I've been reading lately that the economic downturn has encouraged people to do a lot of do-it-yourself projects to save money. I myself recently undertook a DIY project – something to decorate a blank wall in the girls' room.

Here's what I did: I bought a calendar of photos of ballerinas. Then I bought 9 identical white wooden frames. I put the photos in the frames, and then hung them on the wall in rows of three. In order to put them up precisely so that they would hang neatly, at the same level, and the same distance apart, first I created a square out of newspaper in the size of the square the frames would cover on the wall:

Then I placed the frames on the square exactly as I wanted them to appear on the wall, all spaced 1 1/2 inches apart:

Then I marked the top of each frame, and then marked where the nail needed to go in order to hang the frame at the right place:

Then I hung the newspaper square on the wall and positioned it exactly in between the light switch and the closet, and level with the ceiling.

Next I hammered nails in at all the places I noted where the nails should go.

Finally, I removed the newspaper, revealing the nine perfectly positioned nails on the wall. All that I had to do was hang the photos. And voila!

It looks lovely.

And here are some photos of the girls that our babysitter, Sara, took tonight. They were playing "American Idol", and apparently they were dancing.