About Danielle Pientka

Welcome to my blog! I’m Danielle, stay-at-home mom to three active boys, and do-it-yourself blogger. I live in Maryland with my husband and sons. My hope is to help share what I’ve learned and teach others how to create and upcycle. I think it’s a vital skill because it creates a sense of pride and a connection to the items we normally buy. I love taking a piece of fabric and really considering all that went into it’s production (where the individual threads came from and how they were produced, who sewed it, how it was sewn)- maybe this is basic mindfulness.

Have a question or comment? I can be reached by email at danielle@diydanielle.com. I love getting emails! If you email, please add a subject line that makes you sound like a human… I like to keep an eye out for bots and other bad stuff on the interwebs.I also love comments on my blog and Facebook pages so feel free to ask away on there too.

If you want an immediate response, you may want to be part of our Stuff Mama Makes Facebook group. This way, if I can’t answer your question right away, someone else might be able to! I also try to do a monthly contest or challenge in the group- just because it’s fun!Below are my social media links, but you can also find my author profile on Amazon.

 

I learned to do some basic sewing when I was young and always did art projects with my mom (wreaths) or dad (model car kits).

I started sewing when I was pregnant with my first son and wanted to sew cloth diapers. I wanted cloth diapers with the PRETTY fabric… and the only way to get them was to sew them myself or spend a lot of money buying custom diapers. Once I started sewing and browsing Pinterest, I realized that I could feasibly complete ANY do-it-yourself project so I expanded my interests into anything DIY. It has been such a fun adventure!

I love writing tutorials on how to complete sewing, woodworking, gardening, upcycling, and many other types of DIY projects. My motto is, “If you want it done right, do-it-youself.” Sometimes it’s just easier to create the idea than it is to explain to someone else what I want. My favorite project is the one everyone told me couldn’t be done. They aren’t always perfect, but they’re perfectly what I wanted.

This fascination with making things from scratch and upcycling isn’t new. When I was young, I loved reading and my favorite books were Little House on the Prairie, anything by Scott O’Dell, and Girl of the Limberlost. I was very inspired. So with all this book reading and no actual practical information, I’d go in the woods behind our house and try to make bows and arrows from small branches… using my mom’s kitchen knives to “carve” them. I’d also experiment with trying to “help” her house plants grow by putting different substances in them…. milk, soda, etc. As an adult, I’ve mentioned these shenanigans to her and she was pretty relieved to solve the mystery of these dying plants and dull knives. Haha.

My dad is a builder and had this fabulous architecture table. I’d sit at it and draw out floor plans for my future business and I compiled binders with all my research. I am not kidding. I was an intense child!

Now that I’m older and have the infinite resource of the Internet at my beck and call, I find that my DIY projects are a bit more successful. What’s fun is that in each area I’ve started out by following tutorials to learn a certain technique or “art,” and then once I’ve done a few, I’m able to come up with new ideas or tutorials on my own.