I've been putting off my living room decor for so long now.  I flipped back from gallery wall, to big art, to wall paper, and back to gallery wall again. Finding good art that all goes together is seriously the most frustrating thing ever. So I said, either I can spend the next 5 years dreaming of a matching/super awesome gallery wall, (if we are still in this house), or I can pick my favorite pieces, draw a rough outline, and go for the mixed put together but not put together super cool art everywhere look, and call it a day. I chose option 2.

I've been to Art.com before but never bought anything. Overall, its really good pricing especially when you catch their semi-frequent deals. I didn't want to break my wallet and get all of the pieces that would cover the whole wall, so I just got enough to start it. Once I see another good piece of art I like, I'll add it as we go. The walls are just too blank not to start tackling this.

My first goal was to sketch the wall the gallery was going on. Don't laugh at my drawing.

I printed a small version of each and liked this arrangement best. We'll start from right to left. I like to switch it up.

I actually got this off of amazon. If you've studied British Literature, you'll know what it is. It's a painting (in print form) from my absolute favorite poem of all time: The Lady of Shalott. Best part, it was $10. YAY! I was introduced to this poem by my high school senior English teacher. There's actually a song that goes with it too. It's awesome, go listen to it. I kept telling myself I need to put it in my house to honor it and finally, I'm doing it. As of now, it'll go with the gallery wall, but I do feel like it's doesn't belong there like the rest of the pieces do. Maybe I need to put it somewhere on its lonesome. It is a one-of-a-kind piece now..

This is probably THE LAST picture anyone would ever think I would have in my house. A. the obvious, I'm a 100% dog advocate. B. I'm deathly allergic to cats. C. I just honestly think dogs are better. I realize I can loose followers for this, but can't you appreciate the picture?? Need I say more? Curiosity...

Who doesn't like flowers? More importantly, who doesn't like being given flowers? Plus, this was a steal at $5 for an 11x14 size! STEAL! I like the fun cute colors and simplicity of it all, too.

I don't think it's a secret that I LOVE mid-century modern style. I thought this fit perfectly with that. Adding a color scheme is important, and I think I'm going with a simple/blue kind of style. I just love the 'oh that gallery is amazing and doesn't match at all' comment. It's priceless. I'll update when they come. Should be next week!

DIY Picture Rail (Gallery Wall 2.0)

I got a few people interested on how I made this picture rail, and it only took me about an hour (including going to Home Depot to get materials). I got the idea from Little Green Notebook ah I love this blog but I couldn't afford getting custom framing etc. She paid $39 PER frame...she has 10 frames, + whatever she paid for the rail materials...do the math.

So I decided to come up with a more cost effective method without really compromising the style.

What you'll need:

-Plumbers chain (also known as Jack Chain in gold they also have silver/black - $.65 per foot, I got 15 ft but could've used 20)
-Rod ($3, I used a metal one because the wood ones were too thick for my hooks, all depends on your preference)
-Hooks or curtain brackets ($0 - I had some laying around but I couldn't imagine a pack being more than $2)
-Picture frames ($10-30 - I had a few extra laying around the house that I used, but Michael's ALWAYS has good coupons if you needed more)
-Hot glue gun

OPTIONAL:
-Spray paint/paint (I used leftover gold paint I had, but totally up to you on the colors you want to use)
-Photos (The reason I put photos under optional is because I just printed these out on my computer and didn't have to go to the store to get them done aka FREE & they look just as good. If you want the glossy finish, then I'd just get them printed at Office Depot or something).

I lined up how I wanted the picture frames to look and put up the rod on the wall first. I hot glued the chain to the back of the pictures at the length I wanted them to hang. I got my pieces cut for me at HD by guesstimating, but if you have pliers then you can totally cut them yourself.

I waited for the glue to dry and then put the pictures on the rod one by one. For the ones that are hanging down underneath some of them (since I ran out of chain, hence why I needed 20 ft) I made do with what I had and just nailed them right under the frames. See below.

Deceiving, I know. If I had more chain, I would've just connected it back up to the rod. I don't care about putting holes in the wall so I didn't mind doing this but if you want minimal holes, buy more chain than you anticipate and you'll be fine.

And voila! Super easy and fast and looks AWESOME for my new dining room. Here's a couple close up pictures...try not to laugh at some.

TIPS:

-Measure how long you want your picture rail to be. I ended up just winging it and picking a 48'' long rod, but totally could've used a longer one to cover the entire length of the wall. I'll probably go back and add more later.

-Spray paint your frames v.s regular paint - it dries SO much faster and you can have this step done in minutes plus no brush strokes.

-If you're shopping for frames, lay them out on the store floor (I've done this many times) and arrange them there, you'll find it way easier to pick what frames you need and what ones you don't need.

-Try to use all the same style frames. What I mean is that I used all different sizes but they were all squares. Some were 4x4, 5x5, 8x8, etc. If you used different shapes and sizes, it might throw the whole thing off.

Enjoy!

When you find the first paw print...

You'll get the title after I explain our super awesome Halloween costumes. Unless you know the song, then..well...you win a cookie.

Before I start, do you like the new layout? I'm trying something a little more simple, but not entirely sure if its for me. It'll probably change again. I've been changing it the past 2 days straight in case you were wondering why it's different every time. I'm so indecisive so it might take a while to find the right layout.

Ok on to the day of the dead!

This Halloween, I really wanted to do something cute, cheesy, and couple-y. I just used the word 'couple-y', please don't unfollow me. Anyway, I surfed Pinterest for WEEKS and came up with a couple ideas:

Mr. and Mrs. Pacman (Suuuuper cute, but very labor intensive, probably hard to move around in, and a little pricy)

Struck By Lighting (Easy, only needed to make the lightning bolt and umbrella)

 Johnny Cash and June Carter  (I just love the movie Walk the Line, so I was down)

Dexter and his Victim (Saran wrap dress? Check yes!)

