DIY Paris Calendar Framing Project

A couple weekends ago, I was hit with a very bad case of "Francophile-itis."  If you are a lover of all things having to do with France, maybe you can relate or understand the condition I found myself in? 

Let me explain my extreme case of sickness.  I couldn't stop day dreaming about France.  (Even more than I usually do.)  I found myself looking at the pictures I took on my trip.  I wanted to pick up the current book I'm reading , My Life in France by Julia Child, but I couldn't make myself focus on reading a book.  I realized my problem was very serious when I admitted the following on Twitter:  "My obsession with France is running high this morning. I think I need to go take a cold shower."  Since I'd already showered for the day, I decided that would be a bit extreme.  But one thing was certain.  I needed to do something productive. 

Suddenly, it came to me!  I had a DIY project that I could tackle and it was even related to my sickness.  While unpacking things at my new house, I came across a couple of desk size calendars that I've been saving.  They were Paris calendars with excellent old-time Paris advertisements and postcard pictures.  My thought when I tucked them away was to clip out the beautiful pictures and turn them into framed artwork to hang up.

So I got busy measuring my favorite pictures and hit the local Hobby Lobby to find frames to hold the pictures.  Here's what I found....three 5 X 7 frames.

These were the perfect size to display my very favorite choices from the two mini calendars.  And I can even switch the pictures out to change them up a bit  The two matching frames are a very light cream color and I found two black and cream color mats that worked perfectly with these two pictures!

The pictures are so detailed and charming.  They are also super small and my photographs hardly do them justice.  Here's a couple close-up shots. 

There's something so romantic about the Arc de Triomphe placed in the middle of all those meeting avenues.  You can't see the details in this picture but there are little people walking and old-fashioned cars driving on the round-about road.

The 2nd picture is of the Place de la République.  (Round-abouts must have been my theme of the day.)  And once again the old-time cars and people walking about is what sold me on using this postcard photograph.

The 3rd picture that I picked from the calendars was an advertisement "Panorama de Paris" via a hot-air balloon ride over Paris.   I picked a antique rubbed brass frame and a light rose-colored mat that was meant for the picture because it matches perfectly with the lettering. 

Would you take a hot-air balloon ride over grand Paris?  I know I would!

This was Saturday afternoon project.  It didn't help me stop day-dreaming about actually being in France but it helped to calm my "Francophile-itis."  Of course I'll never be fully cured.  And I am OK with that.

Do you want to just break out and dance when you think about France?  Unless you are all by yourself in the privacy of your own home, you may want to save yourself the embarrassment and watch someone who does just that....Here's a Davey's Dance Blog video shot at the Arc de Triomphe:



Davey Dance Blog -10- PARIS - Andrew Thompson - "There Must Be Some Misunderstanding" from Pheasant Plucker on Vimeo.





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DIY Valentine's Day Surprise for my Valentine

I can always think of a million things to get my boyfriend, but for our first Valentine's Day together I wanted to make his gift a memorable one.  I tried hard to think of something special that tied back to the very first night we met.  He impressed everyone that came to eat by making General Tso's chicken and Fried Rice, and of couse I kept stealing glances while he expertly tossed the rice in the pan.  We were set up by two close friends that night on April 17th (2009) and have been together ever since.
As I said, I thought of a million things to get him... 

The nice sturdy set of measuring cups at Williams-Sonoma that we saw when were at the Mall of America last week...

A new set of spatulas...


A candy thermometer?  (So he can make me chocolate?  Tempting...but no.  That wouldn't help my waist-line.) 

The list could go on and on...and as I thought of all these kitchen items, suddenly I thought of a brilliant idea!  He hates recipe cards, doesn't have a box for them, and would rather print out his recipes on a 9 x 11 sheet of paper.  In fact, he stashes all of his Food Network print-outs in a kitchen drawer and sometimes they float around a bit before they reach the drawer.  Ta-da!  My present was to be a personalized binder to keep his recipes in.

First it was off to the K & Krafts (a very cool local scrapbooking store in the Fargo/Moorhead area) to search for some manly paper to personalize his binder.  I spent less than $7 on the scrapbooking paper and a few sheets of regular green cardstock.  Here's a picture of the front cover.  His favorite Food Network personality is Alton Brown. Can you tell?  I used rub-on transfer stickers that I already had for the lettering.

 
Below is a picture of the back cover.  The Menu used on the back cover and the fork, knife, and spoon on the front cover came from a sheet of scrapbooking paper.  The entire sheet had different menu/eating/cooking related  cut-outs.  The best part is that these didn't have flowers or sparkles all over them.  These passed the dude test.

I even got out my paints and painted some of the letters for the spine of the binder.  

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the binder, starting with the cover page.  On the back of the cover page is a lined page where I left my Valentine a special note in place of a sappy card from that greeting card store that starts with an H.  :) 

Yes, I also found some (manly) scrapbooking sheets that you could cut into recipe cards.  Even though he prefers making print-outs, everyone has recipe cards for exchanging.  One never knows when a blank recipe card could come in handy, or if he receives a recipe card now there's a spot to keep them.  I put a sheet of recipe cards at the start of each section/divider.  (There are 8 dividers in this binder.)

And let's face it; cooking can be a messy job.  Who wants stuff all over their cards or print-outs?  I bought a pack of 50 heavyweight sheet protectors (non glare) at Office Max, and the recipe cards fit perfectly into a the [In] Place brand of Heavyweight Assorted photo pages.  These photo pages came in a pack of 10 sheets.

With a binder that will hold 300-some pages, I think he should be set for awhile!  In the process of making his present, I let it slip out that I was making his present when we were talking over the phone, and that made him instantly curious.  He may be humoring me, but I don't think he guessed what I was up to.  :)  And no more loose pages of recipes will be floating around.  Most of all, I had a blast making his present!