License plate art wall decor that is sentimental and looks fabulous! 🚘 One of my goals with our farmhouse is that everything that gets hung on the wall will be meaningful.  It's a lot of pressure and it's also why there still isn't much on our walls.  😄 However, my boys' room is almost done with the license plate art wall decor I'm sharing with you today.  It's been easy to find little things to add to their space.  Our home was filled with farming memorabilia, antique cars, trucks - and ... READ MORE

DIY painted furniture for a fall porch refresh! 👏 You all know that I love a good painted furniture re-do. Just recently I refinished my grandmother’s heirloom head and foot board after removing layers of mint green paint to reveal their natural beauty. Before that, I showed you how to use chalk paint to revolutionize an antique vanity for my girls' bedroom. Today I'm going to take you through a DIY furniture makeover in a completely different setting and in perfect timing for fall ... READ MORE

Fall porch decor with a farmhouse flair - perfect for Halloween, trick or treat night and those cool fall evenings. 🍁 One of my favorite things about our home is the porch.  Once winter hits, I'll be missing the time I've spent almost every evening enjoying the cool breeze in the outdoor space.  But until that chilly day - I'm very excited to decorate our porch for fall and the future trick or treaters that will venture to our home. I wanted our fall porch decor to be colorful with ... READ MORE

Make a unique placemat into a stylish purse from this simple DIY pattern. Most every woman I know carries a purse around. Mine is filled with keys, shopping cards, receipts, lipstick and coupons. The modern purse came about during the Industrial Revolution when so many women traveled by railway. Their practicality to carry things from a far distance overruled their looks. Today, it seems a pretty purse around our shoulder becomes part of our outfit; a way to look put together...and who ... READ MORE

I love, love jewelry, but most often, I find that jewelry is one of those things that can be expensive to buy, but inexpensive to create. And that got me thinking. Why not revitalize or recycle some of my old, tired pieces?  Earrings that have lost their partner or unused chain necklaces with nothing to shine on them. Perhaps I'll even create new pieces along the way. Off to the craft store I went. I sought out the clearance section for jewelry overstock and gathered inspiration. I bought ... READ MORE

When I visited my friend Jennie in West Virginia a few years ago, she wanted to show me how to recycle a cloth placemat. Say what? With little ones, we never saw a point to those placemats anyway. Can you imagine how stained they would be after just one spaghetti dinner? So when Jennie demonstrated how to turn a pretty quilted placemat into a nook for special items, I knew that was something this mama could use! I'd like to store my homemade cards and envelopes together with a book of stamps. ... READ MORE

It's good to be back! I have missed writing for Cleverly Simple these last two months. My husband and I welcomed our final addition, sweet little Wesley James, in February. Would you like to meet him as I show you how we made our DIY hands and feet painting? When I was in my early twenties, I visited the home of a friend and mother who had artistically framed portraits of her three children hanging in her dining room. They were created when each child was about 5 years old so that you ... READ MORE