Dinner time, two ways — Fresh ideas for meal planning

Jen and I were exchanging ideas about making life easier the other day and realized that we have dramatically opposed notions about meal planning. What sounds efficient to her sounds draconian to me, and I’m sure my structure-less “plan” sounds like a recipe for chaos (or at least takeout) to her. So we decided to […]

How to create a cool tween boy’s bedroom

When my older son was five and I was pregnant with his brother, we moved him out of the nursery and into his first big boy room. He requested an “outer space” room, and I loved making his ideas a reality. Owen thought we should paint the room black — including the ceiling, of course. […]

Five new ideas for my urban vegetable garden

It’s March in Minnesota, and that means . . . blizzards, and ice, and windchill. Not always, but at least this year. It’s no wonder, then, that as the garden catalogs start showing up in my mailbox while the snow keeps coming and coming, I start scouring gardening boards on Pinterest and mapping out my […]

How to dye chair cushions using iDye

Will dying my chair cushions leave me gloating with success or shame-faced with failure? Read on to learn more how about the dye chair cushions using iDye. I don’t even want to tell you how many hours I spent thinking about what kind of chair to get for the nursery.  Rockers, gliders, new, used, ugly, […]

How to make a modern nursery mobile

I never made a mobile for Beatrice — it was one of those things like eating organic that I assumed of course I’d do before I got pregnant that I never got around to once I was actually pregnant. So Baby #2, you are winning in the mobile department! Take that, second child syndrome. I […]

How to make modern wooden blocks

A LONG time ago, back in mid-May, I posted a teaser photo of a project I was working on. Well friends, I am finally done.I’ve actually been done for a month or two, but as making these modern wooden blocks has been a study in procrastination, that is right on schedule. I bought this tub […]

Preparing for baby #2: nursery ideas

Have I mentioned we live in a small house? It’s one of those 1940s one-and-a-half story houses, where the top story is one long bedroom with slanted walls on either side. On main floor we have a small kitchen, a living room/dining room combo, a bathroom (the only one), a decent sized bedroom, a teeny […]

How to make homemade cleaning supplies

If you spend any time at all on Pinterest, it won’t be long before you are seized with the desire to paint constellations on your fingernails or spray paint half your furniture high-gloss lime green or, in the case of my springtime Pinterest obsession, make homemade cleaning supplies. But it wasn’t just Pinterest that led […]