Inevitably, and despite past experiences, almost every home project I tackle involves some aspect of DIY. I’m fairly handy around the house, but not crafty, so I have no idea why I constantly feel the need to tackle these projects myself.
Even when we got married, I had the brilliant idea to do all of the invitations myself. I thought it would save a little bit of money and add a nice homespun touch to our outdoor wedding. I found this beautiful wood veneer paper, bought some pretty paper to line envelopes (that’s right, I didn’t even buy pre-lined envelopes), designed the invitation layout and bought some really nice stamps to hand stamp a design on them after they were printed.
Flash forward to the week the invitations were supposed to go out. After printing a few of the invitations, the thick paper started making the printer go askew, everything was coming out crooked and the printer kept jamming. I didn’t have enough paper to keep trying to get it to work and by some miracle found a company online, Cards of Wood, that I thought could help me. I called them in a panic and they saved me. Not only did they send me a proof that same day and had all invitations printed the next, they offered me a 20% discount. Almost 10 years later and I still remember their compassion and service.
In the end, everything came out beautifully but it definitely wasn’t worth the hassle. And I ended up spending more than I would have if I had just ordered regular invitations. Lesson learned? Wrong.
For A’s room, I decided instead of buying roman shades with a trim or having custom shades made, I would buy plain ones and add a cute pink pom pom trim myself. Keep in mind that I don’t sew…at all. So I found some ultra strong heat and bond and thought that would do the trick. Except the iron started melting the trim and the trim was too thick for the heat to reach the underlying tape and wasn’t sticking. I eventually found a work around but I spent hours agonizing over these window treatments on the day we had planned to move the kids into their rooms. The kids didn’t get to bed until almost 10 that night since I was still trying to get them done. It was insane. The trim does look really cute but who knows how long it will stay.
So I’m hoping that maybe I’ve finally learned my lesson and will stop these projects that I have no business attempting myself.
What about you, are you DIY masters? Or are you like me and scream DI-WHY?? with every attempt?
