put the treadle to the metal...

After having plans in my head to recover my couch throw pillows for the past almost year, I finally did it.  This has been a long work in progress.

The idea popped up almost a year ago.

I borrowed my mom's sewing machine back in October.

Bought the material back in November.

Sewed three pillows on three sides about three weeks ago.

Finally shoved the inserts in and sewed shut today, December 19th.

I now love my new pillows!  I don't want anybody to sit on my couch and mess them up.  I'm guessing the husband won't consider using the floor or the side chair to lay in.  The pillows will be on the floor in no time flat.

This was my first time in a long time sewing.  Pillows are pretty basic, but by the last pillow, the larger, checked pillow, I learned to make and envelope back and forget about blind stitching the stuffed pillow closed.

By the way, after many years of not sewing, using my mom's machine was super-easy!  She has a Brother LX2500.  So easy to use and to thread, including the bobbin.  When I buy myself a machine, this will be the one.  Nothing fancy, but just the right amount of options to not confuse me.  That's my kind of machine.

Supplies for my pillow covers were less than $60 for five pillows.  I have material and some stuffing left, in case I don't want to use one of my inserts, so making these pillows was very economical.  I priced a throw pillow here and there and they range from $24 - $60 per pillow...so I got a deal!

trash to treasure...

So it wasn't really trash, but it definitely needed some TLC.  I took our TV console that we paid a lot of money for and gave it a new life.  The console got a bit dinged, along w/some of our other pieces, in our move, and they weren't good dings that gave it character, so I fixed them.

Our family room can be a bit on the dark side, so I added some lightness with this piece.  This is probably the biggest piece I've given new life to.  I'm learning new things each time I take on a project.  I'm learning tricks to make the process quicker and easier and I'm learning that imperfection makes it perfection for what I had in mind.

This piece was originally an espresso color.  The doors had the colored pattern on them, which I liked and decided to keep, the rest was going to be changed.  I sanded, primed, painted two coats, roughed up the edges and then waxed.  Easy-peasy!

I'm now in love again with my TV console.  And I'm finding lots of reasons to not buy new furniture when there is so much you can do with paint!

home projects, cont'd...

project #2 - refinish a banged-up, cheap end-table we had.  The table was cute and functional, but during our move from NV to OH it took a little bit of a beating, so I fixed it.

Super-easy project.  Now I'm thinking about doing the same to our TV console.  I just have to convince my husband that we can do with a TV for a few days while I paint and wax.  The refinishing is going to be an easier task than the convincing.  ;)

It's hard to see too much detail, but I put down a black base coat so I could age the edges with a little sandpaper and steel wool and have the darker color come through.  I love the look!

happy valentine's day...

I made these Valentine's for GQ's class.  I wanted to make something for the class rather than giving candy along with the card.  I'm sure they'll each receive their fill of candy from all the other kids in the class.  

I happened upon this Valentine's Day card idea on Pinterest and knew that it would be perfect for GQ's class!  She provided a PDF file for the card but I wanted to make mine a little different so did my own thing.  It also allowed me to customize the message for those friends that aren't in GQ's class.  

It is such a cute idea.  We customized the colors of the girls and boys bracelets.  I was going to actually knot each friendship bracelet but it began to be too time consuming.  Instead, we braided the students bracelets and did a fancier one with all the colors used for both the boys and girls bracelets for GQ's teacher.  

Super-easy project and no candy/sugar involved!

halloween costume...

I think I forgot to post a picture of G.Q. in his costume on Halloween.  Perry the Platypus was a hit!  Kids loved it, adults loved it, G.Q. loved it!  And he was the only one out that night.  Not the greatest quality pics; getting an excited kid to stand still for a picture when he'd rather be gathering candy, is like trying to nail down Jell-O!

"There you are, Perry!"

riddle me this...

What do you get when you cross a sweatsuit, some felt, ping-pong balls, a little needle & thread and a hat?  Hopefully a pretty awesome and at least semi-original Halloween costume!  ( Was that a riddle?  I don't know, I'm not good at telling jokes or riddles, that's my husband's thing. I'm the one you're usually having to explain the joke to after everybody has already had their laugh. )

Wish me luck as I piece this costume together!  It's my first time making a Halloween costume and I'm cheating a little buy using a sweatsuit, but I don't have a sewing machine, so the sweatsuit is easier than buying fleece and sewing it by hand.

I'd love a sewing machine, but I don't have anywhere to put it and I can pretty much only sew straight lines. ( I'm sure I could redo every pillow case in my house, but I think we're good for now. )  So, yes I am cheating...we'll call it semi-homemade.  Isn't that what Sandra Lee is all about?    What's her philosophy?  70% ready-made products and 30% fresh ingredients...she's talking food, but I think I can apply that here, too.  I might not be as sparkly as she is when she makes her semi-homemade creations, but I'll throw on a sparkly party shirt in her honor as I sew.

