Hudson will be four months old for his first Christmas, so he isn’t really going to remember what we do or any gifts he’s given. However, it seemed sad to not get him anything at all! So Bart and I decided it would be a great opportunity to make a cute project that we’ve seen online, something that we probably would have made for him anyway…now we can stick a bow on it and call it a Christmas present!
Archive for the ‘craftiness’ Category
DIY kid’s growth ruler
Posted in craftiness, DIY, Holidays, Kids on December 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Bedroom renovation wrap-up
Posted in craftiness, DIY, family, Kids, The house, tagged bedroom, diy, drywall, home decor, home improvement, paint on November 9, 2015| 2 Comments »
Previously, I talked about our accidental basement makeover that kind of just happened while we were working on the other two bedroom renovations upstairs. Today, after alluding to it for months, I wanted to officially share the final result of those two rooms with you, bringing our update of the three upstairs bedrooms to a close. While there are still other projects we’d like to do upstairs, it’s nice to say we’ve at least wrapped up this segment. Now for the first time since we moved in two years ago, I have all bedrooms clean and functional!
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The accidental basement makeover
Posted in craftiness, DIY, The house, travel, tagged basement, diy, gallery wall, Ikea, Karlstad, living area, maps, remodel, travel on August 17, 2015| 2 Comments »
While we were busy renovating the three bedrooms upstairs during the last year and a half, something unforeseen and somewhat accidental happened to our basement. Without really even trying, it somehow got an update of its own, transforming from a dark, stark hole where Bart had his office to an actually inviting spot for living and working. It’s almost a little cruel when I think about all the effort it took to get the upstairs where we wanted it, but maybe it’s a much needed lesson about home improvement and expectations.
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Deck the halls 2014
Posted in craftiness, DIY, Faith, Holidays, The house, tagged Christmas card holder, Christmas decorations, Christmas tree, fireplace, mantel, nativity, stockings, wreath on December 8, 2014| 1 Comment »
Last week, Bart and I decorated the house for Christmas. Since we usually travel for the holidays, we only have a few weeks after Thanksgiving to enjoy our trimmings, so we try to get everything up fairly early so we have time to enjoy it. This year, we had some old favorites and some new additions to our decor, and it seemed to come together very well.
Sticking my neck out
Posted in craftiness, monthly challenge, tagged amigurumi, Crochet, etsy, giraffe, knit, pinterest on October 2, 2014| 1 Comment »
My modus operandi for knit and crochet projects seems to be biting off more than I can chew, usually in the form of enormous blankets that take me months, or even years, to finish. I decided that I should maybe take a different approach and try a few smaller scale projects here and there, especially stash-busting efforts that would slowly nibble away at my modest stockpile of odds and ends.
Way back in June, I mentioned that my goal for the month was to try some amigurumi toward this end. I don’t know if there is a specific definition of amigurumi, but I take it to mean the crocheting of cute, small, and sometimes eclectic items, particularly animals and sometimes objects. I don’t know how small amigurumi is technically supposed to be, but I fell in love with this adorable giraffe, which claims to be amigurumi but is a bit large. Amigurumi or no, I decided I wanted to try my hand at whipping up a stuffed animal in crochet, starting with this one.
Eleven months: let there be light fixtures
Posted in craftiness, DIY, family, Food, Friends, House hunting, Monthly Update, Murphy, The house, travel, weather, tagged adoption, Baseball, diy, fall, football, home improvement, Knitting, light fixtures, nationals, pantry, storage, washington dc on September 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »
A year ago we went under contract on our house and were doing things like paperwork, home inspections, and furiously packing. Now, eleven months into living in our new home, we’ve moved on to completely ripping apart our prized investment, but hopefully for a good cause.
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Eight months: love it when a plan comes together
Posted in craftiness, DIY, Monthly Update, Moving, The house, tagged diy, garage organization, projects, storage, Summer on June 18, 2014| 1 Comment »
The last month has been really productive, particularly around the very end of May and beginning of June. Things have slowed down a bit, as we have some other stuff coming up that has required more time and mental bandwidth, but we’ve still made some recent progress.
A paperwork intervention
Posted in craftiness, Moving, The house, tagged file folders, file storage, hanging files, home office, organization, paperwork on June 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »
As one might imagine, moving two times in eleven months is not conducive to staying very organized. All our worldly possessions lived in and out of boxes during our move and our time renting. When we bought our house, we initially found temporary homes for all our stuff and boxes, but the process has been very slow. However, since we moved, and particularly since the beginning of spring, we have been on an organizational tear. From craft supplies to tools, spices to paperwork, Bart and I have been taming the beast and getting back to an efficient and functional household.
One of my ongoing projects is dealing with all the paperwork. Starting a new job, registering cars in two states, and buying, selling, and renting homes generates a mountain of paperwork that piles up in the blink of an eye. I managed to stay afloat until we made our final move, but was clear that our files needed a major intervention. My method of filing paperwork for many years was to use hanging files in a dedicated file drawer. I had a folder for each utility and financial account and for other categories like health records, receipts for big purchases, and school info. This worked pretty well, but with a big life change some of the files were a bit outdated–for instance, we have new utility providers and I no longer am in school–and it was time for a refresh.
A busy June ahead
Posted in craftiness, DIY, monthly challenge, weather, tagged amigurumi, crafts, Crochet, june, knit, May, sewing, travel on June 1, 2014| 1 Comment »
June is already here, and it is already shaping up to be a busy and eventful month. May went slowly and quickly at the same time. Initially, I didn’t have a grand plan for a May monthly challenge, but it ended up being a month for wrapping up a ton of projects that we’ve had on our agenda for quite a while. From putting the final touch on our room renovation to installing a spice rack, we made significant and satisfying progress on our to-do list. It’s still half a mile long, but progress nonetheless.
Spice it up
Posted in craftiness, DIY, Food, Moving, The house, tagged herbs, kitchen organization, spice, spice organization, spice rack on May 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
As you can probably tell, I am fond of cooking. Over the years, my recipe repertoire has expanded, causing me to expand my collection of various spices. While I don’t have anything terribly exotic, having a variety of options begins to add up, and spice bottles can begin to overtake the pantry. When we got married, I was gifted a spice rack, which seemed like a great idea at the time. However, it had a rather large footprint and didn’t hold many spices at all for the square footage it took up in the pantry or on the counter. Eventually, I began hatching a grand plan for functional and hyper-organized herb and spice storage.
The Taylor Approximation 