On the Record…

Part of making my home…homier… has been hanging up artwork on the walls. I’m particularly liking my grid of record albums up in the living room at the moment:

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Here are some tricks I’ve found along the way when it comes to hanging artwork:

  • For the love of god, use a level. Don’t just “eyeball” it, especially when you’re hanging something in a grid pattern like this. Nothing will be completely square, and you’ll find yourself tilting your head ever so slightly every time you look at your handiwork. 

Records in a grid

despite your best efforts, you may find slight variation in size and squareness of the art itself. Try not to sweat it. 

  • Create a “guide” to hang. For this project, I cut strips of tape the length of each record and put them along where the top of the record would hang. This allowed me to figure out the level and spacing without committing to a bunch of practice holes in the wall.

View two - records

Don’t forget to take down your guides when you’re done. I had bits of blue tape peeking through for about a week before I wised up and took it down. 

  • Bring in a second opinion. Have an extra set of hands to give you nails. Make sure someone can step back and tell if, even though it’s level on paper, it seems to be tilting in relation to the crown molding (grrrr…)

Little Helper - hanging records in a grid

Bonus points- my little helper was actually pretty little 🙂

There you have it! A quick project that adds a lot of life and personality to a room! I’m hoping to get some forward progress this weekend on our bonus basement room… we’ll see how that goes with the whole being sick and obsessed with Christmas thing I’ve got going.

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Holiday Listening

I’m home sick today, and listening to this holiday music mix is keeping my spirits up. I made this mix last year as a little goofy gift for friends (complete with pictures, below). I originally billed this CD as “Christmas songs that won’t make you puke”.

Hope you enjoy!

Some things never change…

This last week during Thanksgiving, I had the chance to watch quite a few home videos with my parents. It’s fun seeing things I remember through older (and hopefully wiser!) eyes. Watching my young parents be goofy and so patient with all us kids was really nice, and made me feel pretty nostalgic. This morning, I saw that my dad had posted this picture of me on Facebook:

Me and our dog Hoops. 

I “liked” the picture and went along with my day. This afternoon, I got my haircut, and it wasn’t until my awesome stylist spun around the chair that I realized I really recognized the person in the mirror- just aged about 20 years.

Am I crazy, or did I just get the same haircut as my childhood self? I guess all those home videos snuck into my subconscious!

Horses Horses Horses*

Hello there! I haven’t done an outfit post in a while, so I thought I’d share this dandy new article I purchased this weekend during the insane Black Friday shopping outing I took with my Mom. My new horse shirt!

Ever since I saw this post from A Beautiful Mess where she DIYed her own horse print dress, I’ve been itching to do the same. Then I got lazy, then I got distracted…and well, here we are. When I spotted this guy last weekend on sale, I had to pounce! And since I was with  my admittedly horse-crazed Mom, there wasn’t a lot of resistance to this idea.

This demonstrates how I took the outfit from “day” to “night”, or just from “outside the house” to “inside the house”. I’m not an especially complicated person. 

My favorite part of this outfit are the little details- like the gold buttons matching my gold “D” monogram necklace. Or the way my shoes and slippers both match my belt. It’s little stuff like this that can contribute to an extra-sassy feeling day.

*that’s right, it’s started! The Christmas song references! ‘Tis the Season, as they say!

Manic Monday

Hello! Are you still stuffed from your Thanksgiving? I am. So much so, that I’ve decided to get a head start on my 2013 resolutions by working on my health this month- that means exercise, eating well and making sure I get lots of sleep.

This weekend, I spent some quality time with my parents, watched a lot of home videos, rooted for the Ducks with some girlfriends, and let myself do absolutely nothing for an embarrassing amount of time. It was glorious!

my signature dish at Thanksgiving…

Here are some items to keep you entertained this week:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, what I’m most thankful for is my family.

These are my people- I love my large (and growing!) family. My brothers who continue to amaze me with their creative energy and random talents. My parents who gave us all our odd sense of humor and are more patient than I would have ever imagined. My future sister-in-law who brings a (very loud) fun presence to our house 🙂

And of course that guy in the last two pictures. He really puts up with me, even sending me a picture of his face today with no explanation that it would end up on the blog. He’s pretty great and I’m pretty lucky.

Hope you’re all having a great day and have lots to be thankful for.