I'll let you know how it all turns out or maybe mid-process as things start to come together.  I just ordered the sweatsuit today, so I can't really start until that arrives.  So, sometime in the next week I'll be threading my needle and sewing up a storm.  Updates might include a little whine as I try to figure out what exactly I've gotten myself into.  And I'm seriously hoping G.Q. loves what I create.  He loves all my craftiness (because I'm his mom) but I'm really hoping my crafting abilities live up to what he hopes this costume will be.

I promise, there will be pictures, but it might not be until Halloween.

I'll need a doggy bag, please...

In preparation for our visit up north GQ and I have been busy getting gifts ready for the family dogs. Each pup is getting a special something from GQ, including my brother's feisty little Lucy! We can't play with her because we've heard she can be unpredictable with the kiddos sometimes, but we still wanted to get her a little something.

I made this quick bag topper with my Stampin' Up Top Notch die. Cut out a little cardstock, then a little patterned-paper, tie on a ribbon and voila, it's done! Hope you like Loo Loo!

elements:
cardstock: Stampin Up
patterned paper: not sure, scraps from my stash
ribbon: May Arts

Graduation Stationary Set

My awesome friend Karie showed me a gorgeous stationary set she made for her kid's teachers. I begged her to teach me so I could use it as a graduation gift. After tons of pestering she'd had enough and gave in! LOL!




The box holds a monogrammed card set, a small 2.5 inch square note card set, some gift tags, postage stamps and a gift card. It's not exactly how Karie made hers, but this one fits my needs.


The monogrammed cards:


The small note card set:


The gift tags:


elements:
cardstock: Prism, Bazzill, Stampin' Up
patterned paper: Heidi Grace
bling: Heidi Swapp

Holiday Gift Bag

We have a holiday party this weekend and I felt our hostess gift was lacking a little something presentation wise. I happened to have scraps of the Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding collection, which is the paper Paula used on the coaster set gift we're taking. So I quickly added the little penguin panel. It's made completely from scraps of paper, ribbon and a lonely metal tag I've had laying around for a couple years. It's not too easy to tell from the pictures, but the penguin was colored with Copic Spica pens for a bit of sparkle, his hat and scarf are paper pieced, and the hat has a little bit of white flocking on the ball and brim. Just a few touches to give it a little something extra.

Thanks for looking!

Oh what pretty paper scraps...

My awesome friend, Paula, who knows how much I love paper and making pretty things with it, gave me some really great scraps of paper. First of all, the paper is really cool! It's a holiday and winter collection with a really nice weight to it, I believe she told me it was Bazzill. The paper all coordinates so nicely together and it's double-sided paper, so there were tons of great patterns to pick from.

I used some of the paper to make some holiday cards, which I've yet to photograph, but I'll post them soon. (my camera battery died mid photo shoot) I did manage to get photos of the darling holiday gift tags I made. They were too easy...I used the patterned-papers and cardstock from my scrap stash, that's it. I have a tag die-cutter, which made this project super easy; all I had to do was punch the patterned-paper & coordinating cardstock, the glue together. I still have to get ribbon on most of the tags.

I think they're darling and they'll look great on my holiday packages sitting under the tree!

Pretty paper butterflies...

A couple weeks ago my friend Paula created an Etsy treasury that was selected for display. All the items in the treasury were made by South Carolina artisans. I was immediately drawn to the paper butterflies included in the treasury...I had to have them, I knew exactly what I would do with them, so I bought them! They were created by beachcottagestudio, I loved all the goodies in her shop but contained my excitement over paper to the butterflies...but check out her shop when you have time, she has lots of beautiful things for sale.

Here is what I created with my butterflies, it's an 8x8 shadow box picture frame. I cut a piece of cardstock to fit and adhered all my little butterflies with some dimensional adhesive and popped into the frame. I just love it! I want to buy three more sets and do a row of them over my bed. It's so simple and so pretty. (sorry about the green towel reflection in the picture, but it's the best shot I could get...all the others had my head and camera in the reflection, too.)

Have a great weekend!

Easter Jelly Bean Box Class at MBI

Check out these adorable jelly bean boxes! They are just perfect for Easter and they take no time at all to put together. Click here for a tutorial on how to make them...

Going to a Christmas Cookie Exchange

I've been invited to a Christmas cookie exchange tomorrow night. Nine of us are getting together to exhange cookies and recipes. We're each to bring six cookies and our recipe for them. My loving to make cards I was simply not able to print a recipe on white paper and go w/that. I decided to try my first recipe card and really love how it turned out. The plates that the cookies will go on are blue and have snowmen so the penguins building a snow penguin was fitting.

Hope you like and I'm sure I'll like all the goodies that I bring home tomorrow night :)

Happy Holidays everybody!