Hi everyone!  I hope you enjoyed the weekend and did something special to honor those who have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy.  We tackled several projects over the long weekend and have plenty of complaining muscles to prove it!  We were so busy that I didn’t even have time to edit the photos yet, but I plan to get to that tonight so I can start sharing them tomorrow.  In the meantime, here’s a little project I did last week.  Remember back in January when we hung our massive new TV on the wall and I mentioned I planned to do a gallery wall around it?  Well I finally did.

Although I originally had a layout all figured out it didn’t fit quite the way I anticipated, so I rolled with it and just hung things in a similar pattern.  I could have done the Pinterest trick of cutting out templates for each piece to test it all before I committed, but I wasn’t feeling patient enough for all that.  And it seems to have turned out ok without the extra effort.  I’m enjoying the Pottery Barn look it gives the Family Room and the fact that most of the pieces hold a special memory for the hubs and I is even better.

On the right is a pencil sketch of me with my horse done by a friend and a wooden arrow pointing to a photo of the hub’s mom and dad in Italy on their last trip together.  I love that that the arrow points to their photo as if it’s pointing it out.  Can you believe I found it on a daily deal website, stained and ready to hang, for just $12?  Talk about a great bargain!  And the wood tones fit perfectly with the rest of the pieces in the gallery.

Here’s a full shot of the pencil sketch.  It’s nice to have it out on display again after it’s been packed away for so long.

Next to the sketch is a metal star I picked up a while back, but can’t remember where and Sangria’s paw print plaque.  I added a small saw-tooth hanger on the back with heavy duty industrial glue and let it cure overnight to make sure it had a good seal.

The left side includes a framed postcard from our trip to Tucson for a friend’s wedding, where we saw the world’s largest rose bush alongside a photo of my kitty before Luna, Kitty Meow.  Below that is a watercolor portrait of the hub’s previous dog, Kenai as a puppy.  I had it commissioned as a gift shortly after we were married by the same artist friend who did the sketch of me and my horse .  Next to that is a Bruce Nelson print, which was the first artwork the hubs and I bought together after getting married.  And a lovely rusty metal D rounds out this section.

Here’s a close-up of the watercolor portrait, which was done from a photo the hubs loved.

And here’s a good look at that metal D.  I was totally giddy when I found this gem at a local antique trunk show for just $20!  The rusty patina adds so much character and ties into the other browns in the other pieces.

It’s still a work in progress, as I plan to continue adding to the collection by making a wood slice chalkboard sign with some of my favorite song lyrics and an industrial looking 907.  Eventually, it will probably take up the whole wall, but for now, having room to grow is just fine.   🙂