Simply DIY 2

I'm baaaaack.  Yea, its been a while...sorry...again.  Keeping up with my little guy sorta keeps me busy ! My latest project makes me all giddy inside.  Its a simple project that I've thought about doing for a while and I just bit the bullet and completed it.  Back in the day, I used to babysit this boy who had a HUGE chalkboard on a wall in his kitchen and I just loved it. He loved it too...but I think I loved it more. It was good for coloring and learning.  Now, my little guy isn't quite old enough to enjoy a chalkboard yet, but soon enough, he'll be making marks all over my painted walls  the chalkboard wall. I thought about putting the chalk paint on a blank wall we have in the kitchen, but decided to go with just a small area and use the side of our cabinets.  I purchased my Rustoleum chalkboard paint  at my local Ace Hardware store, but any home store (or Amazon) has it.  Everything else I had on hand to paint the ca...

So, my youngest sister has made a personal goal to run either a half or (eventually) a full marathon in each of the 50 states.  While she has run quite a few half marathons in our home state of Pennsyltucky, her only other states are Tennessee and soon-to-be Ohio.  She needs to get on that goal ! From doing each half marathon (and always kicking butt) she receives a participation medal.  Along with the medal, she has her bib as well.  What to do with these memorabilia from each race?  You could scrapbook the bibs with some photos, and throw the medals in a keepsake box, but why not display them?  I've noticed on my sister's Pinterest page (Oh, thank you Pinterest) that she has pinned a few bib/medal holders like this one : I decided to give it the ol' DIY try and make my sister one of these for her birthday.  This was a trial and error project, with lots of trial and lots of errors.  Bare with me while I try to explain. T...

Hello !  It's been a while !  Our little one has been keeping me very busy with, you know, eating, sleeping, pooping, and playing.  It's so exciting being a mommy !  I love every minute of it. I have been doing some DIY projects around the house, here and there, but I've been very bad about blogging about them.  One that I finished recently is a bookshelf made from crates. As I looked around our living room, with baby stuff here and there everywhere, I realized that I have no "baby stuff friendly" storage.  I needed a spot to throw his toys and books and other little things like teething rings and whatnot.  I knew I wanted something "cube" like and small to fit under our bay window. We used to have a wicker basket trunk that sits in front of the window.  Not too baby stuff friendly.  I started looking where every person now looks: Pinterest.  I found some ideas and figured that using some crates would be the perfect solution ! ...

Happy New Year !   I haven't been blogging for quite a while due to working one of the biggest DIY projects of our life: a baby ! We are due in February and are extremely excited for our little person to join our family.  The beginning of the pregnancy was rough but it has gotten much better.  We have been working on the nursery and I'll reveal some photos once it is finished.   But on to the book I made.  I know it's a little soon to be teaching our Peanut  (yes...we are waiting to find out the gender)  his or her colors, but I couldn't pass up making a book like the one on this wonderful  blog post  I found via Pinterest.  I love colors and ROY-G-BIV and thought the idea was the cutest ever to help teach colors.  I think it is great that there are different shades of each color to help the kid see differences in the same color.  Plus I had some stickers and scrap paper lying around that needed to be used.   ...

Hello again !  We are finally getting some nice, warm weather down here in Virginia !  So glad !  Here is another post about my spring break projects.  This one is about our master bath.  Even though I put up a new  shelf and word cloud  in our master bath, above the bathtub was in dire need of some artwork.  See how bland looking this is???  This big, blank wall has just been begging for something to cover it since we moved in and I haven't been able to find the right piece of art…until I came across this gorgeous picture: Source It was love at first sight.  I knew that I wanted to attempt to make this for the bathroom using sea blues and greens to match the teal in the word cloud I made a couple of months ago.  Plus, I think that blues and greens are soothing and calming.   So, I gathered my materials and went to work. Materials: Canvas (any size you'd like - mine was 24 in. X 30 in.) Painter's tape P...

Boy, did spring break go by fast ! If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a wonderful weekend full of family, candy, and eggs. I'd like to make a quick post about some coasters that I made.  This is a fairly popular project around the internet and it is easy to do.  Last year I made a bunch of these as Christmas gifts but now I'd like some for our house to use outside when we entertain. Materials:  Scrapbook paper with the design of your choice (I've also seen people use pictures, maps, or pretty cloth) White 4.25 X 4.25 inch tiles (got mine at Lowe's) A foam painting brush Mod Podge Sealing spray Cork Tacky glue Cut your scrapbook paper into 4 X 4 inch squares.  Then brush some mod podge on the tile to "glue" the paper on. Place the paper on the tile and carefully smooth it out with the brush.  Make sure there are no air bubbles in the middle. You might also need to hold down the corners and edges for a few seconds so t...