Give Gingham a Second Look
If recently decorating with two gingham things counts as a gingham kick, then I am on one, and happily so. I’m not exactly sure why (commercial conditioning, perhaps?), but gingham prints feel so happy, carefree, and perfect for spring. Given the way my brain perceives gingham, it’s no coincidence that right after Christmas, in the dead of a nasty winter when the landscape was bleak, and I was feeling blah, I bought gingham sheets for our bedroom. Manifesting an early spring with new gingham sheets did not work (shocking, I know), but it did brighten my day to see our bedroom with an extra bit of color. I take my…
Happy List: #429
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It is so fun to have you here. This week on the blog, I discussed a topic near and dear to my stomach. The bread recipes I swear by. Fun fact: I’m usually baking this bread while writing the Happy List. Multi-tasking, but make it delicious. That’s my life motto. I also shared the progress I’ve made in extending the foundation wall in our basement. You’ll probably have to see it to believe it, but I will eventually finish this project. Thank you for spending part of your day here. The Happy List is purposefully light and filled with things that caught my…
Basement Workshop Repointing: Part 6, A New Wall
Welcome to another installment in our riveting Basement Workshop Repointing series. This is part 6, where we leave repointing in the mortar tub and move straight into building a new foundation wall. It’s technically the extension of an existing wall, but we are building it from scratch. Coming up with blog post titles, especially ones that appease the search engine gods, is harder than repointing a stone foundation. But I digress. Why Do We Need to Extend the Foundation Wall? At some point in the past, an opening was created in this foundation wall to access the foundation under our kitchen addition. It’s a rather large opening, approximately 4 feet across.…
Bread Recipes I Swear By
The one thing I can’t live without is bread. I thank God and King Arthur* every day that I am not restricted to a gluten-free diet. Twelve years ago, the only bread I made was banana bread. You’ve got to watch out for the banana bread. It’s a gateway gluten. It starts with adding chocolate chips to the loaf, and before you know it, you’ve named your sourdough starter. I can’t invite you all over to break bread with me, so the next best thing is to dish up the 10 bread recipes I swear by that keep our bellies full and our house smelling delightful. No Knead Brioche Buns…
Happy List: #428
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad to see you here. This week on the blog, I shared the wood pedestal I made for Easter. I had so much fun crafting with the mini wood eggs that were the star of that craft. I also published the latest installment in our Basement Workshop Repointing series. Yep, still working on that project. Hahahaha! DIY might save us money, but it also costs us time. I hope this Happy List, and the blog in general, are a respite from the mayhem that is the internet. If you want to reach out, and I hope you do, please comment…
Basement Workshop Stone Repointing: Part 5, Foundation Wall Top
Welcome back to another installment of our Basement Workshop Stone Repointing series. This is part 5 because I really know how to milk a series for all it is worth. Today, we’re talking about the tops of foundation walls. An old house’s stone foundation wall is usually at least 18 inches thick. Besides the fact that this wall is supporting the weight of the house, there are also multiple beams sitting on top of the foundation wall. These may include the sill plate, floor joists, and door and window headers. From the outside of the house, the top of your foundation wall is not visible. Or, if it is, there’s…
DIY Wood Pedestal With Mini Egg Trim
Did you know mini wood eggs for Easter are a thing? Dare I say, the greatest thing? Well, you do now! Today’s project, a DIY Wood Pedestal With Mini Egg Trim, was a thrifted find that I made over for Easter, using mini wood eggs for a festive trim detail. Click here to jump to the supply list. Click here to jump to the project directions. There was nothing wrong with the wood pedestal when I spotted it on the ubiquitous dusty thrift store shelf, especially not for the price. It was $6. But I had a makeover idea hatching in my brain, and I couldn’t rest until I knew…
Happy List: #427
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am delighted to have you here. This week on the blog, as a nod to the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day, I shared horseshoe decor ideas for your home that aren’t western-themed. I also shared the floor joist problem we’re having with our basement repointing project. Hello, can of worms. I wish I didn’t know you. Once again, thank you for being here. It makes my day to connect with you and hear what’s going on in your life. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me on Instagram…
Basement Workshop Stone Repointing: Part 4, Floor Joists
Welcome back to our Basement Workshop Stone Repointing series. This is part 4, where I tell you how our floor joists have taken a starring role in this melodrama. Anatomy of an Old House Way back in the 1780s, when this house was built. It was a humble one-room structure with a sleeping loft. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know this room as our dining room with the big fireplace. The sleeping loft is now our office. This humble house, of course, had a stone foundation, which is the basement workshop that we are repointing now. We don’t know where this basement area was accessed,…
7 Lucky Horseshoe Decor Ideas for Your Home
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, which means symbols of good luck are top-of-mind right now. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take all the good luck I can muster these days, so I’ve rounded up 7 lucky horseshoe decor ideas for your home. This isn’t a new theme for me. I decorated a good luck horseshoe ten years ago that I still love and hang in our house. You can get the easy directions for that here. Here are the 7 lucky horseshoe decor ideas for your home. You can buy these, of course, but some of them would be easy enough to replicate on your own! My…
