living simply and embracing imperfection
Last year I began the process of turning a multi-paned vintage window into a antiqued mirror that I could use on our mantel. It’s a fairly large window and any similarly sized mirror I found was beyond my budget (yeah- usually close to $100). This window had come from a building recycling business in our [...]
One of the highlights for me on our recent trip (of which there are many…is there a limit to highlights?) was getting to plan and present an easy craft to a group of ladies in Kosovo. This group, consisting of ladies from the village where we were staying as well as from a sister church [...]
When I was working on my last canvas project (a thrift store painting turned word art that I used to create our spring mantel) I thought it would be fun to use the same process to make a canvas chalkboard where I could write our weekly menu. I’ve used computer printed menus for years that [...]
I’ve been reading a lot about Wayfair.com recently (tagline: ‘a zillion things home’) and seeing some fun projects that have been completed by other bloggers through their DIY Challenges, so I was thrilled to be asked to participate in their current challenge with supporting sponsor, Hometalk.com (Have you signed up yet? You can follow me [...]
Have you guys seen the tiered stands/organizers made from weathered, old pie tins and cake plates? Me, too – and after seeing this one highlighted months ago in a Country Living article, I put the materials to make a tiered pie tin stand on my list of things to look for at thrift stores. Here’s [...]
Do you guys remember this thrift store plaque I made into a chalkboard last fall during the 31 Days of Thrift Store Transformations? I had hastily drawn a ‘B’ on it at the time, and our daughter added holiday words or drawings as the seasons changed, but my plan had always been to add a [...]
Hey there, friends! After last week, I was looking for a fun project that could be done quickly, bring some color to our January white dining room, and make me smile. I think these pom pom flowers fit the bill, don’t you? I love seeing them lined up on our dining table. They’re so cheery [...]
If you are looking for a gluten-free alternative to my awesome Cinnamon-Oat Pancake Mix, either for gift-giving to family and friends with gluten intolerances or for yourself, have I got an easy and tasty recipe for you! The thing that’s the coolest about this is that the ingredients are pretty straightforward: no hard-to-find ingredients are [...]
I’ve got another Tuesday Thrift Store Transformation for you today – this time using a few of the plentiful frames that can be found at any thrift store. These cute framed barrel clip photo boards make great, quick gifts (in fact my nieces are getting some…) and can easily be adapted for boys by changing [...]
This may seem odd, but my gift to you this year is this recipe for Cinnamon-Oat Pancake and Waffle Mix. Yeah, a pancake mix. What were you expecting – $100 gift card? {Oh, but you can try for that over here – there’s still time. Edit: time’s up, I hope you entered!} Seriously, this took [...]
Wow, I hope you like this thrift store transformation as much as I do! This is one of those small changes that make a lot of difference – at least to me, ’cause I love our new antique mercury glass pendant. One of the aspects of this antiqued silver finish that is so cool is [...]
Hello there! Today’s been rather crazy, as you can tell by the getting-the-post-up-before-dinner time frame. Better late than never, though. And I so wanted to get all my past handmade gift posts in one place so you can easily find them as you’re thinking of what to make for friends and family. I’m happy to [...]
I remember when I first discovered you could spray paint ceramic and metal lamp bases – it was around 2000 and I had two little kids, a city bungalow to fix up, and no money. It was awesome to be able to afford nice lamps based on design and size and not just if I [...]
Did you know that thrift stores are THE place to go for corkboards/bulletin boards? At least the normal office-supply store kind of cork boards. It’s a rare day that I go and I don’t see at least one. They’re probably there because they’ve been stained with marker, or the cork has come up in a [...]
After discussing all the ways to use thrift store trays for organizing, I thought I should try my hand at transforming a tray into something a bit more decorative. And what better way than making it into a book page monogrammed tray? Wait. I’m sure there are others, so don’t answer that. Wood trays are [...]
I love how easy it is to transform .99 glass items from a thrift store into antiqued (or regular shiny) mercury glass imitators! Honestly, I often can’t tell a difference between real mercury glass and fake – and never from a distance. I have to pick it up to really tell. For less than $10 [...]
