picture perfect.

Oh boy, I can't believe it has almost been an entire month since I promised you the big reveal of Shug’s birthday present. My bad! Let's get right to it. 

I must admit, I am not the one who drew inspiration for this project, Mrs. Bryant did. She is the magazine queen and while flipping through the pages of an unknown magazine (to me) she stumbled across some wall art that she quickly became enamored with. Here is the torn out page from the magazine:

Notice the prints? TO.DIE.FOR. The good news is we had all the pieces to put the puzzle together (well, kind of) so, why not?! 

The Bryant’s yard is sprinkled with beautiful oak trees. Mr. Bryant planted a handful along the driveway using the allée technique when they first built the house 20 plus years ago. You can see a couple of them in this engagement picture of me and the hubs:

You get the drift. They are absolutely stunning. The main attraction is the oak in the backyard, whose branches span from the house to the barn. This tree, without a doubt, was the one that we were going to use in the pictures.  So, one day I headed over to the house, with my camera in hand, and began snapping away. First attempt? Fail. Note to self: turn your camera vertically to get an “up and down” snapshot. To make it worse, I spent quite some time editing the picture before I realized this. DUH, Lauren. I wasn’t thinking. So, back to the house I went and boom, we had some winners. After picking the perfect two, editing and changing the pictures to sepia, they were ready to print. However, we weren’t really sure of the size. After much deliberation, we decided to size them each to 20 x 30 inches. A few days later, after a weekend away, I came home to “the box.” Let me tell you, it felt like Christmas morning!  However, I was so nervous to see how they turned out. Would they look good next to each other? Was the quality going to be up to par? Were they too big or not big enough? You better believe I tore that box open faster than you can say, goodnplenty. One word: LOVE. They were perfect! Here they are in all of their glory:

I spy Goose!

Close-up of the gate.

Close-up of the barn and willow tree.

Our next obstacle: the frame. John decided from the get-go that he wanted to make the frame. He is a skilled builder so I didn’t see a problem there, BUT, it would also entail getting glass cut and that whole nine yards. Let me also go ahead and add that three days had passed and still no sight of frames. I don’t want to be known as the “nagging wife” so, on Wednesday, with three days to go, we were on to option B—get them framed. Unfortunately, an option C crept up on us when we were told that night that she wanted to be in charge of the frames because she was still unsure of what color frame and width she wanted. Ummm, she knows about the pictures?! Thanks, husband.  Fail again. Therefore friends, I do not have a huge TA-DA! reveal for you like I had hoped. Perhaps in the very near future...

As far as the pictures go, this was such a fun and easy project. If anyone is interested in doing something like this as a gift for someone or splurging on his or herself, I say go for it! 

On an end note, does anyone else subscribe to Alabama Magazine? If you don't, you definitely need to. It is one of my favorites. In the recent November | December issue, there is an entire article on the allée technique. It is really interesting. 

via Alabama Magazine

Check it out HERE. 

Happy Wednesday!