Hi there! I'm Erin -- excellent project starter, so-so project finisher, and wanna be Type-A homemaker (if it weren't for my chronic laziness). Hubby and I are three years into a home renovation + two years into parenthood. One of those things may have slowed down the other just a bit. Stick around, I'll tell you all about it.
Hello, friends! Crickets. Um, hello? Anybody? Dad? In case someone does check in here, let me explain where I’ve been. Way back in October (when I last blogged), I was making progress on a few house projects–updating the master bedroom, getting ready to change the nursery to a big girl room, and…
Happy Halloween, folks! Turns out I unintentionally took October off from my otherwise rigorous blogging schedule. Oops. But what better reason to get back on track than October’s Random Acts of Craftiness Challenge? None, I say. As a reminder, challenge participants attempt to make something…
Do you know what today is? It’s project reveal day for the first round of the Random Acts of Craftiness Challenge, wherein blogging and non-blogging crafty types make cool stuff out of random stuff without consulting the interwebs for inspiration. (Learn more here.) This month’s crafting challenge…
Have you heard of Bagster? It’s like a cross between this… …and this. It’s a really small dumpster. It’s a really big bag. It’s a Bagster! We used one for our front porch demo, and it was perfect for our needs. So today I’m sharing why we used Bagster, the basics of how it works, and a few insider…
I like my canvases chunky, like my peanut butter. At least when it comes to medium to large(ish) scale art. For something that’s only, say, 11 x 18″, half an inch is thick enough for me. [More on those paintings here.] But once you get up to 18 x 24″ or so, a nice inch-thick canvas just feels so…
Well folks, it’s official — it’s fall! Except in the sense that it’s not technically fall yet. But you know what I mean. It’s back to school time. Classes start at Hubby’s school tomorrow, so we’re getting back in the swing of things around here. I’ve had fall organization fever, and I have loads…
Subtitle: How I re-learned that gardening is not my super power I’ve shared before that Hubby was determined to whip our backyard into shape this year. His first big project back in April was to build a multi-tiered planter that runs the full thirty feet from our house to the back fence. Well…
You know when you finally resolve a small but lingering irritation in your home and it feels disproportionately thrilling? Like when organizing the utensil drawer or getting that rug to stop slipping feels almost as good as, say, painting a room or something that just seems like a much bigger deal?…
Here’s something sad and ugly that I finally put to rest. Sure, a magnetic notepad is an easy solution for the list dependent (like us), but I prefer to keep the refrigerator cleared off. So I kept removing this one. Then, after list-less living netted too many forgotten groceries, Hubby insisted…
Folks, this post has been a year in the making. Oh yes, this little gem… …has been in hiding for quite a while. But I’ll get to that. On Saturday there is a huge yard sale at my parents’ church. I mean HUGE. It’s an annual event, and people come from far and wide to shop the cast offs of this…
Subtitle: How I painted my faux bamboo dresser Something big has happened at our house. (Hint: see subtitle) It might not be significant in other homes, particularly those that house people with follow-through to match their grand ideas. But here, in the home of this chronic 90 percenter? Of this…
It’s done! The house is painted! Our ugly duckling has really come into her own. Here’s what the house looked like shortly before the painters arrived. Not bad, eh? When I last told you about painting, we were eight samples deep in our quest for the perfect gray and crossing our fingers for lucky…
Has the neon bandwagon stopped at your house? I hopped on a while back with these: Then it rolled through again and I made these wrapped branches. My wrapping streak started on one of countless trips to Home Depot to pick up supplies for who knows what project around here. I spotted rolls of…
We’ve been hard at work turning our backyard into someplace we actually like to spend time. Our little oasis, if you will, and every oasis needs water. We had “some sort of water feature” on our wish list from the start, but it took a while to settle on the right kind for us. Our criteria (in…
I believe I mentioned I have a thing for contact paper (Yep. Mm-hmm.) I’m back at it, this time sprucing up our entry way. When we moved in, there was a small coat closet immediately inside the front door. Here’s the only photo we have of that situation. (Sorry, Sweetheart.) As you can see, the…
