When I was still living with my parents, the main floor of our house went through a complete overhaul. Check out my reno diary here. We spent a few months living in the basement with Chinese takeouts for dinner. From hiring the right people, to selecting materials and making decisions on the fly, they were so many things that stressed me out during the process. And there were certainly a lot of things I wished I knew before tackling such big renovation project. If you're thinking of renovating your kitchen, Lauren Bracy is here as a guest today to share 6 tips that will help make your project easier!

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The kitchen is the heart of the house, where you cook, socialize and eat with the entire family. It is epicenter of daily activities, starting from the morning to the fag end of the day. Since we spend a considerable amount of time to promote good health of our family members. It is vital to accentuate the functionality of the kitchen, in compliance to its aesthetics to make it more convenient for the homemaker. Let us delve into some important tips of kitchen renovation to learn more.

1. Deciding the Right Personnel

The first question related to kitchen renovation is who must be deployed to take action on the renovation process. You need to do background research, rather than choosing someone randomly. Always look for the company or individual’ s experience in this domain. To get that idea, you need to check the profile of the company and then decide how good is his service. 

2. Check Market Reputation

The next thing to be checked is customer satisfaction with his work. You need to enquire about the professionals expertise and the quality of his service. You can get the testimonials of previous clients at their site, go through the comments that they have made on this platform. When all these things are checked by you, you can remain assured he is the best one to do the service for you. 

3. Decide the Right Time

The next question is when to deploy the staff for kitchen renovation. To make that happen, there are different things to be shortlisted again. Since it is your kitchen and you need to get there all the time. So, it must not be the kitchen renovation hampers your cooking. Hence, make an alternative arrangement for the same and then only deploy the company for the same. There is no specified timing to deploy the renovators, as this is not a seasonal activity. Choose a time that suits you the best.

4. Scrutinize your Budget

You might like the new design and an arrangement, but that might not fit your budget. It is important to decide on your budget before initiating the venture. It is wise to discuss the cost of renovation with the expert before taking a plunge. The budget of kitchen renovation can also depend on the size of the kitchen. The bigger the kitchen, it will significantly affect the renovation cost. Look for alternative options to fit your budget.

5. Ideas for renovation

Once you have chosen the company to do the kitchen renovation with, there is one more thing left. That is related to the flow chart of the renovation process. You must have to keep in mind to get that flow chart from the company who will work for you. Once you get that, you will be at the best seat to plan your way of handling the kitchen renovation. This is something which is essential too, as the kitchen is in use already and your planning must be to support your family at the time of renovation, which will not disrupt their daily routine. 

6. Finding the best ideas

How you want your new kitchen to look like completely rests on your taste and desire. Hence, decide carefully what changes you want in the kitchen, in keeping with the issues you are now facing. Share the ideas with the experts, who will guide you in the renovation process.
The Last word

Remember all the above pointers about kitchen renovation to embrace the best possible approach towards your renovation work. Hence, it is time to go for it.

This post is contributed by: Lauren Bracy
I am Lauren Bracy, a qualified blogger. Here you can see my skills which gives you small ideas on understanding all the concepts with different themes. I love to write blog on different topics, like: Home Improvement, Automotive, Business, Health, Lifestyle, Pet, etc.  Follow me on: Facebook or Twitter

I'm beyond excited for Halloween this year because I can dress up Justice and take photos of him in his cute little costumes. I have so many ideas for what he could potentially be. Believe it or not, I have been planning since August! 

One of the costumes that I want him to wear is a piece of nigiri shrimp sushi that I made for myself 6 years ago! It's my favourite DIY costume. I just have to bring it back and modify for Justice. This will be a great matching costume to wear as a family too. Check out my detailed tutorial on how to make my sushi costume first.

The modification for Justice's sushi costume is simple. All I need is a white onesie and beanie. I removed the ginger, seaweed and wasabi from my hair clip and stitch all of them onto the white beanie. I didn't use glue because I wanted to be able to remove the condiment pieces and keep the beanie in shape once Halloween is over. See how I made the condiment headpiece here. 

For the shrimp, I use a template to trace out 2 pieces of orange fabric and sew them together with cotton stuffing inside. The shrimp actually looks a little bit bigger on Justice but I find it super cute! 

