{gallery with a heart}

In addition to lots of fun family activities, my weekend involved some home decorating! {about time!}

The boys' 3rd birthday party is quickly approaching, so that was a good motivator for me to finally put together a gallery wall of sorts that I've been crafting in my head for awhile now. A few recent purchases gave me just the right combination of pieces to make it happen.

Here is the dining room wall a few months ago, when we still had our IKEA shelf with the boys' toys in there {and the room was still our family room}...

And here it is now!

I love that most of this wall was created with items I already had, and the few I recently purchased were very affordable. {the most expensive, the chalkboard frame, was $6.}

 

I simply turned the vintage drying rack sideways to give it a whole new look. Most of the items on it are pictures of the boys, but one very sentimental piece is a copy of a drawing done by my Granddaddy. 

The bird canvas top center is from Urban Outfitters, and was originally in the boys' nursery. Chalkboard frame from Big Lots, right now houses a pic of the boys playing their guitars. A simple "Rock." was all the description it needed. I can see this frame having lots of different looks in the future. The polaroid frame {just like the ones over our desk} and metal clip are both Hobby Lobby clearance finds. The cute wooden owl postcard in the clip was a gift from a friend. 

I filled the polaroid frame with some pretty scrapbook paper, a chipboard "f" and a button. Super simple. {and yes, our walls in there desperately need some paint.}

On our Craigslist find record player cabinet, I have my Grandma's vintage makeup case, painted milkglass lamp, milkglass apple dish, and this adorable {and free!} print...

The framed print also doubles as a nice concealer for our poorly placed heating control...

But what I love most of all is the sentiment.

So what do you think? For a whopping $10, give or take a few cents, I put together a fun and very personalized gallery wall in our dining room. One of my favorite parts is how easy it will be to change out the photos and items to keep it fresh and exciting.

I also did a little sprucing up to our family room, which involves another piece of sentimental family art. Will post about that very soon!

Linked up with...
 
Today's Creative Blog   
 
C.R.A.F.T. 

{picnik}

I've fallen in love with flickr's photo editing program, picnik. (Thanks to my friend Allison for sharing her secret for making her already gorgeous photos look even more lovely.)

I played around with some old family photos and love the results. There is just something about photos from the 50's and 60's that just pull at my heartstrings, especially when they are of my family. The beautiful couple is my grandparents and the cute little girls are my mom and my aunt. I could look at these all day.













And the same affect (but not nearly as lovely) with Dan and I on my 31st birthday.


Happy Thursday everyone!

{goodbye}

My Granddaddy, Landon Osborne, passed away last night. He was so tough, and hung on for longer than we thought he would. But he just couldn't do it any longer, and I'm relieved that he is no longer suffering. I will miss him so much, and am so glad that I have my own Landon to remind me of him.

Here he is with my Grandmother on their wedding day, September 14, 1947. Weren't they just a lovely couple?

And here we are the day I told them I was pregnant. I just want to squeeze him, he was so cute!



And here he is with my Landon last summer. Such a sweet moment.



Love you and miss you Granddaddy!