Pottery Barn knock off pillows

Posted by: Paulette

I am so excited to share a new technique that I've just learned. It's crayon tinting with embroidery.If you have an expensive sewing machine that does embroidery or if you love to spend a lot of time embroidering and using the satin stitch to fill in your images and all kinds of fancy schmancy stitches, this project is not for you. This is for lazy busy people like me, who want a beautiful product without much effort! 

I started off by doing a Google search for vintage flowers. You can also go to the The graphics fairy and get some great images from her website. 

Then I printed them at 3"x5" to get a picture to work from. I'm okay with drawing things on my own, but if you are uncomfortable doing that, you can print out your image larger and transferring it using graphite paper. I found linen napkins in a beautiful parchment color for my pillows, at a thrift store. They were already pre-washed, and I suggest that you pre-wash your fabrics before you start drawing.

draw design in pencil or transfer with graphite paper

You're also going to need these:

Embroidery thread & Crayons

 This was the hardest part. I had a brand new box of crayons in the house and the kids weren't allowed to use them until I was done with my project. they weren't very happy with me!

Color your design, as if you were coloring in a coloring book. I layered on lots of color, highlights and shadows and tried to make the design look as close to the print out as I could.

All colored in

 Next, I put the design side up with a piece of paper towel covering it and ironed it on the hottest setting. This melted the wax into the fabric. Have you ever tried to remove wax from fabric? It's close to impossible, right?

 I think that if you  need to wash these pillows, a hand wash wouldn't hurt them at all. I plan on just throwing them in the washer.

Iron on top of paper towel

Melted crayon on paper towel not your iron

You'll need to have embroidery floss in colors close to the ones you used to color in your design. For most of the design I used a simple back stitch in 2 strand floss. There were some places that I used a single strand were I wanted the line to be thinner, and for the bullion knots on the white flower, I used all six strands.

Embroider using back stitch

Sitting pretty

When you're finished, sew into a pillow and enjoy your cheap cost effective Pottery Barn look-a-like pillows!

I paid $.69 for each napkin, and bought 4, about $4 for the crayons and I bought a $3 pillow and already had another, so total for both pillows was about $10. the PB pillow are about $50 each before shipping. 

Here's pictures of my inspiration:

Mud

I've been seeing a lot of keeping it real posts today. So I'm jumping on the bandwagon.  When I say the word "mud," what do you think of?


Mississippi mud pie?

Mineral mud baths at an expensive spa?

How about rich soil ready for a garden?

Not me. I think of how mad I was when my kids decided to play in the mud tonight, just before dinner was ready. You would think that an eleven year old would know better, right? Wrong. He was slinging those mud balls like there was no tomorrow. I don't mind a good water fight. But mud drives me crazy! There's just something about it that ruins clothes. In Maui they sell t-shirts that have been dyed by the mud. Can you believe it? Maybe I could market my kids ruined artistically dyed clothes. But then who wants a mud shirt from Arizona? Who would believe we get mud, anyway? Isn't Arizona a desert? 
The one good thing I could think of was this, "the carpet is gone!" I don't have to clean mud off the carpets! So what about the bathroom? I've decided that mud is easier to clean once it's dirt, and I'm just gonna go to bed, and let that  Arizona dry air do it's magic. Tomorrow is another day. The clock is set for 5:30 am. We'll see how much progress I make before the mess makers kids get up.




-Paulette

Paint. You take the good with the bad

I have a few pieces of furniture to show that I've just finished. One I love, the other has me a bit frustrated.
First up id the coffee table. I like the look that they're showing off in the PB catalog. And I knew that with very little effort, I could copy their look. A very good friend gave me her antique coffee table. I loved the lines, but thought that the finish was a bit boring. I don't have a before picture on this one, but, just imagine that it was all the the top.  A little Antique White paint, some distressing, and antiquing with glaze, and this is what I had. I just replaced the old knobs. They're simple and classic. And I don't want to spend the money on anything fancy to replace them. You an see the end table in the background. The new finishes unify them. So, this is the one I liked.

Newly painted coffee table

2 daughters who wanted their picture taken

And this is the one I'm not so happy about. You can see in the before pictures that the vanity (I use it as a desk) really needed to be painted. the veneer was chipping off, and while I'm sure it was a beautiful piece of furniture at one time with a bird's eye maple finish, it was well loved and used and turned into an old hag. I wanted to give this old girl a new dress and some new jewelry to wear.

scratched up finish of desk/vanity

water marks, scratched up peeling veneer

 I decided upon black. the color is called Dark  Coalmine. I loved the color when I put it on my bathroom cabinet, and have bought a whole gallon of it to do my kitchen cabinets with. I was inspired by the furniture in the Ballard Designs catalog.

before on the right, after a coat of primer on the left

 I think the finish looks fine. Here's the problem. The drawers in the vanity/desk are a puzzle. You have to put the right drawer in the right space. Otherwise they won't go completely in. I got tired of playing musical drawers (that sounds like a fun kinky game, huh?) and decided to just use a hammer to force them in. We weren't using all of the drawers before anyway. But I'm not happy about them being permanently  stuck. The drawer pulls are from Wal-mart. Also not my favorite, but very budget friendly. These were 10 for about $12.  