Download my shrimp template and follow the steps here. 

Then I just dress Justice up in his white onesie, tie a black belt around his waist with the shrimp sashimi on his back. And viola~ An adorable looking piece of sushi is served!

Check out my original Sushi Halloween Costume Tutorial

Who wears it better? I'm sure he does! ha-ha. See some of the other DIY Halloween costumes that I did in the past!

Have a happy Halloween!

I’m in love with everything that is made out of ropes right now. After making my rainbow hanging decor with cotton rope, I just wanted to wrap everything in my house with cotton rope! There’s something about cotton ropes that gives off this warm and cozy vibe. That’s why it’s a great material to use for home decor. And, today I’m sharing how you can make a Fall wreath using, you got it, COTTON ROPES! 

This tutorial is very simple to do and is suitable for crafters at any level even if you’ve never made a wreath before. This wreath is a perfect DIY project to welcome Autumn. 

Let’s get started! 

Supplies: 

• Foam ring 16” 
•  A variety of faux fall florals stems
• Wood leaves (optional to add different interest. Got mine from the dollar store!)
• Cotton rope (I got this one from Home Depot as it is the cheapest at 100 feet long, but it's still not enough to cover a 16" ring entirely. So you can choose to buy a separate pack of 30 feet to cover the rest.)
• Floral wire 
• Wirecutter 
• Glue gun 
• Piler or scissors (piler is definitely your friend for cutting faux floral stems!)

I bought the majority of my supplies from my local dollar stores. The foam ring was purchased from Michaels with their 40% coupon. I underestimated how long the cotton rope needs to be in order to cover the entire foam ring. At 100 feet long, the cotton rope only covered about 90% of the ring. I had to connect with another pack of cotton ropes to finish the entire ring. 

Instructions: 

1. Glue one end of the cotton rope to the inner part of the foam ring so that it stays in place. Begin wrapping the entire ring. Connect rope ends together as necessary. Make sure to wrap it tightly and the ropes are parallel to one another. Glue the end of the rope in place.
2. Now, take your floral stems apart. You might want to trim the stems shorter before inserting to the foam ring.
3. Start with elements that will be in the background such as the leaves stems. Insert stems in between the rope and into the foam ring. If some stems are tougher to insert, you can wrap floral wire to secure them.
4. Continue to insert the rest of your floral stems until it's visually even. Cover any empty spots.
5. Add your foreground elements (usually the largest florals). 
6. Fill any gaps with leaves.

Then hang it over a hook on your front door and invite guests over so they can admire your new wreath!

I love how this turns out! It's definitely more extravagant and more work than my Spring wreath. 

I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!

Check out my other DIY home decor ideas!

DIY Spring Wreath for Your Front Door

DIY House Number For Your Home

DIY Succulents Home Decor

Make Your Own Custom Doormat

Now that October is here, I'll accept that Summer is officially over. Even though this Summer was not very exciting (all thanks to the pandemic...), at least Thanksgiving and Halloween are just around the corner for me to look forward to! For today’s post, I’ve collaborated with my friend, Margaret from Sincerely Bo, to share with you some calligraphy Thanksgiving DIYs that you can do easily at home. It's time to swap out those Summer decor for a Fall look, starting with this wall art.

To make this wall art, you'll need:

• a photo frame (any size)
• a sharpie marker (thin and thick)
• white card stock (fits in the photo frame of your choice)
• print out the calligraphy worksheet

Now, I know not everyone can write beautiful calligraphy. To help you, I created this worksheet with Margaret's calligraphy so you can practice at home. All you need to do is print it out and trace along the guide with a marker. Repeat as necessary. Pay attention to when the strokes become thicker and how the flourishings flow.

After some practice, you can then try lettering without using the guide. Scale up and down your calligraphy so you get comfortable creating the same style and flourishings in different sizes. Once you get the hang of it, you can now transfer to letter on your cardstock paper! 

I love how elegant this faux calligraphy looks at home on the wall! Besides wall art, you can letter to make cards or even a table runner to host your Thanksgiving dinner!

