kind of gallery wall, frames, etc. we wanted?  I originally envisioned something with all of the same frames and very symmetrical.  Dan had another idea, and for once I am glad he had an opinion.  We bought the frames a while back on sale but have just been hanging onto them until we got a spare second to figure out how and where we wanted to hang them.  This past weekend we finally got it together and completed the gallery wall project! 

It was a LOT more involved than I thought it was going to be.  First, we laid the frames out on the floor and rearranged them for about an hour until we finally found a pattern we liked:

So exciting!  The next part was harder, took a REALLY long time, and was way more involved than we thought it would be.  Measuring where to put these things took ages, and then once we figured out where the edges should go, we had to do even more measuring to figure out where to actually put the nails so that they would hang properly (did that make any sense?).  Here is the before:

And a few of the in process:

We ended up measuring the amount of space between the photos from the floor layout on the right hand and bottom sides only (after measuring the space on the wall where we wanted to hang them).  There was no way to tell whether it was really even laying on the floor, so we filled in the rest from there.  Finally, several hours and a lot of curse words from Dan later, the finished product: 

The layout ended up being only slightly different than the one we planned on the carpet before hand, but I love the way it turned out.  The unit that controls the downstairs temperature hangs on this wall, so rather than put the gallery wall above it, we decided to put it on the left side.  I'm sure we will have a lot more pictures we want to hang when Baby Geronimo arrives, so this way it leaves us some extra space on that wall  (in addition to all of the other blank walls in our house, as we have been there for 6 months and I have yet to hang a single photo...whoops).  I have promised Dan that next time we will not pick frames quite so complicated.

The only thing that's left is to fill them with photos!  While I like the way the black & white ones that are already in the frames look, Dan requested color photos.  Since his opinion did not lead us astray on the gallery wall to begin with, I think I'll go with it.  Picture ordering is on the agenda for this weekend.

YAY Friday!

Sarah

Nesting: Operation Closet Cleanout

Anyone out there who has been following this blog for any period of time will know that I have been DREADING this chore.  It has been on my "to do" list since before I started the blog, and I have even blogged about doing it quite a few hundred times, and just have not gotten around to doing so yet.  Every time I tell myself "this is the day" or "this is the weekend," I do something else instead.  Anything else, really.  I HATE cleaning out my closet.

I am not sure why I hate this task so much.  I think part of the problem is that I am completely and utterly indecisive about even the silliest things.  So for me, deciding whether or not to keep or throw out one item of clothing may or may not take 30 minutes...and at that rate, it could take weeks for  me to finish this one small(ish) chore.  The other part of the issue is, I have a little bit of a problem when it comes to clothes and shoes.  The problem is this: I love them and cannot get enough for them.  Just walking into my closet and getting into the mindset of cleaning it out is a feat in and of itself as a result.  Not only is it tedious, but it is emotional.  Try telling yourself that yes, you for sure need to throw out your favorite skirt that you wore in college because your fat rear will never fit into it ever again.  It is really tragic!

I originally decided to clean out my closet because a girlfriend of mine gave me three huge tubs full of maternity clothes.  Luckily I have still been able to wear my regular clothes so far, because while I am oh so grateful for the clothes she's letting me borrow, I have not yet had a chance to thoroughly sort through them and organize them because I literally have nowhere to put them.  Not to worry, I took before and after photos of operation closet cleanout you could see (although I am sad to say that you can't really tell much of a difference).  The amount of stuff I decided to get rid of was astounding even to me, simply because I already did one closet clean-out this year - in March, when we moved into our house - that resulted in approximately 6 HUGE black garbage bags full to the brim with clothes, shoes and accessories.

