Picture, picture on the wall

I got rid of my decision paralysis and finally bit the bullet on the size and the frame (from Amazon) for our wedding picture!  My dear husband hung it up for me on my birthday (although I think the real reason we finally did it that day was because we were getting company that evening!)

Let's pretend that my photography skills are half-way decent.  Here's the living room these days (from the kitchen doorway).  As a point of reference, the front door is to the left of the window you see straight ahead in this shot.

I can't say that it looks 100% as I would like it, but when I compare it to our "before," I feel pretty great about the progress!  If nothing else, it smells nicer than that smoke-ridden carpet!

 We went on quite a picture-hanging spree the day of the wedding photo.  Here's another of my favorites, in the den.  It's a print from Hobby Lobby.  St. Joseph is in his workshop, and  Jesus is playing on the floor with three nails.  The symbolism and foreshadowing blows me away every time I look at it.  I have to give credit to Justin, who makes it a point to encourage me to look for meaningful art for our walls.  If I weren't for him, I'd probably have settled for a lot of silly pictures.

We still need to work on the pictures on top of the bookshelf - we affectionately call it our "Justin & Emily shrine."  The problem is that (aside from the big wedding picture, which is 98% landscape and 2% us) I feel awkward hanging pictures of us up on the walls.  So they've all gotten exiled to the top of this bookshelf.  In mass quantity.  I think adding some shots of our favorite little lady might help.  If nothing else, it will become a "Justin, Emily AND Anna shrine."  Progress, right?

While I'm in the mood for before and afters, here's that corner of the room when we bought the house.  Again, it's now decisively less smokey, and in this case also less neon.  Both make me happy.

Once again, blogging has served as a happy reminder of our progress, and of the importance of patience.  When I get frustrated about little projects I still want to get done, I have to remember how much two-and-a-half years have allowed us to accomplish.  It also causes me to feel pretty sentimental for this old house.  Fair warning, the next year (spanning Justin's graduation and our plans to move out of state - and thus sell the house) could get pretty sappy around here on the blog.  If you stick with me through that, though, we'll hopefully be able to find the former glory in another "new" old house!