DIY Staircase Photos

My husband is really not a fan of Pinterest.  Don't get me wrong... he usually enjoys the finished product and agrees that the ideas are ingenious... However, he doesn't like the strain this one website is placing on our budget, and our marriage.  Point in fact: I have asked every day for the last two weeks when he plans on building me a toy organizer like the one I have pinned.  At this point, he just shrugs and tells me he will build it eventually. I hope he does because I don't think I am capable enough to learn woodworking on top of all these other household skills I am trying to master.

To get to the matter at hand, we got some family photos done around Christmas, and we finally got the prints a few weeks ago.  This inspired me to finally get some family photos on the wall.  But how?  I really am not a fan of photos on the wall that are just photos.  I like when photographs are arranged in some sort of artistic way so that it looks like an installation and not just pictures of the family.  Google and Pinterest provided me with the following inspiration:

Now, I'm really in love with how these frames are done with some black mattes and some white ones.  I also used this as a jumping off point on how to arrange my photos.

First things first, I got on my computer and picked out some pictures representative of our family: picture of me and Chris when were first engaged, pictures of the kids at every Christmas, family photos, etc.  Then, I got on Shutterfly where I edited, cropped, and decided on sizes for the pictures.  At this point, I didn't really put a whole lot of thought to the big picture.  I just ordered pictures I loved in sizes that seemed to work.  The family photos and professional photos of the kids I did in 8 X 10 and I ended up with a total of 9 large photos.  I ordered a few 5 X 7 size photos and the rest in 4 X 6.  In the end, I had a grand total of 19 pictures.  The prints cost me $26 on Shutterfly and they got here in four days.  Excellent!

Next step was laying them out on the table and determining their order (chronological), and layout.  I did about five pictures at a time, and drew a corresponding sketch.  At the time, I wrote down which ones I thought would look nice with a black matte, and which with a white matte.  When I realized that this was going to turn really expensive really quickly if I were to get these framed by a professional, I decided to go to the Dollar Tree and find stuff that would work and be happy with it.

For the 8 X 10 prints, I ended up 9 of these:

They are not matted, but I like them well enough, especially given that they only cost $1 each.
For the 5 X 7, I bought 4 of the following white matted frames (pre-matted so all I had to do was put the pictures in):

Again, not bad for the price.  I was able to have some variety for the 4 X 6 pictures by finding two different frames that I liked:

The ones on the left are pretty beat up when you look at them up close, but I thought they would add a good pop of color from a distance.  The ones on the right are the same as the 5 X 7s, except smaller.

Total at the Dollar Tree: $19

Next step was getting them all framed.  As I framed, I pulled out the insert in the photo frame and labeled it with a number I had assigned to each photo.  I also wrote this number in pencil on the back right corner of every frame.

Using masking tape and the photo inserts, I started hanging them up on the stairway, taking into consideration that the actual frames would be bigger than just the photos.  About halfway up the stairs, I realized that I was spreading them out too far and that it wouldn't all fit.  Fortunately, it is easy to rip off masking tape and move it around.

After a good amount of rearranging, I grabbed the hammer and started to nail a few pictures at a time.  Placing them on the wall either confirmed that I was on the right track or helped me realize I needed to make adjustments.  I used a level probably four times, when I wanted to make sure things were in a line and perfectly arranged.  Otherwise, most things were not totally lined up, so a level wasn't necessary.  Towards the end, I had a moment where I changed my mind about the arrangement of some photos.. but since I hadn't nailed anything yet, I just moved around the photo inserts until I liked how it looked.

Having a chart of how I wanted them arranged and using the number-labeling system helped a lot.  If I didn't have that, this whole thing might have taken hours longer than it did.  As it was, it only took about two hours from framing the pictures to having the whole installation up on the wall.  Remember though, when you use numbers, that you don't use the same number twice.  I wrote 12 on my chart twice, so as I was putting things up on the wall, I got extremely frustrated with myself when it just wasn't adding up.  It didn't take long to figure out my mistake.  Anyways, the finished product is:

And the individual sections are:

I am incredibly happy with how this turned out, and thing that for a cost of $45, it couldn't be any better.  My husband even agreed that it looks great, and every time we go up and down the stairs, the kids stop to look at the photos of themselves.  Okay, on to the next thing!

Adventures with Baking

Okay so after having fun learning to bake cakes and cupcakes from scratch (and decorate them) over the course of last summer, my newest baking adventure is in the world of bread.  Last week it was banana bread.  This week, I made zucchini bread for the first time ever.  I made two loaves on Tuesday and they were gone by Wednesday night, so I decided to make another batch today seeing as we have tons of zucchini.

Comments on this... I had no idea how incredibly easy it is to make breads like this.  I always had this concept that all bread-making involved yeast, and waiting for dough to rise, and a certain amount of kneading.  However, there are what is known as fast breads, and both banana and zucchini bread are in this category.  Basically, sweet breads that you would eat with coffee in the morning qualify under this category.

First Post

Just testing...