New Things on my Walls

So back in October we had family photos taken. This was our first time having professional family photos taken and I wanted them to be perfect. I obsessed over what we were going to wear and spent countless hours pouring over online catalogs and shopping in stores looking for just the right looks for each person. In the end, I think we look pretty great although I like my outfit the least. The kids looked adorable though. I'm especially fond of Benjamin's vest and pink bow tie.

We got the professional photos back very quickly and then I spent another few weeks agonizing over what photos to have printed, what size, and what method to use (print vs. canvas). Once I figured that out, it took me another week or two to decide what companies to use (Costco, Shutterfly, MPix, Nations, etc.) to have them printed and another week or so to decide what frames to buy. In the end, I bought like 10 different frames from Ikea, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels and ended up returning the majority of them. I overthought every aspect of this whole endeavor and stressed myself out over it which was just plain silly but it's done now and we finally hung our new photos on the walls. And I love it. 

In our living room, we wanted to keep our collage wall so I had to try to balance the photos that were already hanging up there with the new family photos. In the end, I removed some of our wedding photos and put them in the hallway and condensed the kids' photos into two collage frames (white frames from Ikea). 

For the big family photo, I went with a 16x24 print (from Nations because it was much cheaper than Shutterfly) in a grey frame from Michaels. I tried out so many different frames but I liked the simplicity of this one. It won out over more ornate and elaborate ones. 

We also had a 12x16 canvas print done of the kids (from Costco) which looks fabulous. I didn't like their prints (I thought the color was over saturated) but their canvases look wonderful. 

But I wasn't done there. One of my absolute favorite photos was the large wide shoot of the entire mill. You can't see our family very well but I just adore the weathered look of the wood building coupled with the bright greens of the tree with the sun shining through. So I had that photo done on canvas (again from Costco) in a 18x24 size.

I paired it with four 8x8 prints (again from Nations) in driftwood frames from Hobby Lobby which complement the wood of the mill nicely. David liked the kissing photo which is why these ended up in our room above our bed. And also because we were running out of wall space.
 

And because I loved this 11x14 frame from Hobby Lobby so much, I had this photo of Adelaide and Bhaer printed as well because I just adore it. (This print is from Costco because I wanted a brighter, more saturated look for this one. I had one printed from Nations too and it was too dark.) 

Now my walls are full of pictures and I can stopped stressing over total first world problems for now.