This was a fun transformation of a thrift store tin pitcher that was quick and easy. The before and after tells most of the story: The pitcher was marked down to $1.50 (go figure – no one had wanted this?) and I sprayed it with Rustoleum’s Heirloom White paint at the same time I sprayed [...]
I usually find a lot of inspiration when I look at magazines, catalogs, and advertisements – not only for decorating ideas (or, um…even to actually buy something…), but for things that make me say, “I can make that!” And when you regularly shop at thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets, you start to get [...]
What can you do with an assortment of thrift store napkin rings? Especially when: You don’t use napkin rings (well, very often) They don’t go with your decor You already have a couple of sets moldering in a closet somewhere I actually thought all these things about napkin rings not so long ago – and [...]
These metal/wire ice cream parlor chairs have been in our family since our kids were little. We found them at a flea market and they served for many years as our kitchen table chairs before becoming mainly outside chairs (we’ve never been able to win the wood-floor vs. metal chair-leg battle…). Because they have arms, [...]
One of my favorite projects for our recent gazebo update was making this outdoor chandelier out of objects I already had – including one that was destined for the dump. I invariably feel good when I get rid of things and clean up, but this is one time I’m glad I hadn’t felt the need [...]
Paint is one of the easiest and fastest ways to upcycle old items you find all the time at thrift stores, flea markets, estate sales, and…well, you get the idea – anywhere that people are getting rid of stuff. Some of the items are so, um…odd, I find myself shaking my head and wondering, “what [...]
Hey there! I can’t believe that I’m finally able to share with you our finished backyard makeover “deck-to-outdoor-rooms” project that we started way back in February of 2011. Yep, that’s a year and a half ago. I guess I don’t need to reiterate that DIY projects take awhile, do I? We worked on it when [...]
Note: I originally wrote about our house’s transformation from a 1980′s ranch to a “what-year-was-this-built?” cottagey-farmhouse in a multi-part remodeling series during the first year of AOC. I am updating these posts by showcasing new “before and after” shots of each room and going into more details (want to make sure you don’t miss anything? Subscribe by email here or RSS here). We [...]
What happens when you take a weird structure in the corner of a deck and tear out the deck around it? Make it into a gazebo! Which is exactly what we did when we tore out a huge, rotting deck… a year and a half ago. Well, we might (ok, often) take extra time for [...]
Of all the fruits I preserve in some way – freezing, canning, or drying – dried plums are probably my family’s favorite. They are simply a wonderful chewy-tart snack that we eat almost as fast as I can dry them. And they are NOT prunes – they don’t have that off-putting texture or smell, nor [...]
This is a sight I’ve been waiting to see for eight years: demolishing the 30-year-old tile in our kitchen, wha-hoo! Which means we’ve started the last stages of our kitchen remodel which was begun when we sprayed everything with white paint in 2004 right after buying our house and was continued when we retrofitted a cabinet to [...]
I’m happy to report that another project from my unfinished project list is checked off! This happened to be probably the easiest one of all and turned out to be really fun. Remember this French-style bench I found at a local thrift store: This style is actually hard to find here where we live, so [...]
You might have realized by now that I’m always on the lookout for simple handmade gift ideas that I can recreate for a fraction of the cost. In fact, you can find a whole series on handmade gifts here. I think homemade gifts are fun to give (and get!) because there’s a little bit of [...]
Note: I originally wrote about our house’s transformation from a 1980′s ranch to a “what-year-was-this-built?” cottagey-farmhouse in a multi-part remodeling series three years ago. I will be updating these posts over the next few months by showcasing the “before and after” of each room and going into more details (Want to make sure you don’t [...]
I’m so excited to share with you the progress we’ve made on our future chicken coop! Since I’ve been talking for years about wanting to keep a few chickens on our acre, you all can probably guess how fun it is to finally see it coming together. We started with this three-sided structure on our [...]
We finally completed our mudroom shelves! This room actually serves as both a laundry room and a mudroom and after organizing the laundry side a few months ago, I was anxious to tackle the gardening shelves on the mudroom side. Uh-em…”anxious” here being a relative term since it was a few months ago. But (hopefully) [...]
