Simply DIY 2

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 ...

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...

Last year, before I found Pinterest, I tore out a photo of these adorable Halloween spools from a scrapbook magazine: Source I thought that these were WAY too cute to pass up trying to make.  I already had the embroidery floss thread from when I used to make friendship bracelets (waaay back in the day) and all the paper.  I just needed to stop by Michael's and grab the wooden spools.  I can't remember the exact price, but they were definitely under $1.   And I found the little corks for Frankenstein's head at Lowe's for cheap as well.  I never thought I'd find those and during one random trip to Lowe's, I spotted them in the hardware section with all the bins of screws and eye hooks and what-not. I wrapped the floss around the spool until all the wood was covered.  I used tacky glue on the end of the thread to keep it from unraveling.   To make the little eyes for the mummy and Frankenstein, I used a hole pun...

I just can't help myself - I like love to hang baskets .  I like the simple look of it.  I like how practical baskets can be.  When we first moved in to our house, I stuck this little basket on the inside of our closet to hold random things - keys, gloves, etc.  It eventually became a holding place for our my sandals and flip flops: The current basket is obviously WAY to small to hold the shoes (Did I mention I like shoes too !).  The basket has a little hoop on the top which is hanging on a picture hanger.   The shoes were too heavy and they were starting to make the basket fall to the floor. Either I get rid of the shoes, or get a larger basket - I'm sure we all know the answer to that dilemma.   So I started thinking about what I could do to hang a bigger basket - more nails, Command hooks, etc.  Then I thought about my  bathroom baskets  and this random IKEA towel rod I had lying around.  BINGO...

In my last few posts, I've mentioned that we've been pretty busy.  Well, it keeps on getting busier.  A few weeks ago I was in charge of providing some decorations for my ten year reunion.  The reunion was at a bar, so they didn't have to be too fancy. Pillar candles, ribbon, corsage pins, and chargers make simple, yet pretty centerpieces. I made these centerpieces in the car on a way to a Pitt game (They were that simple !).  In fact, we were so busy that we didn't even have time to go to  the game - we just tailgated.  Anyways, immediatly after the game was the reunion.  I told you I was busy!   I cut the ribbon so that it was slightly longer than the circumference of the candle.  It needed to be tucked under so that you don't see the edge where it was cut and instead you just see the fold.  I centered the smaller ribbon to the bigger ribbon, wrapped it around, then folded the one edge and plac...

When I posted about getting new carpet and tiling the bathroom, I mentioned that there were going to be TWO changes to the basement.  The bathroom floor was the first.  The second was being worked on simultaneously as I was working on the bathroom. Our basement has a door that goes out to our back patio.  The old carpet went right up to the door.  We have an area rug in front of the door, but dirt and mud just can't seem to stay away.    To fix this, I wanted to put tile in front of the door.  My parents did this in their house (tile in front of garage door and back door to patio) and it works so well.  They don't have to worry about getting the carpet wet or mud soaking in.  If mud gets on the tile,they just wipe it up.  SO easy ! So before the carpet guys came to give us new carpet, I pulled up the carpet around the door and laid some tile down.  I just found a corner of the carpet and lifted.  It came right ...