Oh where, oh where do I start? I suppose I should tell you who the heck I am and what exactly I am aiming to accomplish with HandyAndi.org.

A few house keeping items first:
Why does the website end with “org”?
Simple, .com was taken and I will absolutely be providing organization tips for your home and your life!

Where did the name Handy Andi come from?
Let me start by saying that, yes, I am aware that handy Andi sounds a little risk-ayyy, so get your giggles out now and let’s move on :). Handy Andi is a cute little nickname my friends gave me while I was living in San Diego. We would go out dancing and someone would rip a dress that they borrowed from a friend… queue Handy Andi with my sewing skills to fix it right up like it never happened! Your birthday is coming up and you want a custom unicorn cake & cookies… Handy Andi can for sure, whip that up for you! Say a vespa, crashes into the passenger side of your convertible and rips the side mirror off, along with leaving a few dents down the side body of your car (this actually happened to me, by the way)…… and what did I do? I used duct tape to pop out the dents, turtle wax & hair extension glue remover to buff out the paint transfer, and a little bit of JB weld and clear epoxy glue fixed my side mirror up and you could barely tell! “Handy Andi strikes again!” is what my friends would cheer and chant when ever I was able to swoop in with a clever solution to the days’ problem.

So, I suppose that is what you can expect to find here most often, clever solutions to our daily human problems. It’s important to note, my parents raised me to work smarter, not harder. That means that I will always strive to find the solution that is the most simple, straightforward, and easy to execute. The name MacGyver was regularly mentioned in my house when I was growing up. There was nothing that my dad couldn’t build or fix and no limit to my moms creativity, put the two together and oh man, great things were possible. I like to think that I picked up a lot paying attention to how they tackled projects to craft homes that were just awesome to grow up in. “Do it yourself and you can save yourself a lot of time and money”, words of wisdoms that my dad spouted at me enough times, it seems the message stuck.

Which leads me to affordability, another focus of mine! I have made it my mission to do as many things myself as I can… at least the first time around. There is almost no task that cannot be learned, new skills can always be acquired if you’re willing to suck at them for a bit while you are getting the hang of things. Practice makes progress in your pursuit of perfection. Learning new skills to do things yourself can save you a lot of money over your lifetime. It can allow you to go all out on the bathroom remodel of your dreams, get the tile that is $4.00 a square foot if you want! Because you’re saving thousands on labor, you can splurge a little more on your materials! Or maybe you take those labor savings and invest them in stocks/crypto, real estate, or something else you are passionate about.

The point is, if you do it yourself, you give yourself more financial and creative opportunities. AND!!! If you absolutely HATE the task once you’re done, you will at the very least (1) feel accomplished, (2) have saved yourself some money, and (3) now have the understanding of what the task entails and will feel much better about paying someone else to do it for you in the future! Literally, can’t loose!
There have been a many times where I have had someone come out and quote me a price to do a project at the house, and because I have a good understanding of the cost of materials, about how long it should take, what tools are needed (bonus if I already have them!!), and how annoying or easy that task is to complete, I am able to make a strong choice to pay someone or DIY. Big surprise… I usually elect to do it myself, in true Handy Andi fashion.

So Who Am I?
I am a 30 something, Californian gal with a passion for DIY, learning new things, and having a can do attitude. I am a dog mom. I am a wife. I am a friend, sister, daughter, niece, auntie, & cousin. I am an artist, creator, crafter, singing, painter, writer, hobby enthusiast. I love color, patterns, organization, functionality, bargains, & symmetry.

What am I trying to accomplish with Handy Andi?
I have had a long career in restaurant operations and management. I have built websites, social media accounts, heck…. business for other people… my. entire. life. So, I think it’s time that I build and manage a little something for myself that can help other like minded, do it yourself-ers in the process.
I need a space where my creative adventures can be simplified and shared with others.

When ever I go to tackle a new project, no one has simple ‘how to’s’ with out tons of filler content. I want reader’s digest level ‘how to’s’ when I have a short attention span and even shorter amounts of free time to figure out what ever it is that I am trying to tackle.