DIY Cooking at Home

Hi there! Soooo, do you share my frustration with the amount of JUNK that piles up on your kitchen counters? Here's what's currently on ours: yesterday's newspaper, mail, rolls of paper towels, school papers, a cell phone charger, a receipt, a few quarters, a McDonald's toy, a homemade crystal made from a science kit, some recyclables that need to be walked out to the bin, and an eraser from my daughter's art supply kit. It's so random, isn't it? Sometimes it's funny because the assortment of items is just so...weird. But most of the time I just grumble not-so-under-my-breath as I tidy up each and every day. Do you need more kitchen counter storage, too? Here are 2 projects I implemented that have helped a lot: DIY Cell Phone Charging Station Basement Door Command Center But despite these 2 systems, I still need help with kitchen counter clutter  from time to time, so I wrote this piece for About.com, and I'm sharing it with you! Kitchen Counte

Just call me Houdini. I recently turned an old house shutter into a lamp. Yep, that's right! So, here's the backstory: I picked up an old house shutter years ago at a junk shop simply because I liked the color and the patina, guessing I'd figure out something to do with it. Fast forward a couple of years, and I finally had an idea! The shutter has been leaning against an empty wall in our family room for quite some time, where it looked OK, but kinda purpose-less. I decided to make it useful by turning it into a light fixture. It was so easy. I found an old wall-mounted light fixture in our basement and that's what sparked the idea. First, my husband drilled a hole in the shutter and affixed the light's mounting plate just above it so the hole was really just a half-moon. This made the hole practically invisible once the lamp was hung. Then he attached the lamp. Then I, not happy with the stark white shade, covered it with some pretty cotton fabric from Jo-

Hi there! With the new year well underway, I thought I'd take a look back at last year to see what projects we've completed around here. Forgive the tooting of my own horn, but we got a lot of s%!# done! :) From major DIY projects--like our open kitchen shelving--to small handcrafted accessories, these are the projects I'm most proud of...the ones I still look at and think, "Hey, I/we did that!" So without further shameless self-promotion, here are my favorite DIY decor posts of 2015. Open Kitchen Shelving Anthropologie Knock-Off Terrarium DIY Drum Shade Lighting Fixture IKEA Hack: Leksvik Hutch Turned TV Cabinet Z Gallerie Knockoff: Ming Box Kitchen Island Bookcase Rain Boot Wreath Upgrading a Builder-Grade Home with Trim West Elm Knockoff: Linework Vases Glass Drink Coasters

Hey there! So did you see the cork board I installed ? Dudes, it was really ugly before I covered it with fabric. Check out my cork woes . And as much as I do like the finished product, I am a little sad I had to cover the clean, modern look of the cork itself. Here are some of the pretty cork walls I had in mind as my inspiration: Source Source Happily, I found a ton of cute cork accessories I can get for my office space that will satisfy my cork craving. Cork Home Accessories Here are some other home decor trends you may want to try: Agate Projects Concrete Projects

Well, hello there, happy Wednesday! I'm jumping on quick today to share these quick and easy Super Bowl appetizers with you, as well as some great tips for hosting a Super Bowl party! First, these simple but tasty mini tacos are perfect for game day and a cinch to prepare! You can even make them ahead of time and freeze them; I put them in our kids' lunches! Touchdown Taco Bites flour tortillas taco sauce black beans shredded cheddar Spray 2 mini muffin pans with non-stick spray. Set aside. Use a soup can to cut rounds out of your flour tortillas, then push the tortilla circles into each mini muffin cup. Put a dollop--about 1 tablespoon--of taco sauce into each muffin cup. Top with a spoonful of black beans and a sprinkling of cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Serve with salsa and sour cream. You can either place some of each on top of the taco bites after they've cooled, or serve the condiments on the side. Now that you

Hey, hey! So are you--like so many others--getting organized in 2016? I love this time of year. Hardly anything makes me happier than organizing. It's a sickness. So my latest organizing goal was my desk. You may recall that we turned a closet into a mini-office awhile back , and whoa. It's been a game changer. I spend hours upon hours in this space. But the small bulletin board I hung there wasn't cutting it. I really need a whole wall for my notes and reminders, so I decided to make a cork board wall. Cork is trendy. I thought it would look nice and modern. Wrong. It looked awful! I used rolls of cork and even though I bought the thickest they had, it kept tearing and I couldn't get the seams to lay flat no matter how hard I tried. Exhibit A and B... In hindsight, the cork tiles may have been easier, but there was still a lot of cutting around corners and stuff that would've made them hard to install. Painting my mess wouldn't have solved the