Since we’re having the house painted (in two days!), I’ve been thinking about what to do for a house number. Here’s the standard issue that came with the place. That was ripped off nearly immediately during initial demo. Then we went without a house number for a while, relying on the prominently…
OK, folks, it’s decision time. Big time decision time. This isn’t the minor leagues, deciding what color to spray paint a flea market knick-knack or even choosing colors for a room. Those can be undone fairly easily. Oh no, I’m venturing into a 5-7 year paint commitment. As I previously revealed…
When we started the home buying process in 2008, we were pretty sure we were condo people. For one thing, we loved the idea of a nice spacious balcony with lush potted plants, but shuddered at the thought of caring for a real yard. We had a yard at our first place together. Let’s just say the…
You know when you finally resolve a small but lingering irritation in your home and it feels disproportionately thrilling? Like when organizing the utensil drawer or getting that rug to stop slipping feels almost as good as, say, painting a room or something that just seems like a much bigger deal?…
I thought I’d never utter such a phrase, but I am bursting with excitement about our curb appeal. At least the potential ; it still looks a little sad at the moment. But soon, friends, soon I will feel less shame. And that’s an improvement. Some background: When we assumed ownership of our house in…
I recently purchased this mirror to fill what has been an irksome empty wall space in our living room. But I’m conflicted. photo from Home Depot On the one hand, it’s a pretty decent looking sunburst mirror, it fits the space well, and it was very reasonably priced. That’s a lot of look for $35…
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call these “art”, but this pretty pair now decorates our bedroom. What you’re looking at (above) is a personal record: from pin to done in less than a week! It’s also a total rip-off…wait, let’s call it a spin -off of this piece by Tanya. Dans le Townhouse It’s…
This mirror project is so me in that it stopped and started about five times and sat around a long time before making it to completion. But it’s done. Want to see? I don’t have a proper before picture, but you can consult Ikea or just imagine a thin frame of unfinished wood around a rectangular…
You know when you finally resolve a small but lingering irritation in your home and it feels disproportionately thrilling? Like when organizing the utensil drawer or getting that rug to stop slipping feels almost as good as, say, painting a room or something that just seems like a much bigger deal?…
After a lengthy procurement process, I am now the proud owner of this Henry Link Bali Hai goodness: Do you see the potential? I’m in love; positively giddy. I started falling for faux bamboo about a year ago when I was deep in the throes of a cabinet/buffet/sideboard/dresser search for our living…
I guess it’s really an Ikea lamp hack, through which we created a nightlight. Either way, Hubby and I are hoping this little piece of magic solves the sleeping woes in our house. A tall order, but spray paint can do anything, right? (Say yes.) We decided we needed a nightlight in the nursery, but…
I’m on a post project high. I just dusted off a seriously old “to do” list and drew a big fat line through “hang light over stairs.” Actually, the idea for this project predates us even having stairs since I bought the supplies and went so far as to make a prototype before we bought this house…
[ I wrote this six months ago but never managed to take pictures and post....I guess the days weren't quite long enough. ] Sometimes it’s hard to be the mother I want to be. Of course it’s always challenging to be the mother I really want to, but I’m talking about passable here. I mean sometimes…
Uh, what’s that I see on the calendar? Zoom in. Yikes, end of summer. Hubby is a high school teacher and it’s back to school time. Wait, what? That can’t be–I’ve hardly crossed anything off my ever-growing DIY to do list. I was supposed to have whipped our house into shape by now. (Btw, no bedroom…
A little background: our house is a three story townhouse. Two modest bedrooms and one tiny bathroom upstairs. An open living/dining space + kitchen on the ground level. And an open living space/guest room + laundry in the basement. There was a bathroom in the basement when we moved in, but it was…
Master bedroom plan, that is. I should probably start this blog by giving more of an introduction to the house…Nah, let’s start with what’s fresh, what’s happening, what’s now. (And since I’m the only one who even knows this blog is here, that’s sure to please my audience.) Our master bedroom is…