Behold, the before:

It is an absolute disaster, and the disarray gives me a headache to even look at.  I am honestly sad to say that there was not room to hang one more piece of clothing in that closet.  I couldn't move the clothes that were filling it to the brim at all to even fit anything else in.  And that is SAD considering I have a full closet at my parents' house right now since I've been staying here for work for several weeks.  So, believe me when I say, this needed to happen.  I will refrain from mentioning that if only my husband would either (a) just move his items to some other place in the house or (b) give me a bedroom to convert to a closet, we would not have had this issue to begin with.
Here is the stash that my sisters will be thanking me for sometime this week when they have a chance to go through it and take what they want:

It doesn't look like a lot there (which is why I tried to zoom in on the piled-high circular basket), but when I transferred it to tubs I filled up 3.  Whoops.

And here is the end product:

I know what you're thinking...it doesn't really look all that different from the beginning.  I was having a hard time getting the camera to show how much extra room there is now.  You know what that means?  Time to go shopping.  Don't tell Dan.  :-)

In addition to this closet, I also cleaned out everything in our upstairs guest bedroom (future nursery) closet, so now it is completely empty (except for hangers) and impatiently awaiting Baby Geromino's arrival.  I ALSO tackled my next chore: sorting through the three bins of clothes:

While I didn't make it through all of them, I got through two out of the three.  Not too shabby for 5 hours on a holiday weekend. 

While I am proud of all of the household projects we accomplished this weekend, there is one downside: there is SO MUCH I still want to do around the house.  So much art and so many accessories to be bought, and so much decorating still left to do.  I know, it will all come in time (or when we grow a money tree in the back yard, whichever comes first), but I am so impatient!  Plus, now that Baby B is on the way, I feel sure the nursery is going to take priority at approximately 10:05 next Wednesday when we find out the gender.  Oy!

That's all for tonight!  Hopefully my nesting posts aren't boring you, because I've got another one coming up sometime this week.

Hope everyone had a happy Tuesday that didn't feel like as much of a Monday as mine did!

Sarah

Front Porch Update

As a follow-up to my nesting post, I thought I'd show you some of the progress we made over the weekend!  Although I didn't get everything on my weekend "to do" list accomplished, I got all except the organizing of the closet done.  If I'm honest, I knew I wouldn't get to that one...I hate doing clean-outs, especially closet ones, and I normally procrastinate until I can't handle it anymore and then go on a massive throwing away binge. 

So, if you remember, we finally were able to agree on some front porch furniture, and it didn't end up in a knock-down-drag-out with each of us wanting to commit homicide on the other for liking hideous things and I couldn't be more happy with the way it turned out!  I documented the process to share.  Dan was mildly annoyed.  Probably more than mildly annoyed, really, but I wasn't going to let him bring me and my picture-taking down!  Pretty sure he's over my blogging already.  Anyway, here goes.

The "before."  The salesman assured us that everything was SO easy to assemble.  He lied, especially about the swing.  He also did not tell us that they wrapped everything tighter than I wrapped my china when we moved.  SERIOUS pain to get all of the parts out of the boxes.  Also, I'm sure you can tell by the murderous expression on his face, but Dan is really excited to be putting together said rockers and swing in the 100-degree heat, rain, and HUMIDITY on Sunday afternoon:

Layla was really excited to help...

Until she got bored.

An action shot: 

I feel like I should brag on my husband a little bit here, because that swing ended up being a HUGE pain to hang.  Dan bought the hooks that the salesman told us to buy at Lowes, and they didn't work.  He went back to Lowes three different times and returned cursing me for demanding a swing with things that didn't work.  FINALLY, he hung the swing and came inside to get me.  The conversation that ensued went as follows:

Dan:  Your stupid swing is up.

Sarah: OH MY GOSH IT LOOKS SO GREAT!  Thank you so much, I am so excited. 

Dan: (Shrugs his shoulders, like, whatevs it was no biggie)

Sarah: But, um, is it crooked?

In hindsight, not the best moment to bring up the crookedness, but really I'm pretty sure no one will ever notice.  The swing is perfect, and the chairs look great, too.

Here's the finished product:

I couldn't get close enough or at a good enough angle where you could actually see what they look like.  Don't worry, for your viewing pleasure, I give you more photos:

Left side of the porch (if you're facing the house)

Right side of the porch (if you're facing the house)

When Dan was done, we both tested out the swing and then the rockers for a few minutes (as long as we could stand it in the heat), and Layla came and laid at our feet when we were rocking.  Were it not 100 degrees outside, it would have been perfect...exactly how I envisioned it.

