Simply DIY 2

For my birthday and Christmas, my mom will sometimes buy me cute hand towels for the kitchen.  Every once in a while she'll pick up a holiday-themed one with a homemade handle from a craft fair.  I like these ones because they button/snap/velcro and will stay hooked to a handle and won't drop to the floor.  My cousin's wife pinned this cute idea  on Pinterest which was linked to  this  pattern.  I printed out this pattern and went to work on my first handle for a towel.   The instructions were pretty easy to follow, but I made (and will make) a few changes to it as I went (go) along.  The hardest part for me was doing the button hole.  I don't have a button setting on my sewing machine, so I did the best I could.  I think next time I'll hand sew a snap button, or just stitch some velcro on both sides.  I will also make the "handle" part of the pattern a little bit wider.  Here it goes: Tools: Sewing machine (unless you're real good at sewing) Me

Ok- so I've been slacking on the scrapbooking lately.  Third grade has been a lot of work!  Since I haven't had much time to scrap, my scrapbook/craft area has turned into a "Let's pile stuff here" area.   Kerry and I bought the LACK floating shelves from IKEA in the summer.  I like the shelves, but they aren't very sturdy, so I didn't put much on them...until last week when we bought 4 EKBY STODIS brackets at $.50 a pop ! I did a little rearranging of my table and scrapbook storage boxes and voila ! Organized scrapbook/craft area ! I made these curtains a couple of years ago as a cute way to hide some of my craft materials. Now you can Do It Yourself Too ! ~Stephanie

When Kerry started his Masters this fall, he wanted needed some bigger desk space.  We were still using his small, old college desk from IKEA.  He wanted something big, dark, and bulky with a file cabinet and I wanted something big, light, and simple.  We searched and searched but couldn't come to an agreement on anything. Then I found this DIY desk: And this one: He was as equally excited for this idea as I was. So, we did some research and came up with an idea for the desk.  His dad would help us to build the top and a shelf for one end and we would purchase an IKEA VIKA ALEXA drawer unit in white and a VIKA CURRY leg in white. So Kerry and his dad went to Lowe's and got a big panel of wood.  His dad used all his sweet saws to cut it down to 24 inches by 72 inches.  He added a 1/2 inch trim to it and stained it a nice, dark brown.  He used the left over wood to build a small bookshelf to support one of the ends.  I painted the shelf whi

Soo...after my new found obsession with Pinterest started, I came across this wonderful idea for small bathroom storage . Our upstairs "guest" bathroom doesn't have a lot of storage space, our sink is narrow with little cabinet space, and I'm not very in to the shelf/cabinet over the toilet idea.  So I was thrilled when I saw this picture.  I love baskets because they are a versatile way to store anything and they look good doing it.  I was also excited because the current towel bar over the toilet was not centered, which really bothered me, so now I had an excuse to take it down.   For the project: Tools Needed: Screw Driver Drill Putty knife (if needed) Paint roller (if needed) Paint tray (if needed) Level Measuring tape Pencil Materials Needed:   Towel Bars Baskets Something to attach baskets to bar - I used craft ribbon Spackling (if needed) Sand paper (if needed) Self-adhesive drywall joint tape (if needed) Primer and P

So everyone who knows me, knows my love of pictures and photography.  I love looking at, scrapbooking, and taking photos (and I strive to take better ones - someday I'll be there).  But until then, I will still enjoy all the ones that I take as well as my family's and friends' photos.   In the new house I have two photo walls that are a work-in-progress: One on the middle floor living room (brown frames)  and one at the top of the third floor steps (white frames-which will eventually spill over into the stairway).  After searching for the best way to hang up numerous pictures, I found some tips and started to hang.  Tip 1:  Typically, frames that are the same color or type are visually appealing.  Too many colors or shapes can be distracting, so the best combo would probably be to keep the frames the same color and use different shapes/designs (or same shapes works too).  You don't want to use different colors, even with same shapes...but it is your house - make