The Ultimate DIY – Saying Goodbye to Your Mom

While I sit here in the hospital with my mom, I thought I’d share a really great project with you that my daughter, April, did recently – a dresser turned tv stand. But then I decided to just have a chat with you. To encourage you. To let you know what’s up and that it’s all good. I’ll do the Dresser Turned TV Stand another time. At the moment of this writing, I’m doing the ultimate DIY sitting alone in a hospital room I’m tending to my mom who had a major stroke Saturday morning. Let me take a moment here and encourage you. I’ve been through losing a father (30 years ago when I was 26) and now am dealing with a part of life no one wants to – watching a mother decline and trying to figure out how to make her as comfortable as possible, manage all … Read more

Be prepared for a crisis by planning ahead

Crisis on the Home Front … Are you Prepared?

I write with a heart full of gratitude that God saw fit to save the lives of my two kids while they were driving home to Virginia today. They say the best posts are written with strong emotion. This is that post. I have been planning to do a series of posts on preparing your home and family for emergencies, or crisis situations. Today that resolve was driven home when I received a text this morning from my daughter, Jillian, that she and her husband had just totaled their car on an icy highway in Ohio. This kind of a call is every mom’s nightmare. So I start out my series telling you about their accident. I got a text from Jillian and Taylor at 8:30 this morning telling me they had to be dug out of their sister’s driveway before leaving this morning, then a couple of hours later … Read more

FREE Personal Goal Worksheet {Love My DIY Home}

Printable Goal Worksheet for 2014

Got Goals? Start setting goals with this  TODAY. This has been very popular on Pinterest! What do you want to stop, change, begin or improve upon this year? Set your goals, write them down and keep the worksheet where you can see it every day. HOW? 1. Download the Personal Goal Worksheet 2. Send it to SAMs or Walmart and get it printed as an 8×10.  3. Cut off the bottom 2″ to make it a square 8×8. 4. Frame it with a frame that has glass to cover it. 5. Use a wet or dry erase marker to write your goals. This way you preserve the worksheet and can use it over and over! I was trying to decide what areas I need work on and came up with this: To accomplish things in life you must have a plan. But it can’t just swirl around in your head! … Read more

Repurpose old picture frames

DIY Framed Wire Tool Hanger – Re-purpose Old Picture Frames Part 2

This is the second in my How-to Series on Re-purposing Old Picture Frames Here’s my first post with a list of 10 DIY projects to upcycle old picture frames. The plan was to do this last week, but we had a special delivery just after Thanksgiving. We welcomed in a new grandson. All my plans for the rest of the week went out the window! But, I’m back now with a nifty little project for you. It’s easy. It’s cheap. It’s useful. It’s a great decor item. I’m using it as a tool hanger in my craft room. but really, it could be used for just about anything. Use it to hang photos, craft supplies, kitchen tools, office supplies…anything goes. 1. I started with an old frame that I had used to display my kids’ sports pictures. 1. 2. To remove the glossy finish, I sanded the frame with a … Read more

DIY Silver Painted Decorative Vase

A Silver Vase for the Holidays Here’s another simple DIY spray painting project for you. I have a dozen clear glass vases from my daughter’s wedding two years ago.                                                                                                         …along with a bunch of other stuff, but let’s not go there. I also have a bunch of similar vases that are left over from burning Candlewick candles that same daughter gave me.   Sense a theme here? I thought about donating them, but who would want them? YET, there’s GOT TO be a use for them doesn’t there? So, the “saver” that I am (DH probably prefers “hoarder”) … Read more

Before and After Kitchen

Our Kitchen Before and After

We vacated our tiny rental house in old people’s land, downtown Wausau, and began our much sought after fairy tale a year ago. Our new Hobbit House was a foreclosure that had been vacated for a year – Hobbitless, you might say. There is something to be said for the hominess of a Hobbit Hole. I wanted my home to be cozy and homey like Bilbo’s. source Fortunately the structure the house was decent – it just needed a little TLC and I had to get my vision. (No, the picture above isn’t my house – it’s a Hobbit-Hole.) Here are before pictures. Not bad, but not what I call home. And certainly not fit for a Hobbit. NOTHING short of fairy tale is good enough. My home is where my grandkids and I were going to snuggle and read stories and have adventures. This is where my family and … Read more

DIY Your Own Canvas Art

DIY Canvas Tutorial

Have you seen the newest DIY project for displaying family photos or signs and graphics like subway art and quotes? I’m in the process of setting up a store that will feature such things, but I ought not get ahead of myself…. When my daughter showed me how to create these canvases I was amazed at how easy it was. I probably shouldn’t share this. The mystery of such a nice piece of art is what sells it. I suppose there will be some of you out there that just don’t want to do it yourself, so I will offer to sell them in the future once I get a good selection. Here are a couple of canvases I have in my home. These are not on the stretched canvas, but on a flat canvas panel. For this project you will need an 8×10 photograph or poster. For this tutorial, … Read more

Before and After Half Bath

BEFORE & AFTER HALF BATH   We Moved into our house October of 2012. It was a foreclosure that had sat for a year unoccupied. The story of how we found it was quite miraculous. We had moved from the Kalamazoo area in Michigan to Wausau, Wisconsin about 2 1/2 years ago into a tiny rental house. We didn’t want to rush into a new house, partly because we had some pretty specific needs in our next house, and partly because we wanted to get a good deal. Hiring a professional moving company such as https://threemovers.com/germany-international-moving-companies/ made the transition smoother. We must have looked at 100 houses over the two year span…but that’s another story for another day. But today, I’m sharing our little half-bath redesign. It is simple – just a bit of painting made all the difference. I’ve had a lot of requests to show before and after … Read more

Love My DIY Home