No More Hording Fabric

I have a minor issue with falling in love with things (girl scout cookies, the best greeting card ever, amazing fabric my mom sent me) and being scared that I won't find the perfect person to send the perfect card to or the perfect evening to scarf down the perfect cookies...or the perfect project to use the most perfect fabric on.

My mother sent me a surprise package this summer with some leftover fabric from one of her sewing projects. The moment I opened the box I fell madly in love with the print and immediately put it in the closet because I wouldn't be using the fabric for just anything - I had to find something worthy of this fabulously colorful, bird-filled fabric.

Fast forward three months and it was still sitting in my closet. I'd venture in there every once in a while to bat my eyelashes at the hummingbirds and flowers and promise to find something suitable to use it for. Last week I finally came to my senses and decided to make a regular ol' pillow with it because then I'd get to enjoy the beautiful print all day every day.

I grabbed the last of the upcycled pillows I made last spring (check out the camping pillows I made here) and went to work on an envelope pillow case.  Now that I think of it, this is the ultimate upcycled project - the pretty bird fabric is leftover scraps from my mother, the backing fabric is leftover Goodwill sheets from my rag rug project, the pillow is an upcycled old feather pillow from our bed...pretty cool!

In order to make an envelope pillow case, I measured the pillow, added a couple inches, and cut out a square in the bird fabric that would be the front of the pillow.  For the back, I subtracted about six inches from one side and cut out two identical rectangles.

After hemming the two blue rectangles on one side, I sewed the pillow together.

And voila!

The perfect fabric turned into a colorful throw pillow.

Friday Five

I'm in the midst of a fabric explosion but for once my sewing machine and I are seeing eye to eye.  My tape measure and I, however are not...hence why I spent an hour last night ripping out an entire project. So, instead of being sad that I I'm a little behind schedule, I thought I'd send you off into the weekend with five thoughts by Kristen.

1. I have learned this summer that I rock at growing cayenne peppers, but not bell peppers. My mint and oregano thrive under my green thumb but my basil snubs its nose at me.  The carrots...well, I'm not too sure about them.

2. We have some mysterious stains that are popping up throughout our apartment. They seem to be coming from nowhere - no one has spilled anything and they are mostly in non-living areas (office corners, hallways, etc). Any ideas what could be causing them and how to make them stop? I've tried cleaning them with vinegar but it only lightens the stain a bit. Help!

3. I never thought I'd say a summer could be too hot.  Now that I live in North Carolina, though, I've changed my tune a little. Boy was this summer humid and hot! I'm eagerly anticipating autumn and the cooler temperatures for the first time ever.

4. Ollie the Owl looks beautiful on my bookshelf - bubbles and all. He appreciates everyone's positive comments about his awesome "bubbly" personality.

5. John and I have a wonderful weekend planned to celebrate Labor Day...I can't wait until work ends and the fun can begin! I hope you each have a fun, sun-filled, and safe holiday weekend. See you Tuesday!

Shut the Front Door

I've always believed that windows are the most beautiful part of a home but lately I've been drawn to front doors. It began this summer when red doors started popping up in neighborhoods and on the blog-o-sphere and now a cheerful yellow can be seen welcoming visitors into many homes.  This summer I began keeping an eye out for beautiful doors and there are plenty to swoon over while driving around town and even more to make you weak in the knees on pinterest.
 

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Red is a nice change from black or brown yet still feels traditional - perfect for the house that needs a boost of color while maintaining the traditional architecture.

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 Orange.  So modern, so bright, so unexpected...but surprisingly I'm loving this door!

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 I really like this light buttery yellow.  It brightens up the porch and creates a very welcoming mood without being too bold.

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A green door with gray siding? Perfection!

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 Everyone knows this robins egg blue is my favorite color and I am head over heels in love with this front door.  So in love, in fact, that if it were in my neighborhood, I'd probably sit on the front steps every day.

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 Dark blue feels the same as a red door to me - pretty, elegant, traditional.

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I've never seen a purple door in real life, but this plum color is luxurious and beautiful.

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What a sweet, bold statement - a pink door! Paired with the tree it creates the perfect scene.

So, what color would you choose to paint your front door? Are you bold enough to go with orange? Are you loving the sunshiny yellow? Would your little girl love you forever if you chose pink?  I personally love the green and the pale blue doors.

Ollie the Owl

I love owls. Yes, I've admitted it. However, I've loved owls since before owls were plastered all over the pages of decorating magazines or pictured on the main page of etsy.  I loved owls before they infiltrated home decor. Now that they are here, though, I am not complaining.  I have been picky, though. I've been searching for the perfect owl to place on my bookshelf. I wanted a quirky owl that reminded me of the owl from Winnie the Pooh, the tootsie roll pop commercials; basically I wanted an owl that reminded me of my childhood. After years of searching, I finally found him.

I was Goodwill hunting (nice pun, huh??) for sheets a couple weekends ago when on the shelf he called my name.  For only a dollar, how could I pass him up, the perfect owl?

John informed me as soon as I brought him home that he was creepy and weird-looking. I paid no heed, for I knew he was perfect...well, would be perfect once he was introduced to some white spray paint.

Early Monday morning after wiping him down I took him outside and sprayed, sprayed, and sprayed some more. It took five light coats to begin to cover up his natural coloring.  Not to be deterred, I kept on spraying...until I discovered the bubbling. Oh the bubbling.

I blame the humidity. The back of the can states you should paint when the temperature is between 50 and 90 degrees and when the humidity is under 80%.  After storming inside and checking weather.com I discovered the humidity was 90%. Yuck.

So, I let him dry to 24 hours, lightly sanded him and tried again.

