My oldest just graduated from 8th grade and is moving on to high school! I can’t believe it and I kind of want this growing up business to stop! Well – I’m actually ready for him to move onto the next stage because his 14 year old self has come with a bit of attitude and grumpiness. It’s to be expected I suppose, but I’m a little over this part. At our school it’s tradition for the 7th grade parents to plan and put on the 8th grade graduation dance. I did this last year and because I also have two 7th graders, I got to do it again! Lucky me! Someone else came up with the beach theme and asked me to make up some DIY palm trees. I absolute love how they turned out and figured it was worthy of a DIY blog post….

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I’ve been stewing about my oak cabinets in two of my bathrooms for a few years. We built our home in 1987 and oak was all the rage. Not so much anymore! Oak was so much in vogue that in our guest bath, I replaced the standard towel bar, toilet paper holder and even the toilet seat with oak! So 80’s-90’s, but way, way out of style now. Follow along to learn how to stain cabinets for a new look on a small budget.

I really didn’t want to spend the money on redoing my cabinets (still trying to decide what to do in my kitchen). The oak was high quality, and in pretty good shape, other than dried out, and needing a facelift ( kinda like me)….

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For most people, painting isn’t such a fun job. It can be messy, and is a whole lot of work. What we have found is that proper setup can alleviate a lot of pain and stress during the painting process. We want to show you how to set up doors to be painted, so that when you go to actually paint the doors, the process goes smooth and fast. Setup will take some time here, so be prepared. I assure you it will be worth it in the end.

My parents purchased all new doors for the interior of their house. The six panel doors come primed and need to be painted white. We had 15 doors to paint, but this setup will work with any number of doors that you need to work on. It works best if you do have multiple doors to paint. I will tell you what we used for completing 15 doors, but you may need to adjust the amount of material for the number of doors you actually do….

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For my sister-in-law’s Lake Tahoe wedding last weekend, Keith was asked to make a DIY Jumbo Jenga. Sure, I’ve seen them around Pinterest a bit, and of course thought they looked super cool. The sweet thing is that now I have an awesome hubby who can make such cool things. Even cooler is that the man doesn’t need instructions, but you explain what you want/need and he can figure it out. So, I thought I’d let all of you benefit from his sweet skills, and share his tips and tricks with you. Soon you’ll be off having a blast with friends, family, and all who see you playing, because let’s face it – they will be jealous!…

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I absolutely love decorating for the holidays – just about every holiday really. I try to go all out for Christmas because it’s my favorite holiday, and I love all the lights and festivity. I make plenty of purchases for my indoor and outdoor decorating, but I always try to add a little of my own DIY Christmas decor. This year, Keith and I teamed up to make a super easy, yet gorgeous reclaimed wood and ribbon star. I’m in love!…

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Instead of making new resolutions to be a better housekeeper, I thought I’d help my kids make some goals of their own. Okay, okay, I’m forcing them to be better about doing chores. Let’s be honest here, most kids don’t just volunteer to improve themselves, or to help out around the house. I know there are so many chore charts out there to help in this department, but Keith and I decided to get crafty and create our own framed chalkboard chore chart….

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When Keith and I purchased our home, we knew that something would need to change with the cabinets. Keith is actually a very talented cabinet maker, but to save time and money, we decided to paint all of our cabinets. The trend of painting cabinets has been increasing over the past few years, and it isn’t as daunting as one might think. Our kitchen cabinets needed to be painted a different color, while our bathroom cabinets just needed paint to make them more current. I’m going to explain how to prep cabinets to be painted, so you too can change up your look, on a budget.

An important thing to keep in mind is that the prep work may take more time than the project itself, but it is worth it in the long run. When it comes to painting cabinets, there are things you can do to give a flawless look, without needing to hire a professional. Some of the outcome is dependent on the prep work, and some is on the products used….

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