What Ana Does

Well I'm home and staring down the spaces in my house that need some attention. So now is the TIME. Let's start with our living room/dining room. I'd love to paint the gray color but I think that would fray David's already shaking state of mind. So, I'm considering all the walls and what's on them. It's never a bad idea to shuffle up wall art. This wall in particular has been unsolvable since we returned from Paris. It was mainly just filled with a random assortment of framed pictures and art. First step, clear the wall. Second step, that corner table isn't working. What goes into the corner between two sofas? I always thought it was a table. But maybe a book shelf? For this time, I don't want to order any new furniture. So I came up with a good solution... I bolstered up the table using bed pedestals I had in my garage. Suddenly it's taller and looks like it may belong there. And no one will ever notice the black plastic pedestals th...

A week in London isn't enough time. Maybe a month to see it all. We had a phenomenal week walking the neighborhoods, shopping and seeing the sights. I tried to lecture a little about the history but I didn't have many willing listeners. No matter, it was still a brilliant adventure with my favorite people. First stop was Hoboken (we had a 6 hour layover in Newark). We saw our old apartment and ate at Tony Baloney's, a pizza shop owned by a family friend. This Is Where We Used to Live! With Nieces and Brother-In-Law Our first day in London was spent walking and fighting jet lag. Luckily, the Mae Deli was just around the corner, so we had an excellent first meal. Then a walk across the Mayfair neighborhood to Liberty department store (paradise) and Carnaby Street. The next day it was time to hit Tower of London ... and it was still open!! We spent hours on the well-marked self tour and loved oohing and ahhing over the crown jewels. Ooh! Sunny Day at th...

It occurred to me this week, after scrolling through some Pinterest images, that I used all black frames on my navy gallery wall. See ... Exhibit A: Black Frames on Navy Wall And it hit me: that makes no sense. Why would I use a frame color you can't even really see on a navy wall? Because we switched out the TV for the smaller one (the bigger screen was sent to the basement), I had to rearrange the pictures here anyway ... but this time, I decided to use all (or most) white frames and images that POP OUT of the navy wall, not get hidden away in it. The results ... Exhibit B: White Frames (Mostly) on Navy Wall Ok, so it may be a few too many frames, but it's a pretty serious (and fun) focal point in the room. And, as assumed, those white frames really POP at you. Hello! This wall and the cabinets below are a constant work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with the collection right now. Hooray!

We used the day off on Monday to visit our new pediatrician (we broke up with our last doctor's office -- as awkward as that is) for Alice's 7-year check-up. She was extremely nervous about the shots. Sitting on the table with her paper dress on, I was struck by how long those legs are! And her feet are huge. Is it possible she'll actual defy her genetics and be tall?! Alice Checking Out Her Fashion-Forward Dress

There's about 3,000 different ways to hang a gallery wall on Pinterest. The tips include using laser-levels and cutting cardboard/craft paper -- hanging those first to figure out positioning. Awk. Well, I am not in it for the precision. I like the casual feel of hand-arranged frames on a wall. If I attempted to measure and make it uniform (like I did on the record album wall), any irregularity would drive me nuts-o. Before: A Newly-White Wall So here's what I do: start on one side of the wall and hang the big frames first. I attempted to make them about the same distance apart, but I just eyeball it. I do use a level to make the frames straight -- I'm not that sloppy. Then I fill in with the smaller frames. The key is to use the same black frame/white matte combo. Then they look cohesive no matter how they are hung. After: A Wall of Growing Girls, With Room For More I ordered a bunch of newer photos to add to the wall in an 8x10 size. So I'll be f...

I'm totally addicted to Instagram. Last fall, I sent for prints on a bunch of my favorites and hung them on the wall clothes-line style. It was DIY cool and I liked it. I mentioned it here. The Before: Instagrams on a Line But once I painted the dining room, I wanted to try something new. I had found this grey felt bulletin board at the Crate & Barrel outlet months ago (choosing it because it was eventually going to match the grey walls). So I lined a few of the pictures on this, instead. Same idea of temporary exhibit that I can change out anytime. But with a little more sophistication. The After: A Fun Bulletin Board of Faces

I've been loving the filters I can use with Instagram. Recently, I found a service that will print them in Polaroid-like squares. It took a few weeks for them to arrive, but when they did, they were better than I expected. I'd been brainstorming how to display them -- but finding frames in this small size isn't easy. And they are lo-res, so the smaller, the better. As a fan of the clothesline minimalist look, I finally got around to hanging them in the dining room. It came out great! My Instagram Gallery Related posts: More Dining Room stories