• 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…

  • red mill museum clinton new jersey february 2021
    happy list

    Happy List: #203

    Welcome to this week’s Happy List. Whether you are a regular reader or new to this blog, I am glad you are here. This week on the ol’ blog I shared a wood bowl makeover. A little bit of sanding goes a long way toward updating wood thrift store bowls. I also shared an easy St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece that you can enjoy the entire month of March because it won’t go bad! Once again, here is my shameless plug for you to join me on Instagram or Facebook. I love to connect with you here and there. Please keep in mind that I’m better about responding to Instagram messages over Facebook…

  • st patrick's day table decor irish flag centerpiece
    Crafts,  holidays

    Simple St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece

    St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and if you are celebrating at home this year, I have a simple St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece idea for you. All you need for this St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece are some mini Irish flags, clear glass vase(s), rice, and lentils. To make this St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece your are going to put mini Irish flags into clear vases or milk bottles filled with dried goods in the color of the Irish flag. The Irish flag is in color order green, white, and orange. For this example I’ve filled the vase with green mung beans, white rice, and orange lentils. Dried split peas…

  • wood bowl makeover
    Crafts,  decorating

    Wood Bowl Makeover

    Keep an eye out for cheap wood bowls at thrift stores because with a quick wood bowl makeover you’ll have something that looks like a million bucks. I should say quick-ish makeover. Time is all relative, but this wood bowl makeover should take less than an hour. All you need is a wood bowl with a terrible finish and a sander. I found this wavy, wood bowl at the thrift store for $1. It makes me ridiculously excited that I can still find things for a buck. I was relatively confident that a pretty wood grain was hiding underneath that heavily-glazed, orange finish. All I needed to do was sand…