Currently we’ve got very limited artwork in the front room. To be precise, it’s only this picture of the old Yankees Stadium Chris and I picked up at a Target when we were living in Austin, TX nearly 6 years ago

I think this picture is very sweet, but as a Yankee hater, I’ve grown tired of it. Plus, we’ve got lots of other pictures, posters, etc. that I’d like to put up in it’s place. For instance…

I love this drawing that Chris made when he was a weeeeee little boy that his mom had matted and framed for his birthday this year

I also love this signed Mos Def (or should I say Yasiin) concert poster. It used to hang in the office, but Chris isn’t as in love with Mos Def as I am (go figure) and so he’s been politely hinting that maybe it should go in another room

I also adore this picture of Chris and his dad when Chris was a little guy (it says “5 years old” on the back)

Chris’ dad recently gave him this plaque he got when he was a manager of Chris’ Little League team. And, if you know Chris, I promise you cannot pick out which kid he is

(spoiler, he’s the one on the top row on the far left, making that hilariously ridiculous face).

I thought it might be cute to hang up a similar plaque from my baseball playing days next to Chris’ on the wall. I emailed my dad if he has one of those plaques from when he was my baseball coach (yes baseball, NOT SOFTBALL) when I was little. He and Wendy found one from when I was 12 on the league winning White Sox (and I was the first girl in like 14 years to make a difference in a league championship game – I hit a lead off triple and scored the only run of the game when the next batter hit a single)

In going with the baseball (and Chris actually) theme, here’s a birthday message I got for Chris when we were on our baseball roadtrip adventure the summer of 2006 (this stop was in Cleveland)

And, lastly, Chris and I have very few pictures of us together. Neither of us are quite fond of posed pictures of ourselves and so most of the pictures we do have of each other (that aren’t of us working on the house) have one of us making a face (Meryl) or someone looking away (Chris). This picture is the first pic we took together when Chris helped me move from Davis, CA to Austin, TX after we’d only been dating a few months. We were in Joshua Tree and Chris doubted my hold the camera in your outstretched arm picture taking capabilities

Yup, it’s totally cheesy and oooey-gooey, but I love it 🙂

On the the other wall in the front room (with the entryway to the TV room in-between), we’ve got no art

So the plan will be to hang our national park posters in a grid

I want frames, but Chris is a fan of the simple protective sleeve over them, so we’re still undecided on that one.

But back to all of our other artwork…it needed to all be framed. So I headed off to Michael’s to buy some clearance frames

I am actually quite a fan of buying humorously decorative frames and then spray painting them a solid, glossy color. So I took apart the frames and brought them outside to all get a coat of glossy white

Once the spray paint was dry and the photos and art where slipped inside I started arranging them on the floor to find a good layout

After about 20 minutes (seriously, it pathetically took me that long) I landed on a layout I liked (the back of the frame on the bottom right was a placeholder for the baseball plaque that I hadn’t gotten from my dad and Wendy yet)

I like the balance of the white frames and more distressed or bare wood frames. I measured it to make sure it fit the wall good and I’m excited to get the walls painted (ohhhh, in lots of weeks, I’m not ahead of myself or anything) so I can hang them all up!