When we closed escrow on our rental house, I wanted to make changes in each room to make it more “ours” without a lot of fuss or money. Our bathroom was redone cheaply in the early 90’s and it is definitely on the top of our list for a major makeover, but we aren’t ready for that kind of expense quite yet, especially with a $10,000 fence somewhere on the horizon. I decided to give it a quick makeover to tide us over until we could redo the whole thing with new flooring, tile, sinks and hardware. Continue reading
A Quick Bathroom Makeover
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Aunt Anna’s Easter Bread

Aunt Anna’s Easter Bread
I don’t know who Aunt Anna is…probably my mom’s aunt or maybe even her great aunt, but her bread will live on in my family for generations if I have anything to do with it. I’ve been eating this bread since I was a baby and making it for about 12 years now. It is DIVINE. You could just call it “Challah with raisins” because, well, that’s basically what it is! It’s soft, chewy, a little bit sweet and best the day it’s baked with a hefty smear of good butter. Continue reading
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Our New Entryway
When we moved into our house three years ago, our landlord at the time asked us to keep his giant Mexican cabinet in the house that we absolutely didn’t need. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, but it was useless as a storage piece and didn’t fit visually in the house. It was just way too clunky for the space. When we bought the house last summer, I finally had my chance to move it outside and rethink our entryway! Our house has NO storage…I repeat…NO STORAGE. We have one and half closets total so figuring out a way to store toys, shoes and bags was quite the challenge. Here’s what we did. Continue reading
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It’s Almost Easter (Pierogi) Time!

The two cakes were cheerful and modern!
It’s almost time to start prepping for this year’s big Easter party, which means it’s also time to share last year’s photos! Continue reading
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Adorable Custom Fairy Tree!
Last summer, two good friends asked me to create a giant magical fairy tree for their daughter’s bedroom, and I finally installed it last week! Since I was pregnant at the time, and then later had a newborn to care for, I had to take it slowly…I think we can safely say that six months is pretty darn slow! 😉 Here’s how I built and installed it: Continue reading
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(Another) DIY Birth Announcement
It seems like only yesterday that I was posting about my first baby’s birth announcement, but it has been over three years now! I had a lot more time on my hands that year, so when I gave birth again this past October in the middle of getting ready for holiday sales and fairs, I figured there was no way I would be able to pull off an announcement for this second little guy. One day, while working in my studio between feedings, I grabbed a roll of chalkboard paper, really just some black kraft paper, that I had lying around and quickly sketched up his details. I set the camera without him in the photo and then waited until he was milk drunk to plop him down in the middle of the paper for a couple of shots. It really only took a few minutes of his time and I love the result!
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