Simply DIY 2

If you haven't noticed, I like making crafts.  Not only do I enjoy making things for myself, I get really excited when someone asks if I can make them something.  Even better…when I make someone for someone and they like it!  Last year for Christmas, my sister, Emily, asked for a memo board and this year, she wanted another one!  I've made many memo boards, but surprisingly not one since I started this blog.  There are plenty of other tutorials on how to make a memo board, but I thought I'd still share mine. Everyone's is a little different.  Of course, you can find memo boards in the store, but they are usually over $15 or $20.  Not only can you do them on the cheap, you can make it just the way you want it! Tools: Scissors Staple Gun and staples Needle Pliers/wire cutter (to pull out staples if needed and to cut floral wire) Ruler Materials: 16 X 20 inch canvas (usually purchased at Michael's with coupon) Quilt batting cut 16 X 20 inches or slig

Last week I was looking at my shoes in their respective shoe boxes and decided that it looked too disorderly: It was time for some reorganizing.  Some of my shoes were already in  plastic shoe boxes  from Target, so I figured I'd keep them all the same.   I went to Target and purchased a few more shoe boxes (about $2.50 each) and anxiously awaited my Christmas gift exchange with my friend Mary Rae who purchased the rest!  I really like the purple latch on the sides, but you can find simple and cheaper ones at the dollar store. Source Even though the shoe boxes are clear, I wanted a way to label the front of each box.  I'll be looking at the boxes head on and not from the side, so it makes more sense to be able to read a description of the shoe than to pull each box down until I find the one I need.   I remembered the self-stick chalkboard sheets that I used to make a  chalkboard frame  back in October and figured I could use those to label.  Then, I thought abo

First off…I can't believe my blog has reached 200,000 views !  When I started this back in January, I wasn't expecting many people outside my family and friends to view the blog.  Luckily, I was wrong -  Thank you to all my readers! Speaking of readers…I've been pretty bad at making posts in recent months.  November was such a busy month and December is no better.  However, I did have some time to complete a quick little project that I have been meaning to do for almost a year. When we cleaned out my Grandmother's house over a year ago, I found some pretty cool skeleton keys bunched together on a book ring.  I nabbed those quickly and knew exactly what I wanted to do with them - place them in a shadow box!  Last weekend, I popped over to IKEA with my neighbor and purchased a white one (among lots of other things…don't tell Kerry!) I dug through my endless supply of scrapbook paper and found just the perfect paper for the background of the shadow box. I grab

November 28, 2012 was my very first book signing.  It just so happened to be a book by the inspirational couple from  YHL .  If you can have a blog crush, I have one - on Sherry and John.  Their blog is fantastic  flippin' awesome! Let me tell you the short story of how I found Sherry and John... Back in May of 2011 when Kerry and I purchased our first house, we were debating on where to put the area rug in our master bedroom.  Kerry wanted it fully under the bed, while I wanted it partially under the bed with more rug coming out the foot of the bed.  So, I googled "rug under bed," clicked on images, and I came across their  post  about the rug in their bedroom.  It was placed partially under the bed with more rug coming out of the foot of the bed.  I showed it to Kerry and he liked it.  I won ;)  But after that, I became obsessed (…like check every hour obsessed) at looking at their blog and how they DIY'd. So fast forward to this year when they mentioned that the

Pinterest is at it again.  While browsing Pinterest during my daily hourly look through, I found this pretty fall wreath : Since it is on Etsy, I started to look for an online tutorial on how to make a tulle wreath.  I've never seen one before, so I wasn't sure where to start.  Google makes searching for things so easy and I quickly found this  tutorial.  It was very helpful. I got most of my materials at a store called WOW Outlets in Pennsylvania while visiting my family (yes, another trip to PA).  The foam ring is 11" .  I originally started with a 12" ring, but felt it was too big.  I had almost the whole wreath covered with tulle, didn't like it, and took it apart for the smaller ring. I got some of the tulle at the same store, some at the $1.00 section in JoAnn's, and had some cut from a bolt at JoAnn's.  I also purchased some gold ribbon as well. The flower, leaves, and scarecrow are all from fall decorations I had lying around the ho

Another one of our weekend travels brought us a little further south in VA.  A few weeks ago, Kerry's brother was married. His brother and now wife asked us to help take photos of their wedding.  I like taking photos.  I am very far away from being a great photographer, but I like to try.  I just need more practice.  So I took this as an opportunity to practice and to test out some props that I had seen in other wedding photos - chalkboards.  Chalkboards are so popular now. I see them in paint form, frames, and labels.  I figured I could incorporate one into their photos. I stopped over at my favorite craft store, Michaels's, and purchased an off-white frame and self-stick chalkboard sheets: All I did was peel apart the back of the chalkboard adhesive and stick it to the matte of the frame. Then I taped it to the back of the matte just to secure it. And that was it ! Nice and easy framed chalkboard.  No painting necessary and it was pretty cheap.  I believe

When I grew up and walked into any room in the house, I could flip a light switch and a light in the ceiling would turn on.  Light ! I love light.  However, our guest bedrooms did not have the luxury of ceiling lights, which bothered me. I had been meaning, since January, to get some pendant lights hanging from our guest bedrooms, but just never got around to it.  Half, because I didn't get the lights put together, and half because our wonderful electrician friend wasn't able to help until recently.  So a couple weeks ago, our friend popped over and spent the morning adding light to our rooms. Here's a before picture, taken right after our friend added the hole in the ceiling: I wasn't there for most of the electrical work.  Kerry did most of the "supervising."  Electrical work is one thing that I won't DIY.  The most electrical work I've done and will probably ever do is changing a light bulb or switching out a switch plate. I'd suggest,