Some time ago I decided to see how long I could go without buying shampoo and conditioner. I had so many free samples on hand, and so many arriving in the mail each month that I just started going through them. I started in May 2012, and last week I finally caved and bought my […]
Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category
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A Painted Box for Kristy’s Birthday
August 29th, 2013 
Jessica My sister’s birthday and anniversary are the same week, so this year I decided to do something special for her and her husband. I found a large unfinished box in our garage that had moved with us many times over the years. I penciled in the words using Calligraphy and a ruler. Then I carved […]
A Painted Bus Stop Bench
June 18th, 2013 Jessica When we first moved into our house (which we rent) in September 2011, there was a bus stop in our backyard. I was not overly impressed with the concrete and broken wood structure, or the words “LSD”, “Coke”, and “Cocaine” carved into the Bireley’s Soda advertisement. However, with little other seating in our backyard, it […]
DIY Facial Cleanser
May 31st, 2013 Jessica You may remember my November book review of Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. I really enjoyed the book, and have also enjoyed her blog and subsequent articles. Recently a friend of mine mentioned that she was trying a DIY facial cleanser, inspired by Tsh’s Simple Mom blog. I was almost out of face wash anyway, […]
DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent
May 30th, 2013 Jessica My husband, Brad, has been urging me to try a recipe he found for DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent for some time. We are not only a family of five, but we also cloth diaper our children, so we go through a lot of laundry. I was able to pick up all three ingredients (yes, only […]
FREE Haircuts for a Family of Four
November 30th, 2012 Jessica One of the areas of our budget where we rarely need to spend money is haircuts. Although we all enjoy a professional wash, dry, cut, & style on occasion, most of the time we don’t pay for our haircuts. Here is how we do it: Brad’s Hair: My parents gave me set of Wahl clippers […]
9 Mini Home Improvements
August 8th, 2012 Jessica Two weeks ago Brad went to camp with his high school kids for a week, and I was left alone in the house with the kids. Of course, as soon as Brad was out of the house I began thinking about what I could get done before he got back! I had a few home […]
How to Cook a Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin
November 14th, 2011 Jessica A few weeks ago I read about how Crystal tried a pumpkin-cooking experiment using her crock pot and her oven to make pumpkin puree. I had never thought to try cooking a pumpkin myself! We bought two large pumpkins this year. Oliver wore one as a Halloween costume, and I decided to try cooking the […]
A little wood glue goes a long way…
November 12th, 2011 Jessica When Oliver was born, my mom bought us an inexpensive little dresser from Wal-mart for his clothes (center-right). Unfortunately it didn’t survive the 2,700 mile trip in the back of our U-haul truck. The front of the third drawer snapped off and the plastic hinges broke. We went ahead and filled the dresser with clothing, […]
DIY Halloween Window Painting
October 27th, 2011 Jessica Two years ago I was asked to help paint the windows of a store-front at Christmas with some friends. So when I saw these windows on Pinterest, I figured I could try a little “DIY” painting on our windows instead of buying decals or yarn. Materials: Step-Ladder Window-Cleaner Dry-Erase Markers Picture (of what you want […]