Note: I originally wrote about our house’s transformation from a 1980′s ranch to a “what-year-was-this-built?” cottagey-farmhouse in a multi-part remodeling series three years ago. I will be updating these posts over the next few months by showcasing the “before and after” of each room and going into more details (want to make sure you don’t [...]
I have been searching awhile for French-style chairs. Though I probably should clarify that I mean chairs I could afford, because I know that Ballard Designs sells these similar French chairs on sale for $449.00. {cough} So of course I turned to Craigslist. Only to discover that the used French-style furniture that seems so [...]
Ahhhh…. That’s me breathing a sigh of relief every time I walk into my workroom now- a room I walk into every day, so you can imagine the impact this has made on me. OK, that sounded way out of perspective – it’s just a clean and more organized room, after all – but what [...]
As promised,here is a tutorial on how to make a bench from two old, broken dining chairs in a classic French/European style. We finally finished it enough to photograph for you after I saw folks pinning the unfinished version I posted a while ago. I’m sewing a cushion for it, so it’s not totally done, [...]
Here I am on a Thursday, thinking about what post I could have up for Friday (what- you thought I always had them done way in advance? I am SO not that person). I like to have some sort of DIY article for Fridays (though obviously, that’s not a hard-and-fast rule around here…uh-hem), but [...]
My most viewed post and video is the Brown/Kraft Paper DIY Alternative to Wood Flooring tutorial: how to cover a floor in brown kraft paper to create a great, leather-looking surface. After having this tutorial get published in Cottages and Bungalows magazine in April 2011 (woot!), more readers and bloggers have tried it in their homes [...]
I love ten minute crafts, don’t you? These candles I created for our Simple Spring Mantel were so easy to make by wrapping plain pillar candles with burlap. I also used this same idea for our Christmas mantel, except I wrapped the candles in book pages- so you can see how flexible this simple idea [...]
Since I loved my winter mantel so much, I haven’t wanted to change it out before now. The daffodils started blooming in our yard this last week and that prompted me to finally give the mantel a new look. I kept the background black window, shopped the house, and did a quick and simple craft [...]
I’m happy to say that the gallery wall I’ve been working on for a couple of months is finally finished! It’s a bit different than other gallery walls I’ve seen, though I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use a lot of things we already had. To that end, I went looking for [...]
Even though there are lots of tutorials out there, I’ve gotten a number of questions- here and in real life – about the basics of Pinterest, so I thought I’d do a quick introduction for those who need it. If you are a Pinterest-pinning fool, this isn’t for you, however- I’d love for you to [...]
Want an easy way to refresh your bathroom? Change the shower curtain. It’s by far the biggest thing in the room, so it usually sets the tone for the rest of the room. Unless the rest of the room is a loud, colored tile– that would pretty much grab all the attention. Unfortunately, shower curtains [...]
Sometimes it feels like all we do are do-it-yourself projects. One of our kids asked during the summer, “Is this place ever going to be finished?” Little do they know…little do they know. However as I looked back through the year’s posts, I found only 10 that qualified as DIY. Really? Surprised myself there- although [...]
Ornaments made from vintage book pages seem to be pretty popular. There are many different kinds I’ve seen, and I made a few this year to add to our Christmas decorations. I like them all, but my favorite is this Rosette Ornament I made with accordion folds. You definitely get a lot of bang for [...]
When we started decorating for Christmas last week, this is what our mantel looked like. My daughter and I collaborated on it – well, it was mostly my daughter, because I was busy making new ornaments and decorations (more on that tomorrow!) However it got done, I think it turned out nice. Last year we [...]
When I shared the recipe for Rosemary Focaccia in a Jar, I knew I’d want a soup or other food that would go along with the bread in a gift basket, so I came up with Red Beans and Rice. I think it would make a unusual gift, with the bonus of a reusable container [...]
I really wanted to do something special and different with these garage sale chairs when I decided to redo them (see the before and after of the chairs here). Painting them something other than white (my go-to color) was the first step. Covering the seats with burlap (really popular right now) was the second step. [...]
These Queen Anne Style chairs have been in our family for more than 10 years- ever since I brought them home from a garage sale in their original maple-brown, beaten up finish. I think I paid $10 for the pair and I immediately painted them a biscuit-white color, which I loved. I covered the seat [...]
