An Introduction

I have always liked making things. When my sisters and I were younger, we had an "art chest" that stored the supplies we would use for our creations. The chest was an old dresser our mom packed full of construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, markers, tape, stickers, stencils... you name it. We all liked to doodle and draw, but I also had the desire to build things.

I'm sure my parents weren't really happy with the directions in which I took my ambition. I liked to take things apart & put them back together. I was just curious! A few things come to mind that I now understand were problematic:

1) Frequently pounding nails and tacks into the walls of my bedroom.

Where did I get nails? Where did I get a hammer?

2) Cutting open our Stretch Armstrong to see what he was made of. 

Let the record show it was corn starch.

3) Gluing our wooden blocks to a small cardboard filing cabinet.

You know what, I don't even remember the reason behind that one.

To point my desire in a safe direction, one year they bought me a tool bench for Christmas. I found tools to be interesting in spite of limited experience with them, so I think this present was on my list. They also encouraged my use of Legos. Bear in mind I was 7 or so at the time. {So if you're picturing me in my 20's sitting at a Fisher Price tool bench building Lego sets, you can just quit} I had quite the Lego collection and sometimes I even used the directions.

Fast forward to when I could actually be trusted with minor tools - let's say circa middle school. In middle school, and high school too, I got into making cards and scrapbooking. Those hobbies involve tools like paper cutters, crimpers, stamps and ink, etc. So not really heavy construction. But things my 7-year-old self would have used for {unintended} destruction.

In college, my time was more or less consumed with classes, clinicals and a nursing club... I sort of backed off from rubber stamping & scrapbooking. That stuff is time consuming and it can get expensive! Post-college, Pinterest was born and through it I discovered many useful blogs. I created Pinterest pages of my own and started following a handful of other pinners/bloggers to check out their various crafts & projects. I can often be heard picking something up at a store, giving it a once over - maybe snapping a quick cell phone picture, then saying "Don't buy that, I can make it" under my breath. So all of this DIY was right up my alley.

Pinterest was super helpful when I was planning my wedding. I met Andrew through my college friend {and fellow DIYer} Megan. After 1 year of dating, he & I got engaged in 2012 and set our wedding date- September 20, 2013. Andrew was already living in Old Elm, the house we had picked out together, so I was adding personal touches here & there while gradually transplanting my belongings. It's been exactly 5 months since our wedding, and now that we're settled the bigger projects have really taken hold. We love customizing our home!

Andrew has become a great asset to my DIY dreaming. He provides the power tools and brute strength :) He doesn't give himself near enough credit, but growing up with a DIY dad as talented as his father, it's no wonder Andrew is quite the up-and-coming carpenter! One of the first things he did for me at Old Elm was to redo our pantry. It's lovely and I am thankful.

Other Completed Projects



Hand Painted Christmas Canvas



Wall Mount Message Center
{did this with Megan!}

Over Washer/Dryer Laundry Table

So the success of the above projects + more I am probably forgetting = the gas in this blog's tank. We have many more plans, and I look forward to keeping track of them here! That was a long intro. If you read it all the way, congrats. I owe you a prize of some sort. Maybe I'll even make it...