I've never thought of making my own toy for Justice since he's already got boxes of new toys and hand-me-downs from friends and family. I thought we have enough toys that he can play with for the next 2 years. But as he becomes more curious about his surroundings, I started to question whether or not the toys he plays with help him develop and grow. I can't help but think that most of them are mindless, noisy or just to keep him busy. So I looked up toys that will be great for his senses. And this water sensory bag shows up. I thought this would be super easy to make myself. And it was! I found most of the supplies at home and from my local dollar store. It also took me 2 minutes and 3 bucks to put together.

Here's what you'll need:

• Pom Poms in assorted colours
• Sequins in assorted colours
• Large zip-lock bag
• Water
• Gorilla tape/duct tape

Instructions are very simple. Just dump all the pom poms and sequins (or whatever you want, really) into a large zip-lock bag and fill it with water. Don't overfill it though. Just fill half of the bag with water so there's room for water and the items to float around. It will also less likely to explode when the baby pounds it with their hands. Ain't nobody wants that to happen! Secure the opening with tape. You may want to put it into another zip-lock bag for double security like what Will keeps telling me to do. And that's it! 

This is a stimulation toy for babies. It's fun watching Justice feel the water bag and see his little eyes follow all the shiny colourful items move around as he touches the bag. It's a great way for him to use and explore with his senses.

I hope you enjoy making this simple little toy for your little one! Check out more of my DIY tutorials here. If you do give this a try, please share your pics with me on Instagram: @tingandthings_! I would love to see your take on these!

Now that baby Justice has arrived, I've been trying to squeeze in some crafting times in between nursing and his nap times. I still have a lot of DIY projects to finish for baby J. If you've seen my nursery room reveal, you'd know that I still have a blank wall to fill up. My latest project for his nursery is this custom rainbow wall hanging using colours that match the rest of the room. I wanted the nursery to be bright and cheerful. And this cute rainbow wall hanging does just that. I love how it turned out so much that I even made a mini version to hang on our car rearview mirrors. I might even make another one as a keychain too...Can you tell that I'm obsessed? LOL. That's because they are so easy to make!

The best part of DIY-ing this yourself is that you can control the size, colours and add additional charms to it to make it personal. Here's what you need:

How to Make Your Own Rainbow Wall Hanging Tutorial

Supplies:

• Cotton Rope (I bought mine for the dollar store)
• 5 colours of yarn of your choice
• Scissors
• Craft/Beading Wire
• Glue gun
• Painter's tape
• Thin cotton rope (optional)
• Wooden beads (optional)
• Thread and needle (optional)

First, lay the rope to form a rainbow arc shape. I wanted my rainbow to have 5 arcs. You can make as much or as few arcs as you like. 

Once you've decided the number of arcs, cut the rope on the lopes and tape all the open ends with painter's tape to prevent from fraying. 

With a marker, draw a line where you want the arcs to begin.  

Trim the wire to match the length of your markers. I inserted my wire inside the rope so it stays put for next step. 

Take a piece of yarn and tie a knot at your marker. This will be the start of the arc. Wrap around the rope until you reach the other side of the marker. Make sure the yarn does not overlap with one another. You’d want the yarn to be parallel with each other for a neater look. Tie a knot on the side so you can hide it with another arc. Repeat this step for the rest of the colours.

Pro tip: I find it easier and faster to wrap the yarn by turning the rope instead of the yarn. Wrap from left to right (unless you’re a lefty then wrap from right to left).

Using a hot glue gun, glue the side of the arc, starting from the inner arc to each of the arcs.

Remove the painter's tape and unravel the ends. Trim the ends to the desired length with big utility scissors so they are even. 

Pro tip: use a hair straightener to straighten the ends.

To make the rainbow hanging, I use a thin cotton rope and added some wooden beads. Loop the cotton rope and tie with a knot. I left the rope long so I could adjust the length later. Using similar colour thread, stitch the rope to the back of the rainbow above the knot. This way, the length of the rope is adjustable.

How to Make a Rainbow Mini Charm 

For hanging on your car rearview mirror or as a keychain!

