Stone Carriage House Gym Expansion Part 1
Last year, we made over one room in our stone Carriage House and turned it into a home gym. It took us at least six weeks of continual work to make that happen, partly because it’s a long, laborious process and partly because there are only two of us. The DIY experience is one constant reminder that you are limited by the amount of time in a day and the number of hands you possess. You’d think evolution would have fixed one of those problems by now. The Carriage House is a separate building on our property and it is divided into three parts. The entire top floor is a…
The Case for a Hidden Bookcase Door
Hear me out. Our house *needs* a hidden bookcase door. Do you know what I’m referring to? A wall that looks like it has a gorgeous bookcase, but you pull a secret lever and the bookcase opens to reveal a hidden room behind it. How cool is that? No question about it. We DEFINITELY need a hidden bookcase door. I just have to convince Handy Husband that it wouldn’t be a colossal pain in the patootie to build one. Just the normal amount of pain. For instance, we don’t need to have a curved arch over the hidden bookcase door. I could compromise and let that idea go. See how…
Happy List: #383
Hello! Welcome all of you lovers of Spring! It’s is so good to see you here. We made it through winter and I don’t know about you, but I am definitely looking forward to the warmer and more colorful days of spring. This week on the blog I dusted off a post from the archive and shared my experiences visiting hardware stores in Ireland. I also shared the fun and maybe temporary addition to our sunporch. It has spring vibes, for sure, and I made it with my own two hands. I do enjoy making things! A special shout out and thank you to Diane from In My Own Style…
Paper Flower Garland
Who’s ready for a party? This girl is because I have the happiest paper flower garland hanging up ready for a celebration. What are we celebrating? Longer daylight hours. Daffodils popping out of the ground. The new season of Reacher. A really good night’s sleep. Anything and everything is a cause for celebration these days. Those are the rules. Take your joy where you can get it, folks. Speaking of things that bring me joy, I have proclaimed loudly and often that I am not a garland person and, yet, I seem to come up with excuses for making garlands and hanging them up in my house. Need evidence? I…
From The Archive: A Hardware Store In Ireland
Editor’s Note: This blog post about what hardware stores in Ireland are like was previously published under our “Living In Ireland” series. We moved to Ireland for a work opportunity and lived there, south of Dublin, for two years between 2016 and 2018. I thought this would be a fun post to revisit on St. Patrick’s Day. I hope you enjoy it! A warning for all of you organized types – the pictures in this post may be disturbing. Now, for the rest of you, let’s head to the hardware store! My little village in Ireland has a small hardware store. It shares space with the post office. I’ll let…
Happy List: #382
Hi! Happy early St. Patrick’s Day. I’m thrilled to see you here. This week on the blog I shared how I decorated our dining room fireplace for spring with paper flowers. Stay tuned for another related project on that front! I also shared the reveal, or TADA as I like to call it, of the peg rail in our bedroom. I’m really enjoying the visual interest it adds to the space. The Happy List is one of the ways I try to focus my media consumption on the things that inspire me instead of the things that raise my blood pressure. We all need balance. I also love, love, LOVE…
Bedroom Peg Rail – One Entire Wall of Storage
By adding a peg rail to one entire wall of our bedroom, we gained 15 feet of storage and organization space and an unlimited amount of glee over this addition. Is there a Guinness Book of World Records category for the world’s longest peg rail? If so, I’d like to submit our bedroom peg rail as an entry. You’ll have to use your imagination a little because it was hard for me to get a decent photograph of one gigantic wall broken up by a door. That’s why I’m showing the two sides of the peg rail in different photos in this blog post. The hardship, I know. Thank you…
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Scrapbook Paper Flowers – Spring Fireplace Decor
Let’s talk scrapbook paper flowers and all the ways you can use them to decorate your home. I’m craving the color of spring flowers, but it still looks like winter in New Jersey. So, I do what I often do. Fake it till spring arrives I make it. This time, I used scrapbook paper flowers to decorate my dining room fireplace for spring. It looks like I’m ready for spring now, doesn’t it? I still have snow shovels by the front door, but that’s a little detail we don’t need to dwell on. What you need to make scrapbook paper flowers: Scrapbook Paper (I used this paper, but you can use…
Happy List: #381
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List! I’m glad you’re here. We made it to March, folks! What a relief. Spring is coming. This week on the blog, I shared the Easter eggs I made with temporary tattoos. They are the prettiest Easter eggs I’ve ever crafted. I also was feeling optimistic about making it through the bulk of winter and shared how the plants I’ve been overwintering have fared. Mixed bag, folks. It was a mixed bag. The Happy List is one of the ways I try to focus on the beautiful and inspirational things in the world. It’s better for my mental health than doom-scrolling. Funny how that…
A Mixed Bag For Overwintering Plants This Year
It’s been a mixed bag for overwintering plants this year (2024-2025). We’ve had some successes and some unfortunate failures. Have you ever had one of those restaurant experiences where the food was great, but the service was terrible? You think to yourself, “I don’t know if this was worth trying again.” That’s me right now with overwintering plants. Keep in mind, I also forgot childbirth was painful, and I had more than one child. So, take my whining with a pound of salt, and meet me back here next year for another update. Ha! Seriously though, we have the ideal setup for overwintering plants on our sunporch. It’s like having…
