2/52

This weekend has been one of those where I would've been happy in bed all weekend, so I'm grateful for reason to get out and explore a little bit with the husband.

He's pretty great.

"A portrait of each other, once a week, every week, while 23."

-K&M

1/52

Michael and I are excited to begin a new photo project, called the 52 project.  I've always loved the idea of faithfully logging a year of your life in photos, and at one point thought I would someday conquer the 365 project. Ha! The idea of this is to be intentional about taking a photo (in Michael's and mine case, of each other) each week for a year.  I have seen a number of people do this with their children to log their growth and interests in a consistent but natural way.  We have a few reasons for starting now:

• This past week I turned 23.  I know that New Years was a few weeks ago, but Tuesday marked a new year for me personally. 22 seems like a blur, and knowing that 23 will feel that way as well, I'm looking forward to having these photos to outline our year together.
• We recently replaced our camera and also got a new lens.  We are in no way trained or qualified photographers, but we hope to continue to improve in both our skill and faithfulness to get our camera out and use it!
• Going on picture-taking dates is one thing that we really like to do.  This will be another reason to connect intentionally once a week.

                                            "A portrait of each other, once a week, every week, while 23."

In each other's favorite coats, enjoying the frost that still remains on the trees of the South Hill.

For more photos from today, visit our instagram accounts. His and Hers.

DIY: Gallery Wall

I had been dreaming of a gallery wall for the past few months via the inspiration of, you'll never guess, Pinterest.  The beautiful chaos of it all just seemed too good to be true.

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My project happened with very little planning, which is half the reason I was SO happy that it turned out so well!  While spending 12 hours figuring it out as I went was enjoyable (most of the time), documenting the process will hopefully expedite the project for me in the future, and inspire someone else to give it a try! (PS, I apologize that all of these pictures are from my phone, mostly taken at night...)

Supplies:
Frames varying in size, color, style and shape
Measuring tape
Neutral paper (for matting in larger frames)
Command Strip wall adhesives (available at Walmart in the housewares section)
Photos, prints, art
Scissors and tape
Patience! :)

1.  Select your wall placement.  My favorite wall galleries tend to be over 1 large piece of furniture - I think it helps give a baseline that both features the wall, and does not add to the chaos of it.  My preference would have been for it to go over our sectional because it is solid instead of striped, but we weren't about to rearrange the room for this. :)

2.  Gather frames. Frame selection and arrangement will be discussed further later on, but at this point, get as many frames as you can for cheap or free.  I had accumulated a collection of black and brown frames from high school and college, so I mainly thrifted for silver and gold frames to lighten up the collage a bit.  Like I said, the more varied collection of sizes, colors (staying within neutrals, generally), style and shape, the better!

3.  Measure the area you'd like to fill.  I basically took the length of the couch and the height from the bottom of the light switch to the top of the doorway.  I started arranging the collage by measuring this area on the floor, and placing one of the larger frames on the upper left corner of that measurement and the bottom right corner.  Once you've marked those corners with your bigger frames, you won't need to measure much more.

4.  Arrange your frames... while considering these 3 factors.

4a. Frame color.  My frame collection was primarily brown with some black, to which I added silver and gold.  In arranging the frames, I tried to evenly disperse the colors by black, brown, and metallic.  Below is the arrangement I started with, followed by what ended up on the wall. :)

4b. Frame content.  The concept of a gallery wall is to display various forms of art, but I used primarily photographs of us since we've been married.  That being said, I tried to use only the better quality photos taken a) by us with our good camera, or b) by our photographer friends.   I had 3 main events that I tried to disperse evenly as well: wedding, traveling, and photo shoot.  In addition to those I had 2 mirrors, and 3 printables.

I tried to arrange in pairs, but not sections.  The goal was to have two wedding photos near each other, but not all wedding photos in one area of the collage.

In selecting which photos to print for which frames, I sat down with my computer and post-it notes, scrolled through our few selected events and chose my favorites for specific frames. (Having the sticky notes was nice when I needed to rearrange things a bit.)

4c.  Matting.  Not filling the entire large frames with the photo really helps the wall to not feel too heavy or dark.  Some of the frames came with a matte, but most of them I simply taped the picture onto paper that I had cut/combined to be the size of the frame.  Again, try to disperse those evenly, if you don't do all matted photos.

5.  Take the plunge and hang them up!  Instead of using nails, I would HIGHLY recommend using wall adhesives.  (Can you imagine having to plan where all of those nails go??)  Michael has been a huge supporter of the Command Strips for keeping our walls in tact as renters, but those things were a lifesaver for this project.  The wall adhesives lets you decide where you want your picture as you're putting it on the wall, not guessing as you hammer a nail that it will hopefully hang your picture at the desired height.

It was fun to see the smaller collages within the bigger one once it was finished.  Maybe this can serve as a guideline for smaller collages in the future...