Supplies:

• Cotton Rope (Dollar store is your best friend)
• Embroidery threads that are similar in colours
• Scissors
• Craft/Beading Wire
• Glue gun
• Painter's tape
• Thin cotton rope (optional)
• Wooden beads (optional)
• Thread and needle (optional)

For the matching mini charm, it's a similar process except just smaller in scale so it's a lot quicker to do. Instead of yarn, wrap around each arc with embroidery threads the same way, covering the wire. 

Once finished, glue the arcs together with a hot glue gun. Unravel the ends of the rope and trim them straight. Stitch a thin cotton rope or embroidery thread to the back. I added wooden beads. You can add diffuser oil to these beads and let them absorb the scent. Now you have a matching diffuser charm to hang in your car!

I hope you guys enjoy this tutorial. Check out more of my DIY tutorials here. If you do give this a try, please share your pics with me on Instagram @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting! I would love to see your take on these!

Pin this for later~

Check out my other nursery decor DIY tutorials

DIY Wall Hanging Banner

I can’t believe just how fast time flies, my little one is already 100 days old! In my culture, the 100th-day milestone is a celebration for the little one but I think that it is a celebration for the parents as well. Because raising a tiny human is certainly not easy! And we’ve made it this far!

Traditionally, parents would invite all families and friends together (usually in a banquet at a restaurant) to meet the little one. But with the COVID-19 situation, that is just not possible. Luckily we’re still allowed to have gatherings with a maximum of 10 people in the house, so we ended up celebrating this milestone with both our immediate families in the comfort of our own home.

Even though we weren't able to have Justice meet everyone at this time, I still wanted to do something special for him. For his first official celebration, we threw a BBQ party with a "golden pineapple" theme.

 

Party Like a Golden Pineapple

In Chinese, the term “golden pineapple” also sounds similar to what we call a precious one in the family. So it's a perfect theme for us and summertime!

This wasn’t how Will and I originally envisioned Justice’s 100th day. We were hoping he could meet all his family and friends at this milestone. But this small celebration would do for now. We barbecued up a storm and DIY’d all the party decorations ourselves. At one point, I even thought of making our own cake...So glad that Will stopped me. I didn’t realize how ambitious I was doing this all while taking care of a baby... But I’m happy with how everything turned out and Justice had an amazing time bonding with everyone! 

Looks like he loves the cake or the cake topper that I made for him!

Here's a look at all the party decor and how you could also DIY yourself!

Pineapple Party DIY Party Decor

I had so much fun designing and DIY-ing all the party decor. I just wish I had more time since I could only squeeze in some crafting time between baby's sleep/naptime (#momlife).  After making the head table and photobooth backdrop for our gender reveal party, I realized just how easy it is to DIY your own backdrops. Check out my tutorial on how to make this tropical balloon arc.

Make this tropical balloon arc in my tutorial.

I was so lucky I found a huge gold pineapple balloon from Dollar Tree. And it was actually the only one left! This one came with a straw where you just blow air to inflate it. No helium required! Next, I also bought the 14" gold foil number balloons to spell "100", also from Dollar Tree. Honestly, there're so many hidden gems from the dollar store for crafting! 

It's not a party without a banner, right? I found this roll of gold glitter fabric paper and I just had to use it! I drew out the pineapple outline and cut it using my Cricut machine. Same with the "Happy 100th" banner using gold cardstock paper that I already have on hand (but you can buy them in Michaels).

Food-wise, it obviously had pineapples incorporated. Besides the usual meat and burgers for the barbecue, we also had all kinds of dishes with pineapples in them.

I couldn't find a pineapple flavoured cake to match the theme. The closest I could find is this Pandan cake. It's a tropical plant so I think it worked. I made a cake topper to dress up the cake a bit. The word, "HOORAY" incorporated the number, "100" in it as well. I love how it turned out. It's such a simple way to dress up a normal cake!

I made these pineapple crowns with green cardstocks and toothpicks

I made these pineapple popsicle bites using a mold. 

Summer fruit punch with mix of pineapple, orange and mango juice with slices of pineapples in them.

Made my own cake topper for this pandan cake from DaanGo Cake Lab

Simple pineapple salsa dip with peppers, pineapples, lemon juice

Made this adorable pineapple paper lantern following this tutorial.