Newly painted with stuck drawers

 -Paulette

Heads Up!

Posted by Jvona

I found this --->http://www.heatherbaileydesign.com/HoorayforHeadbands.pdf adorable free headband pattern online quite a while ago,  and after coming across this cute bandanna at my local discount store,

I revisited the pattern. This is one of the easiest/quickest/cutest sewing projects I have ever done. I love how the elastic in the back helps keep the headband snug, but is hidden by the cute ties. I could make these by the dozen! One to match every shirt! One to match every dress! One to match my shoes and purse! You know, until I find another project to distract me. ;-)

Front view:

Back with ties view:

Hooray for Headbands indeed!

Wham Bam Bamboo M'am!

Posted by Jvona

Because I've been renting my entire adult life, I've always had to live by renters rules, one of them the whole no painting the walls weird colors thing. I really like the idea of wall vinyl stickers, but the cost is a bit prohibitive. I decided to go ahead and paint the walls anyway. So for a few bucks for craft paint and brushes, I have a look I can enjoy. I'll paint over it when I move. It will take a lot of primer, but the final result is worth it!

I happened across a bamboo frame that had been stuck in between the wall and washer in our wash closet. Originally, it had a tulip painted on it. I blacked out the area with the tulip and found online the Japanese kanji symbols for "live", "laugh" and "love". I resized the symbols, printed them and blacked them in with sharpie, so the ink wouldn't smear. I then aged the paper by "painting" it with a tea bag and coffee grounds. I tore the edges for an even rougher look. I sprayed each piece with polyurethane and glued them on to the frame. The resulting piece turned out great! I only hope the kanji symbols really read "live, laugh, love"  (Poor Brit wanted "mysterious, but got "strange")

I Feel So Liberated!

Remember when I posted about getting rid of the carpet and painting the concrete floor? Well I've started! I was vacuuming up popcorn from Family home evening, and thought, "what's the point?" I peeled back part of the carpet and my mind started working on what kinds of tools I would need. 

Pulling the carpet back to reveal...

A scraping tool---> spackling knife
Tools for pulling up the tack bar---> hammer and flat head screwdriver
Something to cut the carpet into more manageable pieces---> craft knife
Something to clean up all of this mess--->broom and dust pan


Later as I'd gotten into the scary mess, I realized that I should be wearing eye protectors and gloves.

Watch out! Flying debris

I don't do much planning when I start these projects. I just jump right in. After peeling back the carpet I found a couple of things. First was that the padding was glued in some spots to the floor beneath and that I would have to scrape it off.

Scraping padding off floor

Glue. Yuck!

 I also found that it was really dirty! After getting rid of some of the carpet and padding, I began popping up the tack strips. The are nailed into the concrete floor. Oh well. I have to patch the cracks anyway, what are some shallow holes added to the mix? Nothing! 
I've learned a couple of things today. It's a whole lot easier to clean the concrete floor, which I already suspected and had confirmed when my two year old brought in the bag of popcorn that was left outside and sprinkled it across the floor before I had time to catch her and take it away. Whew! the other thing is that I'll need to do small sections every day, because this is back breaking work! 

ta da

As I was taking my break, I was looking through a decorative finishes book, and dreaming about what my new floor would look like.
The space we finished today  was double this size, and moving the entertainment center took a while to unhook everything and move. I hope to get a larger space done tomorrow.
-Paulette

A Word About Handwritten Letters

 In a world of home computers and printers, cellphones, e-mail and texting, have handwritten letters  become a thing of the past? I receive letters in the mail with what appears to be a hand written name and address, only to open it and find that it's some solicitation for car insurance, spit out by the thousands, maybe millions, by a computer. I know of people who have shoe boxes filled with handwritten letters from bygone eras. They are lovely to sort through, and see the personality of the author on the page, and read the personal history contained on a slip of paper. We romanticize letters written from husband to wife in times of war, and across long distances, and treasure signatures of presidents dead for centuries go for thousands of dollars at auctions.

 Years ago, my grandmother sent back one of my letters after reading it. She told me in the letter that she wrote that it was my history, and that I should have it back. I taped a zip lock bag into my journal and placed the letter into it. These letters truly are our histories. Who keeps a diary/journal anymore? Where do we find the time in our busy schedules to jot down the daily grind onto paper? I've gone back and read that letter years later. It was a simpler time of my life when I had fewer children, and I can now laugh at some of the things that I considered tragic at the time. How much time do we waste watching inane shows on TV for entertainment? Could our time be better spent unwinding the tangle of our minds into a letter?


 I write thank you notes  to those who have given me gifts, or done favors for me and mine, and encourage my children to do the same. They get to practice their handwriting, and show gratitude at the same time.


 I think I'll take some time today to write down a few words and tell Grandma about my week. She doesn't have a computer, and is going blind, but has told me that she has a companion that reads to her. I may even send her some pictures of her great grandchildren, since I have a digital camera, a home computer, and a printer, I can do that.
-Paulette