Thursday, October 18, 2012

Frame Collage

I started a collage of frames on one of our walls in our sitting room.  I've been wanting to do this for a while now and I've had most of these pictures framed for quite some time.  Anyways I finally got around to hanging them up last weekend. (I feel like I say that with a lot of my posts.  I need to start focusing on one or two projects instead of a bunch at the same time.)  I'm hoping to turn our 'sitting room' into a room we use more often and I think this collage of frames adds a bit of personality to the room. 


I experimented with a few different layouts out the floor, before deciding which one I liked best.  I started with some symmetry in the middle and then added from there.  Deciding on a layout was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I finally picked one that I thought would be easy to add to in the future.





Next I cut pieces of wax paper to match each frame and marked where the nail needed to be.  Then I taped the wax paper on the wall and hammered the nails into the appropriate spot.  After the nails were in place, I took down the wax paper and started hanging my pictures.  Thanks again Pinterest!  



I included the birth announcement prints I made from the boys, a family picture and a few other meaningful pictures and prints to our frame collage.


Here are a few close ups of some of the art we have hanging.

This one is a postcard of Flathead Lake that I framed.  I got it for free at a store downtown.  Score!  They were trying to sell larger prints for $300, but this little guy was perfect for me. 


Here's a piece of Parker's artwork from school.  I love the colors and the texture, its done on sandpaper.


I found this cute, free print on Pinterest, from the eighteen25 blog.  They have different colors you can choose from, then just download and print.  Thank you eighteen25 blog!!!


I found this fun and colorful print at Pike's Place Market for five dollars.  I love all the bright colors and it is a happy reminder of our time in Seattle.


We have a couple Maui pictures on our collage wall, one of our favorite places.  This is one we took when we were there a couple years ago.  It was taken at one of the stops on the Road to Hana.  The other one from Maui is a sunset picture, from the beach where Chris and I were married.  Maui has the most beautiful sunsets!




I'm really enjoying our new wall, I only wish I would have taken the time to hang the pictures earlier.


Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Chris!  Thank you for all your love and support.  You are the best daddy to our boys!  We love you so much!  XOXO
 
Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!



Monday, October 15, 2012

Fall in Missoula!

DISCLAIMER:  This post contains A LOT of pictures of Parker & Ryder

I love Fall in Missoula, there are so many beautiful colors!  We took advantage of the gorgeous Fall day we had yesterday and headed to Greenough Park for some outdoor fun and picture taking.  Greenough Park is a perfect place to take pictures, the entire area offers an amazing backdrop!  Getting your kiddos to cooperate is the challenge!  I got a couple decent pictures of Park and Ryde together, quite a few good ones of them individually and one really cute picture of the two of them with their daddy.  

Enjoy the pictures!

















Love them!

I think this was his Superman pose



Giant Wishing Rock



Skipping down the path





Cheers!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

I'm Cute and I Know It

Ryder is eleven months old today!  Lucky number 11!  For those of you who don't know, Ryder was born on 11-11-11, so I have decided 11 is his lucky number.

What this little guy has been up to the last month:

First Wedding - Ryder attended his first wedding!  Our friends Kathryn and Brian were married in York, MT.  It was a beautiful wedding, with a stunning bride, great music, delicious food and wonderful people!

Stairs - He is getting faster and faster going up the stairs and has figured out how to go down the stairs.

Teeth - He hasn't gotten any new teeth the past couple months, but he sure knows how to use the four he has.  He started grinding his teeth too!  This is quite possibly one of the worst sounds ever!  Parker did this too when he was little.  Do a lot of other babies do this too?  Or are my kids just trying to torture me?

First Black Eye - Ryder decided to throw himself on our tile floor, during one of his tantrums and got a bump on his head and black eye.  I freaked out a little, but luckily he was alright.  Side note, Parker fell off one of our chairs in the kitchen, hit the tile floor pretty hard and ended up with a pretty good bruise on the side of his face.  Boys 0 - Tile Floor 2  Sometimes I think I should make them wear helmets all the time.

