Furniture, Organization, Storage, Thrifty

Storage Alert

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bonus storage header

Bookshelf Hack

Not exactly a hack, but I’m using a bookshelf as shelving for pants. I have a bad habit of over-stuffing drawers full of my clothes, so I needed a remedy. Bingo – used bookshelf! It’s now an extension of my closet and dresser space. I swung by the Goodwill and snatched this up for the cool price of $3.99! I was hoping to find an old dresser that I could gut and refinish, but this thing is the perfect size and needs no work at all. Practically new. And for the price, I couldn’t say no.

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Holidays

Happy New Year!

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3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope you truly have a blessed year in 2015 and beyond. And a very fun and safe night tonight. Joe and I are still deciding how we want to ring in the new year, but I’m sure we’ll make it a memorable one 🙂 We hope you’ll hang around next year for some new adventures. Many surprises to come.

Here are some fun highlights from our blog. Click below if you’re curious and want to see the full infographic.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,300 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 55 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

What are YOU doing for New Year’s? And what are your resolutions?

Holidays, Home Entertainment, Just for fun

Up Northmas

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Walking in a winter wonderland

Winter Wonderland

Wow, what an excellent weekend we had away from everything. Joe’s family treated us to a few days up north at a cabin. We really enjoyed ourselves! Thanks again for such a great time 🙂 We’ll remember it forever. And we practically were the only people there!

The Rooms

upnorthmas cabin Nisswa Minnesota

We were digging the lofted ceiling and fireplace. So homey! Everything was beautiful.

bedroom cabin Nisswa MN

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Décor, Food, Holidays, Just for fun, Leah

Gingerbread House

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pretzel gingerbread house header

I absolutely love making gingerbread houses and try to build one every year! Last year I bought a kit, but after seeing this log cabin, I decided I should try making one myself! So I found a handy contractor and hired him and his cousin to help me out 🙂

At first, they were acting way too cool for such childish activities, but once I got started they kind of took over! The outcome wasn’t as picturesque as this, but there was joy in the process. And isn’t that what matters?

The Tools

I rounded up all the graham crackers, gumdrops, peppermint candies, hard candy, frosting, pretzel rods, and sprinkles I could find.

how to make a gingerbread house tools

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Engineering, Joe, Just for fun, Life Hack

Doggy Training

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Doggy Duty header

Well now that Joe is recovering from his triple wisdom tooth extraction surgery, (Oh you, didn’t hear about that? Yeah he was pretty miserable) he’s ready for a bunch of projects. Those are his words, not mine. Most people would be thrilled at the chance to take three days off work, lay on the couch and watch movies while eating ice cream. Ok, maybe not thrilled. It wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Nevertheless, he’s been going crazy not being able to do anything.

Here’s one of his ideas from last weekend: The Puppy Trainer 3000™

How to Train your Dragon Pooch

Shila is the best puppy ever, but she has a slight problem letting us know when she needs to go outside to do her business. So he thought that if she had some sort of bell system, she could let us know what she needs. She doesn’t really bark, so there’s no vocal cue. The ideas is, she rings the bell and we take her out.

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Crafts, Holidays

It’s Gonna be a Crafty Christmas

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it's gonna be a crafty Christmas header

Crafty Christmas

Looking for Christmas crafts this year? I’ve got some super simple ideas that you can whip up. Honestly, if I can make them, so can you. It’s always fun to give/receive a personalized gift. Bonus points if you make it. If that’s not your style, no big deal. But this post is for all the Christmas DIY’ers.

Coasters

I made coaters again, this time for my coworkers. I had to reference my tutorial from last year just to remember how. But they’re just like riding a bike – pretty simple to pick up again. I found these funny napkins at World Market last year.

Christmas crafts coasters

DIY coasters mod podge

Candles

I bought a few little candles and peeled the labels from them. I took some music paper and stamped the names of my friends on the paper, then cut them to the size of the labels. The jars were still sticky, so it was easy to stick the new labels on. The candles were less than $1 each. Then just added some twine bows!

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Crafts, Food, Holidays, Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving header

Giving Thanks

It’s that time of year again. The turkey, the touchdowns, the togetherness. Can you wait?! Well this year is probably not as crazy as last year, but I’m definitely looking forward to whatever tomorrow brings.

Got the urge to bake some cookies for the big T-Day tomorrow? I’ve got two super simple styles for you. They’re both sugar cookies so you don’t even need to use two bowls. How great is that?

owl and pumpkin pie cookie

Pumpkin Pies

A simple bowl will work for cutting out circles. Or if you own a triangle cookie cutter, even better for you! I just have a pizza cutter. And hey, you could even make Santa hats out of some of them!

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Uncategorized

Plastic Wrapping Windows

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tape 'n' tensile header image

 

It’s Tensile Time

No, not tinsel. (Although it’s almost tinsel season too!)TENSILE. That’s my new word of the week. It’s a measurement of how tense or resistant to stretching a thing is.

We needed some high-tensile sheathing tape for last weekend’s project. It’s basically really strong tape that can hold a lot of weight before breaking. This particular tape can withstand 28.3 pounds per inch. Pretty impressive for tape! It must have went to the gym. If you want to get all sciency, read more about it.

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Holidays, Just for fun, Uncategorized

Give to the Max Day

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give to the max day

Pssshhhh … beep boop beep …pshhh

 

I’d like to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this PSA.

Thursday, November 13th is Give to the Max Day. It’s a day where nonprofit organizations all over ask for your help. Whether or not you already give to a favorite charity, #GTMD is a day that we try to get everyone on board because we need all the help we can get! So I’m asking you to take a minute to think about charity.

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Fixes, Home Entertainment, Paint, Sewing, Space Efficiency

Spare Room Conversion

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spare room redo

Brown or Purple?

You be the judge. We really love this paint color, but everyone seems to have a different take on it. Depending on the lighting and time of day, it looks either brown or purple. Or both! For the record, it was in the brown section of Pittsburg Paint, but it must have some purple undertones.

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