Today's post is brought to you by the letters D, L, & M

I've been trying to be more crafty lately.  I don't consider myself creative at all, too much the other side of the brain (the loves organizing and spreadsheets side).  Maybe time on Pinterest and reading blogs is starting to wear off.  I've done a few different easy letter projects lately, probably mostly Pinterest inspired.   

M&D

The first (one that has been up for awhile) is one in our bedroom.  It was inspired by different pins (relationship timeline, initials over bed with a heart, and displaying wedding pictures).  I had my homemade signs to hang over our bed but had a mostly blank wall.  

 before

First step was taking down the frame and crucifix (which relocated to another wall) and filling in those nail holes.  We used every last drop of paint when painting this room initially 7 years earlier and my attempts to color match with my phone weren't going well.   We ended up  just using some leftover paint from Luke's bookshelf to fill in these spots.  It's far from a perfect match but better than nothing, especially with that gross yellow-ish vent (really wondering why we skipped painting that originally)

Next was painting everything that was going up.  I bought an "M" "D" and "&" at Hobby Lobby, probably on sale (I rarely buy things not on sale/with a coupon there) and spray painted them navy in our backyard.  

All the frames used to hang in our kitchen but were taken down when we got some canvases to hang there instead (bad picture here).  Those also got a few coats of navy spray paint (I went through a lot of spray paint this spring).  I also painted a metal lid to a box of chocolates Matt had bought me at some point in our marriage.  Glad it turned out to be useful!  Back when Matt hung my signs (Mother's Day...) I got him to hang all these frames too. 

the vent really doesn't match as well as it appears to in this picture

There isn't a picture from every year of our relationship but each picture is a different year.  The very first picture we took together (top middle), one from our dating years (small one next to the heart), one from our honeymoon (left middle).  The rest are mostly vacations since then with one lake trip thrown in.  The large middle one is from our April NYC trip, probably the most recent picture of just us when I picked pictures.  I really like how it turned out.  I only wish we could have centered it on the wall more but that vent is really a pain.  Oh well.  It's a nice improvement.

L
These next two are much more recent (within the past month).  I really don't know where this one came from (probably a multitude of pins showing baby's names hanging over their cribs).  I decided Luke needed a painted L in his room.  I bought a cardboard L at Hobby Lobby (on sale!) and some acrylic paints (3 colors - a blue, green, and a blue/green called "Hawaii" which may have strongly factored into my decision to buy it).  I did 2 coats and then a few touchups over 2 days.  The Hawaii color is on the front, the blue alone the back spine and the green on the inside.  I went all over the house and couldn't find any light that I would photograph the colors true to life.  This is the best I got:

obvious this is more recent since there is a Christmas tree in the background....

His L now resides at the top of his bookshelf on some books (he has a lot of board books, we can rotate them through).  The colors work in his room (mostly blues & greens, Elmo is an obvious exception).   This was a pretty quick, easy, and cheap project, my favorite. 

D
This was another not quite sure where it came from projects but probably from many different Pinterest pins.  It's nice we have a last name that is wreath friendly.  This wouldn't work if your last name started with an L for instance.  Another Hobby Lobby letter (purchased at the same time as the L) and some Target tinsel (with Cartwheel so 10% off or something).  I bought a white and a red tinsel strand, maybe 10 feet each.  I spent a Colts game shortly before Thanksgiving trying different winding and twisting methods to get a look I liked.  I ended twisting my two strands of tinsel together and then wrapping that around the D.  I tied off the beginning and end with some string and voila:

Add a dollar store wreath hanger and it was up!  I was worried it looked too O like but when my sister came over she knew exactly what it was!  This hangs on our inside porch door so it's not exposed to the elements (we have a fully enclosed front porch).  Also shocking, I did a project that involves NO blue or green.  I wasn't really sure that was possible. =)

That probably ends my crafty-ness for the next few months. Nice adding some personalized, homemade decorations around the house. =)