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One of the best parts about blogging is that I have an abundance of photos being taken of my family at all times. I love the fact that I will be able to look back on all of these posts and all of these photos and know exactly what was going on. The only downside is that we have SO many photos – oftentimes I don’t know how to choose my favorites, how to print them, or what to do with them.
I have been wanting to do a gallery wall for quite some time, and as embarrassing as this is, I actually bought all the frames for this gallery wall a full year ago when I was on maternity leave with David. I ordered two of the 15 piece sets >>> here. As many moms will understand – you have all these grand plans for your maternity leave, but then nursing, pumping, and baby snuggles take over. Before you know it, your leave is up, and none of the projects are done.
That being said, as I mentioned in last week’s post (here) I’ve been seriously de cluttering our house. My nesting instincts with this baby are STRONG. In the midst of my declutteirng journey, I found these gallery frames hidden on the shelves of one of our back bathrooms. Then and there I decided to begin and finish this project that had been on my “to do” list for years now.
The hardest part was narrowing down all the photos from the 7 years Joe and I have been together. We had dating photos, Henry photos, engagement photos, wedding photos, maternity photos, two rounds of birth photos, and childhood photos of both William and David. Narrowing down tens of thousands of photos to less than 50 is no small task.
So one night I decided I’d do it. I sorted through all those photos – on two different laptops, selected my favorites, turned them all to black and white, and uploaded them to Shutterfly. Since I already had the frames this was the easiest route. I counted out how many 8×10 and how many 5×7 frames we had and went from there. I ordered way more photos than I needed – but I figured better to have too many than not enough. In the end I was so happy I did. Some photos didn’t look right, or the colors didn’t translate well to black and white, so I was extremely thankful for my “extras”. I ordered all our photos in a matte finish – I like the look so much more than glossy.
While we waited for our photos to print and ship (all in all it took 5 days) I laid out our gallery wall design on the ground and played with it numerous times. I would highly recommend doing this. It allowed me to really get the perfect design. If you are having “gallery wall block” you can always head to this website >>> here. They have so many great ideas. My husband (much to my chagrin) pretty much hung all the frames just by winging it – and they still aren’t perfect yet. We’re working on it slowly – but at least it’s a start. I cannot wait to add in small pieces of the kids’ art, new family photos, and some more eclectic frames as life goes on. That is my favorite part about gallery walls – they’re meant to be changed and updated with your life.
Every time I walk down this hallway I can’t help but smile at all the beautiful memories displayed on our wall. It makes me so thankful for Joe, for the life we’ve built together, for our beautiful boys, and for our wonderful family. It is also a constant reminder to say thank you to the man upstairs for taking such good care of us. Because without him, none of this would be possible.
FYI – We are already planning our next gallery wall. It will be above the piano my mom is gifting us – the same piano I learned to play on – and I’ve planned it to be a much more symmetrical collection of 8×10 photos. For that one we’ll definitely be using Framebridge. If you haven’t heard of them, be sure to check them out! They have an app on your phone that makes everything SO easy. I will be sharing that project as well later on!
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