gallery wall

I am crazy about gallery walls {proof here on my Pinterest board} and have wanted to put one up in our apartment for a while now. After slowly collecting some frames and piecing it together, I finally hung one above our couch in the living room. It feels a little silly to be sharing this as it wasn't quite finished yet {I still had a second canvas to finish} but with the move, things are already coming off the walls now and who knows what I'll be doing at our new house. :) But I definitely wanted to remember it.

Just like the typical gallery wall process, I started by tracing and cutting out the shape of each piece of my gallery wall on white paper. I spent quite a while arranging and rearranging the pieces on my living room floor until I found an arrangement that I liked. Then I taped each piece of paper to the wall which made it very easy to move the pieces around until I got the spacing and height that I wanted.



Some pieces I hung with command strips so that we wouldn't have to patch so many holes later {apartment living} but I already had two nail holes from existing frames that I worked into a couple of the frames.

It was fun experimenting with this concept in an apartment to see what it looked like. I'm already dreaming up something different for our new home! Here is how it turned out...



I loved the message of that sign, "create your own happiness", from the second that I saw it. It is so true and this little family of mine that I have created is definitely my happiness! The little zinc "W" for our last name was from a Storenvy shop called Wanderlust! We hung our wedding invitation in the frame on the left, one of our favorite pictures of Rue on the right, and I made the wrapped canvas! :)

12 dates of Christmas {sixth}

On the sixth {and final} date of Christmas.....

We went on a getaway weekend to Salt Lake City! It was the first time we've really gone anywhere and stayed in a hotel since our honeymoon so I was really excited! On Friday night we saw a play called Savior of the World which was INCREDIBLE. It was the perfect way to remember the reason for the season. Saturday we spent pretty much the entire day drooling over the new City Creek Center mall. I've never seen so many name brand stores in my life! In the late afternoon - early evening we went to look at the beautiful temple lights. The statue of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus floating in the reflection pool with candles everywhere was by far my favorite part!! And now for the pictures...























These displays were hung in Macy's windows and were made entirely out of candy, it was amazing!





I'm definitely hoping we can do this again next year!

12 dates of Christmas {fifth}

On the fifth date of Christmas.....







We walked around downtown Pocatello to look at all the lights. It was freezing cold that night so we didn't last long before we were headed home to warm up with some hot chocolate haha but walks at night are kind of our thing in the summer time so we miss them lately. Ever since I have learned how to create bokeh with my new camera I've been obsessed with it, especially with all of the colorful Christmas lights! So don't worry, I narrowed it down to just one to include here. ;) I'm still working on creating it in the background with my subject in the foreground, like the one of Nic above ^. Except I underexposed his face. Definitely still learning! I"m going to miss all these pretty Christmas lights in the city when they are taken down in a few days.

12 dates of Christmas {fourth}

On the fourth date of Christmas.....















we made sugar cookies and holy smokes, the recipe made about a thousand and one! Nic called himself the "mass producer" haha and frosted just about every single cookie while I went along behind him and decorated. These were THE softest sugar cookies I have ever eaten before. They also freeze really well and are still as soft when thawed. I found the recipe on the web somewhere so I don't claim any credit as it being a family favorite or anything but it's a good one in case you are ever on the hunt. :)

*******************

1 1/2 c butter

2 c sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Directions :: Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill dough at least 2 hours (I chilled over night). Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 min. 

*********************

12 dates of Christmas {third}

** Somehow December seems to have gotten away from me this year. I mean, how is it Christmas Eve already?! While I am sad to say we didn't quite make it to 12 dates of Christmas, doing this series made me more aware of how much time Nic and I are getting to spend together and while it seems to be very little these days, {thankyouverymuch work and school} I've loved every spare minute we have had to do Christmasy things together. So here's to a few more dates that I am WAY behind on sharing with you.**

On the third date of Christmas.....







we drove around the city looking at Christmas lights as the snow was falling all around us! This is one of my favorite things to do around Christmas time. I'm not sure if it was from a lack of snow this year or what but I was surprised to find that not very many people put up lights on their house. We did however manage to find an award winner with a lit up car and an open garage with a manger inside, so so neat!

"Lets go deck the halls and light the lights" - Merry Christmas Eve!!!

12 dates of Christmas {second}

On the second date of Christmas we "attempted" to make gingerbread houses and let me tell you what, it was not as easy as it sounds by any means. Nic has been extremely busy working on his capstone project for his Master's degree so I had been waiting for an evening when he had a little extra time to spend with me. I had built up this fun activity for us to do together and it kind of turned out to be a disaster. haha Looking back now I just laugh but at the time I was pretty bummed out about it. I literally spent an hour just trying to get four graham cracker walls with mounds of frosting on them to stand. haha When I finally did, I tried adding on a roof and everything caved right in. Needless to say, the fun part of even decorating that little house was a mute point. Nic however was the master of the graham cracker tower so I'm glad one of them turned out :)

Better luck next year?!

12 dates of Christmas {first}

I saw this semi-cheesy Christmas movie on Netflix the other day called the "12 Dates of Christmas" and I thought to myself, "What a fun way to do all of my favorite holiday things with my favorite person!" So along came this little series for the month of December. :)

On the first date of Christmas...













We spent a whole afternoon carefully unwrapping every ornament and snow globe with a little Michael Buble Christmas music streaming on Pandora in the background. And can I just say, I wouldn't mind having him sing me to sleep every night. haha Nic would kill me for saying that but seriously, his voice! Decorating is probably the first thing that puts me in the Christmas spirit every year. So much so, that this year I couldn't even wait until the day after Thanksgiving. Sue me, it was a week before. We had so much fun unpacking our Christmas boxes and finding the fun things we bought the day after Christmas last year that we COMPLETELY forgot about. Have you ever done that? It was like Christmas morning early!

Nic would like me to mention that the cloche jar was all his idea. I came walking out with two large containers of little green and red colored styrofoam balls thinking, "hmm, what am I going to do with these." Low and behold, there sole purpose was to be not-so-carefully dumped into my cloche jar, filled to the brim, with two snowman friends buried inside. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. haha :) Also, that beautiful angel came in a surprise package in the mail from my momma the other day. She is THE sweetest if I haven't already told you that.

I feel like this is what Christmas is all about, spending as much time as you can with the ones you love. Besides, he's a fun date, that husband of mine! :)

p.s. Last year's Christmas decor here.