• red mill museum clinton new jersey february 2021
    happy list

    Happy List: #203

    Welcome to this week’s Happy List. Whether you are a regular reader or new to this blog, I am glad you are here. This week on the ol’ blog I shared a wood bowl makeover. A little bit of sanding goes a long way toward updating wood thrift store bowls. I also shared an easy St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece that you can enjoy the entire month of March because it won’t go bad! Once again, here is my shameless plug for you to join me on Instagram or Facebook. I love to connect with you here and there. Please keep in mind that I’m better about responding to Instagram messages over Facebook…

  • st patrick's day table decor irish flag centerpiece
    Crafts,  holidays

    Simple St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece

    St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and if you are celebrating at home this year, I have a simple St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece idea for you. All you need for this St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece are some mini Irish flags, clear glass vase(s), rice, and lentils. To make this St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece your are going to put mini Irish flags into clear vases or milk bottles filled with dried goods in the color of the Irish flag. The Irish flag is in color order green, white, and orange. For this example I’ve filled the vase with green mung beans, white rice, and orange lentils. Dried split peas…

  • wood bowl makeover
    Crafts,  decorating

    Wood Bowl Makeover

    Keep an eye out for cheap wood bowls at thrift stores because with a quick wood bowl makeover you’ll have something that looks like a million bucks. I should say quick-ish makeover. Time is all relative, but this wood bowl makeover should take less than an hour. All you need is a wood bowl with a terrible finish and a sander. I found this wavy, wood bowl at the thrift store for $1. It makes me ridiculously excited that I can still find things for a buck. I was relatively confident that a pretty wood grain was hiding underneath that heavily-glazed, orange finish. All I needed to do was sand…

  • colonial farmhouse in snow 2021
    happy list

    Happy List: #202

    Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List! I’m glad you are here. This week was a fun one on the blog! At least it was a fun one for me because I love sharing projects! I wrote about a vinyl tile pedestal stand we created and a glazed terracotta pot makeover. Both of those DIY projects get a lot of daily use around these parts. Once again, here is my shameless plug for you to join me on Instagram or Facebook. I love to connect with you here and there. Please keep in mind that I’m not on Facebook much, but I am all over those Instagram messages. Now, here’s the Happy List. Enjoy!STATEMENT MAKING…

  • terra-cotta pot makeover
    Crafts,  decorating

    Glazed Terra-Cotta Pot Makeover

    Have you ever done a glazed terra-cotta pot makeover? I haven’t either…until now. *insert dramatic music here* I found a glazed terra-cotta pot at a thrift store for $10. It is huge, almost 18 inches tall, and it was begging for a makeover. Begging. You can see the potential, right? This is not one of those situations where I’m going to slap mud on a vase to make it look like authentic earthenware. I already had authentic earthenware. It was just hiding under some painted on flowers and swirly things. My plan for this glazed terra-cotta pot makeover was simple. I was just going to paint it. Easy breezy. However,…

  • vinyl tile pedestal stand
    decorating,  DIY

    Vinyl Tile Pedestal Stand

    I created a vinyl tile pedestal stand from leftover vinyl flooring to go next to my kitchen sink and I’m thrilled to show it to you today!  This was such a fun way to repurpose leftover vinyl floor tiles. I like to corral the dish soap and cleaning spray bottle on a tray next to the kitchen sink, but I do not like how soap and water inevitably drips all over that area.  I needed a tray or stand for my dish soap that would hold up well when my  kids do dishes next to a wet area.  We had a handful of leftover black hexagon vinyl tiles from a flooring project. This particular…

  • happy list

    Happy List: #201

    Welcome to the Happy List! How has your week been? I hope it has been fantastic. This week on the blog I shared some organizing tricks that work for our household. I share stuff like that purely to spread ideas. For every organized space in our home, I have another space that could use some organizational love. I also shared the best constructive criticism I’ve ever received. If you missed that post, the constructive criticism did not come from my kids on how to better cook chicken nuggets. Hahaha! Once again, here is my shameless plug for you to join me on Instagram or Facebook. I love to connect with…

  • flowers in a wall
    education

    What is the Best Constructive Criticism You’ve Ever Received?

    What is the best constructive criticism you’ve ever received? Or has it all just been plain ol’ criticism of the regular variety? I’d love to know! As a blogger, I’ve received my fair share of criticism over the years. That’s always fun. *sarcasm alert* However, the most caustic environment I’ve ever been in was not work-related. It was while serving on the PTA at my kids’ school. That was a tough crowd!    The best constructive criticism I’ve ever received was in college. I was 19 or 20 years old and had secured a prestigious marketing internship with a well-known company in Portland, Oregon. It was the gold standard for internships because they gave their…

  • sock drawer organizer organization tricks
    cleaning,  decorating

    Organization Tricks That Work For Me

    I have a few organization tricks that work for me and they might work for you too! The best organization tricks are the ones that work for you and your lifestyle. Full stop. You could buy $1,000 work of pretty bins from The Container Store and still have a pantry or closet that is a hot mess because you don’t actually use the pretty bins. You could buy a label maker and go crazy labeling everything in existence, but if no one in your family reads the labels, what was the point? Besides the fact that label makers are kind of fun to use!  Remember that organize is a verb. That means it requires…

  • painted wood heart magnet
    happy list

    Happy List: #200

    Welcome to the Happy List all you lovebirds!  Ready for Valentine’s Day? It’s not a big holiday in our house, but I will use it as an excuse to order takeout!  This week on the blog I shared the leather belt tray I made and love with all my heart and soul. I styled it differently for the blog post, but it ended up in my son’s room on top of his bookcase. I also shared a bunch of cool art I found for big kid rooms…or for the kid in all of us.  Speaking of art of a sort, the wood heart magnets at the top of this post were made by my…