For Valentine’s Day my husband and I have a formed a tradition over the years of cooking a nice meal together. We always choose something that we’ve never made before and spend the evening making it together. This year we decided on a menu of chicken cordon bleu, broccoli cheese casserole, spinach salad (to keep it healthy), and mini molten chocolate cakes for desert. Everything was amazing, especially the molten chocolate cakes. I used this recipe and they turned out perfect.  And is there any better combination than raspberries and chocolate?  I don’t think so.

Remember when we first moved into our house and I posted about the master bedroom decorating? Remember the “Jendro” doily that was a wedding present that I framed and hung above our bed?  Well, I did.

Afterward I thought it looked a little small and I wanted something more substantial.  But I also wanted the “Jendro” doily to stay there.

After that I found this neat design post involving doilies on ohdeedoh and got very inspired and very excited.  Because it just so happens that I have access to tons of crocheted doilies.  Both of my grandmothers were big into knitting and crocheting and my parents have tons of their creations stored away for safe keeping.

Well, with a boost of inspiration and a plan I went to my parents house and started digging through old boxes and the hope chest.  I found a ton of great doilies in all different patterns and sizes.  I stuck ones that were done in white/ivory to keep with the color scheme of the bedroom.   (As you’ll notice I also decided to redo our bedroom in all white and brown because as it turns out I couldn’t stand the blue.)

I had my doilies and I took a rough measure of each one and set out on a quest for frames.  I purchased all of them from Michael’s for 40% off.  At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep the frames monochromatic or use different types of frames with different finishes.  In the end I settled on all the frames being black wood, but with each having a little bit of a different design.  They are all relatively simple because I really wanted the prettiness of the doilies to be the standout.

Once I had the frames I bought the matting that I needed keeping it dark so the intricate patters would stand out.  I framed them all pretty easily in about an hour.  The doilies are all actually held in place by nothing more than double sided scotch tape.

When I had them all framed I played around with the arrangement by laying them out on the floor.  This helped me get a feel for the spacing as well.  Because we spent so long patching and painting every room in our house it hurts my soul to put holes in the wall for a piece of art, just to discover I don’t like it there and I have to move it.

Finally I hung them all on the wall  with only two nails having to be moved a tad.  I marked out a border with painters tape and made sure to stay inside of it when hanging the frames.  I think this project turned out really well.  I like the mix of the modern frames with the old doilies.  And the fact that I know who made each of the doilies makes the whole thing personal and very special.  It gives my grandmothers’ sweet creations new life.