Picture Hanging and Redecorating Part 2

     I hope you found my last post about rearranging my walls helpful. I am usually one to just "eyeball" it and hope for nice level, evenly spaced things hanging on the walls. Sometimes it works out great. Somtimes I am left making more holes in the wall. I really enjoyed using the paper as a guide for these potential issues. It gave me the exact amount of space I needed for each frame, and let me know if I would have enough room for them all!
     After the hallway was complete, I moved on to the other walls in the house. We recently got a new couch, which meant rearranging the entire livingroom to accomodate it. This also left me with some blank walls that were behind bookcases before. In case you haven't noticed, I hate blank walls. The drive me crazy! Whenever we move to a new place, getting the walls in order is always my first task!
Look how sad these empty walls are! :(  (Minues the stocking hanger I had up for Christmas!)

    
The livingroom wall was first since I had an idea of what I wanted to do there! First, I hung the family photos that were hanging in the hallway. These went on the smaller wall. Then I hung the "FAMILY" photosthat used to hang on another wall. I like to use all black frames. This allows me to keep all the frames the same colr, but they can all be a different style. I don't think I have any two frames that are the same, but they are all black. I can also move them if I need to without worrying about messing up any other color scheme. Here it is all finished!

Or so I thought! The FAMILY photos have been giving me some hanging issues for a while now, but I could not find anything to replace them...until after I got all the pictures ready for this post! Here is what it looks like now. Hopefully it will get to stay that way for a while.

Makeup Brushes- A Cleaning How-to!

    A few days ago, I was reading an article about cleaning your makeup brushes. This got me thinking and I realized I haven't cleaned my make-up brushes in a while. Like a LONG whle. I don't know why, but this is not something that I often think of doing. When I do decide to clean them, it's always in the middle of the day, I end up needing them later in the day, and they ALL get washed at once, so they are all wet. So, to make it easy, I just put it off until the next day. And the next...You get the picture!
    Anyways...not cleaning your makeup brushes means all kinds of gross stuff (bacteria!!) is hiding inside! Not to mention all the makeup that doesn't go on your face! This means every time you change color, there is still some of the last color left behind. This results in the color you want not coming out right! I have been noticing my pinks just aren't the right shade. And when I use my bronzer, the color is much more intense.
    Not any more!!
Here is a photo of my brushes before their bath! These two were the last ones I cleaned, and they are the least used, so they don't appear to be too dirty and gross!

   First, I got a plastic cup that I could throw away, just in case they got messy! Then I grabbed the baby's shampoo. It is a mild soap, so it won't cause any skin irritations! I squirted just a little in the bottom of the cup, and added some warm water. You don't want to add too much water, just enough to cover the brush part. Getting the metal wet could cause rust and the glue to separate and ruin your brush!
   I swirled the brushes around (one at a time) in the soapy water. Once I started doing this, I saw just how dirty my brushes were! Even the ones that I thought were relatively clean! This is the water from the "cleanest" one! Notice earlier how I said they didn't {appear} to be too dirty and gross!

 

 

And a little dirtier one!
   I kept dumping the dirty water out and adding clean warm water (no more soap, enough was still in the brush!) until it started to beocme clear. Then, rinse the brush in warm water. Make sure to press all the excess water out and get the brush back to its natural shape. Lay them flat on a towel to dry! That's it! So easy! I even did them at night, when I knew I wouldn't need them soon, so they could dry in peace. Here they are, all clean and happy! They are so much softer, too!

I am definitely going to stay on top of cleaning these guys every few weeks. Makeup brushes can get expensive, so it is good to take care of them!

Picture Hanging and Redecorating Part 1

     A few weeks ago, I rearranged most of the walls in our house. This is something I tend to do often. I don't know why. I like my scenery to change, I guess. Maybe that's why I married a military man! ;) I have always been this way. I remember when I was little, I used to always be rearranging my bedroom. It probably drove my mom nuts. I think now I may drive my husband nuts sometimes. I always seem to get the urge to move things (like heavy furniture) when he is away at work. Then, of course, when I get this urge, I can't just sit around and wait until he gets home to help. I have to do it NOW! He has come back home more than once to see things not how they were when he left. This time, it was just things hanging on different walls; no furniture...yet ;)
     We have this wall that greets you when you enter our house. I forgot to take a photo before I took everything down, but I will give you an idea. On this wall, there are things resembling what my husband has done in the Coast Guard. There is no denying when you walk through the door that we are a Coast Guard Family. I really like this wall. But, after staring at it for over two years now, it had to move. So into the hallway it all went! I started by hanging the biggest piece in the center of the wall. I wanted this to be the focal point since I didn't have anything large enough to balance it out.  Here is a somewhat before picture. I thought halfway through that I should take pictures! All the frames are leaning against the wall in the hallway ready to hang!       

     Then, I took all the other frames and traced them. I have seen this done before on nice heavy plain colored paper. Yeah...I didn't have any of that. What I did have was an overload of leftover Christmas wrapping paper. I flipped it to the plain side, traced all the frames, and labeled them so I would know which one I was using, as well as the direction it was supposed to go. Then I got to work arranging them all on the wall!

 I measured where the nails would need to be and nailed right through the paper. Once I was ready to hang, all I had to do was tear the paper down.

 One half done! On to the next!

 I made a bit of a mess. Don't worry, I recycled it all! Could you find my scissors for me please?

 Next half done!

 Here it is all finished. It was hard to get it all in the frame.

 This is from the other side!

    
Now, this was not a blank wall when I started. There were lots of family photos hanging here. guess where they got moved to??
That's right- the living room! I will be sharing another post on how that all turned out! I am so happy I changed everything around! I can't wait to share!!

See you soon!! :)