A couple years ago, I wrote about our family’s easy gift wrapping system. A key component of this system is wrapping sturdy boxes and the lids that come with them separately so that they can be opened without tearing the paper and then be reused from year to year. While the finished box looks complicated, [...]
If you’ve read here awhile, you probably remember that one of my favorite things to give are gift baskets. I love how creative one can be with them – I’ve received some of my favorite cooking utensils in baskets – and that they work for a lot of different types of families. Of course one [...]
Brian and I had always heard that inexpensive, handheld paint sprayers didn’t work and weren’t worth the trouble. We have borrowed a contractors airless paint sprayer a couple of times to paint the entire inside of our house and more recently when we painted the outside, so we know what they can do and how [...]
Remember these chairs I found on Craigslist for $5 each last October? Um, I know it’s been awhile, but rack your brain and maybe you’ll remember. We needed sturdy chairs and I wasn’t finding any I liked in my price range, so we bought these cheap ones to give us (and our guests!) something secure [...]
This post is going to get a little personal. As in: something I’ve never told anyone. And since no one (including Brian) ever mentioned it, I’m assuming it was only me who was bothered so much about this thing. Huh? OK, here goes. *deep breath* I smelled. Stunk. Couldn’t stand the smell of myself in [...]
Finally! We were able to pull out all the hideous, stained, tannish-white, 20-year-old carpet and replace it with a prefinished, engineered wood floor. I cannot explain to you how happy and relived I am to have that carpet gone. Relived? Yeah- I seriously didn’t know what was lurking in that carpet. It just really grossed [...]
We are still in the process of our backyard deck transformation- going from a huge, unusable, rotting deck to multiple outdoor rooms connected by gravel paths. Yes, we started five months ago, but it’s one of those DIY projects that we have to take in steps for various reasons- financial, time, and weather. But we [...]
I love my family! Remember when I shared last fall how the work day became my new favorite family tradition as we worked together to paint houses and transform yards. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in a day when people come together. We decided we’d have a round of spring workdays spread throughout [...]
My daughter and I bought the material for this project last November. How does this much time go by? Ugh. She’s been very patient, and I finally finished it today. Seriously. She gets major kudos for not bugging me weekly about it, because she was very excited about it. Back in November. Um, well…I think [...]
I just had to share with you something Brian’s been working on- even though it’s not done yet. See this old chair? Yeah- it doesn’t look so bad in this picture, but trust me, it was not safe to sit on. As in, coming apart at the seams. And no amount of gluing and clamping [...]
Since being featured in the April edition of Cottages and Bungalows, I’ve heard from a number of people who’ve either taken the leap and ripped up their carpet, replacing it with paper like we detailed in our DIY Paper Floor/Alternative to Wood Flooring video, or are planning to. Rachel from Lovely Crafty Home has transformed [...]
We have made progress in our backyard-rotting-deck-makeover! It’s one of those projects that is moving along slowly, but it is moving along- whew. If you recall, this is what we inherited when we moved to this house six years ago: A huge deck. As in, gargantuan. And very square. And boring. And without purpose (I [...]
Since we moved to a house with a fireplace insert, finding an easy way to bring wood into the house became an issue we didn’t used to have. Well, bringing in wood without leaving a trail of bark and wood shavings, that is. When I saw a canvas log carrier advertised last fall that sold [...]
As the first step towards a small remodel of our kitchen, adding an over-the-range microwave has made a huge difference already in how we’re able to use our kitchen and counters. However, we had to reconfigure the cabinet above the stove to make this a reality, and of course we are sharing the steps with [...]
Range Before (sorta-there were doors on the upper cabs)I shared with you awhile ago that we were planning to give our kitchen a “mini remodel” that will eventually include: new wood counters new sink & faucet beadboard backsplash fixing some holes (literal ones…) in the cabinetry repaint the cabinets with a lighter color replace counter [...]
I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to write about my success with a cast iron pan. Because for many years I was not successful. How many? Twenty years- and I wish I were joking. I aquired my cast iron pan shortly after Brian and I were married- I think it [...]
