Good morning! Well the acorns have dropped, all the leaves are turning and Friday we have a temperature high of… 80?Yup, 80, well that’s nice because all of my tomatoes are still green!! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

This is a wood working tutorial on how I built a “faux” mantel and floating shelf beneath our flat screen television to hide those ugly cords. When I ran the electrical for this house I almost put two holes in the wall so we could run the cords behind the sheet rock however, we didn’t own this television at the time and I really didn’t want to put them in the wrong place! And it turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t because this tv would have required two separate holes – one for the power cord and one a mile away where the majority of our electronics get plugged in. Which means that for the past two years of living here those cords have been driving me crazy! Read the rest of the post »

Preparing for harvest, fall and winter at our little farm in northern MN. It has officially begun, the leaves are turning, the air has a bite to it (though on Tuesday it was 87 degrees) and my horses are getting the fuzzy look of teddy bears. My husband has been preparing for this time of year since spring, clearing out and planting food plots, finding the perfect places for his deer stands and putting out game cameras. He is happier right now then he is at any other time of the year! Read the rest of the post »

Hey all, how are your fall projects getting along? We’ve fortunately had some really lovely weather which we so totally deserved after such a cold and rainy August! So Joe and I are busy splitting and stacking firewood and I’m scrambling to get a whole bunch of outside projects done before the weather turns. This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

How to build a simple console table for behind your sofa, with plugin added for easy phone charging! Joe and I are probably a lot like most couples right now where we admittedly spend a certain amount of time on our phones, in front of the tv, after work, every day. So I’m currently limping along a 3 year old Motorolla whose battery life leaves a lot to be desired. So, inevitably, I have to run upstairs, get my phone charger and plug it in wherever I’m sitting which usually means having to move the sofa or an end table out so I can reach an outlet. I’ve been thinking a console table would be the ticket to make for easier charging but also to create a little area for display as well so I got to work! Read the rest of the post »

Our second year wedding anniversary came and went on September 5th and Joe and I took the opportunity to attend one last summer festival. Though I was born and raised here there are still many festivals and celebrations within 100 miles of us that remain on my bucket list. As locals I think we all kind of avoid them (some consciously others unconsciously) because we get so tired of the incredible amount of people that hit our area so hard on the summer weekends. I’ve asked, “What are you doing this weekend?” and the answer has been, more then once, “I’m going home and I’m staying there!” lol, I’ve also given that answer plenty of times! Read the rest of the post »

It so sad to see Labor day come and go! Up here in northern MN this weekend is considered the official end of summer 🙁 Here’s to opening for a long warm fall! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

Time Saving Blogging Tips! This post is about how I get my blog posts done ahead of time and the WordPress plugin and other sites that I use to make my blog as automatic as possible. Since I started posting 3 times a week (nearly 2 years ago now) I have only once ever missed my schedule and that was due to the death of my dog. I take my Monday, Wednesday and Friday posts extremely seriously. However, that doesn’t mean I like living right besides a dead line. I spent the first few months with that schedule ALWAYS under so much pressure! Until, of course, I figured out how to get ahead but not just with upcoming posts but, also, with everything else that goes into blogging! Read the rest of the post »

A post about my fall vignette in collaboration with six other DIY bloggers: Farmhouse Hens Decorate! I will admit when our first project was announced as a Fall Vignette my immediate thought was, “What’s a vignette?” then I looked it up and my next thought was that I wanted really badly to make a lovely sign just for this project! My mod podge image transfer project did not, admittedly, come out exactly like I had hoped, however, I think it is still quite cool and adds some character to the whole display. I also knew immediately where I wanted my Vignette to be: in our entry way beneath my grandparents’ old mirror! After that it was just a case of getting creative! Read the rest of the post »

Our hearts and thoughts are with our co-host Stephanie this week, she lives in Texas and has been facing Hurricane Harvey. Let’s let her know that we’re thinking of her, her family and everyone effected by this crazy weather! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

How to use mod podge to transfer a laserjet printed image on to wood. Some folks would say that I’m crafty and I do crafty things all of the time and that this is a “craft” blog… but that’s just not true. I am so far from crafty it isn’t even funny, I’m terribly UN-crafty, totally “craft-inhibited” actually. Give me a power tool and let me build something but please don’t ask me to make something small and cute that requires a glue gun or free hand painting or any kind of creative dexterity at all. I will fail totally. In fact, I do believe that I am craft-impaired… But when the dead line for my Farmhouse Hen’s Fall Vignette started looming into view it was time to put on my big girl panties and order some mod podge… Read the rest of the post »

