Blog - at home with Ashley

Diamond Dotz Craft- 3D Object Freestyle Painting

Have you heard of the new Diamond Dotz craft? You can buy kits to make the sparkly art. But I decided to buy rhinestones in the colors I like (pastel rainbow, of course!) and apply them to vintage finds. I have two that I’ll be using- an ice cream cone and a house. This is a beginner friendly project. All you need are the supplies, patience, and a good podcast to listen to.

Thank you to Jo Gik (@ohsojo_ on Instagram) for the inspiration for this project. I saw her rainbow swan and knew I needed rainbow rhinestones on something vintage!

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A post shared by Jo Gick (@ohsojo_)

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How to Smooth Walls

Have you ever wanted a smooth wall in your home? I have! Especially as prep before I wallpaper- there’s nothing worse than drywall texture showing through paper. It’s also a nice look to have a smooth wall before painting. I’m going to show you how to smooth walls by doing a skim coat. This post will have DIY tips and include a video and lots of picture so you can do it too!

For this project, I’m working on my craft room. Last week I wallpapered one side of the room. The slanted walls really showed the drywall texture through the wallpaper. Which I HATE! Before I did the other side (which has worse texture), I thought it’d be good to try doing a skim coat. Spoiler alert- it worked so well! Ready to see how?!

Do all textured walls need to be smoothed before wallpaper?

If you are doing this project before wallpapering, I’m going to suggest that you look over my tutorial about if you can wallpaper over textured walls. Because MOST of the time the answer is YES! So you can usually skip this tedious skim coat step.

However, if you’ve bought wallpaper and tried it on your wall and the texture shows through or you want a smooth wall before painting. This post is for you!

Can you Wallpaper over Textured Walls?

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How to Make your own Wallpaper for Walls

Have you ever wanted to design your own wallpaper that you can use in your house? I have! I’ve used custom wallpaper in three spots around my home and it feels so special! I thought today I could show you how to make your own wallpaper for walls even if you’re not that artistic or great at graphic design.

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Best Posts of 2022 and Project plans for 2023

Hi friends! I thought we could do a recap of 2022 with my top posts. After that, I’m going to share some of the project plans I have for 2023. I’ve been on break and spent some of my down time brainstorming my next projects. There’s some exciting plans that I’m excited to share with you!

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DIY Puppet Theater

For Christmas this year, I decided to make my son a puppet theater. I recently saw a vintage Guignol puppet theater from the 1800’s in France for kids. The design is SO cute! But you can’t buy them anymore so I decided to make a DIY puppet theater. I hope my son loves this! If you want to make one for a child in your life too, here’s the instructions.

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DIY Dollhouse Nightstand

Ready for an IKEA hack?! I’ve been wanting to make a dollhouse nightstand inspired by Pottery Barn’s. I think it’ll be really cute for my son’s room (though he’s obsessed with cats, so it’s a cat house to him). I thought I’d take the IKEA Songesand nightstand and make it over to be a DIY dollhouse nightstand. Anything to add more mini houses. (my favorite motif!) around!

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To start off, here’s a look at the Pottery Barn Dollhouse nightstand. I love how sweet the legs, door, and windows are. I’d like to add more color and personality. But overall, I think this is adorable! Though too expensive for me at $449 plus the price to ship it.

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DIY Rainbow Tree Skirt

For YEARS I’ve been wanting to make this tree skirt. I spotted the original for $328, which is too much money for me. So I decided this is the year to make my own DIY rainbow tree skirt! It easy to do, just time consuming. I did a no sew version, but will share some different methods to make this too if you want the same look.

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Save Money buying Certified Refurbished on eBay

I’ve been trying to be better at cleaning my house. So every morning after Don is in school I clean up the clutter, wipe off the countertops, and then vacuum and mop. To simplify things, I’ve been looking for a way to vacuum and mop with one machine. I ended up buying the Bissell Wet Dry vac and for an amazing price! I thought I’d share how you can save money buying certified refurbished on eBay.

This post is sponsored by eBay

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Ikea Pax Hack

We recently redid our main bedroom and as part of that, completely re-did the closet. I’ve never had a fancy closet, so I figured that this was my chance! I decided to do an Ikea Pax Hack. So I used the affordable IKEA wardrobes and then added trim to build them in. I thought I’d walk through the build in case you want to try this too.

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Homemade Advent Calendar

There is nothing I love more than a cute, homemade advent calendar! It’s festive, a great way to make each day special in December, and there are so many options to make them fit perfectly in your decor! This year I was inspired to make some cozy stockings and hats in a rainbow of colors. If rainbow isn’t your thing, these can be made in any color!

This is a great project because it’s small to store and easy to pull out to enjoy annually. The little hats and stocking stack really compactly and then they go in with my other Christmas decor bins. I keep them on the yarn I hang them on so I just pull that out and re-hang at the beginning of the season.

What is Advent? Traditionally, it’s the season leading up to Christmas as celebrated by Christian churches. This was a time of preparation and celebration. In some churches wreaths were lit with candles, or Christmas trees were put up, or doors were marked with chalk to count the days leading up to Christmas.

The first advent calendar was printed circles in a German newspaper in the 19th century. They were for kids to cut out as a countdown to Christmas. Later, in the early 20th century, printed calendars were made. Then a few years later, around 1920, wooden advent calendars with little doors were first sold in Germany.

If you aren’t Christian, but celebrate Christmas or just want to do an advent calendar- here’s a language tidbit for you! Advent comes from the Latin word “advents” which means arrival. So just think of it as a way to countdown to when Santa comes! Advent calendars can work for all families (especially since they’ve been so heavily commercialized- ha!).

Thank you to A Beautiful Mess for the inspiration for this project.

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Do all textured walls need to be smoothed before wallpaper?

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