Nothing but Nesting

And, the nesting still continues...

 

The other day I felt a strong urge to paint some furniture.

So, I went to Home Depot and purchased my tried and true

Rustoleum Transformations kit in pure white,

sweetly asked Alex to sand two old tables,

and got to work.

 

With Alex's help, we were able to satisfy my nesting craze in two days.

 

^^^ I failed to take a quality before picture, ^^^

but neither tables were too exciting.

{As you can see,

 Greta did most of the hard work.}

 

 

One is a coffee table that has been in Alex's family

since he was a little tyke.

It has the most beautiful lines

but was pretty beat up from the many years of use.

 

 

The other table, Al purchased from a yard sale

when he moved into his own apartment.

We have been using it as a sideboard in our dining room.

 

 

^^^ The first of two coats of bond paint in Pure White.^^^

 

 

 

^^^ After glazing ^^^

and sealing with a protectant coat. 

 

My inital reaction to the glazed layer

was absolute horror and repulsion.

 

F R U S T R A T I O N

overwhelmed me.

 

I think going from crisp white to brown

in an attempt at faux-antiquing with the glaze

really threw me for a loop.

^^^ But once we got the tables inside, ^^^

I slept on it for a night

and decided that I don't love it

but I don't think I hate it either.

 

{I forgot to snap a photo of the coffee table

but it turned out pretty streaky on the tabletop.

That certainly didn't help with my overwhelming

frustration with the situation.}

 

We decided that tables are fine for now,

but if we get another nesting urge we might just

have to redo them in a different color.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Nothing but Nesting

Even though our Greta Grace is no longer in the womb,

I still have this compulsive need to nest.

 

It's not quite as

 I-am-going-to-spontaneously-combust-if-we-don't-organize-every-nook-and-cranny,

and more

we-don't-have-time-for-messes-any-more-and-need-to-get-this-shit-done-like-NOW.

 

One of the lingering projects from my original nesting list

was to hang artwork above the couch in our living room.

 

 

I defintely tackled this nesitng task in stages

and at a snail's speed at that too.

 

 

Before GG was born,

we bought this calendar on clearance at the Paper Source.

 

 

It was one of our last walks as a family of two,

we had a gift card,

and I had lofty ambitions of crafting while our babe snoozed sweetly by my side.

 

HA!

 

We are looking at over 4 months of stop-and-go progress here.

 

 

I carefully cut the calendar portion off of each page,

as well as, the rough edges at the top from tearing it out of the spiral.

 

 

 

After Greta was born,

I ordered these mats off of Amazon.

 

 

 

I forget how much they cost but I remember it wasn't bad for a set of 10.

 

 

Much to my disappointment,

after cutting the calendar pages I realized that the images were

about 1/2 an inch shy of the mats' frame.

 

 

After several weeks of thinking,

I finally came up with the idea of creating the illusion of a double mat

by taping ribbon onto the back of the white mats.

 

 

I meticulously measured and taped on to the back of each mat

to make sure the border was even on all sides

while GG worked on her tummy time.

 

 

Once the ribbons were in place,

I taped my 10 favorite calendar pages into the 10 mats.

 

 With the calendar pages matted,

I stalked Hobby Lobby's weekly deals

until their ready-made picture frames were 50% off.
I think when it was all said and done, we spent about $50 on the frames



We chose to hang only 8 of the 10 frames
because 10 seemed to be a little crowded above our couch.
 

And, there you have it!

The whole project cost under $100,

which I think is pretty good considering it is occupying a pretty large wall.

Despite taking me 1/3 of a year to complete,

I think it was well worth the {time} investment.

I like that if we move or can later afford a large artwork to hang above the couch,

we have a series of framed pieces that we can rearrange wherever and however we like.