The other day I was FaceTiming Mama V. when I had to prop up the phone mid-chat for 'clean up Nora's vomit' duty. (In our family, we don't hang up for those things. ;) Children - even well-behaved ones that don't do anything to her - make Nora extremely anxious, so after our friends and their munchkins left on Sunday, the poor thing crawled out from two days under the bed and let it all out. Multiple times. And amazingly, all on the hard wood! (Never despise the day of small beginnings. Usually she heads for the carpet.)
Regardless, I digress. This post is not about Nora's acid reflux. This post is about my new art wall that Mama V. noticed when I propped her up on the dining room table. Our kitchen is pretty small and doesn't have a whole lot of wall space, but it does face a large swath of our otherwise-too-narrow-to-hang-anything-and-see-it hallway. I thought it would be pretty to create a display that mirrors the dimensions of the kitchen opening, so I set to work scouring prints, photos, and frames from around the apartment. And here's what I came up with:
I'm not quite done yet - I still have that really narrow empty spot on the right side and the couple of feet to the floor - but I used what we had and I'm happy with the progress. Don't let those design blogs fool you: it is really hard to "match" mismatching frames! I had these laid out on the living room floor for a couple of days before I finally whipped out the ol' Command Strips.
My dream kitchen is a mix of white, turquoise, and red - conveniently also our wedding colors - so I ignored the beige colored wall (It's not so noticeable when you're standing in our pale yellow kitchen.) and went to town. Here's a quick rundown:
I love my Fisher Price people print, but I bought it almost five years ago and I can't remember the seller's name anymore. I know she's on Etsy. Does it look familiar to anyone? And I can't take or give credit for the Dickens quote poster either. (I know. I'm batting .000) It wasn't my idea and the source has disappeared from my Google Reader. Someone was giving these away for free (+shipping) last year, and when I missed the cut, I went out and made my own. Does anyone remember who that was? (When Drew walks by it, he always starts singing Chumbawamba's Tubthumping. So wrong. ;)
But at least I know where these two came from! The morning of our wedding, Drew sent me (via one of his groomsmen ;) our invitation suite in a beautiful custom matt and frame. That was actually the first thing to go on the wall. Everything else had to work around it. (Including the obligatory smoochy wedding photo!)
The Catherine Holm-y print is from Etsy seller handz. I'd had my eye on it for a long time, but was too cheap to shell out for shipping from the Czech Republic. I put it on my Christmas list instead and it showed up sometime around my birthday. 'Cause that's how my family rolls - celebrating holidays on their actual dates is so Hallmark. We spread it out all year long. (Or at least until mid-summer when Mama V. has most likely discovered all the forgotten Christmas presents in the back of her closet. ;)
And last but not least - it is, in fact, the reason for this very long post - is this little vintage postcard triptych you may remember from a Tuesday Thrifting post back in February. It was the perfect size for the wall, so I moved it from it's previous spot in the living room, but - alas! - it was the only piece on the wall not living up to the "red and blue" theme. (The blue sky and American flag above the White House notwithstanding. The colors don't pop inside all the black frames.) So I set to work.
I wanted to print a quote about D.C. over the three postcards in red, so I poked around for a good saying and found the perfect one by - who else? - Charles Dickens. During his visit in 1842, he called it "the city of magnificent intentions." He was referring to streets that led to nowhere, sporadic and random buildings, and a general lack of population, but I think the same could be said for it now, both earnestly and sarcastically. Irony: I love it.
I am not a typography expert by any means, so I fiddled around with each card before deciding on the font. The layout was a bit more random than I wanted - printers do not like when I tell them to do weird things - but it turned out to be a happy accident. I especially like how "THE" and "OF" printed off the edge. :)
Other than fidgeting with the printer, this was probably the easiest craft ever. I was a bit worried the printer ink would overpower the faded colors on the cards, but I forgot to take into account the paper's gloss. It didn't want to let the ink sink in and for once that was a good thing. The type looks stamped instead of printed, which is a nice, subtle effect.
Ahhh...much better. Now to finish the rest of the wall! What about you? Any fun crafts lately? I've been slacking off since my sewing machine broke, but I think this got the juices flowing again! :)
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