Best DIY Projects of 2023

2023 was a bit of a slower year project-wise but I love what I got to create this past year. These are in no particular order but I think my top three are the library, the fireplace, and the disco mirrors. I’m counting The DIY Awards as a DIY project because, well, it was quite possibly the most intense, stressful, and time consuming DIY project I did all year. Tap on each link to go to the tutorial for that project (and if you click the DIY Awards one it’ll take you to the Awards round up with photos from the event, as well as all the winners!).

I don’t have anything solid planned for 2024 projects, but I’ve had some things that have been needing to be done for many years and I’m hoping to get those projects ticked off this year (there’s a half finished bathroom staring at me right now).

All in all, I’m proud of what I did in 2023, most of all the rest I allowed myself to take. I’m feeling like I’m going into the new year recharged and re-inspired, whereas I basically dragged myself through January last year trying to finish up and put on the DIY Awards event, and then subsequently was burnt out for a good portion of the year.

So here’s to 2023 and her accomplishments, and a fresh new year ahead full of possibility.

01/ The Ikea-hack built-in library

02/ The DIY Modern Garden Trellis

03/ The DIY faux concrete electric fireplace

04/ The Disco Mirror projects

Disco Mirror Jr.

big disco mirror

DIY Disco mirror booties

05/ The DIY Awards

A DIY Minecraft Birthday Party

The two weeks before Christmas are always a little bit of a mad dash since Jack’s birthday is in that time period. Every year I try my best to create a really fun party for him to help ensure his birthday doesn’t get rolled into the busy-ness of the holiday season. This past year he’s gotten super into Minecraft (and TBH our whole family has, which has been a blast), so we obviously had to do a Minecraft themed birthday party.

All three of us were Minecraft characters for Halloween, so I saved those costumes to use as decor for the party (the Ghast below was Dan’s costume). Some of the decor was just Minecraft party decor from Target, like the table cloth, but most of it was DIY! I grabbed some of the printable decor from the Jennifer Maker blog, and then I tweaked some of her downloads in photoshop to add more things.

One of the fun ideas I got from her blog was to incorporate the in-game food as the party food. So we had melon (watermelon), apples, carrots, sticks (chocolate pocky), chicken (chicken nuggets), rotten flesh (beef jerky), and potions (apple juice and koolaid). I usually do a pretty fancy cake and this year’s was one of the harder ones I’ve done, simply because fondant is way harder to apply to a square cake, but we made it work. I did a grass block for the base layer and did green fondant with green food coloring painted squares for the grass, and then brown sprinkles stuck to chocolate frosting for the dirt part. Then the top layer was all fondant frosting and I printed the TNT on paper, cut the letters out, and stuck them on with water.

We made Minecraft themed perler bead patterns as a craft, which is definitely a 7/8 year old and older activity, but it was super fun.

I have a feeling this obsession might continue far into the future so this might not be my last Minecraft birthday party, but it was for sure a fun one!

Abstract art making and attuning to intuition

My comfort in formative art lies in the comfort I feel knowing I’m capable of replicating an object or image realistically. I know that once I choose a subject, I’ll be able to render it sufficiently. Abstract art removes that crutch entirely. In the past I’ve approached abstract art by replicating other abstract art— basically doing the same thing I do with representational art, applying it to abstract art that I enjoy as a viewer. But that’s not my art. In order to make my abstract art, I would have to stop looking outside myself and tap into something inside myself and that, folks, is uncomfy. I’m not great at listening to my intuition. I’d rather take a course, or hire a coach, or follow some kind of template, or, or— instead of quieting all the outside influences and seeing what oozes out of my own intuitive creativity. 

There’s also a guarantee of “goodness” in my representational work. Because I know I’m able to render things realistically, I know that it will turn out “good” or at least good enough to not trigger fear or anxiety. In my representational work I avoid the pain of creating “bad art” to a certain degree. Which isn’t to say that everything I’ve made that is representational and realistic is good art, far from it. But at least the badness about it can at least partially be looked over by the fact that it looks alright from a realism standpoint.

I was painting over this orange monstrosity earlier today, and Dan came over and watched me for a moment before I lamented to him about how abstract art feels so unnatural to me. And maybe that’s true, maybe I’m really not an abstract artist. But he reminded me that I’m new at creating abstract work and that I should expect to be amazing at it first try (how dare he. I must be amazing at all things first try, doesn’t he know?!?).

I was on the verge of completely giving up on the piece, and I may still paint over it completely and start over, but I think I might still try to push into doing abstract work. The above screenshot from my IG story yesterday mentions bringing in typographic elements, and I think I might attempt some mixed media elements. I really l love postmodern and pop art and have since college, and 90% of the art I have hanging in my house is typographic. Maybe it’s the writer side of me elbowing my way in, or the printmaker, but I really really love typography elements in fine art.

So. Here I am. Just a girl, standing in front of a canvas, asking abstract art to come out of my brain and onto the canvas.

DIY Disco Mirror Jr.

