This week’s craft project made me nervous, I won’t lie. For the past six weeks I’ve enjoyed quick, simple crafts like making a fall wreath, stenciling a pillow, painting baskets, decorating pumpkins and gourds, creating vacation keepsake globes, and trying ceramic paint on a bowl full of colorful cacti. Those projects typically took under an … Read more

Last week during the blogiversary celebration, readers asked for more quick and inexpensive projects—especially ones renters and homeowners can finish in under an hour. Here’s a charming under-$10 idea that literally took me ten minutes to assemble. There’s a hidden little story in the arrangement: one tall key, one medium key, and two small keys—one … Read more

Sometimes one oversized junk drawer is far harder to navigate than two smaller, better-organized drawers. That’s why I decided to empty our increasingly chaotic double-wide junk drawer and redistribute everything into some empty drawers on the other side of the kitchen, near the office. It makes sense — we use most of these items in … Read more

Each month we like to brighten the house with an inexpensive—sometimes free—bouquet to keep things feeling fresh. That idea started with a thoughtful Christmas gift from the hubs, but this month we got especially lucky. During a photo shoot earlier today the prop stylist brought a cooler full of flowers; many stems went unused when … Read more

Jingle bells! Batman smells! Robin laid an egg. Batmobile lost a wheel and Joker did ballet. What, you didn’t sing that at camp while wearing culottes and a tie-dyed shirt? I did. In any case, I hung the stockings and added a few extra decorations beyond just putting up the tree — knowing we’ll be … Read more

By now you’ve probably heard how much we adore the results of painting our brick house white last fall. It stands out as one of our favorite transformations in thirteen years of homeownership. If you’re considering a similar change, we want to share what we learned, some helpful advice, and a few spring photos—this is … Read more

If you’ve read the older post referenced here, you already know part of this story. For everyone else, here’s the whole thing. Back in 2007, right before we got married and long before this blog existed, my parents gave us a tiny Japanese maple. It started as a 24″ offshoot near the big maple in … Read more

A newly tiled floor in a fresh room almost makes me do jazz hands (Sherry reaches that level of enthusiasm for a York peppermint patty, so clearly our thresholds differ). We absolutely love this new laundry room floor — and there’s a whole new romance in our house that involves a saw — so here’s … Read more

You may have noticed a bouquet in the middle of the table at Clara’s party two weeks ago. Not all of those blooms survived, unfortunately: However, a few stems are still fresh, so I placed them in three of my favorite Ikea vases for a simple, cheerful display: Yes, I put them on the bathroom … Read more

Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions on the beginnings of our pantry project. We had lots of ideas to consider, but first up was clearing everything out — even removing the door — so we could prime and paint the space. After talking it over, we decided not to put the trash can back … Read more