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Homespun by Laura

DIY-ing our beige house into a home one room at a time

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DIY Mud Room with vertical shiplap planks, hooks, 2x6 counters, and storage bench Reveal

Homespun House 2.0

Coming soon!

In the meantime…read more about a few projects that are making our second house feel like home:

DIY Old World Mud Room Reveal | One Room Challenge | Week 7

DIY Nursery Closet Shelving System

Fun, Colorful Laundry Room | One Room Challenge Reveal

Vintage Toy Nursery Reveal

Hello! I'm Laura. I use antiques, thrift store finds, and a heavy dose of elbow grease to make our house a home, and I write about it here at Homespun by Laura. From DIY to sewing, you'll find DIY ideas to solve your home decor dilemmas. Pull up a seat and stay awhile!

homespunbylaura

Jack of all trades; master of none.
DIY. Sewing. Travel. Drawing and fabric design. Mama to two 🎀.

Laura
Three years ago while we were expecting our first Three years ago while we were expecting our first child, we took a trip to England and Germany. During that trip we spent a weekend in a village in the English countryside and experienced a magical ‘summer’ day (felt like a perfect spring day to us: sunny, low humidity, and about 70 degrees). The week we began work on our backyard, that’s what it felt like - if I closed my eyes I could imagine being back in the lush green yard of the secluded 1800s English farmhouse we visited instead of on a cement patio behind a 2014 suburban American house, in a fishbowl where I can see parts of 19 (or maybe it’s 22) other houses. 😂 We remedied that fishbowl feeling just a tad in the second week of this project with roller shades, and it already feels so much cozier back here, thanks to the privacy they provide. The acacia wood furniture (from Ikea) is a step up visually from our cheap old table, and it was very affordable. We’re still on the hunt for new chairs (our old chairs were incompatible with climbing toddlers because they easily tipped over); the ones that match the table have been out of stock for weeks. Pillows are from @Walmart - a steal at $13 each! - bench cushion from @target. Click @oneroomchallenge to find others working on their spring One Room Challenge projects.
It’s time for the spring #oneroomchallenge! This It’s time for the spring #oneroomchallenge! This year, we’re taking things outside and focusing on the backyard. It’s been a work in progress for three years since we moved in, but we’re tackling some bigger projects this spring. We don’t do well sitting still (even with a new baby in the house) so we spent the weekends in April getting started on this year’s backyard project list. It’s been tough for me to actually contribute with any hands-on work; as soon as one kid is asleep, the other wakes up! But my cheap labor is carrying out most of the to-dos relatively happily 😃 so that’s a plus and I’ve been able to chip in a bit while he rests and holds the baby. Occasionally, we have an additional ‘helper’, which makes things interesting! 👧 We’ll continue the work as the eight-week diy/design challenge progresses, and we’re hoping to have a completed backyard just in time for the beautiful triple-digit humidity and temperatures that June brings! 😂 Click @oneroomchallenge or take a peek at the link in my profile to look at all the other cool projects happening across the globe over the next 2 months!
The setting sun streaming through this window stop The setting sun streaming through this window stops me in my tracks every night as I leave the big girl’s room after bedtime. Of course, the photo can’t quite capture it! This sewing/craft/guest room was last fall’s One Room Challenge project, but I haven’t been spending much time creating in it since mid-March, for obvious reasons (or one 8 lb reason 😃)! Speaking of the One Room Challenge, it starts again on Thursday, and I’ll be sharing ours then. While it’s an eight-week challenge, with final reveals set for the week of June 24, we turned it into a 12-week project by getting started the first week in April. Because with two kids under 3... it takes twice as long to do everything so we need all the time we can get! 😃
For the first time in six weeks, I left the baby a For the first time in six weeks, I left the baby at home (of course not alone!) and took the big girl on an outing, just the two of us. We went to pick strawberries! I have so many memories of picking strawberries as a child every year with my family, and now it’s something I’m excited about doing with our girls every spring. This time was slightly different than the last time I took her (two years ago; thanks to the pandemic we didn’t get to pick last year, see 4th picture!), and we both had a lot of fun! Later, we used our fresh berries to make strawberry hand pies as this week’s baking activity. My little sous chef helped with every step: cutting the berries (with her plastic kids’ knife, of course!), cracking the eggs, ‘painting’ the egg onto the pastry, and assembling and closing the pies. If I play my cards right, she’ll be making dinner within a year or two 😂
