Gallery Wall

A few months ago, my husband and I made a gallery wall in our living room. We used some of Justin’s own photos, one of his beloved Russian propaganda posters, a page from a book, and an amazing cross-stitched gift made especially for us. That last one is my absolute favorite. It was given to us as a wedding gift from Justin’s friend Angela. I love it 🙂

I adore our gallery wall. However, it quickly became apparent that our pictures did not want to stay straight. Apparently a single nail isn’t enough to keep pictures from slanting off to one side. The pictures that were hung with two nails are fine, but some of our frames didn’t have a hook we could use for a second nail. So, I found myself constantly straightening crooked frames. Here’s the before picture.

Months later, I have finally decided to tackle that problem. I bought these adhesive strips that are actually meant for wall hooks. Close enough. I got them from Target for under $4. All I did is follow the directions on the package. I only used one strip for each frame and that did the trick!

It is so much better! I’m sure I’ll save a few minutes each day by no longer stopping to straighten pictures. Yay! I love my perfectly straight gallery wall!

Easter Cupcakes

Happy Easter! I probably should have posted this earlier, but I wanted to wait until Easter to make these adorable cupcakes so they were nice and fresh for the Easter party we just came back from. I kept trying to figure out what Easter-themed cupcakes I was going to make and I just couldn’t think of anything I liked. Until… the Easter bunny visited! Of course, the Easter bunny dropped off my basket at my mom’s house in D.C. He must have lost my change of address form. No worries though, my mom forwarded my husband and me our Easter baskets 😉 My wonderful Easter basket contained the answer to my question: a super cute Easter basket cupcake kit! I thought green coconut would look great as grass and of course jelly beans as Easter eggs. The Easter Bunny also delivered some peeps, so I decided to have a few looks to the cupcakes. Some will be Easter baskets filled with grass and eggs and others will have peeps sitting on eggs on a bed of grass. Yay! Off to work.

Start with whatever flavor cupcakes you want to make. I made coconut vanilla cupcakes. Top them with your favorite icing mixed with a touch of green food coloring. I made a cream cheese whipped cream frosting with a touch of coconut and just enough food coloring to make a soft green. For the grass, very lightly toast some coconut. Just enough to bring out the flavor. Then, put your coconut into a large ziplock bag and add several drops of green dye. Close the bag and shake. Continue to mix and add green food coloring until you’re happy with the result. Top your frosting with a generous portion of green coconut. Add assorted jelly beans to look like colored eggs sitting on the grass. If you want nesting ducks, stick a toothpick into the bottom of a peep and prop it right on top of the eggs (making sure the eggs peek out from underneath). Make sure to warn your guests to remove the toothpick. The peeps pictured are chocolate-dipped peeps. I also used some regular peeps.

Or, if you can get the super cute Easter basket kit (mine was Wilton), add your U-shaped candies. Push them in enough to stay, but not so much you smash the cupcake. Then you have a basket of eggs! If you can’t find the basket kit, try using Twizzlers instead! I made some baskets, some with peeps, and some with only grass and eggs. They were a big hit! Happy Easter!

Coffee Mug Wall

I have a rather large collection of coffee mugs. Every time I see an awesome new coffee cup, I just have to buy it. Especially handmade mugs from art fairs. I used to work at a coffee shop, and one day I realized that I had more coffee cups at home than we had in the entire coffee shop. Yep. That should give you an idea of how much I love coffee mugs. When my husband and I moved into our apartment, he put a ban on buying new cups. Our cabinets were crammed full of coffee cups and we just couldn’t fit any more. So, while browsing Pinterest recently, I saw this awesome coffee mug storage display idea. It was my inspiration for this project. I haven’t put nearly as many cups up as my inspiration, but it’s definitely a start. I didn’t want to have to get lumber for this or anything, so I decided to put hooks directly into the wall. My fantastic husband helped me with this project : ) It was easy and very cheap. The only expense was the cup hooks and those are only three bucks. It also saved us tons of storage space.

Here’s what you need:
Cup hooks (Target)
Drill OR hammer and nails
Pencil
Lots of coffee cups
Tape measure

Step 1:
After deciding how many cups you want to hang and how far apart you want them to be, start measuring. I made four rows of seven cups. Each row was eight inches apart and each column was five inches apart. Measure and mark where each hook should be.

Step 2:
If you have a drill, drill a hole on each mark. If not, nail a hole into each mark, then remove the nail. Erase your pencil marks.

Step 3:
Screw in your hooks. Make sure your hook faces upward.

Step 4:
Hang your cups! Some of my cups had handles that were too thick to fit into the hooks : ( Oh well. I also have some cups that have the design to the right of the handle and some that have the design to the left of the handle. Because of that, I decided to have my rows of coffee cups alternate in the direction the cups face. That way, all my cups are displaying their cutest side.

I love my new coffee cup wall! It’s cute and quirky and it definitely screams “Christine!” Also, I’m so excited that I get to start buying more coffee mugs again!