• farmhouse black kitchen mini makeover
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Mini Makeover One Year Later

    Do you know what I enjoy more than a room makeover reveal? Learning how that makeover is holding up over time. Instead of the pretty spaces, give me all of the hard-working, well-loved spaces that shine. Last January we did a Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen Mini Makeover that mainly involved staining the cabinets and changing the backsplash grout color in our kitchen.  To get the full impact of this kitchen mini makeover I need to take you on a quick trip down memory lane.  The below photo is how the Colonial Farmhouse Kitchen looked when we purchased the place in June 2019. I know I say this every time I show a before picture, but that…

  • marbled faux easter egg
    happy list

    Happy List: #206

    Hello and welcome to the Happy List! I hope the first week of spring has put a bounce in your step, the happy in your go lucky, and the cherry on top of your sundae. I’m feeling pretty good about it. This week on the blog I shared the before pictures of our upstairs bathroom. It will be better when we are done with it, but don’t expect a full makeover or anything. We don’t have plans to do anything with the blue shower right now besides hide it behind a curtain. I also shared my favorite new centerpiece filled with flowers! I hope you liked it too. If you…

  • flower basket centerpiece
    decorating

    Flower Basket Centerpiece

    A flower basket centerpiece is the one thing you didn’t know you needed in your life. I’m telling you, under the definition for joy it should say flower basket centerpiece because a basket overflowing with flowers radiates happiness.  Now, I know a few of you have an inner rebel that likes to come out and play ever so often. If you want to throw a little bit of rebellion in with your decorating projects then do what I did.  Find a basket that you’ve put in the trunk of your car to take to the donation center. Break your cardinal rule and bring that item slated for donation back into your house. Squash the…

  • colonial farmhouse upstairs bathroom before
    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse Upstairs Bathroom Before

    Our Colonial Farmhouse upstairs bathroom has remain untouched since the day we moved in. In many ways, this upstairs bathroom has likely remained untouched for at least half a century.  It is a bathroom time capsule! We all know in every time capsule there is something tucked inside that makes you say, “Why was that put in there?” All the things in this time capsule make me say that.  After almost two years of living in the Colonial Farmhouse, I’m finally ready to give this upstairs bathroom a small update.  Here’s a taste of how the upstairs bathroom looks in all its “before” glory. Hmm…was taste the wrong word to use for a sentence about…

  • burlap pot of gold
    happy list

    Happy List: #205

    Hello and welcome to this week’s Happy List! March sure is flying by, isn’t it?  Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? We always do something small to mark the day, but we do miss being able to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in person with our friends in Ireland. When we moved to Ireland (we were there two years), my kids were dismayed to realize that Lucky Charms cereal was not an Irish thing. One of the grocery stores I shopped at did import it from time to time. It was stocked in the sweets aisle and a box cost between $8 and $10! I didn’t buy it.  This week on the blog was…

  • st. patrick's day bands of ireland presents play on for 2021
    holidays

    St. Patrick’s Day and the Kindness of the Irish

    You can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day from home today by joining Dublin’s virtual celebration. It might not be as exciting as celebrating St. Patrick’s Day along the banks of the River Liffey with hundreds of thousands of other people (did that twice!), but it will be safe!  The best part of Ireland is, BY FAR, the Irish people. Since many of you were not blog readers when we moved to Ireland for Handy Husband’s work, I thought I’d re-share the dramatic and funny story of how I left the U.S. and flew to Dublin with the kids in tow. Here you go…Our first week in Ireland has been a WHIRLWIND. Apparently, the motto…

  • watercolor wood eggs
    Crafts,  holidays

    Watercolor Wood Easter Eggs

    Did you like dyeing Easter Eggs as a kid? I sure did! I’ve come up with the adult version of this in the form of Watercolor Wood Easter Eggs and the best part is they won’t turn rotten will last for years to come. Get ready to channel your inner artistic kid because this Easter craft is so satisfying!   Best of all, there’s no right or wrong for making Watercolor Wood Easter Eggs. You want to mix colors? Do it. You want to super saturate the colors? Do it. You want to make a huge mess while coloring eggs? Do it…BUT! You’re going to have to clean that up yourself because your mama isn’t going to…

  • purple tulips in basket on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #204

    Welcome to the Happy List! For most of us in the U.S., we get to move the clocks ahead this weekend. That means more daylight in the evening and I am here for it!  This week I shared my Board Game Coasters and my hack for adding brass leg tips to furniture! If you missed those posts, I’ll wait right here while you catch up.  If you aren’t following along with us on Instagram or Facebook, that’s where all the spontaneous projects occur! Last weekend a boring wallpaper removal project quickly spiraled into us finding out that we have a brick exterior wall…or at least a partial brick exterior wall.  Now, here is the…

  • diy wood stool with brass leg tips
    decorating,  DIY

    DIY Wood Stool With Brass Leg Tips

    I have the best furniture hack to share with you today on how to DIY a wood stool with brass leg tips. This is going to be a semi-handmade DIY project. Those are one of my favorite type of projects because not everything needs to be created from scratch. Better yet, no power tools were used in this project. Shocking, I know! I started with a pair of unfinished 18-inch wood stools. This is my first time purchasing unfinished furniture and this is what arrived – a total blank slate.  The wood stools received two coats of black stain with poly. I just happened to have a can of black stain with poly mixed in, so…

  • DIY board game coasters
    Crafts

    Board Game Coasters

    Need a cool way to repurpose old board games? Turn them into board game coasters! We probably all have at least one board game that is missing pieces for whatever reason. I’m blaming the kids or maybe the vacuum. Either way, it’s hard to play a board game that’s missing pieces and it’s not helpful to donate a board game that is missing pieces.  It also feels really terrible to even think about throwing one away. I don’t need that type of guilt in my life!  Instead of throwing that board game away, turn the actual game board into coasters. The board game coasters you’ll be making won’t last forever since they are a paper…