Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
Here’s my big flea market find from last weekend in Hayward, WI. I’m pretty pleased with these beauts! This past weekend Joe, my parents and I were visiting my Grandparents’ cabin and we took a trip to a giant Monday-only flea market. I instantly fell in love with these glass orbs and thought of a few uses for them:
Alright, this project has been on my dream wish list of house projects since before we even moved in. I figured we could tackle this in a day, and it didn’t even take that long. Honestly, it was so easy. This took me two hours, tops.
One of Joe’s New Year’s resolutions is to get organized, and I was pleased to hear that! I can definitely help with that one. (His other resolution is get his six pack back – I can probably help with that one too.) Sorry Joe, for outting your two resolutions. Consider it public accountability. You can thank me later. 🙂
We hope you are enjoying the holidays and are looking forward to a great 2016. I’m definitely enjoying some down time – keeping all the Christmas lights on for a few more days and polishing off a few leftover cookies.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what my 2016 goals/resolutions will be, and I keep coming back to one word: Abundance. I like to choose a theme or word instead of a traditional resolution to focus on throughout the year, and this year I want to embrace the abundance that comes my way. Remembering that there will always be enough time, always be enough money; the things I sometimes feel lacking in. Shifting a scarcity mindset to one of abundance, trusting in myself and God’s provision and plans. This can be hard and scary, but I’m so excited to see where 2016 takes us and the gifts it brings into our lives!
It’s been a great year for us with many firsts, new traditions, new memories, new friends, old friends, family, and lots of love. And of course, challenges too. But I think I really did my word from last year justice: Celebrate. We’re so grateful for the blessings this year has brought. Now, on to a year of abundance.
These site stats are super interesting to me, and I thought you might like them too. If there’s anything you would like to see more of next year, please let us know! It’s really nice to hear from people and which types of projects are most inspirational/helpful to you. We have a boatload of projects backlogged that I’ll be posting, and some new construction sites in the house as well. It’s hard to keep up with Joe!
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,500 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people
Click here to see the complete report.
A couple weeks ago, Joe and I took a few days off work for our very first staycation. I’ve got to say, it was really exciting! We hardly told anyone where we were going – I know, it’s pretty anticlimactic when you realize our big getaway vacation was actually… nowhere. But to us, it was our time to truly enjoy the house for the first time between moving in, work, and a summer of nonstop commitments.
I sincerely hope you didn’t give up sweets for Lent, because I have a bunch of chocolate recipes to share. There’s an amazing new truffle place in the skyway where I work called Legacy Chocolates. Ah.Maz.Ing. At $3 a piece, they are worth every cent. They make 99% dark cocoa truffles, and experiment with new flavors each week. What’s not to love, right? The trouble is, I was becoming a regular. For a couple months, I would get a truffle every week. So I thought, hmmm I could totally make something like this.
I found this recipe for truffles on Pinterest, and it spoke to me:
Guilt-free chocolate truffles: “Greek yogurt chocolate truffles. Great recipes for fitness lovers with a sweet tooth.” From MayIHaveThisRecipe.com.
I think this post is actually my New Year’s Resolution coming together. I like to take my time with these things. 🙂 “Celebrate” is definitely my word for 2015.
Let’s take a step back for a second. We live in such a crazy world at a crazy pace that we rarely celebrate our accomplishments along the way. Who has the time to stop and celebrate? If you’re like me, you’re probably your own biggest critic. I don’t take time to sit back and look at all the things that have gone right. Always looking forward, I find myself cruising right through the good stuff.
My initial thoughts around my New Year’s Resolutions were this: To not be so hard on myself and others. To give myself a little grace. And by extension, others around me. I think that resolution has expanded a little bit…
Two out of three ain’t so bad for a Minnesota winter. We’re still pretty sad that Steve and Shila Bear moved out, but on the bright side, there’s a new room in Joe’s house. What was once a porch addition, because a four-season bedroom. Now it’s restored to a four-season porch! Or “sun room” as we’ve been affectionately calling it.
Come take a peek inside!
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?
I rounded up all the graham crackers, gumdrops, peppermint candies, hard candy, frosting, pretzel rods, and sprinkles I could find.
I’m surprised I didn’t post anything about Halloween costume-making last year. But by now I have two years’ worth of costume concocting photos. Mwa Ha Ha. Would you rather buy your costume or make one? Or maybe you have a tried and true go-to that you wear annually. (I wore my pirate costume 3 years straight. I was in a pirate phase.) I’m definitely a fan of making something out of existing clothes or thrift finds.