get the picture part 2

I shared with you the new joy in my life that is my living room wall in a previous post.  I love how what I have turned out and I can't wait to add more and more pictures to the wall.

As I told you, I picked up some frames from thrift stores and ran into a few problems.  Two of the frames had no way of displaying or hanging them.  Weird, I know.  I was a wee bit confused as to how the manufacturer intended them to be used.  I also got two large frames that were meant to be hung vertically though, I needed one vertical and one horizontal.  The hanging hardware was a wire.  I grabbed my husbands power drill and solved these problems in a pinch!

get the picture

I'm still alive...in case you were wondering.  I've had a busy yet wonderful summer so far.  I've attended two beautiful weddings and worked six weeks at a youth camp.  I am gone all week at the camp and have been out of town a few of those weeks...my poor little apartment has been so empty!

However, I did manage to sneak in a little project last weekend while I was home.  I had forgotten my camera at camp, so the picture quality won't be so great.  You'll get the picture, though (pun COMPLETELY intended!)

I decided that I wanted to fill up the wall behind our sofa with pictures.  I have so many great pictures that I want to display...I just never did!

Clipped On

My best friend, Leslie has a favorite flower...SUNFLOWERS!  However, I could not find any sunflowers that I liked enough to use as centerpieces.  I was quite stumped and honestly...panicked!  I knew that I needed something in the center of the tables, I just had no idea what.

Last summer, my bridesmaids (my older sister and Leslie) bought some glasses from Ikea that we used as vases for the centerpieces at both mine and my older sisters bridal showers.  I wanted to use the glasses but, once again could not find flowers to suit my fancy.  Then, about two days before the shower I had an idea...a great one, too!

I ran down to JoAnn's and picked up a package of 20 small dowel rods (wooden sticks) and a package of 24 mini clothes pins.  I stopped at Wal-Mart and got some super glue and black spray paint.  The total cost of my materials was under $10 and the outcome was quite dandy!

guest book not guest blahh

When it came time for me to think about a guest book for my wedding I had some serious opinions.  I did not want the typical guest book in which guests write their name on a line.  Then, you put the book away and never even look at it again.  Being the thrifty (a.k.a. cheap) gal I am, I needed something that would at least serve some kind of purpose.  Well, we had two sets of engagement pictures taken.  One by our friend here in Jacksonville, Jacob at One Bright Spot Photography.  They were awesome.  We recreated our first date, Moon River (local pizza temple...heavenly pizza), Starbucks (as mentioned, an addiction to my husband) and a nearby park.  We were SO impressed with these pics and wanted everyone to see them.  We also had engagement pictures taken by a friend of mine, Lauren Mason at Piccadilly Pictures based out of Orlando.  We found an 'airplane graveyard' in St. Augustine and then took some shots while walking around St. Augustine.  You can check out some of our pics on my snaps page.
We had a lot of pics and wanted to share as many as we could.  We displayed some of the pictures from both photographers at our Wedding and my Bridal Shower, but really wanted people to see ALL of them.  Plus, I wanted to be able to display the pictures in our house.
Then it hit me...a guest book that doubles as a photo album!  I went to my go-to photo project site...Shutterfly!  I made two 5x7 soft cover photo books, one for each set of photographs.  I used the layouts with a lot of space designated for text, I just didn't type any text in.  I was able to get the book in our wedding colors, brown and orange and I love it so much more than ANYTHING I saw in store.  My favorite thing about my guest books is that I do still use them.  They make great coffee table books.

holiday cheer the easy way

Those who know me best know that I have quite an addiction to a certain photo project site.  Shutterfly.  I've used Shutterfly for oodles of projects from Mother's Day to my own wedding.  Well, now that Christmastime is upon us, I plan on using them for my Christmas Cards as well.  I wanted to use a picture from my wedding especially to send to those who were unable to attend our wedding.  I was a little worried as to how a wedding picture would fit into a Christmas card...but, Shutterfly totally came to my rescue!  When browsing through their Christmas photo cards I found the perfect one for us!

 It's title is 'No mistletoe necessary', and reads 'Christmas Kisses...and best wishes'.  How absolutely perfect, our wedding picture looks great on the card. (the picture on the card shown to the left is not us!  We're young, but not that young!)  Not to mention we can put more pictures on the inside of the card.  Anywhere from one extra picture inside all the way up to 9!  What?!  They thought of everything!
Shutterfly also does address labels with a photo on them.  I used these for the address labels on our wedding thank you cards.  I absolutely loved being able to send a sneak peak picture from our wedding to all those who sent us gifts and couldn't make it.  Even those who did attend the wedding commented on how much they loved the address labels!  Score!
My absolute favorite thing about Shutterfly is that they are CONSTANTLY sending me offers, discount and coupons.  I honestly don't think that I have bought anything from there when I haven't used a discount of some kind.  I think my addiction is totally justified by the awesome-ness of the site alone!
If you're a blogger, I have an AWESOME deal for you.  You can get 50 free Christmas cards just for blogging about it!  Now that is an ultimate score!  Just go here to find out more about it.