Wall Art Anniversary Gift

If yall are anything like Baby Joe and I this is how our anniversary gift conversation goes:

Joe:  Are we doing gifts for our anniversary?

Beth:  No.  I don't want anything b/c I buy whatever I want.

Joe:  Okay.

That's what we say.   But here's what we do:  Act like we aren't getting each other anything - and usually Joe gets nothing.  But then he ALWAYS gets me something.  I think last year we actually did take a break and not do gifts and it was great; no stress.  But years 1 and 2....talk about me feeling like a jackass.

Year 1:  We went to see Date Night at theater at Northpark in Dallas.  Walked to Macy's b/c Joe wanted a new cologne.  Then we went to Bob's for an amazing dinner.  I visit the restroom after ordering and get back to the table and there is a Tiffany's box waiting for me.  I open it - it's a beautiful sterling silver Paloma Picasso heart necklace.  Joe says "You like it?" and I say "Duh" - or something like that and then he says "Well, let me know if you like this too".  Boom!  Slams ANOTHER Tiffany's box on the table.  Matching bracelet.  Me - cologne.  Him - Tiffanys.

Year 2:  I get him nothing.  We again go to Bob's.  The Mavs lose - he's in a terrible mood.  Get home - Boom!  Humongous package with a brand new Coach purse that hadn't even hit the floor yet.  My normally mute husband somehow talked the girls into giving him something that wasn't suppose to be sold until Tuesday.  What color is the purse?  Tiffany Blue.  Me - nothing.  Him - Coach purse. 

So he is the most thoughtful husband ever and I suck.  I know I'll never beat him in giftgiving so I decide to go the sentimental route.

I lookup the traditional 4th anniversary gift - it's flowers.  Yea - not gonna work.  So next I google "anniversary gifts for men". Not kidding.  I did the link to a link to a link thing and finally ended up on Etsy (go figure) and got some ideas. 

Less than $20 spent and a trip to Hobby Lobby later.  I have a gift!

 

This was super simple folks.  I busted out some resume paper and googled the lyrics to our first dance song, "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillet, and copy and pasted it into Word.  Then repeated the copy and paste.  Adjusted the margins and was done with that background.  The other frame has our wedding vows repeated for the background. 

Next I got out my handy dandy worth every penny Cameo and cut the letters and numbers out of red paper I had.  Glue sticked it on, put it in the frame, and Voila!  Gift complete.

Now I will mention I did not find a frame I liked in black.  I had it in my head I wanted a frame with at least double matting since the lyrics and vows background was busy.  Here's what the frames originally looked like. 

I had some black latex paint leftover from another project and painted them sloppily and then used a sanding block to shabby chic them. 

Joe's pretty easy to read and he liked them a lot.  We've got them hung up on either side of our bed.  I think the bedroom was a great place for them because it's something so sentimental and personal.  And we had no wall art hung up in there so that marks something else off my to-do list!

I've been gettin' on the wall art - another post about it coming soon! 

I highly recommend following me on Instagram if you like my crafts.  There should be a button on this page somewhere for that exact purpose.  I'm pretty good about posting pics of projects right when I finish on there - plus you get the added bonus of seeing pics of Evelyn!

Updating a Brand New Storage Cabinet

For those of you with kids, you know how their toys get out of control and take over your house.  Downstairs we turned E's old room into her playroom and keep the big toys there and then upstairs she has her room full of toys and in the bonus room we have an Ikea storage center with bins full of stuff.  In our den we had a little chest I got at Hobby Lobby when she was a baby that is about 2 feet wide by 1 foot high and deep.  That no longer contain hurricane Evelyn.  So Joe and I came to terms that we needed to invest in another piece of furniture for the den. 

Luckily, Northwest Arkansas got a Home Goods!  Imagine my excitement.  I knew that they would have something just perfect for the den.  I went opening day of course right when they opened.  I had to drive around for 5 minutes and had 2 parking spaces stolen from me as I was attempting to pull in.  But I finally snagged the last space on a row.  I'm getting out of my car and there is a BMW small sedan parked behind me.  What happened next was.......an unusual encounter to say the least.