This morning I couldn’t find my phone. For about This morning I couldn’t find my phone. For about 10 minutes I pinged it from my watch and wandered around completely confused; it sounded like it was inside the walls. I finally found it in the middle of a stack of towels in the bathroom closet 🙄 But since that’s not a very exciting thing so share a photo of (unless the closet is super organized and pretty, which it’s most certainly not!), here are the delicious buttermilk biscuits the toddler and I mixed up a few weeks ago. The dough got a little overworked thanks to my very enthusiastic helper, so they were a little tough, but we had fun making them while the Mister snuggled with the baby. I’m attempting to keep up a weekly(ish) cooking or baking activity with the big girl even after the baby’s arrival. It’s a little harder to make it happen than it used to be, but it’s still important to spend some quality time with my big girl. Thanks @emilouwho18 for sharing the recipe!
It’s a GIRL! Our second sweet baby girl arrived It’s a GIRL! Our second sweet baby girl arrived on 3/13 at 7 lbs, 7 oz, 21” long. The new big sister is so proud of her new baby and sneaks a kiss every chance she gets. (Long post alert: if you want to hear about our eventful month since bringing this girl home from the hospital, read on!) We spent the first few days in a bubble soaking up the newborn snuggles, until a stomach bug visciouly attacked all of us within a week of coming home from the hospital. Week 2 saw us all recover from the bug but brought pollen so thick it looked like fog, and resulted in miserable allergies so we stayed inside as much as possible. That made the week incredibly long for all of us, but we survived! The third week was a trying one as the Mister headed back to work and the girls & I started to find our new rhythm. The days were long; the big girl was clingy, and one (or both!) of them needed me 112% of the time. I managed to get out with the baby for a long walk in the sunshine most days, which helped. We opened a bottle of wine that week, which also helped. Week 4 came and we turned a corner as the big girl better adjusted to the changes (though when the photographer arrived to take these photos, we were in the peak of a toddler meltdown, the baby was nursing, the dogs were barking like crazy, the dad was trying to get some work done in his home office, and the mama was just trying to keep it together. We managed to calm everyone down, thanks in part to our great photographer, who swooped in and got the baby dressed so I could focus on the big sister), and we enjoyed our first outings as a family of 4 to church for Easter and later in the week, a trip to the strawberry patch! As our first month drew to a close, I was ready to look at Instagram again, but when I tried I got locked out of my account what for they called ‘suspicious activity’ that seem to have occurred just a few days into my month-long absence. After hours of googling + four days of emailing with Facebook to prove this is, in fact, my account, I got back in. So here we are, a month after bringing this sweet girl home from the hospital. We’re adjusting, struggling, enjoying, & even sleeping - just a little.
This gallery wall above my sewing machine has been This gallery wall above my sewing machine has been my view during naptimes recently. I wasn’t expecting to have afternoons to myself the past couple weeks, so I haven’t had much of a to-do list. Instead, each day I’ve gone for a walk (it’s been sunny and 70s!) then worked on various sewing projects. We’ve gotten our daughter a new doll so she has her own baby to care for, and now she has little versions of baby items for her new doll: hand made diaper bag, sleep sack, burp cloths, hooded towel, and sleeper outfit (I don’t see that fast, so the wide variety of doll paraphernalia is evidence that I fully expected this baby to have arrived early like its big sister!). It’s such a strange feeling knowing that in a few days our days will be completely different (and I won’t be seeing much of the sewing machine or this gallery wall again for a while either!).
This project is getting so close! This afternoon This project is getting so close! This afternoon I’m choosing art and photos to include in the girl’s new bedroom, then I’ll gather frames to go with them. We’ve got a nice collection of prints from aunts, grandmothers, thrift stores, books, and vacation souvenirs, and we did a little mother-daughter art project a couple weeks ago so our daughter could contribute to her room, too (see previous post!). The goal is to choose and frame all the art and photos this week...then it’s anyone’s guess whether or not we’ll get them hung before the little baby arrives soon! 🤞
Lessons learned doing art with a 2-year-old: 1- Ne Lessons learned doing art with a 2-year-old: 1- Never go into it with an idea of what your final piece will look like. When you’re 98% finished, she will add her own flourish to your canvas and you’ll have to paint over it. 😩 2- You can never have enough pink paint. 🎨 3- Toddler art can pass for something that would go in a museum or sell for thousands of dollars. 💵 4- Have paper towels and baby wipes handy. Lots and lots of paper towels and baby wipes. There will be many teachable moments about cleaning up after yourself. 🧼 5- The art session can last for hours. Be prepared with a large stack of paper and a large area for drying. 📄 6- There might be a tantrum/breakdown when you announce it’s time to stop for snack/potty/lunch/nap...or all of the above. 😢 7- When the child is finished, she doesn’t go back and make multiple changes/‘improvements’ like an adult might. She simply says ‘all done’ and moves on to the next one. Maybe there’s a lesson there! 🧐 Check my stories for a few fun (also stressful) moments from our morning painting session!
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Homespun by Laura | Art + Crafts
Homespun by Laura | DIY
Homespun by Laura | Home Decor
Homespun by Laura | Sewing

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