Sometimes, we just don’t get things right on the first try, am I right? Once I started to plan our house’s color scheme, I knew I wanted to order a very large canvas of one of our wedding photos for the long wall on our first floor. The colors were perfect, and I loved the idea of being reminded of that beautiful day without having life-size portraits of ourselves staring back at us!

We saved up and ordered the largest size available through our photographer as our Christmas gift to each other in 2013. When it arrived, I was blown away by the quality (it looks like a painting even very close up!), but was a little sad it wasn’t larger. It’s 36×24″, but I would have loved for it to be even a foot wider to really fill that space.

For the last several months, I’ve known the wall was not finished, but I couldn’t figure out what to add to it thanks to a very unfortunately placed thermostat – right in the middle of the wall!! How rude. If this was our forever house, I would bust in and move that sucker over to sit on top of the light switch, but alas, that is not in the cards here. Slightly awkward, isn’t it?

Finally, I realized that instead of creating a grouping around the canvas to fill that space (I could never figure out a good way to do it), the best option would be to move the canvas over and add new art in its place. I would love to do a grid of four large frames, very orderly, to balance out the single large canvas and the more organic gallery grouping on the other living room wall. Please excuse my very poor Photoshop skills, but something like this…

I’ve been looking for a spot to do a grid like this, so I’m glad I finally found one! Here’s my inspiration:

Sources: Design Mom | HGTV | unknown | Design*Sponge

For the frames, I’m planning to do light wood – Target has some great options right now that I hope are large enough! I think black would be too harsh and white wouldn’t have enough contrast against our white wall. The photos will be black and white family photos, I think – maybe wedding themed. We shall see, and I will update y’all when we do!

P.S. More photos of our home!

Update: We have a winner! Congratulations to Molly L., commenter number 99!

I love Christmas cards! I love browsing potential designs, I love choosing one, I love writing notes, I love sending them, I love receiving them, and I love displaying them in our home. The whole process is one of my favorite holiday traditions! Like the last two years, we’ll be sending a Minted design, and like the last two years, there are too many good options! So once again, I’m enlisting y’all’s help. Which one is your favorite?

1. Snowy Love and Joy | 2. Very Merry Lettering | 3. Be Merry Pine Branch | 4. Merry Typography | 5. Hap-Happiest Time

Best believe I’m using a photo from Natalie + Joe’s wedding, courtesy of Meredith Perdue! We don’t look this good too often :)

Minted’s editing software is seriously sophisticated – I love that you can adjust your photo and the design elements so easily. Their foil-pressed options are also amazing, but I think the real star this year is their new envelope addressing! The envelope designs coordinate with the card designs, and they offer recipient addressing for free!! I love doing my envelopes in calligraphy, but the designs are ridiculously cute…

Now for the extra-fun part: I have a $250 Minted gift certificate to give away!! To enter, just comment below with either your favorite option from our Christmas card finalists, or the Minted design you’d most like to order for your family! (Or both!) I’ll randomly choose a winner next Friday!

P.S. Yes, our newsletter will be back! I’ve gotten many emails about this, so I wanted to say it here: I’m opening up three spots to design similar newsletters! $100 for a ready-to-print file, customized with your family’s stats and news. Email me at em (at) emformarvelous.com to reserve your spot or ask more questions!

Minted has graciously gifted us our Christmas cards, but I chose to write this post, and the opinions are my own! I have loved everything about Minted — especially their crowd-sourced designs — for many years, and I love sharing what they’re up to with y’all.

Holy moly, friends! Did you see that Minted makes fabric now?? I would never have guessed it, but of course, now that they’ve done it, it seems like a completely natural move. Unsurprisingly, they’ve done a stunning job, sourcing from the most talented independent artists to curate the most lovely designs, just like they did with paper. Man, this company can do no wrong. A few of my favorite patterns:

All of these patterns are available in four or more colorways, and each design is available in cotton canvas for $32/yard or linen-cotton blend for $34/yard (which is not cheap, but not that expensive considering the customization options and the cuteness factor). I’m seeing pillow covers, roman shades, crib skirts… so many exciting options, my head is spinning!

P.S. More Minted coming your way soon… it’s almost time to choose our 2014 Christmas card!!

Well, we beat our trick-or-treater record from last year — 117 little goblins and ghosts! We actually ran out of candy and had to shut off our lights… then headed to Chipotle to split a $3 boorito.

My November goals are a bit ambitious, with high hopes of finishing out the year strong. It’s the best month to give thanks, so let’s do that, friends!

October goal recap:
Finally paint our front door now that the weather is cooler!
Make sure my voter registration is correct after our move last year
Dust/spot clean the inside of my car

Goals for November:
— Dust/spot clean the inside of my car
— Add one more day to our exercise routine
— Order our Christmas cards
— Print out a prayer bookmark
— Continue with my closet inventory
— Organize first (annual?) neighborhood luminaria tradition
— Decide on new big wall art arrangement and execute it
— Make apple pie biscuits!

I would love to hear what you all have planned for this month!