DIY Life

We talked headboards last week, and I can't help but shake the fact that I desperately need to spruce my own up a bit. As usual, I'm taking a cue from our fellow friends at ShelterPop. This lovely round-up has me craving a Saturday afternoon with a bit of fabric, plywood and my handy dandy staple gun.

This handy ReadyMade tutorial is one of my favorites, as I'm an avid read-in-bed kinda gal. There's nothing comfortable about stacking a few pillows against a hard, upright headboard, so this design is perfect for me. And with just a few tools, the process couldn't be easier!

Don't see one you like? Blogger pioneer Grace Bonney from Design*Sponge gave us a sneak peek of her own bedroom, including a DIY video of this gorgeous homemade headboard that's fit for a queen. Or, you could check out Curbly's round-up of 10 Fantastically DIY-able headboards.

Happy dreaming!

My no-dig vegetable garden is still in its infancy. I have a big ole pile of grass clippings mixed with kitchen compost, as per the instructions of veggie guru Patricia Lanza in her wonderful book, Lasagne Gardening.

Problem: This decaying pile is located in my front yard. A real visual treat for my neighbors, I'm sure. Honestly, it looks like I got halfway to the curb with a ton of garden waste then simply gave up and dumped it all on the lawn.

As a considerate citizen, I want to tidy things up with a low retaining wall. Trawling the Internet in search of easy-to-follow instructions, I cried "Hallelujah!" when I stumbled upon popular blogger Pioneer Woman's post, "Build Your Own Raised Flower/Vegetable Bed."

With the high price of gasoline, we're all looking for ways to stay home, rather than loading up the car with the kids and heading off to have some summer fun elsewhere. One solution kills two birds with one stone: building a deck will give you a place to hang out and entertain, and add equity to your home.

Of course it's no secret that DIY deck building takes some careful planning, some tools that you probably already have, and lots of elbow grease. What you might not know is the construction details and tricks that the pros use. Read on and you'll be an expert!

Attracting birds to your yard can bring so much enjoyment. They are so much fun to watch, and my son loves naming the different types he sees at our birdfeeder -- goldfinch, robin, sparrow, blue jay....

We've shown you how to build a bird house with scrap wood; now I'll share some ideas on how to build a bird bath with materials you may have around the house.

You could use some chicken wire and cement for the bath part, some metal for the support post, and rocks for the edges, suggests Las Pilitas. Or how about an old cake pan, an old garbage can lid, or even a beat-up hubcap? If those are too crazy for you, a soft, flat rock or even a terra cotta pot's saucer will make an effective birdbath.

Why on Earth would you want to build an owl house? Having owls take up residence on your property will cause the mouse population to dwindle: never a bad thing if the furry invaders like to live in your basement, attic, or -- yikes! -- your kitchen.

To build a screech owl house, you'll need ten feet of one-foot board, some hinges, nails, and screws, wood glue, and a little time. Research shows that owls like big houses with small entrance holes, which is what inspired this owl house plan from Audubon. They suggest hanging your owl house ten feet off the ground or higher.

You are now on your way to a mouse-free house! Similarly, if you'd like to see a few less mosquitoes, try building a bat house. Apparently, those buzzing buggers are quite delicious....

Cupcakes have come into vogue as a sweet alternative to the traditional wedding cake. No fussing with cutting the cake, and guests can choose from a variety of flavors. Besides that, a well-decorated cupcake is just plain adorable!

If you have a couple hundred guests, though, that's a couple hundred cupcakes, at least. Where on earth do you serve them? Cupcake stands are the norm, but generally these hold only a couple of dozen.

If you're an enterprising DIY bride, however, you might just want to craft a cupcake stand to beat all cupcake stands, and put a solid 375 cupcakes on the one, enormous tree! You could consider it the centerpiece to the reception hall!

Reminisce with me for a moment, if you will, back to your childhood, to when you and your siblings built and launched your own bottle rocket. How'd it go for you?

If you did everything correctly, your rocket probably took off with ease, and the display was celebrated with lots of hoots and hollers.

However, if you tried to elaborate on the directions, and came up with a creative way to watch your rocket fly a little longer, it may have ended badly, like it did for the two young men who won a Darwin Award honorable mention.

My three-year-old loves playhouses. Even if it's really just a cardboard box that he can fit into, it qualifies as the coolest toy in the northern hemisphere.

In fact, we have finally found the right plans to fit our yard, and we plan on building a playhouse for our fanciful child soon. We were actually steering clear of themed playhouses, so that Owen could let his imagination run wild; knowing him, it will be everything from a firehouse to the Hall of Justice.

If you have a little one who adores Disney's many jungle-themed rides and movies, though, this may be just the playhouse for you to try building.

The birds are back. I know this, because every morning at 4:30, they sing me awake. Hundreds of them. It was cute at first, but now I am thinking I really need to stop sleeping with the windows open....