Do you remember when I mentioned I had an exciting announcement? I can hardly believe I’m able to tell you this: Our DIY paper floor treatment is featured in the April edition of Cottages & Bungalows!! It’s been killing me to keep it under wraps, especially when I’ve heard that other people had already seen [...]
You know what’s the saddest part about today’s Sad Saturday? That I didn’t even realize until a week ago that I had totally missed January’s Sad Saturday! Never even thought about it. I’d like to say it was because there just wasn’t anything sad happening, but I think it’s just me getting old. *smile* Maybe [...]
My whole family loves using these easy-to-make flax seed pillows for everything from sore necks to foot warmers (on cold nights it’s a treat to slide into bed with warm toes!). And they have been one of the most popular gifts I have given as well as one of the most popular things I sold [...]
I’ve been wanting to post this bread recipe for awhile, because next to Easy Artisan Bread, it’s my favorite bread to make. It’s mixed and kneaded in a food processor, (although, like anything, it can be made by hand) so most of the preparation time is spent waiting for the rise. In fact, this can [...]
So, I’ve been wanting to make a burlap table runner for awhile now. I’ve been seeing them all over the blogosphere, most notably a fringed runner at Cottage and Vine that inspired my fringe (albeit simpler), and Mason Bay who included a tutorial on painting a stripe on the runner. However, I wanted to make [...]
This is a gift we received from my sister at our early Christmas celebration (make sure to see the other four cool gifts, too) which I couldn’t wait to share with you all. It’s a greeting card organizer that came with cards and even important family events for us to remember and I am really excited [...]
We had our annual early Christmas with some of my extended family over the weekend and I couldn’t wait to share with you some of the clever and unique handmade gifts they came up with! I think I’ve shared with you before that my siblings and I try to exchange simple handmade gifts in lieu [...]
Do you have old clip earrings, pins or costume jewelry stashed away somewhere? Me, too – I’ve picked up a lot of old buttons and jewelry over the years, thinking to use them in crafts. While most are very beautiful they really wouldn’t ever be used for their original purpose anymore. Inspired by cute push [...]
Need a gift for a techie? How about a cover for one of their electronics? This cover is a fairly easy sewing project, although you do need basic sewing skills. Since it’s a custom fit it would work with any size Pad, eReader, or other small electronic device. This project came about because Brian bought [...]
This little wooden table clock is a really cute and easy gift- even for the “less crafty” among us. It takes just a few easy steps and some inexpensive materials to create this- and not much time involved, either! I made one for myself when I gave these as gifts a few years ago, and I [...]
Today I’m going to show you how to make an easy (I swear!) rustic wall clock. This makes a great gift- I made these a number of years ago for my family for Christmas and they all loved them. In fact, they were way more enthusiastic for them than I thought they’d be! Isn’t this [...]
This is a lovely brass lamp. Maybe someone, somewhere, still enjoys a nice, shiny brass lamp, but me? I’m looking for more subtle lamp bases. Specifically, I’ve been looking for a black lamp to go in the living room after my “mini-makeover” last spring. It needed to be pretty big, and I’ve found those come [...]
The short answer is, “Not shopping.” I gave a long answer last year around this time, complete with suggestions of homemade gifts you could give if you like to avoid all the “black Friday” hubbub, too. Some of them will sound familiar because I’ve gone into more detail on some for the Handmade Gifts series [...]
I’m going to be posting a series of handmade gift ideas and tutorials that will run occasionally through the holidays. Though now that I think about it, I’m sure I will want to do more posts for other holidays or birthdays- I don’t want to put myself in a box. “Never put Baby in a [...]
If you grow your own herbs and vegetables it’s an awesome bonus to be able to use them in gifts to give to family and friends, isn’t it? Making and giving food items isn’t particularly unusual, but are they sure are wonderful, simple, and inexpensive gifts to give. And, as a recipient of some myself – [...]
Remember me telling you about this dining table I found on Craigslist for $50? What I neglected to say is that I’ve never actually refinished anything before. I’ve finished new wood and painted finishes. I’ve even lightly sanded and refinished a surface without fully taking the first finish off (this vanity top). But I’ve never [...]
