Birthday Trip Wall

As I try to get back into the groove of things with the new year, I'm anxious to work on another project.  A while back I read through the Young House Love book and jotted down all of the projects I would love to try out.  Chris already nailed #155 with the silhouette of Gypsy that he made for Christmas, so I selected #126 which is to add a surprise slice of color to a frame.  It's a quick project that involves painting the side edges of a white frame.  

I headed over to Ikea and picked up a stash of white and silver Ribba frames.  

Some of these pictures may look familiar if you were a reader back in 2011.  They are all shots from our annual birthday trips!  Our birthdays are 12 days apart, so the trip always takes place in August.  Back in 2007 Chris and I took our first trip together to San Antonio for his birthday.  In 2008 we headed to New Orleans for my birthday (although the trip was cut short by a hurricane).  We loved the tradition so much that we have continued it every year since.  2009 - Hot Springs, Arkansas.  2010 - Fredericksburg, TX.  2011 - Atlantic City, NJ and 2012 - Albuquerque, NM.  To commemorate these trips, I decided to work on a mini gallery wall for our future house (hopefully in my office).

It's harder to notice in photos than in person, but I really like the mix of silver frames with the white ones.

So back to the YHL inspired project.  I originally wanted to paint the sides of the white frames and somehow incorporate the year the trip was taken.  In my head it worked out by placing stickers down before painting the side and then removing the stickers to reveal the year in white.  While this plan sounded great in theory, once I got the frames home and laid them out I recognized that the painted sides wouldn't have the same effect as part of a group as it would on an individual frame. 

Although the original plan to paint the sides probably isn't going to work for this (but I plan to try it with another project), I would still like to incorporate the year of each trip in some way.  I'm tossed between painting the mat and leaving white numbers for the year, or just writing (or using scrapbook stickers) the year on the bottom middle of the mat.  It's harder to imagine with just words, so I might have to just test out both ideas in reality.  If I don't like either I know that photo mats are very easy to replace.

What would you do?  Would you paint the mat and have white numbers for the year, or just write the number on the bottom middle of the mat (or use nice script stickers)?  Or would you just leave it as is and hope that your memory will stick with you through the years?

It's Been A While

New year should bring new posts for this blog, but lately I have just been weighed down with work to do anything blog worthy.  I'm hoping that is going to change soon once I get a good handle on these new projects.

I always like to have something to look forward to (something to plan, excel spreadsheets to maintain) so we have been tossing around some ideas of a get away in May (after Chris graduates...knock on wood) and plotting out when the house hunt will begin.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long since I wrote this post, but I am amazed at how far we've come and am crossing my fingers that we'll be good to go come July.

In the meantime I did knock out Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and will be starting on the 3rd book soon.

I need to make it to a secondhand book store to pick up the last 2 books

In unrelated news, mom is currently on the hunt for a new dining room chandelier and I have fallen in love with some of the beauties out there.  Now to find an extra couple grand laying around...oh and a dining room to put it in :)

One of the cool chandeliers we spotted 

Do you have any trips, projects or plans coming up?  Anyone else having a hard time getting back into the swing of things post holidays?

2012 Photo Recap

Hope everyone had an awesome time ringing in the new year!  It was quiet over here since Chris was the lucky one to close on New Year's Eve and had to open on New Year's Day.  I'm slowly getting back into my daily routine and wanted to share the year that was in photos.  This year I'll be including some of the Instagram pictures that were a part of the Click 366 project.

January

Discovered the awesomeness of instagram and began the Click 366 project to take a picture every day of the year.

February

We ventured out to the Food Truck Park, ate Medieval style and I created some DIY art for our gallery wall out of paint chips. 

March

Road Trip!  We drove down to San Antonio to cash in on a free stay, drink some green beer for St. Patty's day and had the opportunity to see some glass blowing in action.

April

In April we cruised the western Caribbean and celebrated our first year of marriage exchanging paper gifts and eating year old cake.

May

I finally finished the map of places we have been after having most of the materials for months.  We took in some summer blockbusters and tested paint in the half bath (which kicked off the renovation addiction).

June

In June we took a tour of the Sixth Floor museum and ate from more food trucks during our staycation in Dallas.

July

In July we headed south to College Station for Chris' first walk on campus (the same campus of the 2012 Heisman trophy winner Johnny Manziel! Whoop).  I also crafted another project based off of Pinterest.


August

Birthday month!  We continued our tradition of birthday travel and celebrated Chris' birthday in Albuquerque where we rode up to the top of the Sandia Mountains and took a mini tour of the wineries.  We also lucked out and took in a last minute free concert.

September

Completed the first of many home renovation projects for my parents house.  I can't wait for them to repay the favor when we get into our own house!

October

We finally got to see the famous Johnny Football in action as we headed to Louisiana to watch the Aggies take on LA Tech.  After taking a beginner's sewing class I was excited to finish my first quilt.

November

Cashed in our birthday tickets from my brother and enjoyed a weekend getaway to Las Vegas where we ate an amazing meal at Gordon Ramsay Steak.

December

I rounded out the year by creating another ornament for our tree to symbolize our past cruises, and said goodbye to a valued member of our little family.  We also finished the major parts of the living room renovation in time to enjoy Christmas with the family.

You can check out my recap of 2011 here.

2012 had it's ups and downs, but I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be one to remember!