I jest, because I really do enjoy having a yard full of birds. Our bird feeder is crowded daily with goldfinches, robins, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals, and other species of feathered friends. The conservation land our house borders has special houses just for the bluebirds, which are always a spectacular sight.

You can build a bird house from scrap wood for your yard, and hopefully attract some of the fascinating and colorful birds pictured in the gallery. You'll need a hammer and nails, waterproof glue, scrap 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch plywood, and some dowels.

The step-by-step instructions at All Free Crafts are very clear and there is a helpful diagram included. A good tip they mention is to think about the size of the hole you make, as that will determine what type of birds you attract.

Happy hammering!

One of the most fun and educational things you can do with your child(ren) is to start your own garden.

You don't have to make it a veggie garden, although eating what they grow does tend to intrigue the little ones. You can do a flower garden, a butterfly garden, or a cactus garden, to name a few.

I am also going to teach you how to add another twist to it. You and the small ones can build a garden that moves!

Why make a mobile garden? A mobile garden means you can change locations so you can use different plants at different times of the year that have different sunlight requirements. It also means that you can bring the garden to you when you want to work on it. Details after the break!

You might be considering a ball pit for your little ones, for your dorm room, or as a way to mark your wacky retirement. There is no age limit on fun, and ball pits bring loads of it. I remember burying myself in balls then jumping up to surprise my little brothers, and jumping into the ball pit without any fear because I knew I'd land softly.

Unfortunately, I also remember the smell of urine that came with each and every play-space. You see very few of them now, at least around here. I imagine that most places eventually opted for easier to maintain play structures. So what do you do if you want a ball pit now? You build one DIY style like Mike Machnry did.

You could use any number of things to contain the balls, an emptied out kiddie pool, baby gates, or cardboard, but Mike went to Home Depot and gathered materials to make it a more permanent structure. He used plastic garden fencing, zip ties and PVC piping. Using this ball pit calculator, he figured out how many balls he'd need to fill the space. Filling the bottom level of his loft bed, he's made his own private ball pit. When it came time to move, Mike had to de-construct his ball pit and re-assemble it at his new house. Check out his video. He does warn that "if you are going to go through the trouble of making a ball pit in your apartment just realize that all your friends are going to want to do is throw plastic balls at your face." Have fun!

I wrote about gingerbread houses a few times last month, what with them being seasonally-appropriate and all, but one thing I noticed is that people who love building with food will do it whenever they want, not just in the last month or two of the year. There was a Valentine house, several houses that people mentioned waiting until January to build, and a few houses that, for one reason or another, didn't look "wintry" at all.

I think I have just found the ne plus ultra of cookie-and-candy building. Behold, friends, the Battle of Pelennor Fields from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King, done almost entirely in candy. This isn't technically a "gingerbread house": the base is made of cardboard and covered with icing. The only cookies involved seem to be the wafers used as the stones in the walls of Minas Tirith.

If you and your kids (admit it, you play too!) have a big Lego collection then you know the frustration of digging for the right piece and never really knowing what you have and where to find things. In our house, this is one of the biggest barriers for our little guy in bringing his idea from conception to creation.

You may have tried different ways of sorting similar pieces. We've been through all sorts of bins and containers, but ultimately we end up with everything mixed together and dumped out on the floor in search of that perfect piece. I'm in favor of organizing these pieces if it will save him some frustration and save me from stepping on all the stray pieces!

Evil Mad Scientist suggests that we stack like pieces together. This keeps everything in bricks, making them easy to manage. It will take some discipline, but it's the best idea I've heard and I can tell you that we plan on giving it a try at our house. The article is full of pictures and actually illustrates how the various pieces will go together.

Take control of your Lego bin and spend your time building instead of looking for the right piece.

It has always seemed a shame to me that one of the best parts of the wedding day gets destroyed soon after the wedding ceremony. I have always enjoyed the beauty of wedding cakes and although I have always liked eating a piece, or two, or three, it still seems unfortunate to me that wedding cakes can't survive the celebration intact. Photographs just don't do justice to the memory of a wedding cake. They are after all, hand crafted works of art. So what is a person to do when they want a wedding cake that will withstand the rigors of time? I have found the answer. Although not edible, a LEGO wedding cake is durable enough to keep for a lifetime and to pass on to your heirs.

The LEGO wedding cake web page I have located for you does not have actual step by step instructions for making this beautiful creation but plenty of pictures and good descriptive text give you enough information to undertake the project yourself. The bottom two tiers are constructed slice by slice, allowing the happy wedding couple to give them to wedding guests as keepsakes.

If you're a fan of LEGO construction and you are contemplating tying the matrimonial knot, give some consideration to the LEGO wedding cake. It fits all the requirements of the traditional wedding cake except it's not edible and you really wouldn't want to schmoosh a piece of it into your new life partner's face.