The Latina woman with big black sunglasses and extremely long fingernails began to yell at me and say I stole her space.  So I said something like "I'm really sorry, it's a busy day and I had a few spaces 'stolen' from me as well (I didn't air quote stolen.  I'm using them now as a sarcastic reference).  And I tried to laugh it off.  No go.  She starts yelling and saying "I'm not talking about YOU.  I'm talking about ME!"  The woman goes into a tirade about how "Everyone is suppose to be so nice here!  Why aren't you nice?! Everyone keeps saying how nice it is here"  So I'm completely taken aback.  Then she points to me with her long index finger nail and says "You hit me. So I hit you."  I'm completely befuddled.  I'm thinking is she gonna ram my car with hers?  Because I didn't "hit" her.  Then I thought maybe there was a slight language barrier and she was saying "hate" instead of "hit".  So I of course just walked off and snapped a pic of her license plate as I walked toward the front doors in case she did decide to "hit" me. 

After I get in the store I try to laugh it off and think "Maybe she's just having a bad day."  But then the longer I shopped the more my mind ran wild and I found myself looking over my shoulder thinking her brother and his friends are going to come kidnap me.  Or perhaps I'd walk out to my car and someone would be on top of it slamming it with a baseball bat. Turns out none of those things happened - yet.  I have a semi noticeable car up here b/c there is not an Infiniti dealership.  Not to mention a Mavs tag on the front and a razorback on the back.  And it's blue.  Seriously - it's the only blue G35 I've seen up here.  Don't worry though - still have the license plate pic.

Back to the real reason I'm writing this post is the cabinet I bought at Home Goods that day.  There were 3 contenders to choose from.  I sent pics to Joe, didn't hear back, made my own choice, then he finally texts as I'm checking out and luckily his choice matched with mine.  Love that guy.  This is what we ended up with

     

 

Joe's one problem with it was that you could see into it.  But I assured him I would fix that problem right up!  I also wasn't crazy about the black pulls so I spray painted them gold the next day. 

 

I considered lining the doors with fabric and was totally going to do it, but then I was walking around at Hobby Lobby and found this 

 

 

These are lightweight laser cut aluminum sheets - and they have all kinds of patterns.  I grabbed one to take home to see if we liked it and it was definitely the winner.  So after another trip to the Lobby, a little teamwork, a pause to go to Home Depot to get more staples for the staple gun, and then some elbow grease - we had our finished product!

 

 

 

 

The blue you see on the top shelf are just fabric boxes I got from Target.  Probably gonna go get another set.  I kinda like the peek-a-boo blue. 

 

I'm not excited how the pulls turned out.  They looked good before we added the aluminum screens but the screens are so busy I feel like I need a more substantial knob or pull there to balance.  I'll keep you posted friends!

It's Christmas in April!

I don't know about you, but every after every Christmas I have internal turmoil about what to do with all the Christmas cards we received.  As a family we do the obligatory photo Christmas card each year and try to have fun with it.  But it can get expensive!  This year I designed the card in Photoshop all by myself and uploaded it to Vistaprint and saved probably $25.  What's that?  You want to see our card? 

Boom!  There it is.

 

 

As you can imagine - the response was HUGE. 

 

I saw an idea for the pic on Pinterest.  Then was searching for card templates on Etsy and got the idea for the wording.  I then setup my tripod (never used it before) that Joe got my for my birthday two years ago and had E pose mischeviously (egged on by the help of Mr. Will acting a fool) then Joe and I posed without moving the tripod; then the photos were merged in Photoshop.  The lights E is holding are all real.  The lights wrapped around Joe and I are half real - half clone stamped (Photoshop vernacular). After turning the photo black and white I went in and hand colored the lights.  It took awhile to do (4 hours or so in Photoshop) but it was worth it.  I also had a lot of trial and error too so that added time. 

 

Anyway - back to the real reason I'm writing this post - people spend a lot of money and time on cards and I feel bad just throwing them away.  So for the past 4 years I've been hording and storing all the Christmas cards we get.  I figured that someday I'd have an epiphany and figure out what to do with them. 

 

That day has come my friends.  I honestly think I got the idea while looking at my Benjamin Moore paint samples; lots of cards all attached together....idea was born.  So during E's ballet class last week I ran next door to Office Depot and picked these up:

 

 

 

 They are like a keychain - but just pull apart!

 

 

 

I hole punched the corner of all the cards and strung them on.  Went to my paper supply and made a cover with red cardstock and used my Cameo to cut the numbers out in gold sticker paper and Voila!  A way to preserve Christmas cards! 

 

 

 

 

I also did all the baby announcements we received and hung them in the back hall on our corkboards.  These little rings are turning out to be pretty handy! 

 

Being as it's only April I'm going to wait until next December and probably add a green bow to the rings and display/hang them somewhere during the holidays.  Maybe from the mantle in the den?  (We hang our stockings in the living room). 

 

Does anybody else have ideas on how to keep Christmas cards preserved? Please share!