Photocrastination

I'm finally putting more pictures up around the house. Yeah, really. We've lived here for two years already and I'm just now getting around to adding pictures to frames and hanging them. I guess in my mind, I think "We're here for three years. What's the point?". Well, three years is now four, ha. So, two more years here, might as well put 'em up. By the way, I had SOME up, but not nearly as much as I've seen in other peoples homes. Growing up, we barely had pictures in my home. I dunno what it is, but the only things we really had were various sports cars or air craft hanging in our home verses family pictures. Meh. 

There's a SMSgt on base who actually does a pretty good job at photography. Whenever there's a "Going Away" event, people usually buy one of his pictures as a going away gift, have the matt in the frame signed then have it all put together for the person whose leaving. I've been trying like crazy to get a decent picture of the church in the town we live in. It's pretty much the "icon' of Peer. Eric and I really like it since we can clearly see it from our backyard in the distance. At night, it's pretty cool cause there's awesome spotlights on it and you can see the weather vein on top glow from the reflecting lights (it's a giant rooster on top). With the Belgian weather being as cooperative as Californians with paying their State taxes, I've been rather unsuccessful with getting a nice picture of it. So, after talking to the SMSgt, I found out he had a nice picture of it. Not only did he have a pic of it, it was nicely done with a metallic under-coat so it has a nice "shine" when the light hits it. 

Once I brought the picture home, I quickly realized I didn't have a frame large enough for it (it's 16x20), so, a trip to IKEA was in order so I could get this thing framed and out of the way. The longer it stayed exposed, the bigger the chance of something ruining it. That's how things go in this house, lol. So, a friend of mine and I went over to The Netherlands today, shopped around for a bit (spent wayyy too much money) and I managed to find a few frames I liked (one for the church picture, another for a water color painting). Here's the finished picture :)  ....now, all I need to do is find some nails!

After IKEA, we stopped off at an antique shop that was just down the block. I've checked it out a few times while driving by, but the place isn't very convenient when it comes to parking because it's on a VERY busy street. We managed to find a parking spot near the train station and walked on over to it. They has some pretty cool stuff, was really digging the old wardrobes and hutches they had...then...I found this:

It's an old chalk board menu sign! It's obviously old and beat up, but I love it! Gives it some personality. It's rather fitting for my kitchen since I've been seriously looking for a sign to display whatever I'm making that night considering John and Eric always ask "What's for dinner??". Plus, the pigs made me laugh cause those guys can really eat like piggies. I debated on it for a few minutes, then the gal who works there asked "Do you know what the sign says?" ....no, I can't read Dutch, lol. "It says, 'When in doubt,always buy' ". I thought she was jerkin' my chain cause she could tell I was really debating, but it sold me, lol. When I got home, I checked to see what the translation was and she wasn't screwin' with me..it actually means what she said! Go figure! Eric came home from work and gave his thumbs up on it, so, that tells me I did a good job with picking cool / funky things for the kitchen :)

So, today worked out well in terms of decorations for the house. Not so well for our bank account...opps :)