Our Living Room Mood Board

We're getting our new couch this weekend! Woo! We are starting to add permanent 'grown-up' furniture to our living room.  We're keeping photos and the tv, but are slowly working on replacing everything else.

Sometimes I feel like the blog world reveals changes too quickly. If we were to revamp this entire room at one time our budgets would be blown, and we would be exhausted. Slow and steady, right?

This mood board shows the direction we're going with the living room.  A big large couch--actually larger than the one in the picture, we're adding a chaise too--for lots of seating.  Some dark wood tones will be added in for depth with a console shelf, tv stand, and accessories.

And of course bright shiny things! The tall floor lamp and the basket weave stool will play off of each other. Add a glass lamp and some bright, cheery yellow accessories, and I really can't wait to pull this room together.

The ottoman in the picture does not represent the colors I want to use! It's the closest image I could find to the one I have in my head :) I'm planning on building the ottoman and attaching dark wood feet to it as well. I just have to decide on a fabric!

Click here to see a Pinterest Board with all the links to the items in the mood board.  You can also click on the numbers beside the item to have them take you there.

Is anyone else redecorating their living room?  What about purchasing grown-up furniture?  Does anyone else have to have shiny things in each room?

I Heart You Maps

I knew I needed something gushy romantic to give to Dustin for our anniversary, and the Spring Pinterest Challenge brought to us by Sherry, Katie, Emily, and Renee gave me the perfect motivation.  I loved the idea of using maps to commemorate important places to us.

I saw hearts made out of maps, and while I loved the idea of using real maps, I didn't like the possibility of tracking down maps that were zoomed in enough to cut out hearts the size I wanted.

So I got creative! By using Google Maps I was able to get the places exactly where I wanted, and the resulting images were clean and modern. I loved them, and Dustin did too!

Here's the tutorial to make your own I Heart You Maps!

Supplies

• picture frames
• photo editing software (I used Photoshop elements)

1. Go to Google Maps and zoom in on the location you want. Use your computer to take a screen capture of the map.  Remember to make it wide and tall--you have to fit a heart onto it!

2. Save the image to your computer and open in your photo editing software.

3. In Elements create a new image the size you want (mine is 5x7).

4. Drag your map image into your blank canvas. This will create a new layer. Adjust your layer to roughly fit on the blank image. It doesn't need to fit exactly because you're going to make a heart!

5. Create a new layer. Use the custom shape tool to make a heart. Make it as big or as little as you want! 

6. Arrange the order of the layers so the heart is below your map. 

7. Select the Map layer and open the Layers Menu.  Click "Create Clipping Mask," and you will have a heart!

8. You can adjust your background color and move your map until you're satisfied with your image. Then print and frame them!

I would suggest if you're going to create multiple maps to copy the heart layer into each new image. This makes sure the heart is the same size. Or you can just replace the map layer in your original -just make sure to save each one! 

I love our heart maps! They're a great way to commemorate where we've been! They always make me happy when I look at them. So create your own heart maps!

If you made I Heart you maps where would your maps show? Where you vacationed as a family? Where you first met? Tell me in the comments!