Friends anyone???

Almost since we moved in to this house (in June of last year), we've had a stranger wall in our dining room.  When I put up our wall hangings I found a box of 10 frames that my mom gave mefor my   birthday several years ago.  They're a variety of sizes and there's nothing wrong with them...  I just hadn't ever put them to use.  I hung them up in the dining room when I found them thinking how nice of a place it would be to maybe have pictures of our extended family there eating with us for each meal.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures of extended family, so they stayed the way they came out of the box.  You know, with the pictures of whoever those people are.  It wouldn't have been so obvious that they were strangers, except three sets of three were of the same people/family.  And then, on top of that, the frames only hang vertically and one of the sets of three had the people posed for a horizontal display, so they hung on our wall sideways...

I am maybe the absolute worst when it comes to wall decor.  1.). I'm not artistic, so I can't envision things.  I don't know what looks right and good, and what's totally off.  2.)  I'm lazy.  When we moved to the city-ish where we live now, I had boxes of pictures and such that when I removed them from the walls in our previous apartment (where we lived for 6 months), I told myself I'd just leave them boxed up instead of putting holes in walls.  I boxed them up securely so they wouldn't get broken of damaged.  We lived in that first duplex on canova drive for two full years without opening those boxes of wall hangings.  

We then moved to the house that we just moved from.  We lived in that house from 2008 until 2012 when I finally decided it was time to try to decorate and make it look more homey.  That's when we got our first good family pictures.  The year Buttercup was born...  Embarrassing?  Maybe to some. 

I can give a tiny excuse that between 2003 and 2006 when we moved to our current city-ish of residence, our little family of three and then four, moved five times.  We seriously moved almost every six months...  

Anyway, all excuses aside, I'm thankful for good friends who push me beyond my comfort level.  I'm also thankful for friends who see needs and fill them, without even being asked.  

After getting our family portraits taken, I definitely WANTED to display them!!!!!  So that was helpful.  And after doing so, I appreciated it.  It did, in fact, make our house feel more like a home!

So... All this to say, I FINALLY got those strangers replaced!!!!  

In October I finally got around to asking our family to send us prints for us to hang up...  No one responded though.

I replaced the largest framed stranger with a picture we took with our family pictures of the kids and Nana.  Otter pop was an only child, so our kids are her only grandkids. Also, she's not married, so I can't picture her going to get her pictures taken all by herself!  And then there's the part that it's the best picture I've ever seen of all our kids in one frame...  There's that too.

It stayed like that for all of december.  Strangers, some even sideways, and then our beautiful Nana picture.  That was better than before, at least!

Then this past week I went to take our Christmas cards off display.  I like to keep them.  Usually I cut off the card part and put up the pictures on our fridge.  This year I took off the first one and realized it was the same size as three of those frames!!!  So, I framed it.  And then picked 2 more to put in the other 5x7 frames.  Then I realized that I had 3 that with proper training, could utilize the 4x6 frames!  And then I was like, "well, what now?!  What should I do with these others?!?!!  I can't pick favorites like that" (Especially since I wasn't paying attention to who was being framed and who wasn't to begin with!!!!)

I went and found frames, and trimmed, and found more frames, and got all out photo cards framed and placed on our stranger wall!!!

I'm willing to fill the whole wall with friends and family at this point!!!  I'd still really love some family's pictures.  I have 2 cousins, and my one brother sent a photo card.  Then the other brother gave us beautiful photos for Christmas!  But none of my parents, or my sister's family... And none of my husband's family at all!  

I found an old picture of his 2 younger cousins that I added...  They'd be embarrassed to see their pubescent faces framed and on our wall!!!  They both are married with adorable girls these days.  (I won't post an up-close of that one for their dignity.)

Anyway, send us pictures.  We'll -in turn- pray for you and your family at dinner time!!!!!!!!!

💜💜💜💜💜