Twenty-five of my favorite and most useful home and beauty Amazon products.  It's that magical time of year yet again, Amazon Prime Days! There are always some great deals, but I like to round up and share some of my favorites every year instead.  Last year I gathered 30 of my favorite Amazon items under $30. This year I decided to put together a list of my most useful finds from Amazon. I've been writing down my favorites for a few weeks now. I start my holiday shopping during Prime Days, and it's so nice to get some items off of my list early. Most of these items would make grea ..read more

Going from dark and moody to a light and bright space with paint! I absolutely LOVE a dark and moody room! Our cozy basement family room is a perfect example of how I like to color drench a space in a dark paint color.  One of my upcoming projects is to continue the pretty green color throughout my office to match the dark green bookcases I built. Cozy and deep colors are comforting to me. But lately I've been drawn to lightening up some spaces too! Earlier this year I updated our main bedroom with a bright white tongue and groove wall treatment and lighter decor accents. I LOVE how ..read more

No stress tips for starting and growing your own vegetable garden.  The thought of trying to grow our own food used to intimidate me until so many of you helpful readers gave me a bunch of tips years ago. Since then I have learned it really doesn't need to take much time or effort to grow your own garden! Even as a beginner, you'll get a wonderful harvest if you follow just a few simple steps.  I planted my first vegetable garden nearly 15 years ago, and since then I've had one in the ground many times over the years. Some years life has just been too busy to get it going, and it ..read more

Updates to our exterior that have added so much character to our home! We've made some updates to the exterior of our modern Craftsman home over the past couple of years that have made a BIG difference. It's about time I shared them with you!  Let's start with my favorite project. I've wanted to have this done since the day we moved in, and years later I finally made it happen.  I shared our garage doors a few years ago when I added some metal Craftsman hardware to the door trim:  src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsCuUgu0bmX9Re7T1vAFIPbZpfHGEyh ..read more

How to build a bar using upper wall cabinets.  This tutorial will take you step-by-step through our basement bar build made with wall cabinets as the base.  I'm so excited to share this DIY bar project with you! I had this in my head for years, and I finally finished it up recently. There's even a secret door. ;)  Last time I shared this space, I took you through the DIY steps to build this kitchenette in our basement:  More recently, I shared this fun wine cork wall around our dart board that I just love:  This post may contain affiliate links for ..read more

How to replace wire linen closet shelving with sturdy wood shelves.  This messy linen closet has been a thorn in my side for YEARS! I finally removed the wire shelves and replaced them with wood in this closet makeover.  Our upstairs linen closet is where we keep most of our linens for the house, since we use our downstairs linen closet for extras like paper towels, kitchen towels, toilet paper, etc.  Yes, we are so lucky to have tons of storage in our house! It just doesn't always function how we would like! :)  So let's finally fix that. I loathe wire shelves...but we ..read more

How to install tongue and groove shiplap on a wall.  Add character to your walls with this beautiful DIY vertical tongue and groove detail! As much as we've loved the darker, cozy feel of our bedroom, the colors I used when I first decorated it years ago have really restricted the accents I could use:  For the past year or so it has really bugged me -- I learned a while ago that not a lot of colors complement a dark gray.  I like to add seasonal touches like warmer, richer colors for fall. Or pops of red for the holidays. But nothing ever meshed well with the dark gray tones ..read more

Should trim paint or doors match the wall color? See what I do in our home! There's no wrong answer to this question! This is purely up to your preferences and how you want your room to feel and look in the end.  I've always loved the look of crisp, white trim against a dark wall color:  Get all the details of our blue and white floral hallway.   But over the years I've also become more attracted to painting trim (and even doors!) the same as the walls.  I knew I was in love when I painted our mantel and fireplace surround to match the rest of the fireplace w ..read more

Five ways to make your home feel warmer during the dark winter months. How I add soft ambient lighting around our home during the dreary winter days!  I actually quite like an occasional cloudy winter or rainy day. It's the perfect excuse to stay in comfy clothes, light a candle and turn on all of the soft lighting in the house.  But the dark winter months get to us all after a while.  I waited the longest I ever have to take down our Christmas trees this month. Especially the basement tree -- the twinkle lights were just so pretty and soothing. I wanted to leave it up forev ..read more

My favorite DIY projects from 2023 and my plans for this year! Well hello! I hope your holiday and new year were wonderful and relaxing! I'm SO excited to tackle a bunch of projects in our home this year, and I'll be sharing a few of those with you here.  But first, I wanted to look back at a few of my favorite DIYs from last year. Most of these aren't huge, in depth projects, but they look great and function really well for us.  You don't have to makeover an entire room to make an impact in your home! More often than not, I find that the smaller changes make the biggest differen ..read more