I just finished up another couple coats of paint and am now moping on the couch.  Ollie the Owl looks worse than Monday.

At least he won't creep John out anymore. Perhaps in a week or so I'll try again.

Sans Internet

So true. Our internet went down Friday morning and our household suffered for five long days. Not to worry - a technician came by this morning at 7:30am to flip some switches in a box outside and all is right with the world again. However, no internet is enough to make you clean the house, organize closets, and reconnect with your movie collection. 

I never realized until this weekend how dependent we were on the internet. Aside from the fact that John is a grad student with lots of homework to do, he also teaches guitar lessons online via skype. Most of our dinner recipes come from googling what we're in the mood for. Our nightly entertainment is in the form of Netflix (soon to be disconnected, though, once the fee hikes begin) and mapquest helps us discover new parks and neighborhoods where we take Layla-Butt on walks.  Whenever I have a question or a random thought about the world (which is very often) I always turn to google to learn things such as why mushrooms are growing in my aloe pot and when dogs are allowed back on the beaches. We had no clue what was happening just a couple hours of east of us when the hurricane hit our coast and I couldn't leave annoying facebook comments on my little sister's wall.

We have had internet for an hour and so far I've caught up on a couple blogs, glanced at pinterest, became overwhelmed by my emails, and stalked facebook.

It feels good to have the world at my fingertips again.

Stay tuned for a blog post about the evils of humidity and spray paint. It'll be a sad sad story.

Turning a Rag into a Rag Rug

 
Back in July, in the midst of my unplanned summer vacation, I discovered the rag rug.  To me, this rug seemed to be the perfect upcycling project - one that has been around since the 1800s.  As with most things these days, I immediately turned to pinterest to get my visual fill of these beautiful and simple rugs.

Knowing that I would need a lot of fabric (and that a lot of fabric can quickly become costly), I headed to Goodwill in search of sheets. Let me just tell you that Goodwill sheets have now become my go to for all things that require fabric. I bought one king size flat sheet, one queen size fitted sheet, and two queen size flat sheets for a total of $8.  That's a heck of a lot of fabric, let me tell you!

With three of my four sheets being white, I decided to dye two of them with RIT dye. That was quite an afternoon adventure...feel free to read all about it here.

Armed with my beautifully dyed sheets (unfortunately the aquamarine color turned out more of a baby blue), I began the boring task of cutting them into long strips. 

If you look at the lower right-hand corner of the sheet below, you'll notice the notches I cut. Each strip was about an inch wide - I learned the wider strips provide hefty rows on your rug but are difficult to crochet while the skinnier strips result in puny rows but easier crocheting. Inch wide strips seemed to be a nice compromise.

Another tip is to roll your strips into a big ball. It helps to keep everything organized, unknotted, and tidy.  To begin crocheting the rug I followed this video from Sugar Bee Crafts. It's super duper easy - basically you are making a chain of the most basic crochet stitch. I assure you you can do it even if you have no crocheting background.




 Here is my chain of single stitches.  If you want a circular rug, follow the directions in the video regarding twisting it on top of itself. I decided to make an oval rug so I made a longer chain of stitches and then doubled back.

The next 500 steps are all the same - check out Sugar Bee Crafts' other video to see what that stitch looks like:



 After several rows of crocheting, here is what the rug looked like. I was very disappointed once I took a step back - it was looking more like a nursery rug rather than a bold rug intended for my kitchen. I blame the aquamarine dye that turned baby blue.

It definitely needed a bolder color to offset the pastel color theme so I found a red and blue striped sheet to try to incorporate.

Interestingly, I needed only three rows of this bolder sheet to offset the pale rug and bring some life into it.  It took me three days of crocheting to complete the project and I must tell you that a marathon of Gilmore Girls definitely helps while you sit crocheting circle after circle, row after row.  I myself chose season two as the background for my rag rug.

That is how you turn rags into a rag rug.  It was much easier than I expected and I think I may be making another one come winter when I'm holed up in the apartment with nothing to do but watch another Gilmore Girl marathon.

Knotted Fingers

I've been a crocheting fiend the past couple days.  When I get into a project of any kind, I tend to just throw myself at it and forget everything else (like eating and cleaning).  After hours of crocheting thick strips of fabric, my fingers are pretty bruised and sore so I'm taking a quick resting break.  Have you ever raised your head to glance around while you're in the midst of a big project to realize the trail of destruction you've left? That's what I did this morning and boy oh boy was it scary!  I thought I'd share with you my living room and how it has looked since Monday.

We could play a game of I Spy with this photo.  I spy a recent Goodwill owl purchase, a glass from two days ago, seven haphazard pillows, a salt shaker being used as inspiration, and a lazy Layla-Butt.

During my next break to rest my fingers I'm planning on spending some quality time with the owl giving him a makeover. I'm kind of excited.

And now I bid you goodbye because I am itching to put the glass in the dishwasher, mail back the netflix movie, and place the pillows back on the couches.

Green with Envy

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In the past couple days I've become obsessed with green couches. Believe me - obsessed. 

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 I love the burst of boldness, yet in a soft, watercolor kind of way. 

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Before this obsessive love affair began I believed couches should be neutral. Blank canvases, if you will, to be accessorized with throw pillows and a soft blanket.

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Now I find myself wondering why the couch can't be the main accessory in the larger living room.  Throw pillows are fabulous, but they are like a ring...pretty but not quite enough to make a large statement. 

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Not too long ago I shared that I really wanted to do something about the dark tan slip cover I had made for my large couch.  I think I've decided I need a green couch. In fact, let me rephrase that: I am wild with desire for a green couch. I simply need to decide on a shade.

So, what do you think about the green couch?