I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
It seems kind of weird and petty to write about fun DIY projects during a Pandemic, but maybe fun projects to work on at home is just what we need right now :) I did this project about two months ago when I was looking for a nice way to display our oldest’s growing collection of award ribbons and medals but couldn’t find a display setup that I liked or was remotely affordable. The whole project was super easy and done start-to-finish within two days. Here’s hoping for things to go back to normal someday soon so she can continue to add to her award collection. | This post contains affiliate links |
Materials:
lumber (I used a 1x8" board for the shelf top and 1x6" board for the back)
two decorative shelf brackets (or two pieces of wood cut at 45 degree angle)
First decide how long you want the overall shelf to be (in our case I decided on making it 3ft wide). Then cut your shelf top to that length.
(Nothing is screwed in yet here… just laying everything out to make sure it will fit like I want it to.)
Next decide how wide you want the shelf back to be - remember that the self back plus the brackets should fall within your overall shelf top length. Ultimately how long you cut the shelf back is your preference though. But visually I think that the shelf back and the brackets look best if they fall within about 2 inches of the shelf top on each side.
(Side note: If you have a router you can cut a dovetail channel along the back of the shelf back now to make for easier hanging… I do not have one of those handy so I skipped this step and will hang our shelf another way.)
Once you have everything laid out, cut your dowel to about 1/8” less than your shelf back length so it will fit comfortably within that space.
After everything is cut, I recommend sanding everything first before you assemble. I love using our orbital sander - it makes for quick work and does a nice job.
Next start assembling. Screw the shelf supports to the backing first, making sure everything is lined up and flush.
Next carefully center the shelf top, making sure it’s flush with the back and screw in.
Now for the fun part - paint! I did one coat of primer and then three coats of semi-gloss white paint, though you could choose any color you wish. I like semi-gloss paint since it has a slight sheen to it and is easier to dust and keep clean.
For hanging - first I measured this wall side-to-side to figure out where the shelf should fall within that space to be centered. Then I marked the studs with a stud finder.
To be honest I usually use two different kinds of stud finders when I have to hang something - I use a magnetic stud finder first to identify exactly where the stud is and then a digital one to find the edges of the stud. I’ve found that sometimes the digital ones can be finicky so it’s nice to know where the studs are first rather than get a false stud reading when it could be something else (a pipe, a thick area of plaster on the wall, etc).
Then using a level to make sure the shelf was level, I screwed directly into the wall studs through the shelf back making sure to place the screws where they would be hidden by the dowel once I installed it.
Next I hung the dowel by centering it and adding a simple hook to support it on each side, as shown above (this also hides the screws I used to hang it). And now the project is finished and ready to display ribbons, medals, and trophies!
To hang the ribbons and medals you can easily lift the dowel up and string them on, or loop them around the dowel like I did here.
I hope you liked the project and we look forward to when this Pandemic is over and there will be sport and fair ribbon awards again - stay well!
UPDATE:
Years later our kids are still using the DIY Ribbon and Trophy Displays but they’re getting a little full. In order to spread things out a bit I bought these simple medal holders (similar one linked), so they could hang their medals on these and keep the DIY Display just for their ribbons/trophies. It’s working great!
Happy Earth Day! Back in the ‘80’s my Dad bought these Vermont State Parks t-shirts on a camping trip for himself and baby-me... somehow they survived all these years and now me and my kids wear them. Vintage ;)
Hope you have a great Earth Day and can find a safe way to better your household or neighborhood during this Pandemic.
Yesterday the kids finger-painted some big sheets of paper and today we cut hearts out to hang in all our windows as a way to say THANK YOU to all the heroes out there - especially medical personnel, but also mail/package carriers, truck drivers, and our neighbors and community that are staying home.
I hope everyone can find some small way to help spread some hope and gratitude in your neighborhoods too. Thank you all!
In light of the hardships and logistical restrictions we're all facing, I decided to put my Etsy Shop on hold for the time being since I won’t be able to shop for materials or go to the post office for awhile. In the meantime, I'll still be sharing posts here on my blog, Facebook, and Instagram when I can. Thanks so much again for following along during this difficult time for everyone <3
Yesterday I decided to make what I’m going to call “Quarantine Chili.” Now what is the recipe for Quarantine Chili you might ask? Well pretty much you take whatever fresh veggies or meat you have in your fridge that you worry may go to waste soon and throw them into a big crock pot of chili before they go bad. Waste not, want not!
