Insane Ingredient Combination For Best Sauce in a Tinfoil Dinner!

Secret Sauce!

Host a party making tinfoil dinners. It's fun and easy. Your guests can each make their own.

Our family makes these every weekend and cook them in our backyard firepit.

 

Funny DIY Meme

Cell phone case

Update Staircase - Remove carpet

Best DIY Project Ever!
I love how my stairs turned out.

How to remove carpet from staircase and give them an updated look for under $100.  It's so easy even a grandma could do it.  I know because I did it, and I'm a grandma.  

18 Things You Can Do Now That Your 18

18 Things You Can Do Now That Your 18

Vote

Buy Tobacco, We'll go with Candy

Change Your Name

Adopt a Kid

Get a Tattoo

Jury Duty

Go To Jail

Go Bungee Jumping

Play the Lottery

Buy a House

Get a Loan

Sue Someone

Go Skydiving

Join the Military

Work Full Time

Buy Fireworks

Get Married

Get a Credit Card

DIY Kitchen Remodel

Everything looks better with a fresh coat of paint

Can you guess how many of the upgrades are done with paint?

When we bought our house, I knew it was going to need a lot of updating. The kitchen was the highest priority for DIY projects I planned to do. I am just an average stay at home mom with no construction background.  I decided I would see what all I could knock out on my own just by watching youtube videos to learn how to do things.  I also, wanted everything to be able to be done on a very tight budget.  Let me give a list of the things I planned on changing from this picture:

1. Cabinet color
2. Formica countertops
3. Drop down fluorescent light ceiling
4. White plastic sink
5. Dated faucet
6. White appliances
7. Color of the kitchen walls and ceiling

8. No backsplash
9. Baseboard size and color, no chair rail
10. Hardware on the cupboards
11. Dining room table also needed an upgrade

12. Replace arched cabinet doors 

13. Replace hinges with hidden hinges

When I watch home makeover shows on tv, the remodel jobs always happen so fast.  In reality, when you are doing them all yourself, and you don't know how to do anything but paint, there is a large learning curve.  I took lots of photos and videos all along the way.  My initial plan was to have a blog post of hits and misses each time something went well or really flopped.  I wanted to document which youtube videos really worked and which ones should be left to the professionals.  It turned out that doing my own projects and documenting all the steps became very time consuming and I neglected to post as I went along.  

I may still post each step at a future date, but for now, here are the finished kitchen projects.  Well, sort of finished.  I am always changing my mind and redoing things here and there.  Let me give an example;  I hate the arches on the cabinet doors.  I have replaced about half of them, but the others are still being built, by me.  The new cabinet doors also have hidden hinges.  These are things you wouldn't necessarily notice but they certainly look better when they are all done.  At this pace it will probably be 6 months before they are all done.  I will do one every time another project I am working on needs time to dry or I am waiting on supplies etc.  If you look closely in the pictures some of the upper cabinets are still arched.

List redone, cabinet color, formica countertops, drop down fluorescent light ceiling, white plastic sink, dated faucet, white appliances, color of the kitchen walls and ceiling, backsplash, baseboards size and color, hardware on the cupboards, replace arched upper cabinet doors, hidden hinges

One of my favorite projects was the counter and backsplash.  These are just painted to look like marble, then coated with Stone Coat Countertop Epoxy.  I did my dining room table as a trial run before taking on all the countertops.  I love them so much.  It was hard to photograph because they are so shiny.  It's like taking a picture of a mirror, but they make me so happy!

I know having a cabinet desk combination is very dated, but we use this space a lot, so I decided to just give everything an update instead.  I see in this picture the ugly linoleum in the laundry room off to the side on the left.  I painted that to look like tile.  It's not shown in the picture, but it no longer looks like this. I'm reminded of another blog post I still need to do. Painting linoleum is a great way to update without a lot of commitment or expense. 

I can't believe how different it looks with recessed lighting

I ordered special lights to go in the Pendants.  They have silver tips on them.  Regular lights were a little to bright and I wanted a little more pizazz. 

I love the backsplash on this and the marble countertop.
Well it looks like marble. It's just paint and epoxy.
I also added chair rail and painted all the walls grey.

Taking down the light structure and installing recessed  and pendant lighting turned out to be the hardest project I have ever done DIY.  I had to get my kids and husband to help with the heavy lifting.  If I had it to do over again I would probably hire that part done.  Drilling holes in the ceiling and in the joists so I could run wire was a huge challenge.  But, now I know how to do it.  Thank you youtube, and my brother Daniel who facetimed me to make sure I didn't electrocute myself. 

Stay tuned for my next project.

Refinished Table 4 Years Later - Update

The Epoxy Table Top is Still Holding Up

Before I updated the table it was very dated

The top was formica

https://youtu.be/AD_IYbAeXck

The original post with all the instructions on the DIY is in the link below:

https://fiveorlesssteps.blogspot.com/2015/01/epic-fail-every-once-in-while-diy.html

Family Traditions Bind Us Together!

