Monday I finally finished something I have been working on, in way or another, for over a year. I got the idea from somewhere on the Internet to have a wall full of family photos. I thought it would be fun to be able to change them out with different ones as the kids get older, yet they would be accessible for them to look at whenever they wanted. I chose a bunch of our favorite photos and printed them out. This was in January of February of 2007, mind you. Then a month later I bought some black spray paint to paint the picture frames. After we got back from America in May, I got that pesky infection in my left foot that put me in the hospital for a week. Then it came back a month later in the other foot and I went back to the hospital for another week. Then a month after that I had my fifth baby. I didn't think about the pictures much during that time.
Sometime after Thanksgiving I got out the picture frames and discovered I didn't have enough in my "stash", I would need to pick up some more from Ikea. Did that. Started to paint them, and used up all my spray paint before they were sufficiently covered. Tried to buy more paint, but Migros didn't have any and didn't know when they would be getting more back in. A month or so went by and finally Chris picked up some different paint at a different store, but it was close enough that I didn't care. Then I got a wild hair and added gold accents that took forever and ended up not adding a whole lot to the finished project. sigh.
Finally in February of this year I was ready to hang up those photos. I had meant to just stick them on the wall, surrounding the HOME shelf you see in the final photo. My friend, Jenna, came over and I showed her the stack of frames and mentioned that they were going on the wall. "Ooh, how are you going to hang them up? With ribbon?" she innocently asked rather excitedly. Doh, hadn't thought of that. That could look good. Hmm, what kind of ribbon? And how?
We had visitors coming the beginning of April and I really wanted to get this finished before they came. Unfortunately, they were also about 20 other projects I wanted to get finished before they got here. And did I mention my five children? So there's like a few minutes each day to do any given "Extra" thing. I did manage to get quite a bit crossed off my to-do list, but alas, this project was not one of them.
Finally in May, I decided on what kind of ribbon I would like to hang them with and went to the store to buy it. They didn't have it. Went to another store a bit later, they didn't have it. I gave up for a while. Then I bought some that would kind of work but wasn't exactly what I had in mind at the end of the month. Got a wild hair one day and finally went into the Bernina shop located in the town next to mine. My friend had recommend this place to me quite a few months ago as one that seemed to have a pretty good ribbon selection, but I never made it in there until day, on a whim, I just whipped the car into the parking lot while out doing other errands with the kids. Guess what? They had it, the perfect ribbon. I bought 5 meters from the very friendly, helpful saleslady. (This is noteworthy, as it isn't common in Switzerland to find friendly, helpful salespeople. They don't need or want our money, and aren't afraid to let you know that.)(The previous statement was obviously a generalization meant to be funny and in no way should be taken as a slam against my fellow countrymen. Hopp Schwiiz!)
ANYWAY, I now had the ribbon, and the pictures in the frames, I just had to figure out how to get them together on the wall in the way I had imagined in my head. I spent one nursing session googling the subject and came up with several awesome tips,but they weren't quite awesome enough to prevent me from making a few mistakes along the way. However, by the end I was a pro and the end result is good enough that I am for sure not going to redo any of it. haha.
I was quite proud of my accomplishment, as it has been a monkey on my back for quite a while. Chris' comment when it was all said done?……………..
"What's with all the black? Are we at a funeral?"
Sorry, buddy. I ain't taking it down now. Took me way too long to get it up there in the first place.
Looks great! I love the ribbon, especially because it minimizes how many holes you have to drill in the wall, trying to keep everything totally lined up.