Now for my chili I started with my typical chili “base”:
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of red beans (rinsed and drained)
1 can of garbanzo beans (rinsed and drained)
1 can of lentils (rinsed and drained)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1-2 teaspoons of jarred garlic
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
To that I then added all the things I wanted to use up - this will vary depending on what you have in your fridge:
1 lb of cooked ground lamb (lamb is definitely an unusual choice for chili. I had originally planned to make lamb stuffed peppers with it, but by using it in chili I am able to stretch it farther and get more meals out of it… And surprisingly lamb in chili is just fine! I was worried it would taste weird but it’s still great)
a lot of carrots (we had a bag of carrots that have been in the fridge for awhile and were close to being done. I wanted to use them up and not go to waste so I added them to the chili… it was definitely heavy on the carrots but I’m glad we used them up)
handfuls of spinach (we have a big container of spinach that will be getting wet and smelly soon… better use some of it up!)
green pepper (the ones I was originally going to make the stuffed lamb peppers with)
a large onion (that one has been hanging out on the counter for awhile…)
Then combine all ingredients in a large Crock Pot and put on high for several hours until it’s cooked through and ready. We’ll be eating this for dinner for two nights and then I will portion out and freeze the rest to eat later.
Definitely be aware of what you’re using - you don’t want to use any ingredients are actually spoiling (very bad idea!) - but by using up what good ingredients you have by making a healthy, hearty chili you will not let your precious groceries go to waste and will make something nutritious to feed your family during this time.
Definitely a very weird and uncertain time right now, but the sacrifices we make to stay home and away from others will hopefully make a huge (positive) impact in the trajectory of what's going on in the world right now. I hope this time of home-quarantine for much of our society will have some very positive side effects - like quality time with our kids, the wonderful challenge of learning to homeschool, a renewed sense of frugality and being less-wasteful, and using social media as a beneficial tool to stay connected with family and friends. And with the world learning to "work remote," hopefully there will be more work-from-home job opportunities going forward which will lessen society's need for commuting, large office buildings, and pollution.
It definitely will be a very challenging time these next few weeks and months. But I hope we remember what’s truly important, can support and learn from each other (from a safe distance), and realize that the sacrifices we make are for the greater good. We will come out on the other side of this more resilient, self-reliant, and stronger than ever. Stay healthy everyone! <3
Whether you believe the extent of the hype about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) or not, you should still take it very seriously. This is unprecedented for our generation and a lot of people are in denial that something may be so out of our control.
I wanted to share this link to a post by Scientific American that I found - I felt like this was a really calm and helpful perspective on why we should prepare now - and no, you don’t have to go overboard. We personally bought extra groceries this week, along with diapers, dog food, and the OTC medicine our toddler takes daily. I'm also planning on taking this opportunity to potty train her so we hopefully don't run out of diapers. I pray this virus doesn't become a widespread issue but it's best to prepare now.
The whole point of being cautious and complying with “social distancing measures” is to keep our hospitals and medical personnel with their heads above water - because if this outbreak becomes large it will overwhelm our capabilities, which would be bad for everyone but especially our vulnerable populations (elderly, those with chronic illness, etc). So please, I ask you to take it seriously and prepare - then hope and pray for the best. Stay healthy out there! <3
You know that potty training is getting serious when you start driving around with a tiny toilet in your trunk! Thought I’d hop on here real quick and share some of our potty training “on-the-go” hacks. | This post contains affiliate links |
First, while we may be doing undies in the house - we still use pull-ups at night and when we leave the house… why? Because Mama don’t like having to change wet or poopy clothes in Target or get a carseat full on a drive. That is not fun for anyone and doesn’t set your kid up for success. Also, cleaning carseats is the worst.
For us we potty train our kids 100% at home and let them be flexible (by using a pull-up) whenever we’re out and about until they are VERY good at it, before transitioning them to undies all the time. During this transitionary time, we always keep a small potty in our trunk in case they need to go. It’s a lot easier and more comfortable for them to use a little potty that they’re used to, rather than having you dangle them over a public toilet at Starbucks.
The biggest helpful trick to the trunk potty? Line it with a clean diaper to absorb waste - that way you’re not driving around with a cup full of pee sloshing around in your trunk. It also makes for much easier cleanup!
And it goes without saying to keep wipes, clean pull-ups, a change of clothes, and a towel within reach in the trunk as well too… just in case.
