Category Archives: Made It Myself

Bye Bye Beige: Part 1

I got up Saturday morning, went to the first City Flea of the season, and came home to a fully painted half-bath! Whoo! No more beige in the bathroom!

(Apologies for the dark photos; there is no natural light in this hallway/bathroom; it is perpetually dark)

The color is French Lilac by Behr.

Still on the Painting To-Do List:

– paint the kitchen (also in French Lilac)

– paint entryway and family room (Natural Gray by Behr)

– paint my office (Cathedral Gray by Behr)

– paint our bedroom and bath (tbd)

– paint stairwell, bonus room, and upstairs hallway (tbd)

Garden 2013: First Look

I love this time of the year because it means gearing up for planting flowers and watching all of the blossoms emerge. We’ve had some crazy weather here in Cincinnati, so my flowering bushes are taking their sweet time to show some buds. My Knockout Roses seems to be the only thing close to blooming:

I’m hoping the weather holds out this weekend or next for us to build a couple of raised beds for my veggie garden. Last year, we cleared a spot and added topsoil, but things got a little unruly, plus heavy rains washed the soil out into the yard. So I decided that raised beds are in order for this year.

In the meantime, a strawberry plant has taken over last year’s veggie plot. I was planning to uproot it, but there are a decent amount of baby berries growing! So maybe I’ll leave it. Or transplant it? Not sure if that will work too well.

Are you growing your own this year? What’s your favorite fresh veggie or herb to cook with? I love basil, tomatoes and cilantro!

DIY Mother’s Day Print

Hello there! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Today I’m sharing a little gift made for my mom: a diy Mother’s Day print.

I’ve known for a few weeks that I wanted to make something for my Mom but I wasn’t sure what it should say. I finally settled on this phrase. Which is actually quite appropriate because my parents are moving in a few months (out of what is pretty much my childhood home. i’m adjusting to the idea…)

First I started with a sketch:

Then I translated it onto a higher quality sketchpad paper. I’ve used acrylic paint and a paintbrush to do lettering for some previous prints, but I wanted to try something different and easier to handle this time. I chose a broad-tipped opaque marker from Michael’s Crafts (from their Recollections brand). I would have preferred a paint pen, but I could only find them white, silver, and gold. (anyone know of any paint pen brands that come in colors??)

And there you have it! Just pop it in a frame and boom!… Instant Gift! Did you diy something for your mom/grandma/friend/special person for Mother’s Day?

PS – there’s still time to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway! Read about the prizes and how to enter here.

Foto Friday

Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday for my little Blogiversary shindig! (don’t worry! you still have plenty of time to enter my giveaway!).

I’m so glad that Friday is finally here. I’ve had a very, very busy Spring. So I relish each weekend as an opportunity to do what I want to do, even if it means being up to my eyeballs in craft supplies, and normal weekend chores falling by the wayside (oops).

Anyways, I thought I’d share a few of my amateur photos with you—some “outtakes” from my blogiversary shoot (it wasn’t as fancy as it sounds).

Yes, I made my own confetti. Which ended up being more complicated than it should be—has anyone else ever purchased a paper punch that won’t punch paper?!?

And, because I think there’s been a scarcity of her on the blog lately, Molly:

Yes, I know she needs haircut 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend, and a Happy Mother’s Day! I’ve got a little DIY-for-Mom to share next week. I couldn’t share it early because my mom is a loyal reader (thanks Mom! Sorry to spoil the surprise!)

Progress Is Progress

I don’t have anything exciting to share with you today (cue disappointed “awww”), but I feel I owe you all a post explaining my recent absence. The reason for this absence is twofold: too many projects underway at one time, and limited time to actually make progress on any of them.

This is what I mean:

We purchased crown moulding (yea!) But… we have yet to patch it, paint it, and install it. So now it’s hanging out in our dining room with my makeshift growing table.

We finished painting the small hallway between our kitchen and powder room (yea!) and started on the powder room (another yea!). But… we haven’t even cut in around all the baseboards yet. Last weekend was our anniversary (6 years!), and hanging out together sounded a lot better than painting!

And in the midst of all these started projects, we still have our day jobs, our dog, our somewhat neglected workout schedule, and all the other joys of daily life to juggle.

One step at a time, right?

BUT I did not forget about my blogiversary this week! Please stop back on Thursday for a special post and my first giveaway!