DIY Cooking at Home

Happy New Year! I love this time of year almost as much as Christmas. Surfaces free of all the holiday decorations, floors cleared of pine needles and glitter, and a new day planner just filled with possibilities...it's a blank, white canvas that matches the snow-blanketed ground outside. I feel filled with possibilities and am really excited about my plans for this little blog of mine. But at the same time, I'm a bit fearful, too. Here's the story: If you follow me here at Home Made Modern you know our family transitioned to being fully supported by our new business a couple of years ago. Wow. It's been a roller coaster ride ever since. If any of you are self-employed, you know just how we feel. Last year, I began to fully commit to making Home Made Modern a brand, and had high hopes for helping to contribute to our family's income; I really wanted to alleviate some of the pressure from my husband. While I did make strides, and the income I made paid for ...

Unfortunately, my birthday cupcake wouldn't hold as many candles as it needed to be an accurate representation of how old I am today, but a birthday cupcake I did have, with my two favorite girls in tow. If I may be so (ehem) humble...I'm going to honor my old-ness with a post containing blogging tips for those of you just getting started on this online adventure. I don't profess to be an expert on blogging, but I have learned a few things. Admittedly, my learning curve is a bit steep, but nevertheless Home Made Modern has made a few strides this year. I've gained some more followers, been featured on some amazingly successful and drool-worthy blogs such as Teal & Lime , Better After , and Tatertots & Jello , and have increased my traffic quite a bit. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goals, though, so here are some tips and tools I'm going to continue using or put into practice for the first time to make this next year my best blogging-ye...

I have Wren over at For the Love of Lillian to thank for this little tidbit. She was kind enough to nominate Home Made Modern for a Liebster Award. Ever heard of it? Apparently, "liebster" means "dearest" in German; the award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers as a means to give encouragement and kudos to the authors of said blogs. Can I just say, this couldn't have come at a better time? I've been striving to gain more followers for quite awhile now, and though I love blogging just for the creative outlet itself, I'm often frustrated by how hard it seems to be to get people to read it since I would love to turn it into a money-maker some day. I figure, I take time away from my family to devote to blogging...it would be nice to for blogging to give back to my family in some way. Anyway, I checked out For the Love of Lillian , and it is so well-written and full of love and intention that I plan on making Wren's blog a part of my reg...

Warning Signs You Might Be a DIY Addict : You start thinking "I could make this" before even looking at the price tag, only to realize once you have finished that you spent more on supplies than if you had just bought the thing. You have experienced one or both of these conditions: a tingling, numb feeling in your index finger from spray painting and an absence of fingerprints because you've burnt your fingertips so many times on the dumb glue gun. Your personal hygeine has taken a back seat. Your dining room table resembles the clearance rack at Michael's. Rather than clear it off, you just eat somewhere else. You've seriously considered outsourcing the house cleaning so you'll have more time for your "projects." Your last dream starred John and Sherry and something about chevron. You know who John and Sherry are. Your Christmas wish list contains items like a mitre saw and quarts of Annie Sloan chalk paint. You want a better camera--not for takin...

Hi everyone! So I'm back at ya today with the 411 on how to make a storyboard. You've seen these all over DIY style blogs, I'm sure. I think they're a pretty useful tool myself, and had been utilizing the process for awhile before I knew they were called storyboards or mood boards. In fact, they're really just a digital collection of clippings. So instead of keeping a ton of ripped-out magazine and catalog pages, you could do this. I actually do both. As I mentioned earlier , I just use good 'ol Microsoft Word to create my storyboards. Here's my process... Open a blank Word document. Select the View tab, then Print Layout. This will allow you to view the storyboard as a whole and eliminate the need to keep scrolling down and over. Choose the Insert tab and select Shapes. Choose the rectangle shape, then click and drag a rectangle to fill the page. Choose Shape Fill and select the color that most closely resembles the color you want for your walls. ...