DIY=Love

From Design Sponge

If you know me at all, you know I love vintage. 

I love thrift stores and vintage shops and garage sales. Nothing is better. My admiration without a doubt comes from my mama, Shelly Anderson, who never let us girls buy a cute shirt of pair of jeans for full price. Sales, sales, sales! We would wake up at 6 a.m. to get an early start rummaging on weekends we'd spend in Fargo, N.D., or Park Rapids, Minn. Oh, and the auction sales! Mom has gotten some of the best deals and coolest vintage things from estate sales. 

Scott doesn't like this about my sense of style (along with my choices of paint color). He calls it *gasp* junk. So my new challenge is to make this so called "junk" into something a little more presentable. So I'm learning to repurpose and redo. 

My goals in the coming years are to: 

• learn to use a sewing machine
• learn to reupholster
• get a little more familiar with Scott's toolbox to...
• get better at home repairs

But first, these two projects are going to the top of my list. Oh, I recently discovered Pinterest. I'm addicted, to say the least. It's this site that lets you catalog your favorite things. It's like a big bookmark page, but it lets you capture a picture on a site you're looking at and "pin it" to your board. It's a big community of people sharing fashion, design, recipes... everything they like. I just joined, I only have a few things on my board but they are ideas worth looking at! 

Project 1: Vintage Suitcase Coffee Table

Ashley's vintage suitcase coffee table from Design Sponge. Click here for the full instructions.

Why I love this: I love old suitcases. And I already have in mind the thrift stores and vintage shops that have a wide variety of them. And I love coffee. And I would love rest my lovely coffee cup on my very own vintage suitcase coffee table.

Project 2: Wood and Fabric Message Board

Hannah's salvaged wood inspiration board from Design Sponge. Click for instructions.

Why I love this: I love the simplicity of this message board. The string is hemp and the photos and "inspirations" are held on by little baby clothes pins. It's quirky and fun and modern with a great vintage twist. My office at the Leader-News in Washburn, N.D., needs something just like this once the 70s brown paneling gets painted.

My sister, Lindsay, is coming to our house this weekend (Scott is off at work). Lewis and Clark Riverboat Days is this weekend, so we plan to soak in the festivities (and I plan to get some useful work out of that girl) as we hit up the thrift stores and get our hands dirty creating these fun DIYs! Updates will follow.