Written by contributor Summer Robertson of House & Hold

I love birthdays. I love birthday weeks. I love to go all out & throw birthday morning parties, making my family feel extra special. But? I honestly don’t like to spend a lot of time (or money) and always seem to run last minute. A few years ago I had accumulated quite a stash of birthday decorations & supplies – some bought, but mostly handmade.

And it hit me: I never have to plan anything ever again! With all of the supplies on hand, I could assemble a Birthday Party Kit! And with some strategic planning, I could re-use decorations in different ways to make it unique for each birthday.

On the eve of a birthday, I pull out my kit, decide on a couple decorations. String it up & bam. Party time, ready for birthday morning. Maybe not less than 5 minutes…. but close. A complete list of what to include in your Birthday Kit is outlined below.

Step 1:

Pick 2 areas of your home that you will always decorate. My 2 areas naturally ended up being the mantle in the living room and the dining room. These will be the 2 areas that all of your decorations with “work” in, and will look knock-out fantstic every time.

Step 2:

Decide what will go in both areas. And stick to it. Then you will not have to think about how to decorate. Only make & buy decorations that will fit/work in the designated space.

Step 3.

My first area to decorate is the mantle in the living room. It’s the spot where I hang the “happy birthday” banner, a balloon chandelier (more on that later!) and add a bit of color (a bit of frill or crepe paper).

Next, I decorate the living room. I hang 2 buntings criss-crossing each other from the ceiling. I have accumulated quite a selection of buntings & fancy crepe paper over the years (and will share more on that later this month!). Regardless of the materials, I always make the buntings the exact same length so they fit in the space every time. I have installed hooks in the ceiling where I hang the buntings for easy installation. Using decorative washi tape would also be fun.

Step 4.

After the 2 main areas are decorated, I spend a few minutes on the goodies, setting up the dining table. I throw out a few party favors (keep a pack of treat bags on hand & trinkets from the Dollar Store for an instant sibling party favor), little washi tape flags for cupcake toppers (I serve cupcakes for breakfast! A simple 1 bowl cake recipe is good to have in your arsenal.), candles, straws and napkins. I generally do not go for themed birthdays. I do however, indulge and buy themed napkins or plates of a favorite character (not pictured). And don’t forget the confetti! A total mess, but loads of fun.

What to include in your Birthday Party Kit

(and most of it’s from the Dollar Store!)
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Written by contributor Summer Robertson of House & Hold

Happy Autumn! Now that the long days of summertime are over a whole new season greets us. Autumn is filled with family gatherings, cozy dinner parties with friends and an amazing amount of yummy food. I always want to be the person who brings a fabulous hostess gift (rather than dashing out the door empty handed, semi-late? A-hem!). With a smidge of planning & prep, this Autumn inspired gift basket is the perfect hostess gift, housewarming or treat for a teacher or co-worker.

Please skip the cellophane and set aside any frightening granny gift basket ideas (yes, I think we’ve all been traumatized!). I have inspiration for you to make a stylish & relevant gift basket that will make you look like you bought it at a fancy market. The gratifying part of assembling a gift basket is that it’s casual enough to add in elements of surprise… and you.  I like to keep the style of the basket & goodies simple, not outrageous leaving your recipient with something they don’t know what to do with. Don’t go there!  My Autumn theme revolved around  local pears & hazelnuts, natural tones and black & white.

How to create a DIY Autmn Gift Basket

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Written by contributor Josiah Lowe of The Burlap Bag

What do you call a cow without legs….?
Ground beef!! Haha, never gets old…..

What do you call a piece of furniture without legs?
Booooring

So! What shall we do about boring pieces of legless furniture? Add legs! Its so super simple and will look so super awesome. Let me show you.

You will need:

A furniture piece
A drill
4 legs from your local hardware store
Spray paint (optional)

First, pick what furniture piece is definitely needing a leg extension. Here’s ours:

Second: Go buy some furniture leg pieces from a hardware store. We bought skinny ones but they have chunky guys, taller ones, etc. Most of the legs at the store will have a built in threaded bolt at the end of it. You might also notice that there is a piece of hardware called a mounting plate or clinch nut plate. You can use this hardware if you’d like but it does involve more drilling and it might force you to place your legs further away from the edge than you’d like. We ditched the mounting plates. Too complicated. Let’s keep this SIMPLE! The thread will most likely be around 1/4th of an inch so that will be the drill bit we use.

We spray painted the legs a baby blue color - but you could always leave that natural wood color or decide on a paint color later.

Third: Find where you want the legs to go on your furniture piece. Drill four holes.

Fourth: You are ready to install the legs. Screw them in.

There you have it! A fantastic and simple way to make your furniture look so much better.

Do you have some furniture pieces that you could easily spruce up?

Written by contributor Josiah Lowe of The Burlap Bag

Are you tired of people trying to figure out where the utensil drawer is in your kitchen? “It’s the drawer on the left. No, the other one. No, the one closest to the sink.” Instead you could just say “It’s the drawer with the fork drawer pull”.

Also, this is a fantastic way to replace any ugly knobs you might have in an apartment. Instead of going to a hardware store and buying cabinet handles for a couple of dollars each you can go to a thrift store and buy a few forks for thirty cents a pop – plus it adds tons of character to whatever you are adding them to. (Ever since we found out how cheap forks were at the thrift store we’ve been going crazy figuring out what we can do with them. My wife Lauren created this fork bracelet tutorial.)

This is one of those projects that allows for so many creative iterations. But for the sake of the tutorial I am going to show you how to accomplish the functionality of the project. It is your job to get creative with it.

Supplies

Fork

Drill or hammer

Screw or nail

First you are going to want to bend the fork. Bend it enough so that the tines lay flat against a flat surface.

The next step may vary for you depending on what you are using your handle for. If you are just using the fork for a cabinet door a nail will work just fine but if you are going to use the fork on a drawer you might need to drill through the metal of the fork and use your drill to screw the fork on (that way its more sturdy for heavy drawers). We just did ours on a cabinet door so all I needed to do was get a nail, stick it between the two metal tines at the bottom and nail it in. Done! You can see the nail in between the tines in the photo below.

There it is! Get creative with it. Paint your fork, bend the tines into cool designs or maybe even use a spoon!

Have you ever made fun or funky cabinet/drawer handles?

Written by contributor Lauren Lowe of The Burlap Bag

Today’s project is super easy – and it’ll make your home smell good!

DIY teacup candle