Ok, I really do believe that this project was much easier than it looks - much easier than I just made it look!  Haha.  But feel empowered, you CAN do this.  It was a lot of fun figuring it out, and I have loved having it as a focal point in our home.

-K&M

362 Days Married

Hello, old friend.

I have a long list of things to do in the coming weeks.  One of which is sort out pictures of recent travels and lifetime achievements (happy graduation, husband) and hopefully posting them here soon.  In addition to said travels and graduations, we have also moved!  To our favorite part of Spokane, the South Hill.  I've actually been running a few times because I very much enjoy being a part of this place, and that's saying something.

Last weekend Michael took me back to Montana, one of our favorite honeymoon spots.  While we didn't see any sunsets like the ones that took my breath last summer, we were able to celebrate our coming anniversary, scheduled to arrive in 3 days.  I've been thinking a lot about our wedding, about our marriage, and about this last year in general.  My overwhelming thought is that if I could marry you, Michael Glaze, every day, I'd do it quicker than the day before.  It makes me sad that our wedding took place at the beginning of our marriage, because there is so much more love to celebrate now!! But our wedding, while celebrating the beginning of our love, was also to celebrate the love of Christ as our example in marriage and salvation in life.  Our first year of marriage has been human, but each day brings a reflection of Christ's love.  Not only do I know my husband better, but I also know Christ better. Thank you Jesus for both of those things.  I hope that a growing knowledge of and love for both my husband and our Bridegroom never ceases.

Photos from the last month of our lives coming soon... :)

-K&M

Spring Has Sprung

And it feels so good!  This past month has brought a whole new level of chaos to our schedules, but the warming weather and God's love and grace in our marriage makes every day a blessing - no matter how tired, messy, and stressed we feel.

Michael is now working at an adorable ice cream/panini/coffee shop called The Scoop.  He is the driver of the 1965 vintage van that parks at various events and locations and offers people the best ice cream they've ever had.  People get really happy when they see him driving by (seriously, children smiling and waving everywhere).  Sometimes I get work events with him!  Weekends are fun when they include a few hours in a mint green truck scooping ice cream with my love. Last weekend we walked downtown to scoop at Bloomsday. 

We also went to the school's Spring Formal a few weekends ago.  I love it anytime there's a reason for Michael to whip out that Banana Republic suit.  These are the only pictures we got of the evening.  I'm really okay with that.

Oh yeah, Michael now has a beard and a slightly hipster haircut.  The Northwest looks good on him.

Happy Spring!

-K&M

Shrimp and Pilates

Kylie and I have been going to the gym together a couple times a week.  It's a good time.  And after taking lifeguarding class together, I feel like nothing can be more awkward and terrifying than what that experience was.  About half of the time our gym dates result in double dates with the our husbands.  This past time we all gathered here for this Cajun Shrimp dish.  It was a pretty good recipe - I turned down the spice a wee bit, but it was super flavorful!  We mixed the leftovers with rice, which I would highly recommend.

However, the shrimp prepping was sort of an unexpected nightmare.  Unbeknownst to me, you have to pull their legs and shells of, and THEN take out their intestine! Blech. Blech blech. Maybe this is why my mom didn't make shrimp often when I was growing up.

(If you can't tell, that's my super grossed-out face.)

Thanks, Ky, for hanging in there.  Next time you have a nasty task needing to be done for any sort of food prep, give me a call. :)

-K&M

March Spectacles

Well, here's the thing guys.  Sorry for disappearing as of late.  We've been doing thrilling things like job searching, working out, eating junk food, crying over the process called "doing your taxes," and the like.  Luckily for you, we have not taken pictures of any of those activities, but below are some of the highlights of this lovely spring season so far!

My handsom hubby turned 22 in March!  His birthday dream was fulfilled when we brought home an entire Costco sheet cake for the occasion.  (A few of his gifts included an Appleton shirt from Mom and Dad Glaze, coffee candle made by one of our good friends, and a few records he gifted to himself.)

Then we found the best pizza in Spokane at Fire Artisan Pizza downtown.  In our experience, "Artisan Pizza" is sometimes code for "legit toppings, but not much of them." This was NOT the case at Fire.  They load those puppies up!  

 And when we weren't eating out, we were eating this.

And to kick off the month of April, we used one of our Spring Break nights to staycation downtown at the Montvale hotel.  It was fun to spend time in a different area than we usually do - new food to eat (I can't believe I didn't take a picture of this, but I tried Chicken and Waffle - has anyone else heard of this new Southern sensation??), coffee to drink, and boutiques to explore!

Easter also came and went.  I really do wish that every day was Easter - I wish that it was as easy to think about the Gospel every day, that every day my mind was that centered around the person and work of Jesus.  I also wish that every day could consist of a morning of the church gathering together, followed by an afternoon of food and yard games with friends. :)
Love from us to you,-K&M