Now that spring has officially sprung, we find ourselves ready for new projects, around our houses and outside. We keep coming back to our friend Kate Payne’s The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking
The books covers a ton of ground, from what you need to stock your home (and how to make your own resources) to the basics of easy, stylish home design. She has trouble-shooting options for virtually any common home mishap. It was Kate’s blog, of the same name, that we turned to last week when we needed instructions for how to hang pegboard in your kitchen.
Some of our favorite springtime gems from Kate’s guide include, her how-to on setting up your own bucket garden;
photo: kate payne
…her advice on the best kind of plant-starts, and dresser drawer plant beds;
photo: kate payne
and her easy instructions for first-time canners who want to preserve the fruits and veggies that are about to start popping up…
photo: kate payne
But she has so much more indispensable knowledge to share, like general rules for freezing foods and how to choose the best (and safest) home cleansers.
One of our favorites: Eight Fun Things to Do With a Loaf of Homemade Bread:
#1: Eat it all immediately.
photo: Kate Payne
We want to give Kate’s book a good home with someone looking for some guidance! In the comments, tell us what project around the house or in your garden you’re most looking forward to tackling this spring/summer, and we will randomly choose a commenter to receive a free copy of this great book.
Since we’re going to be moving, we’re going to give this giveaway a month: Deadline May 19, Midnight.
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I have to pick just ONE project?!! I’ll pick re-doing my half-bath . I could use some tips and budget ideas!
I’m taking the arms off the side chairs in the dining room. They don’t fit properly at the table. Don’t tell my husband, it will take him a few weeks to notice.
I’m looking forward to pick-your-own farm trips to stock our frig, freezer and bellies with lots of strawberries, blueberries, peaches and summer apples. YAY!
We will be creating raised beds, in the hope to actually harvest something this year! We have been trying to carve a garden out of the woods around our house (being foiled again and again by the roly-polys!) and now we are just moving the garden to a sunnier spot.
I lately became acquainted with the Fermenter’s Club website and am presently embarking on my first fermentation project to make my first batch of Kim-Chi. I’m excited.
I’ll be painting the concrete porch on our 120 year old house. many years ago the concrete replaced the wooden porch and even though the pillars remain, it has never looked right. I’m pondering what pattern/design/geometric shapes might be the most fun.
oh how funny- I’ve always wanted to do dresser drawer beds too! I bet they would be interesting to stack up like a stairway somehow…
I’m looking forward to getting gardening going this season! Besides cherry tomatoes.
I’m looking forward to putting in more perennial foods: some raspberries and maybe some gooseberries. Nothing says home like plants that you have to invest some time in!
I am really looking forward to my potato towers, and adding a new garden along the north side of the yard.
I’m looking forward to downsizing my things. I’m looking forward to a more serene space.
I’m not sure but it will undoubtedly involve pegboard.
I cannot wait to put up our front fence. It’s been down since it blew down in a wind storm a few years ago and it just HAS to get back up ASAP!
I have an old pine dining room table that is starting to splinter. I am hoping to finally sand it down and possibly, just possibly stain and re-finish it myself. This is a sort of pipe dream, too, as I hardly know what I’m doing!
Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of the book!
I’m most looking forward to tackling the pile up of my kids papers and art projects and getting them into a scrapbook. =)
Making a planter for potatoes and a cold frame for late/early season greens!
As a mom whose kids have flown the coop, I want to get back to my earthy roots and have a warm and wonderful and earth-friendly home that my kids and my friends will love to visit…to concoct yummy things in the kitchen, to throw about ideas in the living room and to just generally enjoy my space.
I am looking forward to helping my daughter change her room from a little-girl room to a teenage girl room, without spending any money, except maybe on paint.
I’m looking forward to clearing our backyard of the mess of jack-hammered up concrete! Can’t wait to have more lawn and garden space!
I’m excited to have my first really big vegetable garden this year. I’ve had container or small raised beds before but never a full sprawl like I have now! I’m excited but very intimidated and could use any guidance I could get on the actual gardening and on canning and preserving my harvest later.
This summer I am going to tackle the basement closet!
currently started seeds under lights & planting some outside… mostly clean up and organising in the house. Most looking forward to harvesting and eating the food
I am looking forward to growing a garden filled with peppers. I will jar all kinds of hot suaces and salsa to share with my friends, family and neighbors!
I am looking forward to making a much needed bookshelf out of the wooden crates I’ve aquired
Our project is small plot gardening in our home we just purchased in the fall. Thinking of ripe Midwestern tomatoes!
planting and keeping ANYTHING alive! I love canning, I love baking, I want to be more “self sufficient” and think growing a few things to show our kids where our food comes from, how it grows, etc. would be on the top of my list
I am looking forward to growing some of my own food – a lot of different varieties would be great, but since this is my first season, just hoping at least the tomatoes survive and don’t get eaten by chipmunks!
