GREAT DIY blogger

Hey all, in this months issue of Better Homes and Gardens, on the last page they always spotlight someones that's made/done a cool project. This month was a woman from Utah who's blog is notjustahousewife.net. Her blog is so up anyone's ally that loves DIY (do it yourself) projects. And she uses power tools that I would love to own someday! Anyway, you should check her out and browse through her decorating ideas, it was so enjoyable for me and I got a lot of great ideas including: furniture staining, projects with molding, shelfs, and stenciling, to name a few.

creative juices decor blog

I thought this was a cute decorating idea:

http://creativejuicesdecor.blogspot.com/2011/05/wine-bottles-spray-paint-and-chalkoh-my.html

slip-coverish and pillows to boot!

So a million years ago I posted about this home-made sofa wrap I wanted to do...about 15 months later, I got around to it! Well, not exactly. #1 That one is way nicer. Way. #2 My couch(sorry, I can't say sofa, it's not natural to me!) is shaped differently and I don't have access to super-cute fabric like that. #3 what am I listing again? Oh yeah, I like to browse and look at ideas, but when it comes down to it, I make it how I make it with what I got. So... here is what mine looked like with a green slipcover I bought last year at the ARC thrift store for $7:

Last week I got this bunch of fabric at ARC for $7 because Saturdays are 1/2 off most colored tags, yay!.

I decided to try and cover my couch with it, so I sewed two long pieces together to cover from the back of the couch all the way to the front meeting the floor. It wasn't long enough, but nobody sees the back anyhow. The next step was to cover the arms, but I didn't sew them to the rest of the fabric, why more work? Right. I didn't like the dark green showing through, so I tucked pieces of material here and there to cover everything and yes, I used safety pins to pin them together :) I like change, so things can't be too permanent, and let's face it, I like to do things fast and sloppy :) Here is the end result: (PS I made the red pillows, boo-yah! that's why they're so misshapen and lumpy)Oh, and Grant has managed to slobber on BOTH of them. Of course. That is the ritual. He somehow will find what is new/nice and baptize it into our family with a bucket o' spit and some boogs to along with it. Good thing I think he's cute..


I pulled the green ties through for some color and pinned some strips of red for fun. I got the small, green pillow cases at Jo-Ann's for 2.99 each and they also had bags of Buffalo snow (batting) for like $1 or $2 so I bought 2 bags and stuffed the green and red pillows with it with it and I have most of the second bag of batting left.
I got the idea for the red pillows from Becky Higgins' blog. I don't know if it shows any specific pictures, but whenever she's done videos in that room with the pillows, I always admired them :) And I think she's awesome! Her pillows/couch are way cuter, but I just love the tiny strip of black and white peeking through on the edges of the pillows.
So, for the red pillows I took two identical square pieces of red fabric, folded them in half, then over and in half again. You now have a smaller square (duh, you're saying!) Take the one corner that does not have any edges (that will be the middle of your circle) and place it on the floor so that that corner is the bottom-left. Then I free-handed it, cutting an arc from the bottom-right corner to the top-left corner. Then you can unfold it and see if you like it or need to re-fold it and take some edges off.
When you have your two circles ready, place one pattern-side up (in my case it didn't matter since it was a solid and same on both sides) Place strips of black and white fabric along edges. Note: The more of that strip-fabric you want to see, then place more along the inside edge of the circle because you will be turning this inside out. It was hard doing this on a circle! Looking back, I should have cut strips that curved like the circle. Also, because mine was zebra-striped, I made sure to turn the stripe fabric so they were vertical, because that way I would see more of the stripes since I was doing such a little strip.
So, I sewed it inside out, not all the way. I left a hole a couple inches wide so I could turn it right-side out and stuff it with batting. Then I just used needle and thread to sew the hole closed. (By the way, when I look at the pillows, I think of Pirates of the Caribbean because I watched/mostly listened to it while doing this after everyone was in bed :) makes it more fun.

I wanted to show a close up to what I did with the arms of the couch. I measured how long the arms were and sewed a piece to match. I tucked it on the other side into the cushion, and on this side into a long side piece that I pinned in the front and wrapped all along the side and pinned at the back. I also pulled the front of the arm rest fabric forward to cover the front and tucked it under the green bow. Sorry if this isn't making any sense! Just make the arm rest cover extra long so you can pull it over the front of the arm rest if you're wanting to cover everything. :)




I couldn't leave my stain-mottled glider/rocker out of the fun! When I was at the ARC, I also picked up a green sheet and that is what the rocker is wrapped in! I don't know where the tag is, I probably cut it off...but it was probably a full-size, mayyybe a queen. I would say full though. All I did was lay it over the couch, made sure the sheet reached the floor on the front and sides, then tucked it into the seat cushion.


Then I started with front left side (you can do whichever side first) stood/kneeled in the front of the front left of the chair, took the folds of the sheet that had gathered there and pulled it straight towards me and pulled it back along the side and pinned it under the flap that was hanging over the back, then pinned the parts that touched the floor together. Did the same to the other side. Pretty surprised how easy it was!
Then I used some leftover green and white fabric from the couch and laid 2 pieces pattern-side down on the floor. I then laid a square pillow I had and kind of cut around it with a 1 1/2 inch space, following it's shape. Then I sewed it inside out, only three sides. Then I turned it right-side out and pulled it over the pillow cushion and folded the last edges in towards themselves so the frayed edges wouldn't show, and hand-sewed that side. I'm thinking that rocker and pillow combo are lacking some color, but it was late and I was done! :)

Whew! That was a long post and took me a few days to do, (mostly because when my bee-bee isn't slobbering on new pillows, he likes to dance on the table ;)
but I just wanted to share it with you - my silly-spastic-attempt at decorating on a dime! I would LOVE for you to share some ideas too! Or you can just link to them, there are some that I've seen out there that look fun and inexpensive. The next thing I want to do is make fabric rosettes! I'll post the link late-uh...much love and have a great day!!

The Best Part of Waking Up Is...

...making these cute, fun, awesome flowers from coffee filters. I'm not going to take credit for "inventing" it: go here! but I sure do LOVE making them! I hung these up above my kitchen table for our Valentine's Dinner, but just think of how cute they would be to decorate for any holiday?!

Awesome sofa wrap idea

I'm going to try and redo some of our furniture, and I saw this picture and article online. It gives great visuals with the instructions (that always helps me). It's simpler than it looks too. Go and look, I especially appreciate the wooden dowel idea that helps prevent slipcovers from coming untucked. Arghh! I don't mean to sound dramatic, but ours is ALWAYS coming untucked and it drives me crazy. Hopefully this will help!


Check. it. out. And have a lovely day!

A couple of ideas...

The first is the Fathers' Day cards (I know Fathers' Day is long gone, but you could use it next year or adapt it for another occasion-I made one with a dress for a wedding once); it is a super cheap way to make cute, handmade cards (no stamps or embellishments needed). I used some kitschy origami paper but anything paper with a tie-like print would work. I just cut out tie shapes and then glued it on. The result: an inexpensive and handmade way to show the fathers in your life that you care.
The second idea is to take a bouquet of grocery store flowers (which are not arranged at all) and arrange them yourself. I used three vintage glass containers (from Salvation Army) and just separated the flowers into colors and arranged. The result: a set of arrangements that look like they came from a fancy flower shop and not the Low Prices, Everyday leader :)