Picture This

You know how one project leads to another, which leads to another and another, and you never really finish that first project?  What, that doesn't happens to you?  Well, it happens to me all the time.

Back in November we had our family picture taken.  We got a complimentary offer and I just can't pass up free, so we decided to go ahead and do it.  Here is how our family picture turned out.

Not too bad.  I wasn't impressed with our photographer at all.  She didn't try to  make the Babes laugh and there were only two of the dozen or so pictures that turned out good.  Here's the other pose:

It was about time we got a family picture taken, it had been 6 years.  Here's our last family photo.  Sweetie Pie was only 2 and the Spencinator was 4.  Notice how the Spencinator is practically sliding right out of the picture.

Getting a family photo was like torture.  From coordinating our outfits (I'm not trying to get us to match, I just want us to wear colors that go together and patterns that don't clash), to finding the time, to actually sitting there trying to get everyone to look in the right direction....  Well, now you know why it's been so long.

I did take the kids to get their pictures every year, and that was only slightly less torturous.  Now that the Spencinator is older, he's better at allowing someone to take his picture.  So that leaves the Babes as our picture taking problem child.  She will say 'cheese' and give this fake smile with her head tilted up.  It's hard to get a natural looking smile from her.


Anyway, back to my project.  I had a new picture to add to the gallery wall in our living room.
I love pictures of my family and want to display them all, well maybe not all, but at least all the good ones.  So rather than switch out an old picture for the new family photo, I thought I'd just add the new photo to the wall with the others.  The picture is an odd size, 10 x 13.  Why do some picture places do that?  Why couldn't the free photos be standard 8 x 10's?  Anyway, I needed to get a new frame.  At the store, looking at all my options, I decided to go bold and get a black mat and black frame.

I got this from Michael's during my after Christmas clearance shopping.  It was on sale for 50% off and a nice lady in the checkout line gave me a 40% off coupon to use for the mat.  So in total the frame and mat came to $46.  Not bad for a 16 x 20 frame.

All I had to do was hang it up on the gallery wall, right?  Wrong.
I wasn't sure I liked the new black frame with all the wood frames.

Here is the gallery wall before:

  And here's a closer look:

 
Here it is with the new family photo in the middle.  Since it's the latest picture of the whole family, I feel like it should go in the middle where it will be seen the best.  What do you think?

 
Let's try it over here.  I had Sweetie Pie take this picture while I help the frame in place to help me visualize if I liked it there.  That way I wouldn't have to add any new holes in the wall unnecessarily.

I don't know about this position either, it makes things seem lop-sided.

Maybe it would look better all the way to the right, centered above this table?

 

Let's bring in some more black.  These lamps are from my bedroom.  Hmmm, not sure if I like it here either.

Although the letter R is also black, something didn't seem right to me.  So I have it over the fireplace.  The gold grill of the fireplace was painted black and all that black goes well with the new frame.  However, I'm not sure it really like it.  So I'm not done hanging this picture.  Actually it's not even hanging, just leaning up against the wall.  I'm still not sold on the idea of having it above the fireplace, and might end up putting it somewhere on the gallery wall.  I need to think about it more.  For now, I'm on to another project.

You see, this family picture hanging project wasn't a total waste of time.  It got me in the picture hanging mood and I was able to hang up 3 other pictures plus move a picture.

I'll share more about my picture hanging adventures tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by,
Christa