Re-purposed Frames Bring New Life to Favorite Photos

Yes, I've still been busy painting and "shabbying" picture frames for THE wedding (that Royal little ceremony was nothing in comparison).  It's been a lot of fun and I am soon going to turn what I've learned about painting and distressing these frames to some furniture I have in my house that could use some sprucing up.

Until I get started on that I decided to put some of the frames I've painted to practical use and see how some of our favorite family pictures look in them.

The Maven and her dad, Mr. Tennis in October 2006.  It's hard to take pictures of pictures, especially to avoid the glare on the glass.

Not to mention background clutter - hey, it's my house!  Here is a picture of my mother and me and the doll she made me.  About 1963.

I think the re-worked frames work well with both older pictures and contemporary ones as well.  However, I really liked the way they showed off this large picture of my dad (about 1943?) and the smaller one of he and my mother when they were dating.  Extra points if you know the story behind the plastic bear beside the pictures.

(My dad brought that bear to the hospital for me when I was born - about 100 years ago)

I'm going to work on making some matting for the bigger frames. Today I just relied on whatever the color of the backing of the frame happened to be. 

I have always loved this picture of my dad and The Writer feeding the seagulls at Honeymoon Island, Dunedin, Florida 1986.

My family (the Hughes clan) the last time we were all together.  Largo, Florida 1999. My parents, my two brothers and me!

As I said, it's hard to take a picture of a picture, at least with my camera and I don't feel that I do my husband's father's picture a lot of justice, but compared to the frame this picture has been in for many years, I feel this is a big improvement for this picture of his handsome father in uniform.

He is so young in this picture.  I never had the honor of meeting him as he gave his life to his country during the Vietnam war when Mr. Tennis and his brothers were quite young.  His beautiful wife, Orlando Grandma surely knows the date of this picture.

Here's The Boston Lady herself and her handsome husband, Mr. Tennis.  Backyard in Orlando about two years ago.  Not much has changed except the swing is gone due to mold overload - I still have the frame and am looking for one of those wooden swing seats to hang from it.  Anyone know where I can find one?? Suebee?

Here's The Maven's senior picture and a sweet picture Mr. Tennis took of her when she was about seven months old.  It's one of my favorites.

He's not going to like it, but I just love this picture of the groom-to-be, The Writer, at about 8 months old at our old house on Briercliff in Orlando.  (I don't think he reads the blog much so I'm probably safe)

Here's a picture of "Tita" my husband's Panamanian grandmother.  "Tita" is what she wanted all her great-grandchildren to call her - and everyone else ended up calling her that too! Such a sweet and inspiring person.



An older picture of the engaged couple themselves when they first headed West in fall of 2007.  This picture was taken in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Well, that was my experiment for the day.  Just wanted to see how the "shabbied" frames would handle various pictures and I think they will work out very well. 

My next experiment appears below.  A hutch I bought when we were first married 30 years ago.  It's been a bookcase, it's been in storage, it's held knick-knacks and pictures, lately it's been a hodge-podge - what do I have in store for it??? Hopefully I will get to it this summer and have a make-over reveal.

Oh yes, this one needs some TLC to bring it back to life!  Hope you had a good weekend!