Category: How to

How to do things. Instructions for things I’ve somehow figured out how to do.

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DIY: Upcycle regular jeans into skinny jeans!

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Upcycle old jeans into skinny jeans

If you have access to a sewing machine, you can turn some spent old jeans into skinnies. I mean, it’ll probably turn out better if you have some sewing experience, but given that I did this as one of my second or third sewing experiments ever, I’m proof positive that it can be done. Background: I don’t mind jeans with a wider leg, but in the dead of winter, I love to wear my boots. Wider jeans + boots just don’t work together very well. … Continue reading

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DIY: How to Make a Beautiful Pallet Headboard for Under $30

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upcycled pallet project

Well, I recruited the husband for yet another DIY. We’ve had our beautiful headboard for a week now, and I’m in love. (With husband, yes, but also — the resulting headboard.) Money-saving tip: Someone you know is going to have a spare everything when it comes to tools and supplies. Ask around. You will save so much money just by using things people weren’t using at the moment. They’ll probably be happy to let you use their stuff, too. Between Miklos’s dad, his brother, and … Continue reading

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DIY: From Old Dresser to Pretty Vintage Bench

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Holy cow! Remember when I said we were going to do a DIY using an old dresser we found on the side of the road? No? Me neither, almost. Except that it’s been in the basement all summer long (oops), staring and waiting for us to hop to it. Hey, we got married this year. As it turns out, that kept us busy this spring. Well, this past weekend we got to it. And as you can imagine from the blog title, we didn’t just … Continue reading

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Quick Vegetarian Chickpea Curry for Lunch!

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Chickpeas, eh?   Garbanzos, you say?  Someone’s on a health kick in this house (hint: it’s not me or any of the pets) so we bought the kind of groceries we normally wouldn’t.  As a result, it’s new recipe time!  I documented the process to whet your appetite for this yummy curried treat!  You could call it vegetarian too, if you’re into that. This recipe yields 2 servings and takes about 20 minutes   You’ll need: – Olive oil (2-3 tbsp) – Half of one large … Continue reading

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Free & Easy Cat Hammock Bed DIY

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Cats love to sleep.  One common bed you’ve probably seen at SPCAs and cat rescues is the cat hammock.  When I saw this cat hammock on Pinterest today, I thought “what a great idea for a cat hammock at home.” We had tried putting them in Casey’s old crate before, but for some reason the cats didn’t like the idea of walking into a metal cage.  Maybe I could’ve thought that one through better. So I thought, good idea!  A cozy option they’ll enjoy without … Continue reading

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Building a Garbage Shed for Less Than $100 Using Scrap Wood

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About a month ago, Miklos got sick of the tiny width of our driveway.  He went hog-wild and tore down the fence between our driveway and our neighbour’s house.  He used that for a project and then had a bunch of scrap wood left over. On the same rampage, he took our old metal garbage shed to the scrapyard.  The thing was lousy and made a cringe-worthy metal-on-metal scraping sound when you opened its doors, so no harm done except for one problem: Every windy … Continue reading

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Easy & Delicious Oven Roasted Potatoes Recipe

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Mmm, oven-roasted potatoes covered in herbs!  So tasty and relatively quick too!  If you’re stuck for a meal and you’ve got poor man’s potatoes lying around, this is it.   Explanation: Tonight Miklos was on his 3rd night straight of eating cabbage rolls donated to him by his mother — I love his mom, but I don’t love cabbage rolls.  It was either going to be a Kraft Dinner night, or I could roast some potatoes I found hidden in the (ahem, front of the) … Continue reading