Ever heard the term “Winter is coming.”? Well, before George RR Martin wrote Game of Thrones and it got made into a tv show, Minnesotan’s had been saying it FOREVER and with the same dark, brooding and depressed tone. Fall is really on its way and here in northern MN we’ve been experiencing a cold snap that was only supposed to last the first week or two of August… Well, it just keeps on going and I think we’re all watching the forecast getting more and more gloomy. It is still nice here, really we can’t complain, but I do believe our swimming, tubing and lake days are basically done. With temperatures dropping down in the 50s and 40s at night, even with highs in the 70s, our summer activities are rapidly coming to a close. Read the rest of the post »

Ohmygoodness we’ve hit our 50th link party! Fifty weeks of fabulous DIY recipes and countless wonderful crafts, thank you all so much for continuing to share with us! We’ve been (rather unhappily) wrapped up in a cold snap that was only supposed to last a couple of weeks… We’ve been busy gathering chopping, splitting and stacking firewood for winter and I’ve been scrambling to get as much done outside as I can! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

Many of you have probably already drawn the impression that I’m a little bit of a health nut (and also a smoker which I am aware makes me the ultimate oxymoron…) What bothers me terribly is that oftentimes the healthier choice for our families is usually a lot more expensive and, sometimes, simply not at all affordable. There is so much fear mongering in our media that we’ve become totally numb to headlines, “Coconut oil can save you from cancer!” “Man dies on the clean eating diet!” “New superfood, eat a pound every day to become immortal!” “Toxins in sun screen causing skin cancer!” “Wear sun screen or get skin cancer!” And it goes on and on and on. It is totally the boy that called wolf and the general consensus now is: “Everything is bad for us so I’m not going to bother changing how I’m eating or what I’m buying!” Which is totally understandable but also just awful. Read the rest of the post »

It is no secret for those of you have been following along here with me that August is my very favorite month. Every year I just can’t help but write a post about it. August is the month Joe first drove up my driveway, the month of his birthday and it has always been my favorite month to live in northern Minnesota. It is usually hot, dry and, truly, the dog days of summer here. August is accompanied by the starting fade of daylight (being this far north it becomes obvious this time of year that winter is REALLY coming) the shorter days are usually accompanied by cooler nights and long afternoon shadows. Read the rest of the post »

This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

A post about how I am now making my own homemade lip balm! I used to put on some kind of chap stick or lip balm every night before bed but managed to break myself of the habit when I realized the commercial (chemical laden) products I was using were actually making my lips more chapped! Since then I keep a product called Mela-Gel on my night stand for really bad chapped lips (winters here in northern MN can be brutal) and it also works incredible on bug bites, burns and pretty much anything you can put it on that needs healing… But I wanted regular chap stick of my own to carry with me. Read the rest of the post »

I want to build an outhouse. Ok, bare with me on this one because I swear I’m really not quite as weird as that makes me sound! Joe and I had the incredible pleasure of visiting some off the grid friends of ours last weekend to see their grounds. Oh. My. Goodness. The gardens, the flowers, the squash growing on the roof of their home (with a sauna built right in the middle of it!) the several sweet little screened in porches/guest homes/summer lounges complete with their own little wood stoves and the wood storage *SWOONS* I was in absolute Heaven! It was SO amazing and then I went to use their outhouse (they have indoor plumbing but use their outhouse most of the time to save on electricity) and I knew it was the first of a long list of things that these folks had built that I wanted! Read the rest of the post »

Hi guys! How has your August been treating you? I’m tackling a bunch of project for this coming fall on the blog, this week Joe and I are heading for the lumberyard so I can pick up the last two screen doors for the house and enough material to build two sun loungers, an end table and a wrap around bench for our deck! No to mention, we’re finally going to get our deck rails completed too! Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

A post on how I built a base for a barn door table for outdoor entertaining on our deck! Many times I’ve gone out to our old barn (my grandparents’ old wood working shop) and grabbed something and stashed it somewhere safe for a future project. This barn door was one of those stashes! At first, I had planned on building a base that included shelves, storage and castors for my workshop in the basement. But, the more I worked down there (now that its finally semi-complete!) the more I realized that this big old barn door was just too big for that space! Read the rest of the post »

I am so excited to be a part of a brand new collaborative group called Farmhouse Hens Decorate! There’s six of us DIY bloggers all together and the very first Friday of every month for the next four months we’re going to be sharing some of our farmhouse inspiration! From the kitchen, to the wall, to embracing fall and even making Christmas ornaments (oh gosh did I really just mention Christmas?! Summer is going by so fast!) It is really going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get started. Read the rest of the post »