Look who made another disco mirror after saying she was never going to do it again looooooool. This one was for a good cause though, and if there was ever going to be a reason for me to make another disco mirror, DIY for a Cure is the reason. Every year DIY for a Cure puts on a week of DIY devoted to raising money for childhood cancer research with the goal of reaching $100,000. They host a ton of raffles to win amazing items from brands and anyone can participate as a DIYer by offering up something to raffle off. You see where I’m going with this? Yup, I got down to business glueing tiny 5mm mirrors once again, this time with the goal of raising $1000 for DIY for a Cure.

I made this one slightly different than my full length mirror version I finished in February. I intentionally made that one to be more like melted disco balls and so I used spray foam to create the forms. For this one, I wanted it to be more like half-disco balls all joined together, so the base for this one is styrofoam spheres I grabbed at Michaels. I joined them together using spray foam that I carved so that each ball seamlessly blended into its neighbors.

Knowing that this mirror was going to be sent to someone else, I was also much more intentional about making sure it was finished really professionally. I covered the mirror with paper while I worked so the surface of the mirror didn’t get scratched while I’m working (unfortunately my big mirror is covered in scratches from working on it uncovered for months). I also spray painted the balls silver before putting the mirrors on so any blank spots would be silver (TBH I could probably have skipped this— using 5mm mirrors the coverage is pretty solid, but had I been using 10mm mirrors I think there would probably be more visible gaps).

Anyway, I’m so so thrilled with how this one turned out and I’m a little sad to have to send it off, but I’m also thrilled that someone else will get these sparkle disco vibes in their life!

There’s one more day left to enter to win this mirror! A $50 donation to my DIY for a Cure page gets you entered to win! Just donate, screenshot your donation and DM it to me, and you’re entered to win! The raffle entries close at 6pm Pacific on Sunday Oct 8th, 2023.

A flailing butterfly

Outfit photos? Who is she? Is this 2013? Not to worry, you’re not caught in some time vortex, thought I feel like after the last three years going back to 2013 might be idyllic.

Anyway, I was out taking photos of my newly finished Disco Mirror and I had on a cute look to show off the mirror, and figured I’d throw in some outfit pic and try to get some new headshots. These pants are my absolute favorite pants. I’d wanted them for at least a year, but they were out of stock, and when I finally saw they were in stock I jumped at the chance to grab them. At $108 they’re definitely a splurge for me (almost all my clothes are thrifted, so it doesn’t take too much for something to be considered a splurge, lol), but I’m willing to shell out more when it’s a special item, well made, and something I know for certain I’ll wear constantly. The idea of cost-per-wear is something I used to think about a lot back in my fashion blogger days, which is basically just the idea of dividing the cost of the item by the number of times you wear it, so if something is more expensive, but you wear it a ton, then the cost-per-wear of the item goes down.

My style has really been hard to nail down since I had Jack, which now is almost 7 years ago (whoa). I used to be such a vintage fashion girlie, then more boho, but I’ve had such a hard time finding my style since becoming a mom. In the past six months I’ve felt like I’ve finally dialed in a style that feels really me. In a way, it’s just dressing in a way that my teenage self would look at me and think, “Damn, she’s cool as fuck.”

Top: Target // Pants: P&Co // Boots: Amazon // Necklace: Amazon // Jacket: Thrifted + customized

After my two month break from social media, I’ve felt a little like a flailing, newly emerged butterfly. I was so adept at my caterpillar life as a DIY content creator. I knew how to do things well, I got great feedback from the algorithm that my content was getting good reach, I was working with brands… and then I hit burnout and things started feeling weird. So I went in to my cocoon over the summer and it was lovely and rejuvenating… but what emerged at the end was startling and unrecognizable. I didn’t want to do DIY content creation anymore. I didn’t even like the moniker “content creator.” Over the summer I’d rediscovered my artist self, and she was begging to be given space in my life.

As I thought and journaled about it, I realized that my DIY content creator self was created in the aftermath of having Jack and feeling completely and totally untethered in the storm of new motherhood. I was straight up not having a good time, postpartum depression was taking its toll, and I just desperately needed something that was totally and completely mine. Something I could do that felt productive and creative. A place I could pour myself into and find myself again.

And I did! But along the way I also created this platform that was wholly devoted to DIY. I’d marketed myself as a DIYer for over half a decade. I’d built up something that wasn’t going to serve me as I moved forward into a more holistic expression of myself.

And don’t get me wrong, I love DIY. I have been a DIY girlie my whole life and will continue to be a DIY girlie. But the DIY girl is also an artist and has been since I could hold a damn crayon. In 4th grade we had watercolor paintings of the northern lights that our class made hung in the hall, and some lady wanted to buy mine. In 6th grade my teacher dubbed me the “poetry queen”. I went to college and got my art degree. And over the years I’ve made a life for myself where I’ve been able to be creative on a daily basis and I’m really really proud of me for doing that.

But the one thing I haven’t done is give myself the space to create art. I create a lot of stuff. I make rooms, I paint murals, I make disco mirrors, I design merch, I build furniture, I design my website— all of that stuff is sort of in service of something else. I want to make art that I can hang in a gallery. I want to write books. And I know that it’s not like what I’m currently doing isn’t art, but there’s a difference in my mind, you know? Maybe it’s the difference between “fine art” and practical art. If there is such a difference.

Either way, that’s where I’m at. A flailing butterfly who hasn’t quite figured out how wings work, but feeling less scared about this new body and way of moving through the world.