Happy Wednesday! Something kind of exciting happened to me yesterday. Woman’s Day sent a photographer, an assistant and a stylist to photograph me and my garage. They worked together like a well-oiled machine and made my garage more beautiful than I could ever imagine! If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (@PrettyHandyGirl), I snapped a few photos with my cell phone. I am still in the “I’ll believe it when I see it mindset.” But, this was for a small feature on organization for the September issue. Honestly, I’m a little concerned that the editor will take one look at the photos and drop them in the garbage. After all, it is the LEAST attractive room in my house! But, the editor assured me that they really want to show an organized garage space. So, I’ll be sitting on pins and needles until the issue comes out.

Two weeks ago I got an email from someone at Woman’s Day expressing interest in my garage. She politely asked if I could make a few changes to complete my workbench. They were all changes that I had wanted to do eventually. But, that date suddenly became last week. So, I put my tail in high gear and added those finishing touches to my workshop.

This was the workbench area of our garage before: Read more

I don’t know whether to be excited or dread that yesterday was the last day of school for my boys. I have some summer camps lined up for them, but frankly our summer schedule is all over the place. So much so that I need help remembering where the kids are going and when.

I thought it would be a good idea to display the schedule so the boys could see what was coming up (to avoid the inevitable anxiety from different camps for different weeks.) To give them a little control over the schedule, we sat down and brainstormed our bucket list for the summer. Ice cream, swimming, and Carowinds are only a few of their bucket list items. I thought it was especially sweet that they wanted to spend time with our longtime sitter one or two days ;-).

While I was contemplating this displayable schedule, I received a box of goodies from Plaid. The boys were home when it arrived, so naturally they hovered like eager vultures as I opened it. And of course they immediately wanted to make something with the supplies. Sometimes timing is a serendipitous thing.

I set up the kitchen table with all the supplies and a plastic cover over the table. When I looked up, my oldest son had disappeared! I found him like this:

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Yesterday, I unveiled my mini-me house mailbox. I appreciate the kind comments (even it they were coerced ;-). )

Today, I wanted to give you a little tutorial on painting a mailbox to look like your house. If you can color in a coloring book, you can create a painting of your home! Read more

Wow, y’all knocked my socks off with the response to my front door color survey! Over 350 people responded. With that kind of a response I should ask for your help more often!

And the reader’s choice winner is: Read more

Our plum colored front door has served our home well for over 5 years. Actually, I can’t take credit for the color choice. The previous owner chose the color, but luckily she and I had similar taste. I know I told you that we used to live across the street from our current house. But, did I ever tell you that we both painted our powder rooms at the same time? We saw each other on Monday and were shocked to learn that not only had we both been painting our powder rooms over the weekend, but that we had chosen the same color!

Time has passed, and I’m yearning for a brighter and cheerier front door. A door that makes people rubber neck! Read more