projects

  • giving: cardboard gifts for kids.

    Say it with me: This year, we’re giving the gift of cardboard to kids and they’re going to love it. Rose and I have taken inspiration from some of our favorite kids’ toys and…

    November 15, 2021 17 Comments
  • make your own: block stamps.

    I have a mostly hate/hate relationship with the amount of craft foam that comes into my house via kids crafting these days, so it took me some convincing to run this craft. But once…

    November 8, 2021 18 Comments
  • giving: supplies for making.

    Everyone’s talking about supply chains and gearing up early for the holiday season this year, and no doubt with good reason. I ordered tiny lobster claw clasps sometime mid-September and they’ve yet to arrive.…

    November 4, 2021 11 Comments
  • make your own: beeswax food wraps.

    Ever eager to cut down on disposables, a small collection of compostable beeswax wraps have been among my small-kitchen essentials for the last decade. For the uninitiated, a beeswax wrap can be used in…

    November 2, 2021 6 Comments
  • make your own: fabric paper.

    This isn’t exactly alchemy, but it feels that way. When Rose’s box-making habit began in earnest this summer, she was making origami masu boxes using paper—any kind of paper of any size. But as…

    October 27, 2021 27 Comments
  • make your own: origami masu box.

    All three of my kids are home sick this week, so a tutorial for something that makes anything at all feel neat and tidy and moderately contained is feeling just right. These origami masu…

    October 26, 2021 25 Comments
  • small improvements: mending throw pillows.

    We’re in the season of patched up scarecrows and stitched together monsters, and, less spooky, patched throw pillows. I added a new ticking stripe throw pillow to our couch a few weeks ago, which…

    October 14, 2021 12 Comments
  • make your own: simple cheesecloth ghosts.

    My children love gory halloween decorations. Give them a tree of decapitated heads, as one neighbor has, and they’ll be squealing in delight. Give them an animatronic ghoul rising from the trash can as…

    October 12, 2021 7 Comments
  • make your own: canvas tissue box cover.

    I’m not telling you need to make a tissue box cover, just that having one might make your next head cold a little easier to bear. Last week—or was it the week before—the whole…

    October 7, 2021 0 Comments