Simply DIY 2

"Show me your garden... and I will tell you what you are like." ~Alfred Austin I found this quote posted in the U.S. Botanic Garden in D.C. while visiting with my sister a couple years ago.  As beautiful as a quote this is, I hope Alfred Austin doesn't judge me based on my garden. I told you that I would share the good and the bad.  Well this is going to be about the bad.  The very bad.  This summer has been very busy.  While this is no excuse, my garden has succumbed to our busy schedule.  In addition to our travels, the weather in Virginia has been scorching this summer, thus causing my plants to roast and wilt. Here is what the garden looked like on July 5, 2012: The garden looked good, but a bit over crowded.  The beans in the front and the zucchini overtook most of the garden. The eggplant in the back had blossoms, but no fruit yet.  Same with zucchini and beans.  The tomatoes were coming, but still green.  It ...

I like to hang pictures around the house.  I have a set of  brown frames  in my living room and a set white ones that are in my stairwell going up to the bedrooms.  I mostly buy the same types of frames (I like a certain brown one from Kohl's and the white ones from Ikea), but I will occasionally find another type that I like too.  Whatever frame I find, there is usually one thing that irks me....when I have to hang them on the wall with the hardware that they come with.  It's usually the sawtooth hanger or a teeny triangle that goes on the nail.  I don't really care for either of them because they aren't typically centered on the frame. I do like the way professional framers put the wire on the back. It makes it easier to hang and helps make it more even. So whenever I have a frame that needs wire, this is what I do: You'll need a staple gun, wire cutters, some type of sturdy wire (I use floral wire which does the trick), and rubber pads (op...

One of my favorite blogs, YHL , posted a Pinterest Challenge the other day.  This little challenge gave me the push that I needed to start a project I've been 'pining' to do for a while. I love earrings but I'm not a big jewelry wearer.  I usually wear my cross/medal necklace and my engagement/wedding rings.  When I want to switch things up, I change my earrings to match my outfits.  Currently, my earrings were placed in this...   ...a Pitt mug from college.  Yes, I know...not the most elegant of things to hold your earrings in, but hey, it worked ! I've been wanting to update my earring holder for a while, ya know, make it a little more grown-up, but I haven't found the right solution until I crossed the framed radiator grate from iHeartOrganizing . I fell in love !  I did a little research and found out that Home Depot had the radiator grates.  I went there and asked for a little help in locating them (I know my way around Home De...

So I have this Love-Hate relationship with curtains.  I love how they can make a room look put together and homey, but I hate putting up the curtain rods.  There is just so much tedious measuring and what-not....but I finally found the PERFECT curtains to go into our dining room that made all that work worth it. Even though we have a pretty decent sized window in the dining room, we don't get a lot of natural light in the room because of the angle of our house, the fact that we only have one window, and our neighbor has a pretty big tree to the side.  So I didn't want real dark curtains or ones that would block the little light that we have.  Here's the dining room window before: I've been on the lookout for curtains since we painted the dining room in November.  I love my blue-gray color and wasn't sure what would look good.  I didn't buy anything until I knew exactly what I wanted.  I knew that I wanted a double rod so I could have white cur...

Today, as I was browsing around BHG.com, I found a decorating style quiz . I thought it might be fun to see what my "style" is.  It was eight questions with pictures as answers - nice and easy.   It concluded that my style is Country French.  I think I can handle the country part, but not the French part.  I have nothing against the French, but the pictures that followed "my" style consisted of lots of frilly, flowery, lacy, ruffly, and girly styles.   The only picture out of the 26 suggested ideas that was accurate was this one: I definitely like the blue and white plates (I have almost the same blue and white plate lay-out on my dining room wall as well as some in my hutch) and the built-in bookshelf in the background.  I LOVE built-ins. I'm trying to convince Kerry to let me get one for our downstairs basement.  His Dad knows how to build a sweet built-in bookshelf, so it shouldn't be too costly.   I'd sa...

Here's a quick post about a quick fix to our house.  Even though the previous owners updated two floors of the house with beautiful hardwood floors, they neglected to update the floor registers: These rusty things are all through the house !  So when I saw these at Costco: I figured that I'd give them a shot. They were EXTREMELY easy to put in.  Pull out the old, pop in the new: They are a fantastic addition to the floor.  The box came with two for under $10 !  I put the other in the dining room.  I plan to replace all the registers throughout the house.  For about $5 each, they are a nice update to the house without breaking the bank. What quick and simple update have you made to your house recently? Now you can Do It Yourself Too! ~Stephanie