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Are you ready for a home decor project that is so simple it doesn't really need a tutorial?! This metal pipe and string light statement light fixture will do nicely! 

In December, we picked up this string of lights in Ikea's clearance section. They were marketed as Christmas lights, but we thought they were classic enough to use any time of the year. There are lots of these kinds of lights on the market so you shouldn't have to wait until Ikea has a sale to get a set. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.

A while back I turned my office closet into an audio recording booth. It's been great to have the mic setup and ready to go when I need to record narration for our videos. Even with the recording setup I still had a little space left in the closet for storage. I've been storing plastic bins on the side, one on top of the other.

It worked for a while, but I got tired of having to move each bin, especially when I need to get to the bottom one. I decided to build some simple shelves to hold the bins and keep them out of the way when recording.

Here’s the plan I came up with. I made three shelves, but I might add one more in the future.

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This post is sponsored by our favorite, The Home Depot!

​There is nothing more frustrating when crafting or making than knowing you have what you need, but you can’t find it! I read a quote once that stated “if you can’t find it, you don’t own it!” I think of that often when I can’t find something and have to buy again in order to start or finish a project. 

Although we have lots of craft/maker supplies for Mother Daughter Projects stored at Steph’s house, they were becoming more and more inaccessible due to lack of organized storage. Over Christmas Steph decided she had had enough of the mess and started to digitally put together an idea to install an organizational system into the closet in her Lego room. The closet we are working with is 86" wide x 96" tall x 23" deep. 

Seeing that everything we wanted to use was from The Home Depot, we reached out to them to see if they wanted to partner with us on the project. We felt it had universal appeal to others like us who wanted to buy and install pre-made components to get the job done fast! 

We are calling this a semi-DIY because we are not actually building anything. With the exception of cutting a few pieces of closet rod, all the other components are ready to be installed and come with all their parts to get the install done.

​Please watch the video above to see how it came together, and get more details below!

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Recently, with Steph’s help and the help of a few volunteers, we planned and hosted a craft night for women at my church. A search of Pinterest and a picture on Facebook provided the inspiration for our Valentine’s Day craft. I’ll provide some tips at the end of the post for planning a craft night for a group. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Paslode brad nailer used in this post.

A gift from a friend of eight old worn card catalogue drawer fronts inspired this project. Another friend suggested we make shelves with them, so that’s what we did! The floating shelves were not initially designed to have a secret storage space, but towards the end of the build we realized we had the perfect opportunity to build in a secret compartment. Ours will hold a secret stash of candy!

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Every time we go to a local restaurant here in Tallahassee Florida, I notice something. I always notice the really large canvas artwork they have on the wall and the very simple frame around it. I quickly determined a way to mimic the look with simple materials from the hardware store. Well, two weeks ago, I made a piece of artwork and thought, hey, I have the perfect frame idea for that! Take a look at how it all came together for under $10.

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the mechanics tool set and inspection scope used in this post.

When Steph moved into her home four years ago she needed some display shelves for her growing collection of Lego sets. We put up a couple of pre-made shelves using white brackets. They solved the storage problem but were not attractive by any stretch of the imagination. Fast forward a few years; Steph was ready for something a little more stylish to replace them!

The step-like design stretches 9 feet long against the wall and is 3 feet high and provides lots of storage for small and large Lego sets. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.

As part of The Home Depot ProSpective campaign (May 2017- 2018) we have been receiving a variety of tools to use and review. A lot of the tools and their function are new to us. It’s been fun and educational to see the different tools available to pros and DIYers and how to use them. We were sent the Makita Brushless Cordless Angle Grinder to review and found that, although it is marketed as a pro tool, it does have value to the home DIYer.

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. 

​As part of the Home Depot ProSpective campaign, we get sent some neat tools to try out. One of those tools this quarter is the Makita Brushless Cordless Blower kit. As soon as we opened the box, we wanted to see how this blower stacked up to our current 18v cordless blower. This fall was a perfect time to test it out, as I get a huge amount of pine straw in my front yard and normally have to use a rake to clean it up.

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​The A-frame 2X4 Christmas tree we made for 2017 was designed to come apart and fold for easy storage. With the exception of the concrete base, the tree came apart and easily stored as expected. Because of the weight and size of the base, we knew we didn’t want to try to store it, but wanted a way to use it throughout the year making storage unnecessary.

We designed a PVC (plumbing pipe) stand that utilizes the base to serve as a garden flag holder! People, at least in the south, enjoy displaying and changing out garden flags to match the season. Although the base is heavy, it’s not so heavy that it can’t be moved around to where you want it. You could even pop it into the car and reassemble it at your next tailgate and hang your team colors from it! 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Dremel tools used in this project.

​Steph has been using the same coffee table/bench since her college days. We bought the faux leather clad bench for her dorm room from Target back in the day. It held up so well that when she moved to her home four years ago it moved with her to serve as her coffee table. It was starting to look a little ragged so she really needed to retire it but didn’t want to give up the storage it provided.

She came up with an idea to make a coffee table starting with a bookcase. She had specific requirements for it including portability (it needed to be on wheels) and it needed to have covered storage. 

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Until recently, there were no hard surfaces near Steph's couch to set snacks and beverages. We had seen this idea for a flexible hard surface on Pinterest and decided to give it a try! 

Be sure to watch the video, it's really short, but it gives you the entire run down on how to make one. It can be customized to whatever size you need.

The front of my house faces east so it gets a lot of direct sunlight. The door had faded to the point that it needed new paint so we decided to give it a new coat of paint. 

Once the door was finished it was apparent that the lock and handset were looking a little dull and worn. We discussed several options and decided that we should look into installing a smart lock. We talked with The Home Depot and they offered to send us a lock and handset to try out in the brand and style we wanted!

My husband uses the front door 99% of the time. He usually has his hands full making it hard to use the key without having to set things down. With the smart lock, all he has to do is tap the code into the screen (or use his iPhone) and the door opens. Easy Peasy! 

The install was a breeze and went without a hitch. Take a look at the process. 

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There is nothing more annoying than decorating with Christmas lights and then having to plug them in to turn them on! I’ve had an outlet switch for years that I keep just to control the lights on my tree. All the lights are plugged in end to end and then the last one is plugged into the switch which is plugged into the outlet. I can toggle it on and off to control the lights. 

That’s a very low tech way to control the lights but these days there are so many ways to control those lights. There are so many options from low to high tech!

Take a look at some of the ways to control your holiday lighting. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Diablo Hole Saw used in this post.

We've designed and created alternative Christmas trees for the last couple of years as we like the look and the creative challenge. We set out to create something new for Steph's house. I don't remember if Steph had an idea, but if she did, I ignored it and lobbied for MY idea.

A few years ago I saw a basic wood tree in a mall window display. It had shelves for merchandise but it was basically a tall skinny wood triangle. We decided to create our own version of the display tree.

Ours would have no shelves and would be supported by a concrete base. I really liked the concrete bases we made for Steph's nightstand and thought it would be a great idea to hold the tree up. Also, we designed the tree so that it could easily be taken apart for storage. 

​Take a look at how it all came together!