Just a...nother coat of spray paint makes a picture frame less ugly...

...a picture frame less uuuuuugly, a picture frame less ugly.

If you didn't read the title in your head to the tune of Mary Poppins' "Spoonful of Sugar" I'd like to respectfully ask that you go back and do it. I'll wait. You won't be disappointed.

What you may be disappointed in are my DIY skills. And I use the word skills very hesitantly and loosely. As impressive and inspiring I think Pinterest can be, it ends up being embarrassing and depressing for me, more often than not. Everyone claims that what they do is "easy" or they "just whipped something up". How wonderful for you. But for those of us who couldn't sew our way out of a paper bag (or would I sew my way into a paper bag? See how lost I am?) things don't just get "whipped up" so "easily".

But one thing I have been able to get on board with is spray painting. It scared the wits out of me before I tried it (and truth be told, even after I tried it the first time. Things didn't go well attempting to paint black frames white and too close - a spotty, drippy grey mess.) But I got up the courage to give it a go again with lighter wood and a better technique. Once I'd mastered plain ol' white, I branched out and gave Ocean Breeze Blue a whirl. I picked up an 8x10 frame from Goodwill and gave it a few coats and LOVE it! As proof that I'm a true novice, I neglected to take a before picture. But let's just say that at $2.99, I overpaid. The little one cost $.49. I could get into this.

I saw that Walgreen's was giving away an 8x10 collage print and jumped for joy! With the free photo editing site, Picnik, closing soon (SO devastating) I decided to quickly edit and put together a collage of Teagan's first year photos. I went to enter the promo code, only to discover that the promotion ended, not at 11:59 MST, but 11:59 CST. I missed it by 1/2 an hour. But after seeing me slave away for hours and miss most of a movie we were supposed to be watching together, Buddy insisted I order it anyway. But I will never order anything online anymore without first Googling for coupons (found coupons for our oven racks of all things) so ended up getting it for 40% off. (Sidenote: what's today's photo deal? 66% off a collage. I don't want to talk about it.)

And while this isn't exactly DIY, someone else did it themselves. The lovely ladies over at eighteen25 put up to-die-for subway art on their blog. A wonderful friend helped me print them at Costco - one for nearly every holiday and a generic print for in between. I love walking down the stairs and seeing my cute holiday shelf every day. It makes those wee hour fridge runs for Teagan's milk a lot more pleasant.

So here's the view looking AT the front door. I made my poor husband paint this with me twice. I thought that it would be better to repaint now than to hang a million photos and hate the colour for years and have to muster the energy to take them all down, paint the wall and then hang them all back up. This was the better way...right? Turns out I am not very good at choosing grey paint.

Not to boast about freebies and deals (I'm no extreme couponer) but I scored this canvas print and only had to pay shipping. This is what greets you on your way into the house. You know, in case you've forgotten who it is that you're visiting.

Here's what you see from the front door. You'll also see what looks like a war zone, but is in actuality our living room. But thanks to the beauty of camera angles and cropping, you won't see that here. Shoot, I shouldn't have said anything and you'd think my house was spotless all day every day.

And this took forever to conceptualize and realize, but it was absolutely worth it (if you ask me. Wait a while to ask Buddy.) We've got photos all the way up to my great-grandma, including grandparents, parents, siblings and Teagan's cousins. Brandon actually planned the layout - a proud moment for me, and for his mother, I'm sure. It took us a while to find the courage to poke so many holes in our new walls, but it's a lot more fun to look at now. 

So while I am not a Pinterest goddess - I don't build masterpieces out of household paper products, or have a carpenter's station in my garage to widdle or construct children's bookcases out of the tree in my frontyard, it doesn't mean I can't take a little bit of pride in some of my projects...right?