I recently shared our newest green-friendly project, installing a rain barrel. After our first rain, we tried to fill our watering can from the lower spout, but there wasn’t enough water pressure. My handy dad suggested raising it up on cinder blocks, and since we happened to have several lying around our garage, we did just that before the barrel became too heavy to lift. The bonus is that the blocks raised the barrel’s water entry hole closer to the downspout, which we had cut a little shorter than intended. Now, we’re able to water our vegetable garden and flowers, no problem.

Love Craftynest’s showcase of her grandmother’s handmade doilies in some thrift store frames. Wouldn’t these look sweet in a dining room or a little girls room?

Many of us are still adjusting to living on less and coming up with creative ways to live large without breaking the bank. Some ways that hubby and are I doing this are with a few good habits:

1. Planning our meals so we don’t overbuy at the grocery store, and making special meals at home instead of going out.

2. Now that it’s Spring, enjoying the outdoors as much as possible. Going for a hike and enjoying the beauty of nature is free.

3. Being content with the great life we have, enjoying low-key time with family and friends, which don’t have to include spending money, going shopping, etc.

And, I recently decided a “Decor Diet” was in order. No need to buy more accessories or storage containers for our house. We have all that we need - more than we need. And, since we’re on a mission to live more simply, bringing more “stuff” into our house only adds stress, and requires more time to take care of those items. Since I love decorating, I’ll be playing around with different ideas, using what we already have.

Stay tuned…

Instead of featuring fave wedding finds from Etsy this week, I wanted to pass along this AMAZING run-down of a DIY backyard wedding of John & Sherry from one of my favorite blogs, This Young House. From oh-so-simple centerpieces to super cute take-home gladiola bulbs for favors, you’ll find some great ideas to incorporate into your special day, or really any party, for that matter.

A couple years ago I found these fun coasters from Anthropologie made from magazine reeds. I was thinking I could make my own, but my husband convinced me to just buy them so I could enjoy them right away.

Now, I’m thinking about some ideas I have using magazine reeds, and found this great tutorial on Craft Stylish. If you have tons of magazines sitting around, or even junk mail catalogs, then you can make your own magazine reeds to decorate boxes or picture frames and more.

The long weekend is finally here! While you’re making preparations for your Memorial Day BBQ, don’t forget to make it earth-friendly.

Instead of paper plates and plastic forks, stock up on seasonal outdoor party-ware, like these adorable plates from Pier 1 Imports.

Or check out these amazing biodegradable plates, bowls, and cups from Branch. Just rinse when done and throw in the compost pile. AMAZING.

And don’t forget to add some cloth napkins to take your party up a notch. It’s so much better to throw them in the wash than paper napkins in the trash. Last, and most importantly, remember those men and women that have lost their lives so that we may live freely. What an amazing gift.

We’re working on revamping our office closet thanks to The Container Store Spring Elfa sale. Our 1950’s shelf and rod just weren’t doing the trick, and we needed to store more in the closet of our home office/craft studio.

Here’s a before shot of our closet. Stay tuned for the reveal!

But right now I’m thinking about labels. On our additional shelving, we’ll be storing things in different containers, and to make it easy to find what we’re looking for, we’ll need labels.

Blissful Home offers inspiration rounded up from Apartment Therapy, See Jane Work, Poppytalk handmade and more, as I consider how to sort everything.

I started a home inventory in an Excel spreadsheet - one workbook with different tabs for each room in the house - to keep a record of what we have, what the purchase price was, where it was purchased from and when. Why? Because if a bad storm or a fire happened, we’d need proof to be able to recoup or costs from the insurance company.

Real Simple offers a great solution for this chore that will take even less time. Have a digital camera or camcorder? That’s all you’ll need to take note of all the important details, including model and serial numbers on electronics.

Do you have a home inventory? If not, add it to your spring cleaning check-list so you’ll be worry free.

One of our weekend projects was installing a rain barrell we just purchased to save water, and water our vegetable garden and flower beds. Last year we installed a timer on a sprinkler, however, we wanted to try to use less water and take advantage of what comes from the sky.

First, we measured how far up we wanted to cut, and used a hacksaw to sever the bottom half of the gutter…

We ended up having to removed the entire downspout to saw completely through.

Then we secured the top half back up with the gutter bracket and used needle-nose pliers to bend in the bottom of the gutter so that we could fit the elbow piece to the bottom.

Lastly, we moved leveled the ground, as the barrel needs to sit on a flat surface, and for us this required moving some flowers. Once that was done, the barrel was put in place and we’re done!

It will be interesting to compare how much water we save to water the garden this year. We’ve had a fair amount of rain this Spring, so hopefully it will continue! Various sources such as Treehugger say that up to 40% of water consumption is used for gardening and watering lawns, so using a rain barrell can lower that percentage considerably when using rainwater during more dry periods.

Some more beautiful wedding ideas…

Vellum Votive Wraps by GraphicbyDesign

Wedding sugar cookies by sugarcookiecouture

Freshwater Pearl Bracelet by Nanda