Guest Post - Directions Not Included

I'm so excited about today's Guest Post, my cousin Anna.  On Christmas Eve we got to talking about her new house and blogs.  I hadn't really told anyone about JandJHome at this point.  I told her my little secret and told her she should do it too.  I love that we have connected even more through our blogs and I LOVE her projects and craftiness.  I would have to say we are a pretty artsy/crafty family. Our dads are both architects, my mom's an art teacher, and her mom designs cakes.  We had to get the genes from somewhere. So before I keep rambling, go check her out. 

Hi there! I'm Anna and I blog at Directions Not Included. I'm excited to be guest posting today to show you what we have going on in our corner of the world. Jeanne is the reason I started blogging in the first place so I'm thrilled to be here. I've always been a huge blog reader but when we bought our major fixer-upper, J inspired me to start documenting the renovation process and all the decor projects I've been tackling. Craftiness and the desire to DIY runs in the family it seems.

 

We've been slowly but surely renovating every inch of our original (and ugly!) 1950s home ourselves. And just in case you think I'm exaggerating, here are a few befores:

Stylish backyard

Chic and modern kitchen

As slow as it feels some days, we are making progress and the place is starting to look more and more like a respectable home.

Backyard updates

Updated DIY kitchen - Still in progress

In addition to all our crazy renovation projects, I love crafting and experimenting to learn new techniques. Anything from basic sewing to paper wine charms and even monograms made from washers. A friend was craving a little sunshine in her life so I took a stab at making a stencil painting with handmade stencils cut out from computer print out.

And here is the finished product. If you want to give it a try, a full tutorial can be found here: Start being awesome

Thanks for letting me share. I hope you stop by my blog when you can! I've love to see you there :)