projects.

During the process of searching for a home, finding a home, and planning to move into a different home, I have been thinking about several projects that I would like to do at the farmhouse.

A few of these could be completed here at our current home, while we wait to get moved in!

I started today with a project for the top of the stairwell.  

When you walk down the stairs, there is a big wall at the farmhouse that you will see.  I thought about doing a gallery wall there, but decided instead to do one big canvas print.

Canvas images are expensive, in case you didn't know...so I decided to create my own!

I decided I wanted the girls to have a reminder of the house they have spent the last several years in as they walked down the stairs every morning.

So one night, I had them put on some matchy-match clothes and run out to the corral to try and snap a photo...with my iPhone.  

I should really use my big, fancy camera more often when photographing my own children, but the phone is just so convenient. 

With Mr. Farmhouse's help, we got a photograph of the girls all three looking at me, with our cows in the background.  

I only had to do a little Photoshop work because in the original picture, Mattie's arm was at a really unnatural angle.  I just grabbed her arm from another photo and put it on her body.

Here is the image we ended up with from the hundreds we took that night.

I ordered the print as a 36" x 48" poster on Mpix when they were having a sale, plus I had a coupon code. It ended up costing me $20 total.

On my Hobby Lobby trip on the way home from vacation, I purchased a blank art canvas that measures 30" x 40".

Truth be told, I was planning to buy a piece of foam board for $6.00, but when the canvas was 50% off, making it $17.50, I decided to go that route!

I think the canvas will hold up over time a little better and I like the idea that I can put some actual hooks to hang it on to keep it secure since it will be right over everyone's head when they are walking up the stairs!

​To start, I cleaned off the kitchen table.

That's another one of my goals for the new house...to have the dining room table all nice and cleaned off every day.

ANYway, so I cleaned off the kitchen table and found my handy-dandy staple gun!

I laid out the poster face-down and put the canvas face-down in the center.

I "eyed it" (I hardly ever actually measure anything) to make sure the canvas was centered on the poster of the girls.

And then...I put the gift-wrapping skills that I learned from Grandma Stephens when I was little to good use.

I stapled the two sides up over the frame to start and then did the top and bottom, pulling it tight as I put in each staple.

Admittedly, the iPhone picture was a tiny bit pixelated as a 36" x 48" print (which is to be expected, I suppose).  

However, a photo wall-hanging for $37.50, as opposed to the $150-200 that could easily be spent on large canvas wall art is okay with me!