Throwing Things - He loves to throw things and frequently throws his toys in the garbage in his room or in the laundry basket.  I have to check his garbage for toys before I empty it.

Peek-a-boo - Ryder recently started playing peek-a-boo and he thinks he's pretty darn funny!

Foods - He's already tired of Cheerios and he now loves toast.  He could eat a piece of toast with every meal.  Ryder prefers feeding himself, rather than us feeding him.

Words - Ryder says "dada" all the time and occasionally makes the "mama" sound.  I'm not going to lie, I wish he said mama all the time.  He does spend the majority of his time with me.

Corn Maze - He went to his first and second corn mazes, once in Helena and once in Missoula.  Ryder enjoyed grabbing and picking the corn leaves, while getting a ride in the backpack from his dad.

Busy, Busy, Busy - He is always on the move and never stops, except for when he's sleeping.  He pushes his riding toy/car all over, along with whatever else he can pull himself up on and push around.  He loves the park and now likes to climb on the playground equipment and go down the slide on his belly.  He tries to do everything the bigger kids are doing.

He wasn't really cooperating for our photo shoot today, but I still managed to get a few cute pictures.







I'm Cute and I Know It


Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Hawaiian Nursery

Last week I posted about Parker's superhero room, this week its Ryder's turn.  Since he'll be eleven months tomorrow, I think I'm about done with his room too.  I originally posted about Ryder's room here and here, but have changed it up a bit and added a few special touches.  Hawaii holds a special place in our hearts, since Chris and I were married in Maui, so a Hawaiian themed baby's room was perfect for us.

Ryder's room is fairly small but it is big enough for everything he needs, plus a little more.


Can you spot the baby?
Do yourself a favor and play this song, while you scroll through the pictures.  I love this song and it always reminds me of Hawaii.  Park and Ryde love it too!



This cozy corner includes a comfy rocker-glider chair and ottoman, boppy, book shelf filled with books, lamp, mini globe, Oh, the Places You'll Go canvas I made, chalkboard I made and a couple toys.  I've spent countless hours in that chair, nursing and reading to both my boys.  




What my view usually looks like

Ryder has a dresser/changing table, which is perfect for his small room.  It has a changing pad, diaper organizer and a basket full of distractions to try and keep Ryder from squirming when he is getting his diaper changed.  The wooden sign above the dresser I found in the clearance section of Pottery Barn Kids for $14.  It could be easy DIY project though.



Chris and I made the surf board above the crib.  It was one of our very first DIY projects, that we made before Parker was born and pre-blog.  I love it!


The corner shelf is from Pier 1.  I found it at a garage sale quite a while ago for $9, it was brand new and still in the box.  Score!  The picture on the top shelf is of my great-grandpa, Parker and Ryder's great-great-grandpa riding his Indian motorcycle.  That's where Ryder got his middle name Norman from.  I figured Ryder needed an eleven somewhere in his room, since he was born on 11-11-11.  I bought a couple wooden 'I' letters from Michaels, painted them yellow and attached them to the wall with some 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips.  For some reason the numbers were twice as much as the letters and the 'I' letter looked like a '1' to me, so that's what I got.  The curtains are the same navy blackout curtains that Parker has in his room.  They work great, especially in the morning, since both the boys bedrooms are on the east side of the house.






Lucky #11



We bought these CribWraps from Amazon when Parker was teething, because he decided it would be a good idea teethe on his crib.  He left quite a few of his teeth marks in the crib before we got these bad boys on there.  This time I was prepared when Ryder started teething.  The Hawaiian bedding, crib bumper and quilt (on back of chair) are from Pottery Barn and I got them before Parker was born.  



I love all the bright colors in Ryder's room.  It's a happy place for a happy boy!

Cheers!