Keeping the Kids Occupied on Holiday Road Trips with Big Lots

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BigLots #CollectiveBias We’ve done a lot of long road trips with kids at all different ages, so I’ve got a good bit of experience trying to keep long car rides bearable for children and the adults who have to listen to them complain. … Continue reading

Ikea Hack: Sheet Music Storage from Trones Cabinets

  Do you know how long we’ve been working on this seemingly tiny and simple project? I’ll tell you how long. ONE MILLION YEARS Or maybe like two months. But, at any rate, an absolutely ridiculous amount of time. And I’m not going to give you a step by step tutorial for two contradictory reasons: 1. It’s so simple you … Continue reading

CATastrophe in the Basement: Relatedly, Sleeper Sofa Shopping

I’m going to have posts coming at you like crazy this week! For a few reasons: I have two sponsored posts this week because….when it rains, it pours? Because I’m bad with timing? Anyway, that means I feel compelled to get more non-sponsored posts up as well, to help me better manage my complex emotional relationship with American capitalism. And … Continue reading

Christmas Wreath Trio

Thanks to Home Depot for sponsoring this post!   Today I’m teaming up with Home Depot and a bunch of other bloggers for a Home Depot DIY Workshop Virtual Party; we’re all showing off our takes on this Christmas wreath trio and telling you how you can learn to make your own at a (real, non-virtual) workshop at Home Depot. … Continue reading

A Neutral, Textured Home Office with Sauder

Thanks so much to Sauder for sponsoring this post! Dave has been working on his master’s degree online since the beginning of summer, so he’s been spending a lot of time up in the previously unused half of our master bedroom. The plan for this space has long been to turn it into a kind of office/den area where work … Continue reading

Dinosaur Christmas Village

“What do dinosaurs have to do with Christmas?” asked my pragmatic and grumpy eldest son. But, really, perhaps the better question is, “what do villages have to do with Christmas?!” Why did people decide that it makes sense to set up tiny little houses in December and not any other time of year? At least my dinosaurs embrace having nothing … Continue reading

A Mail Carrier, some guys from Zelda, and Thanksgiving Dinner Walked into a Bar….

Post contains affiliate links; thanks for supporting Boxy Colonial! So who’s ready for Halloween?! What? What’s that you say? I’m supposed to be posting about Christmas this week? Yes. Well. I meant to get this up as a quick day after Halloween post, but it turns out I was so tired from actually living through Halloween that I didn’t get … Continue reading

Super Simple and Easy Homemade Applesauce: How Saucy They Are!

post contains affiliate links; thanks for supporting Boxy Colonial! I asked Dave what I should call this post, and he immediately said, “How Saucy They Are!” Because Ari has been saying that, quoting General Sherman, ever since he wrote a paper about Kennesaw Mountain and the Civil War two years ago. Oh, Sherman: such a quotable guy. So I put … Continue reading