DIY Christmas Stockings

Everyone in the family designs their own stocking

Trees, Snowflakes and Candy Canes are always Beautiful

Sometimes couples coordinate their stockings

Nathan is on a mission so he gets a mission tie.
Grant made a torn stocking look. Anything goes!

I buy the stockings on clearance at the end of the year,
but even full price, they are a great no-sew option

Glitter and glue are the only items we used the first few years.  This year I splurged at the dollar store and got some tiny mirrors and a beaded tie.  Still the entire project was under $20.

Family Traditions Bind Us Together

Stability, purpose and security seem to come in abundance whenever we engage in a family tradition. During the holidays we have a lot of them. Some involve food, games, songs, and telling stories, but one of our favorite traditions is decorating Christmas stockings. Everyone in the family gets together one night a year, and creates our own masterpieces. All you need are some plain stockings, glitter and glue.  We put a piece of plastic down on the table to catch all the glitter as well as using plates and paper, but lets face it, glitter does get everywhere.  My boys call glitter Satan's dust.  They hate it, but only in a joking way.  Let's face it, glitter helps keep us all in the spirit of having fun together and creating memories.  There is nothing like telling a 25 year old son he has glitter on his cheek.  That's a good time!

My sons call glitter Satan's dust, but let's face it,
We all love the look it makes on our Christmas stockings

One of the great things about traditions is that they can live on for generations. It’s never too late to start a new tradition. Creating your own Christmas stockings year after year is something our family looks forward to and talks about for months leading up to our big day.

 
In order for this tradition to be something that can be done in one evening and by all ages and artistic abilities we have decided to keep it simple. I purchase a couple dozen Christmas stockings each year when they go on clearance but even when they are full price they cost under a dollar apiece. Buy some glue and glitter and you are ready to go. Make sure you buy extra stockings because every once in a while the design will go completely wrong and in order to keep the peace in the household it needs to be thrown out and started over.

Our family sits around the kitchen table, with Christmas music in the background and we create our works of art. This year I splurged on a few extra gems and mini mirrors. I got the stickered mirrors and some of the glitter from the dollar store.

This is a tradition I highly recommend!

Pinterest Hit! DIY Bling Shoes

DIY Bling Shoes

I bought the crystals at Hobby Lobby on a half off sale.  $7.00

E-6000 Clear Glue

The best Purchase of all was the Jewel Picker.

It has a wax top that allows you to picks the jewels up and places them on the glue with ease.  I smudged some glue on the heel of the shoe.

Only due a small area at a time.  Enough to place about 10 jewels at a time.

I was able to put the jewels on the shoes in about 10 minutes.  This is one of the easiest DIY projects I have ever done.

Update 1-24-2018.  I originally jazzed up a pair of shoes back in 2014.  It has now been 4 years and they are still my favorite pair of shoes.  I wear them about 3 times a month and always get a lot of accolades.  They were so easy to make and worth the effort.  This is definitely a pinterest HIT!

Pinterest Miss - Phone Case

I love How the Case Turned Out
There Is Only One Problem
And It's a Major One...

Over the years I have tried a lot of DIY projects I found on Pinterest and to date, this is still the one that hurts the most.  I love to bling things up to the nines and this one turned out to be so easy and really a favorite.  It made me happy all the time.  I was so proud of it.  I also blogged about all the benefits of making your own jeweled items including a cell phone case. It was quite the conversation piece. Ladies wanted to know where they could buy them and ultimately how to make them. They are so cheap and easy to make, I understood why so many people were interested in joining the b-dazzle world for themselves. But then, I realized a downside when it came to the amazing world of jewels and cell phones. It's such a large downside that I have given up on the jewels all together when it comes to my phone.  Here is why...

The precious little crystals cause interference with the cell phone signal and ultimately make your phone conversations hard to hear or dropped all together.  So it comes with very large regret on my part that I have to announce this DIY project as a major bust.  Sorry one and all for this horrible announcement.

I'm Gettin Muffins For Christmas!

Sofa Makeover Update

Leather Sofa looks like new again!

I originally posted this DIY project on my blog 2 1/2 years ago. I took an old sofa that was destined for a junk pile and created my favorite DIY project ever.

Here is the link to the instructions of how to transpose a leather sectional to look like new:

http://fiveorlesssteps.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-to-turn-old-coaches-into-something.html

Now 3 years later, my sofa is in need of a 10 minute update to get it back to par.

As you can see, there is some wear and tear.  I am happy to report, the stain never came off on clothing.  It does take a few days to completely dry.  Just remember, it is cheap, fast, and easy, but you do need a week of drying time.  Stain dries slowly when it is applied to leather.  After it is completely dried, it does not come off on clothing at all!

On the left is what it looks like after a little stain is rubbed on. Don't forget to wear gloves. Stain does not come off your skin easily.  I did have to buy a new can since my old one was in the garage and dried out.  A small can goes a long way.  It cost $5.60 at Walmart.

This time I didn't have to do all over the sofa.  I just touched up the areas that had a lot of wear.

It took less than 10 minutes.

I still love it!