I just can’t believe summer is already half over! If you’re like us then you’ve seen a whole lot of serious hot temperatures and not nearly enough rain. Regardless though, I always love summer and hate to see it slipping away… Joe reminded me that we were sitting in our yard in November last year at 71 degrees here’s to hoping for that again! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

I’m rather surprised at myself for being able to write a post even mentioning kitchen appliances because, honestly, I’m not that big of a fan. Seems to me that most (if not all of us!) have at least one or two random gadgets collecting dust in a closet somewhere! Just about every time I’ve either asked (for xmas etc) or purchased an appliance for myself I’ve always brought them home crossing my fingers that it will be something worth the price and the space it takes up on our counter top! So, these are the four I never regretted for a moment that work hard for us almost every single day we’ve had them! Read the rest of the post »

As always, around this time of the year, I look up and wonder where the heck summer went. It has been incredibly hot here with not nearly enough rain and, in testament to that, we are now raising several hundred tad poles in our horses’ water trough! (I can’t for the life of me get a good picture of them but I will keep trying.) It turns out that this happening on dry years is not at all uncommon. They’ve been in there for about four weeks now and are just starting to grow little legs. This spring I had told Joe I wanted to add fish to our water tank to help keep it clean and mother nature took care of it for me! Those little tad poles are keeping all the algae down with vigor and eating any mosquito larva in there too! Read the rest of the post »

I just can’t believe summer is already half over! If you’re like us then you’ve seen a whole lot of serious hot temperatures and not nearly enough rain. Regardless though, I always love summer and hate to see it slipping away… Joe reminded me that we were sitting in our yard in November last year at 71 degrees here’s to hoping for that again! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

This is a post all about my homemade recipe for grease-fighting liquid dish soap! I have a confession to make, even though I said I had replaced all of our household cleaners with our own homemade there was one I just hadn’t tackled yet: Liquid Dish Soap. So, what have I been using to wash our dishes by hand with in the meanwhile? Well, I’ve literally just been dumping some of my homemade dry Dishwasher Detergent in the sink and scrubbing with everything I’ve got. It was actually working all right but I really wanted something for “real” that would have some “soapiness” to it etc. So, I got to searching and experimenting and FINALLY I landed on one that works great for us! Read the rest of the post »

They’re voting right now on the best Home Improvement blog over on Renoviso and I am SO excited to see Grandma’s House DIY on the list. There are some really fabulous blogs on there – make sure and go vote for your favorite! Now, on to the free house plan: I love the decks on this plan! And there’s even a little nook right where you walk from the garage to the house that provides cover from weather and some really great storage. Being a person that heats with wood myself I just drool over that much outside storage so close to home! Of course, this home has a great fire place in the middle of the living room. Despite that this place is less then 1,100 square feet I think it feels spacious and remarkably still private. (I hate those house designs that have the bedroom doors facing each other: its like EEK!) In this plan I managed to give each of the two bedrooms their own real space and bathroom. Read the rest of the post »

Hey everybody! I hope you’re having a great summer so far! This link party is all about homemade, homemaking, DIY, recycling, upcycling, before and afters (of rooms, furniture, whatever), build projects, vintage, any kind of creative, frugal, time saving, money saving or green advice, canning and old fashioned recipes. Going back to simpler times, simpler days where we used all that we had and never bought new until there was absolutely no choice. Read the rest of the post »

After building my mom a tall garden planter for vegetables and strawberries my aunt asked if I could build her one too. Seriously though I can’t blame her: this is a really great idea and everyone should have at least one of these! My mom’s garden only needed to be weeded once or twice all summer lol I’m wondering why I thought I needed to put in a big “normal” garden and didn’t just build myself three of these… Anyway, my aunt had a couple of requests: It needed to be a little smaller then my mom’s so it would fit nice in a specific place on her deck and she also wanted it to be on wheels so she could move it under her house eaves in the winter time or during bad weather. So, I got to the drawing board! Read the rest of the post »

Summer projects I can’t wait to build for us outside and out on our deck! Some DIYs and things just have to wait for some nice weather not only for us to enjoy them but for us to build them as well. Goodness knows I always have a summer project list in the spring that’s as long as my arm. There is just something about stretching out in my garage with a breeze, a little music, loving a summer day while building something for us to enjoy for years to come. Not that I don’t love my basement workshop its just that by the end of winter there isn’t anything better then being able to do something outside! So, of course, I have hundreds of build projects I’ve spotted online that I just drool over day after day. Here are a few summer projects via Pinterest that can’t wait to build Read the rest of the post »