Last week, I decided to try my hand at picture framing\u2014I decided to try one of those DIY projects that I love to watch on decorating shows. All things considered, I think it went pretty well. And by \u201call things considered,\u201d I mean that I still have 10 fingers and the vacuum is working, again.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happened: I\u2019d been given some old black and white photos of my parents (their baby pictures, pictures from when they were dating\u2014that sort of thing). I also had a large picture frame that I wasn\u2019t using\u2014one with a nicely-cut matting that could hold seven photos. Plus<\/em>\u2014and this was the clincher\u2014I had a bare wall in my dining room, and a sense of optimism about my crafting abilities that hadn\u2019t yet been crushed by any real life experience.<\/p>\n I decided to surprise my parents by framing their photos and hanging them in the dining room in time for Christmas. I was determined that, this<\/em> year, I was going to be their favorite kid.<\/p>\n I chose the seven best photos from the collection, drove into town and had them enlarged to fit the holes in the matting. Then I dismantled the metal frame, inserted my parents\u2019 pictures and put the frame back together. Done!<\/p>\n The first sign that something might be amiss was when I lifted my awesome DIY project off the bed and the glass exploded.<\/p>\n I learned a few things over the next half hour or so:<\/p>\n a) A bed is not an ideal surface for DIY framing. Determined to succeed at this damned DIY thing, I dug around in the attic until found the matching frame to the one I\u2019d just destroyed. And this<\/em> time, I got it right: I worked on a table (so the glass would have more support), I dismantled the frame extremely carefully, and I didn\u2019t tighten the screws nearly as much as I had the first time.<\/p>\n I learned a few things over the next half hour or so:<\/p>\n a) A table is not an ideal surface for DIY framing. I now have a pretty matting, seven photos of my parents and two dismantled metal frames with no glass. My parents have reassured me that I\u2019m still their favorite kid. Which is good, because I\u2019m an only child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, I decided to try my hand at picture framing\u2014I decided to try one of those DIY projects that I love to watch on decorating shows. All things considered, I think it went pretty well. And by \u201call things considered,\u201d I mean that I still have 10 fingers and the vacuum is working, again. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny-bits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nb) Glass shards are difficult to collect, because they slice right through garbage bags.
\nb) When you vacuum sheets, the threads get sucked into the beater bar, causing the vacuum to squeal at a pitch that traumatizes dogs.<\/p>\n
\nb) Glass shards are difficult to collect when they\u2019re spread all over a kitchen floor.
\nb) As a rule, sheets of glass that are 3\u2019 X 3\u2019 always<\/em> explode during DIY projects.<\/p>\n