For more than 10 years, we have been “borrowing” a dining table that belongs to Brian’s sister. It’s a mahogany, shiny-topped pedestal table and it’s a beautiful vintage piece, too, so I loved having it to use in our other house where we had a dining room and a breakfast area. We’d use it once [...]
We need to paint our house and detached garage this fall. Yes, the garage we finished a year and a half ago. I’m sure the neighbors will appreciate this. I really like the look of yellow houses with white trim. There’s something kinda farmhouse-y about it, especially with a long front porch like ours has [...]
Remember when I mentioned the antique bed that I repainted for our daughter’s bedroom makeover? We bought this bed before our daughter was born for $25 out of a barn that it had been stored in for who knows how long. It came complete with scrapings on the foot board from horse’s teeth- luckily on [...]
*UPDATE: Check out the definitive FAQ for the Paper Floor Technique where we answer all the many questions we get about this cool solution for any floor issues you may have!* Brian and I have created a video tutorial that shows all the steps needed to create a do-it-yourself floor using brown kraft paper and [...]
Our daughter is spending a week with her grandparents and we are redoing her room while she’s away. When we mention this to people, most ask if it is a surprise like our son’s bedroom makeover.Uh…no. Unlike our son, our daughter has definite ideas about what she likes and doesn’t like and we’re way past [...]
If you’ve got bread cooling on the counter, lettuce growing in a raised bed, cards ready for the next birthday, ketchup, mayo, and chocolate syrup in the fridge and jam in the freezer, what better thing to do now than sew some simple projects? And we’re talking projects that can be made with only a [...]
I hope you have made your first bread and scoped out where you are going to build your first raised garden bed! Today we are talking crafts for Back to Basics Week. But not the kind of craft that makes you feel like all thumbs. No, we’re talking about making cards which easily falls into [...]
I’ve always admired dressers converted into vanities. In our city bungalow there just wasn’t enough room in either bathrooms for a dresser-vanity, so when it came time to remodel the bathrooms in our current house I was happy to see there would be enough room in the master bath, but just barely. Although I do confess [...]
Finally, it’s time to reveal our son’s completely redecorated room! Be sure to look at the Introduction, Day One, and Days 2,3, & More to see the before video and some of the process we went through. For those of you who aren’t that into watching videos or whose computers don’t easily accommodate video (and [...]
Make sure to watch the Introduction Video and Day One’s progress if you haven’t yet! After clearing out the room, taking up the floor moldings and carpet, we spent the rest of the week painting, putting down the budget flooring, and going through our son’s things to organize and pare down. Boy, do I have [...]
We are in the process of redecorating our son’s room which we are documenting with a video camera to share with you all next week. In the meantime, I had to share some pictures of the solution to the lighting problems in the room. The lighting in this room was either cheap-looking or really dated. [...]
After doing the first part of the living room makeover, continuing onto the bookshelves, and bringing the entryway into the same scheme, it’s time for the foot stool we use as a coffee table to receive a facelift. Sometimes I’m seduced by magazines and catalogs that have wonderful, chunky wood coffee tables in front of [...]
I documented how I started a small makeover of my living room by changing some pillows and a lamp last week. It’s amazing to me how such a small change: Made me happy whenever I saw it. Provided the impetus to continue making changes. So last weekend I tackled the bookshelves on either side of [...]
The kids and I decorated these ornaments a couple of years ago and they are still one of our favorites. They sparkle and look a lot like store-bought ones. We use them everywhere- on the tree, in bowls, and on greens down the table with candles. All you need are:1. Plain ornaments-we used silver, frosted [...]
Our family LOVES salsa – if we don’t eat it everyday, at least I think it’s safe to say we eat it every other day. We have been spoiled with the flavor of salsa made with a variety of home-grown tomatoes, peppers, and onions. So every August and September I make enough batches to see [...]
A couple days ago I found my 12 year old daughter, Emma, rummaging through the paper recycling looking for old magazines. She’s done this before, making collages that represent all the things she’s into at the moment, so I thought that’s what she was doing again. After awhile she showed me these dogs she created [...]
I believe a cottage can be anywhere or anything (condo, ranch, farmhouse) as long as you have a "cottage mentality" which puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life. Thanks for joining me!
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