I was sooo torn! I actually really wanted to be Avatar and paint ourselves blue, but Ryan insisted that we both have 6-packs before we step outside half naked. Good call babe.

Halloween was approaching and I still hadn't gone to the Lowes to get the stuff I needed for Pacman (I was fixed on that costume). Well the day comes around and STILL NO COSTUME. So I'm googling and looking around and I find the PERFECT one.

Can you guess? She's blue, leaves paw prints around the house as clues, and her owner is named Steve. I'm sure you know, but if you don't....

We're STEVE and BLUE from the kid's show Blue's Clues! You like??? Yeah, I loved our costume and we got so many compliments on it. I'm not sure how I'm going to beat this next year...

Here's a couple of pictures from the night in our signature poses. Don't you like Ry's makeshift handy dandy notebook?
Try a small green notepad, print a picture of the red thinking chair, add some red pipe cleaner, and there you go!

The costume was one of the easier DIY things I've ever done. Although, I do have to say, when you want a light blue dress/shirt/something/anything, its near impossible to find. I drove to Ross, Target, Walmart, and finally found this blue jumper for $5 at Marshall's. FIVE BUCKS YALL.

I cut the ears from blue foam and glued them onto clip-on cat ears I got a Party City. Uhh, that line was wrapped around the whole store. After, I just bought some dark blue felt at Michael's (about 7 sheets), cut out circles and spot shapes, and hot glued them onto the jumper.

I was going to just curl my hair and call it a day, until I walked by the perfect blue wig at PC and HAD to have it. It was the priciest item I wore (I think it was $17) but so worth it. I bragged about it all night and even tried to convince Ryan to let me dye my hair blue. He did NOT comply.

For Steve's shirt, I could not, for the life of me, find a striped light/dark green long sleeve, so I thought on my feet. I bought a normal green collared shirt at Walmart for $7, then duct taped the stripes with bright green tape. It turned out awesome and lasted all night. We added a name tag just in case people weren't sure who he was, but it wasn't necessary, at all.

I had so much fun making this costume and I think everyone (who used to watch the show) loved reminiscing about it.

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween, annnnnnnnnnnd happy November y'all!

Love,

Steve,
Hot Dog,
Swat,
Strawberry Crush Soda,
the Tapatio Man,
a Firefighter,
(I don't know what the other girl was...),
and BLUE!

1 Year Anniversary to New Orleans

Hello everyone. Long time no see...or read in this case. I'm sorry, I get this idea in my mind like hey I'm definitely going to write about that today and then I never do. What can I say, I'm just living life and forgetting to write about it. But really, these past couple of weeks have been AMAZING.

Our 1 year anniversary (WE DID IT YALL lol) was October 25, and here's how our conversation about what we were going to do went down: the just of it anyway

Ry: What should we do for our anniversary?
Me: I don't know, something fun (usually always my response lol)
Ry: Well I don't want to break the bank (was he implying that my idea of "fun" meant expensive?)
Should we go somewhere?
Me: Yeah! How about California for the weekend? Cheap and easy.
and then the tables turn...Ry: How about New Orleans? We could see the Packers/Saints game Sunday too. (ah the motive)Me: What?! I thought you said you didn't wanna spend too much money...

And that's pretty much how it went down. Ironic, yes. Awesome, hell yes.
So we booked a flight and car and boom bam boom (thats the plane ride) and we were there.

Day 1: We got in Friday night so we decided to play it cool, get some super good burgers and watch a movie.

Day 2: The French Quarter. Pretty much the most beautiful architecture but soooo dirty.

For lunch we ate the best oysters (which I didn't get a picture of them because I ate them so fast) at Acme Oyster House. Ryan had some amazing gumbo and jambalaya, too. Also did not get a picture, but we got one outside waiting in line!

For the time we were there, we ate at this little mom and pop shop called Tartine. Sorry for the lighting, it was literally hammered onto a tree and get this, the place is someone's house. Awesome.

We ate here EVERY morning because it was that good. Totally worth it. I had the most amazing french bread with homemade jam and cheese. TO DIE FOR YOU GUYS. If you are in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana), eat here.

It's still day two....I know. So I heard on the radio that LSU was playing that night and we both wanted to see a "real" college game, no offense UNLV. We made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Baton Rouge and the game was INCREDIBLE. Can I just say that while walking to the stadium, which was enormous, there were so many people with flat screen TVs, barbecuing with lounge chairs, not even planning on going to the game, just loving tail-gating.

The game was packed with OVER 100,000 fans. Yes, you read that right.

Thank god they won, or else a lot of people would've been devastated. And don't show up in any Ole Miss gear, you'll be booed and called "Tiger Bait" while you're there. Just a warning.

Day 3: Zoo + Game Day! (Pretty much a lot of football all weekend but I loved it).

We started the day off at Tartine, of course, then headed to the zoo. We fed the giraffes and road lions, just a normal day at the zoo y'all.

At night, Packers were playing the Saints and this time, we were the underdogs and it was AWESOME. I loved screaming back at the Saints fans lol. (I'm a Cowboys fan, but sometimes you do things for the one you love, and that was wearing a Packers shirt - my dad wasn't impressed with me).

We ended up even tailgating with locals. NOLA locals are so nice and laid back. Their tent even had a chandelier in it AND they made it a requirement to dress fancy this game around. Everyone was in suits and dresses, except us: in our Packers gear, at a Saint's tailgate, so casual. That's us.

The last day we did some shopping, at more good food, walks in beautiful parks, and just enjoyed the rest of our time there.

And that's our trip. Good food (isn't that what travel for anyways or is that just us?), good people, good football. What more can I ask for?