I just hung a few gutter gardens on a long concrete wall that are now filled with seedlings. Now onto the tough at the bottom of the wall. It will have tall climbing stuff that I can train up the wall – especially cucumbers, beans, and squash. It’s the start of an edible wall and the end to an ugly eye-sore!
I look forward to planting the garden, and watching it all start sprouting up, and making garden decorations.
Well… we are hoping to buy our first house this summer so we are looking forward to doing EVERYTHING! In particular I’m excited to plant flowers and decorate
I am new to canning and gardening. Just moved into my first house this April! I have built raised beds and I plan on filing them with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Ideally I’d like to can marinara sauces, pickles and pickled peppers this fall! Cross your fingers!
We are looking forward to having our biggest garden yet! We already have turnips, radishes, onions, lettuce, and brussel sprouts planted. So much more work to do before we can enjoy!
Oh gosh! And our most favorite thing we are looking forward to (how could I forget?!) We are going to be building our very own Little Free Library. You can read more about it here: http://www.littlefreelibrary.org
We just bought out first house! I am REALLY looking forward to making my craft room an awesome space to be in. I have bits of inspiration, but don’t have a precise vision yet. I know these two things: the paint will be mustard yellow (i find it inspiring), and everything will be completely DIY/repurposed/upcycled. It was double as a guest room, and I plan to make a backboard for a “daybed” out of on d door!
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I look forward to growing more veggies and hopefully build a raised garden (grew tomatoes and basil first time last year). Oh, and maybe help my husband and father in law build a patio.
Making a room in our basement useful as a family room and as a craft room. Framing, electrical, insulation, sheet rock, taping, sanding, and painting. Hopefully there will also be time for some minor landscaping and gardening outside!
Pick just one?!
My boyfriend and I moved onto a full-working organic ranch to housesit for the spring/summer. We are doing gardens, keeping the house running with lots of cooking, ecologically managing the horses, barn and pasture.. and I don’t have a lot of money! It would be great to get some ideas on creativity, cheap solutions to still do awesome things with a property that is submersed in nature. 
I don’t really have a permanent residence right now, but each place I go, I’m hoping to leave a little garden that will be low-maintenance and high yield! I’m currently in Memphis for maybe two months, which will be my longest stay any place since September! I am thinking of making a bee/butterfly/hummingbird garden in the tasty soil around the AC unit, planting tomatoes on one side of the house and catnip at the other (there are many cats, and I want them to leave the tomatoes alone!). I plan on using soda bottles and milk jugs to help with watering and sun/storm protection!
Increasing the amount of green things- to eat or look at– in my yard!
i’m looking forward to container gardening – in the desert. i will not be without fresh tomatoes this summer!
I’m looking forward to converting the one really sunny window in my apartment into a “terraced” herb garden with shelves full of containers of fresh, green goodies.
The project I am most looking forward to this summer is building a keyhole garden (check out this link if you don’t know what one is – http://www.cowfiles.com/african-gardens/keyhole-gardens). Then, after building and planting full of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro, I’m going to make and can salsa! Wheeee! I’d love a copy of your book
I managed to set up a little area for crafts and sewing, but now I need to get it really organized so that its actually useful
and there is always a need to maximize the closet efficiency.
I’m looking forward to, and behind on, setting up new beds to house the 13 varieties of heirloom tomatoes I started from seed this year. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. That’s 50 plants, when last year I planted 10. There is benefit in not having cash to landscape my yard. It’s free for jobs like this!
So many fun projects for the summer! Re-painting backyard chairs, planting my community garden, planting my home backyard herb garden (adding to the crop this year!), canning tomatoes. I’d also like to create a small painting studio for myself in the guestroom. I have the small eisel and the paint, just need to create an inviting space.
I’m looking forward to reworking my container garden and possibly starting to can this summer!
We recently moved from the suburbs out to a little four-acre homestead in the country. SO MUCH to do! But our #1 goal for this summer is to get the agricultural infrastructure ready for NEXT year’s planting (= building a whole slew of raised beds) and finishing up the chicken coop so we can finally start feeding ourselves!
I have just been on a bee-keeping course and will be getting my own hive (and bee colony to go in it) next year.
I’m looking forward to ALL my projects haha but this year I am going to try trellising my tomato plants to increase yield and decrease waste-can’t wait to see how it works out!
I am really looking forward to building a new shed in the backyard, with my husband, that can designated for only gardening stuff. Along with getting a head start on my seeds so i can possibly get a 3 crop rotation this year.
This summer I really want to learn how to preserve my own food. My friends and keep on talking about it. This is year two of my own organic garden and I really don’t want any of my stuff to go to waste, therefor, I need to learn how to jar it!