Welcome – I’m Robin – half of the This DIY Life team! My husband, Ed Hicken and I both have a hand in creating the beautiful projects and delicious recipes you find here.

I started this blog (first as Frugal Family Times) in late 2011. (OG blogger ~ Old Gal Blogger?). It began as an outlet for sharing tips on saving money and raising a family – my son, our youngest, had just started kindergarten. And, as is our way, I roped Ed into this blog thing not long after.

I’m a Home Design and DIY Creator with over 30 years of experience…

Over the years my work here has evolved to focus on my favorite creative passion: Home Design and Do-it-yourself, which I’ve been doing for over 30 years! From working in my dad’s workshop as a kid to drafting the plans for our second storey addition home renovation, I love creating beautiful and functional things. 

I’m a Nutritionist and former Registered Dietitian… 

I worked for 20 years as an RD, before moving into the content creation field full-time in 2018. I still use my extensive nutrition education to ensure our recipes are as healthy as they are tasty. But, I happily let Ed do most of the cooking, and our daughter does most of the baking! I’m more content holding a paintbrush than a wooden spoon.

Professional Background

  • Former RD (with 20 years experience)
  • Community development work with low-income, immigrant, different cultural, language and literacy backgrounds 
  • Specialized in prenatal and pediatric nutrition
  • In my community development work, I’ve taught well over 300 cooking classes with a focus on simple, affordable and healthy food for big, busy families
  • Created 4 volumes of low-literacy cookbooks still in wide use across Ontario
  • Been doing DIY beside my dad since I was a kid (pic of me plumbing?)
  • Spent my university spring break refinishing furniture, and every spare weekend after that!

DIY Journey

  • Design has been a lifelong passion and while other early 90’s teenagers were rocking out on their cassette Walkman, I was reading A Pattern Language and admiring the bone structure of a friend’s Craftsman home.
  • While completing my RD education and beginning that career, I scratched my DIY itch in many other ways – designing a hidden bookcase room with painted wall treatments during my dietetic internship, painting the kitchen in the first rental (RENTAL! Who paints a student rental) Ed and I shared, and helping my dad renovate the kitchen in the house that we would eventually buy from him.   
  • After beginning the Interior Design course at Sheridan College, I quickly saw that wealthy client work wasn’t where my heart was. Great design needs to be accessible for everyone – this would become a key point we still come back to on this blog!
  • While working as a dietitian and raising our young family, I designed the second-storey addition to our home. We blogged the project for friends and family and despite the crazy stress, the process was actually a lot of fun.
  • This blog was born out of this (with a couple year hiatus to raise two small kids) and it became home to all the future projects we would dream up. 
  • Further home renovations, like our BHG featured basement-closet-turned-powder-room (we’re number 2 on this list, which is a great toilet joke) and copper stair riser treatments caught the eye of Better Homes and Gardens and Apartment Therapy, among others. This recognition has helped push our projects in even more directions.
  • We’ve made over most of our current home, country weekend property and now our new venture- working with friends and family to help make their spaces beautiful.

Education

Dietetic Internship with Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Health Unit and Kinston General Hospital

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Bishop’s University

Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Human Nutrition at the University of Guelph

Professional Career

Print Magazines Featuring Our Work:

Online Publications of Our Projects

Brand Partnerships

We have been fortunate enough to have worked alongside some of the best brands:

Blog Story

We are a DIY-loving couple with over 30 years of design and build experience. Robin is a Nutritionist and former Registered Dietitian. I’m is an award-winning Business Educator. We both came from families where doing things for yourself was not just a hobby, but a way to make ends meet and do more with less. We’ve carried these lessons with us and now share strategies for living a rich life on a DIY budget. Creative, money-savvy ideas for a stylish home, healthy meals, and family fun are what we are all about. Our work has been published in the pages of Do It Yourself, Farmhouse Style and Better Homes & Gardens magazines.