The Hallway

'Spose I should write a post about our hallway seeing as if my blog is called "The Hall Way" (even though it is a play on words). 

Our hall has no character, and is just a place for us to walk from one end of the house to the other.  But oddly it turns two corners, when walking from the living areas to the bedrooms you walk towards our master bedroom (that has double doors - with only one ever being open)

So I have had the wicker vase with the long sticks in the corner to add a bit of interest.  It is a long hallway, and you see straight down it when you walk in the house (hense the one door being closed to our bedroom - I don't need eveyone seeing my unmade bed!).  At the urn, you turn left to another bedroom and the laundry.  So when I come back from the laundry to the living areas I am faced with a great wall of nothingness, as seen in the below picture.

I decided I had heaps of mismatched wooden frames that had photos in them that I really didn't like.  These were sitting on our entertainment cabinet for all the world to see, and I hated them.  So I decided to add a few more from the Salvo's store, (which were half price so the most I paid for the frames was $4.00)

and spray painted them all the same colour

While they were drying I stuck some newspaper together to get an idea for the size of my layout, and hung it on the wall with blu-tac.

And I could see that this just might look good.

I found some photos of family that I loved, did a bit of editing (just with microsoft office - nothing fancy) and cropped, resized and made all the pictures black and white.  I then cut out printer paper to the size of the frames and stuck the photos to the paper (again no fancy matt boards).  I then layed the frames on the newspaper to check for placement

Once I was happy with the placement of the frames, I drew around the edge of each frame, and marked where the hooks should go on the paper.  I then labelled the frame with the corresponding outline so that I could remember which frame went where. (I have had two children so can be a little ditsy sometimes)

I hung the newspaper back up on the wall, hammered in my nails, placed the frames on the appropriate outline, and took down the newspaper.

L.O.V.E  I.T.

Whats better, everytime I walk past it (which is about hundred million times - before breackfast) I smile.  Some of these people are no longer with us, and the photos bring back great memories.

By the way, the photos that were origninally in the frames, I tossed out.  Not before I scanned them (they were taken pre digital camera days) and saved them on the computer, deep down in a file no-one will ever find, but at least I still have them :-)

Better Bedroom

All right, so two weeks ago we got a new mattress delivered.  Both Hubby and I were complaining of bad backs of a morning and the mattress we had was at least 150 years old.  Well maybe not 150 years, but well over 15 years old. and lets just say the springs had sprung. 

We put the new mattress on the frame we have, and wowzers, and it is twice the size of the old mattress.  I feel like a little kid climbing climbing up into a big bed.  I actually caught my toe (twice) climbing back into bed during the night (half asleep), because I hadn't lifted my leg up high enough to clear the mattress.  But it is sooooooo cumfy and we are both sleeping so well. 

I have also ordered some new blinds for our windows, they will be installed next week (Yay).  They are nothing fancy, but at least we will be able to open them and let in some sunlight.  The current bamboo blinds, dont retract up the wall and the string is frayed.  They were elcheapos, and didn't really block out the light first thing in the morning (our bedroom is Easterly facing, so catches the very first rays of light).

I now wanted to make my bedroom more of a haven rather than just a place to sleep.  The bedroom setting we picked out 10 years ago (when I didn't know any better).  It was purchased with our wedding money so hubby wouldn't be keen for me to swap out pieces, or paint, or other DIY to the bedroom furniture.  So, the easiest thing was to improve my accessories (for now).  I started with some twine, bottles and hot glue and combined the three together to get ...

 

And ended up with ...

I love the look of the bottle.  The dresser display...mmm... not so much.

So I glued some twine to polystyrene balls and more bottles.  Cleared the counter of everything that I didn't like (turns out it was just the bottle left) and rebuilt the accessories with items I had floating around the house.

 

 

 I love the top if the dresser now.  And it cost me $2 for the two balls of twine.  My first accessorising, I think it was a success, even if I do say so myself.

Bargains

This scooter was FREE.  Gotta luuuurve that bargain.  Didn't do a thing to it.  Oh and I got a bike too.  The bike is a bit big and needs a new seat and handles, so that is a project on my to do list.  Keep posted for that reveal :)

Any hoo, I've got side tracked.  Little Angel loves the  scooter, and scoots everywhere.

Oh oh oh, where did I get it??? Freecycle.com. Check it out.  There are freecycle communities everywhere, and there is bound to be one near you. 

I found it when I started decluttering.  I've tried to do the Ebay thing, but when you only get a couple of dollars for something, by the time you do the ad, take photos, get it posted, yadda yadda yadda, a couple of bucks is barely worth the trouble.  Least thats what I think.  I don't want to throw things away, some things are too good.  I have had good intentions of dropping them off at the local charity bin, but the bins are often overflowing, so I end up with garbage bags full of "stuff" in my car.  So now I have items cluttering up my car (sorta defeats the purpose of me decluttering). 

But NOW, I can list something I don't want, and have it collected by someone else.  I am totally Luuuurving freecycling (if thats a word).

Not only can you give your "stuff" a new home, but you can give someone elses "stuff" a loving home.  So my bargain this month is A "New" Scooter for Little Angel.  She loves it.

What bargains have you found?  What do you do with your unwanted things?