It all looks awesome, right?!  Kudos to Prince Danny for all of his hard work.  Now all I need are some outdoor pillows and some plants!  For pillows, I had something like this in mind.  That one's sold out, and was too expensive anyway, but I want something really colorful that will bring in the red from the door.  I'll keep searching - I haven't looked much thus far because I wans't sure we'd really ever get the rockers/swing.  As for plants...I have no idea.  I kill everything I touch!  I am thinking of hanging ferns, but I want to put a plant or two by the door as well.  Any ideas of things that survive in the shade?  HELP ME!

Sarah



Nesting!

These days, I feel like I am a nesting machine.  There is so much that we want to do around the house, and now that Baby Baum is on his or her way we have even more to do to get ready!  My weekend "to do" as of this morning was:

• Go to Michael's to look at picture frames for my as of yet non-existent gallery wall, because I have some awesome coupons
• Go to Old Navy to use our Groupons, which are about to expire
• Go to the Flea Market at the N.C. State Fairgrounds to see if we can find any rocking chairs we like
• Go through my closet and do yet another much needed clean-out to make room for maternity clothes
• Run various not-so-fun errands, like the book store and grocery store, before going out of town for work for the week

I know the list does not look like a lot, but y'all, it is SO HOT outside that all I want to do is lay around in my air conditioned house, so if we could have gotten through even half of this list I would have been happy.  Luckily, the hubby was on board with the to-do list for the first time ever, and with some prodding we ventured out for the  morning!  I am happy to report that we accomplished the first 3 items on our list today.

I cannot believe that we have been in this house for 5 months and I do not have a single picture hanging.  Not a single one!  We have just been so busy with both work and play, and our weekends always seem to fill up and go by quickly, so I haven't gotten around to it. We decided a while back that a gallery wall in our house would be awesome.  My original idea was to do all of the same size frames (I like the symmetry of it) as such:

Photo Courtesy of High-Heeled Foot In The Door Blog



Anyone who knows my husband, however, knows that he always has his own ideas, which are 100% of the time different than what I had in mind (hence we will not be discussing baby names for a LONG while):

Photo Courtesy The Nester

As in all things marriage-related, we ended up compromising: we got different sized frames, but the frames are all the same (i.e. all thick black frames).  Some of the matting is black and some is white.  And on top of it, we scored a GREAT deal on said frames at Michaels - all frames were 40% off PLUS I had a coupon for 25% off our full purchase of sale and regular priced items.  Wahoo!  I also have a coupon for 50% off the entire site at Snapfish, so I will be filling said frames soon.  I can't wait to see how this wall turns out.  Updates to come later!

We also found our dream rocking chairs (thanks Baums & Eakers!) and swing at the fair ground flea market, and guess what, they were on super sale!  We got two black rocking chairs and a matching swing from the Savannah Collection by New River Furniture.  A co-worker suggested that we go see Leonard at The North Carolina Hammock Company, and we are SO glad we did!  He was very friendly and helpful, was having a huge sale, and gave us a GREAT deal.  He's got a shop at the Fair Grounds, as well as a warehouse in Chapel Hill, so go see him if you're in the market for beautiful, high-quality outdoor furniture!  Here's what we scored (but in black, not stained as shown):



Savannah Rocking Chair



Savannah Porch Swing

And here's Dan pricing the chairs and swing on his phone in preparation for negotiations testing out the goods:

And finally, here is what the beautiful new haven on my front porch will look like:

Photo Courtesey Scotland Antique Blog

A girl can dream, right?  If I could only talk my husband into porch fans...it's already wired and everything!  Shouldn't be too hard, unless you've met him you wouldn't think.  :-)  Stay tuned for photos of the real deal.

Here's to knocking out the remaining two items on my list tomorrow, because now it's naptime.  Happy Weekend!

Sarah