Yay! Its Friday

I'm not always desperate for the weekend. I love the weekend as much as the next person, but inevitably I wake up earlier than on school days which is just torture! Why can't I sleep when I have the opportunity? Perhaps its my curse.  As curses go I guess it could be worse. I could be cursed so many things so much worse.

Today I am taking my little sweeties (or little monsters - I guess we'll see when I pick them up from school!) to the gorgeous NC mountains for a weekend away with their Grands.  They are so excited to go spend time in kid heaven (on a horse farm) and they always have such a fun time there that its just blissful for all involved (although I'm sure Grammy is a little worn out at the end she is just awesome!).  A parent is always thankful for a little adult time away from the kids, but when you get that time and you know your kids are in great hands and happy as a clam that is just THE BEST!




Grammy's woods and the path leading to the barn

 




Grammy's pasture at sunrise

 
While I'm in Asheville I'm going to visit one of the fun junk shops that is located right outside of Biltmore. I'll take lots of pictures and show you some of the cool stuff there. I have a love - hate relationship with places like this for a few reasons.  I love it because its SO BIG and I could spend a day in there looking at everything.  I hate it because its SO BIG and I never have a whole day to spend in there looking at everything.  I also wish that I had a blank check when I go because just like at the buffet my eyes are always bigger than my stomach and this place is so chock full of great stuff that its just ridiculous. Its best to be mindful of the budget!

Once I leave Asheville, NC I'm heading to my dear friend Holly's house. Her home is one I always have a hard time leaving (don't you just love places like that?). I have broken in more than one spare toothbrush there because an afternoon visit turns into brunch the next morning. Holly and I have been friends for ages and her home and family are so beautiful.  I'm so blessed that I've had her in my life so long. 




Atleast if I wake up at Holly's early on Saturday I'll be looking at this pretty view!


So I guess that's all for today. I'll have some good stuff for you over the weekend. 

Enjoy your day!

P's please!

Some of my favorite things start with the letter P.

Projects. Pictures. Photography. Piles (not the laundry kind - the junk on the side of the road kind). People (most of the time...although there are some people I could do without). Pasta. Pearl earrings. Pepperoni. Paints (the more the merrier). Pens (Can you ever have enough?). Pillows!

Pillows
My husband is completely at a loss for why our bed needs so many pillows. I love pillows. My couch is covered in pillows every chair has at least 2. Even my kids beds are lush with pillows of all shapes and sizes.  I think they create a comfy nest that calls to you to come in and relax. Who wouldn't want that?

Perhaps my husband!



For the record I don't think this seems like crazy pillow town.
 It seems pretty "just right".





In support of my pillow fetish I decided I'd whip up an Envelope Pillow Cover 

for an accent cushion to go in my future re-do of my office. 

I think it turned out pretty cute. 

I started off with a great Amy Butler fabric

 and a 20"x 20" down pillow insert that

I picked up at Ikea for about 7 bucks.



How gorgeous is this fabric? Oh, I love it so much! Love Love Love!

 



I ordered this fabric from Fabric.com and they are awesome - I highly recommend them. A++ customer service!



Here's how I did it!

First measure and cut your pre-washed fabric. I would encourage you to iron out any bumps prior to cutting and to remember the measure twice, cut once rule is a good idea to follow too.  You'll want the top piece (the front of the pillow) to be 21"x 21" and you'll want the bottom piece (the one that will open up on the backside) to be 24"x 21". That extra 3" is to allow the sides to overlap around your insert.  Take the larger piece and cut it down the middle at 12".  Lay your pieces face to face double checking that everything lines up and overlaps as planned.

Next you'll want to press down and hem the two edges that will overlap to create the opening of the envelope (those are the pieces you cut at 12"). You can see in the photo above I already pressed and hemmed one side. 

Along the way I got to thinking that this pillow cover may be even cuter if I added a grosgrain ribbon ruffle. So I chose my ribbon. I chose Pink to pick up the pink in the fabric -plus I had it my stash.

Then I ran it through the sewing machine on the longest stitch available. 

Once you've done that pick out and hold onto your bobbin thread and then carefully start to cinch it together to make it ruffle.

For this project I used the neutral thread that will look good with the fabric as my top stitch, but I'm using black for my bobbin thread so that it will be easier for you to see.

Its my experience that doing several shorter pieces results in a better finished product than trying to do the entire length required for the whole pillow at once. Using a couple of shorter segments strains the thread less and it just looks better. You might try to do 2 lengths or 4 lengths one for each side of the pillow.

Once your ruffle is all done you can start pinning it in place on the solid piece of fabric (the front).  I am not a great seamstress so I like to pin the trim down and run a quick stitch around the whole ribbon detail. Its so frustrating when you pin it and then stitch and there is a gap where something slipped. I just hate that. Stitching it in place is a step I need, but you may be fine without it.

Below is the front panel with the ribbon trim stitched in place. Just a little peak to see how its looking! I'm an instant gratification kind of girl - I can't not look. So far so good. I'm loving it.

The next step will be to pin into place the two pieces that assemble to make the back.  I like to pin and stitch the long side separate and first so that I can double check that it looks okay before I pin the sides in place.



No straight seams here people! If you're looking for perfection you may need to find a different blog.

I like projects that allow room to mess up a bit.  In the above picture you'll see I ended up with one little missed part when I was attaching the trim. Lucky for me I'll be able to fix it as I assemble the back side of the pillow cover.

 

Lookin' good so far.  Stitch around all the sides to complete the pillow cover. Trim away any excess fabric along the sides and corners. Its much more important at the corners. Flip it right side out being sure to push the corners out all the way. I sometimes use a chop stick in smaller pieces. After that all that's left is to pop in the insert!

VOILA!

Oh! How I SO wish I could show you this pillow in the armchair where it will live lookin' fab, however I have to recover/slipcover that chair and I'm shakin' in ma boots about it. You can believe I'll show you how it goes - the good, the bad and the ugly!

Enjoy your day!

Full Disclosure

Hi all !

Hee hee that cracks me up a bit. 

I thought I'd start today off with a little disclosure statement about myself. Its not too scary really I just want you all to know before we go any further that I have an attention issue.

I'm so totally ADD. I know everyone feels a little scattered from time to time, thats not really what I'm talking about. Growing up I really struggled with inattentiveness all through school and it was a real challenge. I took medication for a while (ritalin) and by the time I reached high school I was really determined to figure out a way to manage my struggles with out medicine. I developed methods of studing that got me through. I went on to college and the rest is history. So, why bring this up?

Well I've been really trying to focus myself on a single direction I'd like to take for this blog and I just can't seem to narrow it down.  I'm the everything girl. I want to know how to do it all!

In the past I've had a small business designing personalized stationary which is fun and I'll share more about that process in a post one of these days.

I want to learn to do so much... such as sew a duvet (I've done a small one), reupholster a chair (which I've never done),  I want to learn how to monogram by hand and machine, get better at painting furniture, I love photography and really want to grow more in that field. I just can't stop. I can't seem to narrow it down a bit!

What is a girl to do?

Onward now to the project of the day!

For today I decided I'd play around with a graphic poster of the alphabet. Giving credit where credit is due I must admit that I was completely inspired to do this project by a really cool couple from Vegas that was featured on Etsy yesterday. The name of their blog is candacetodd.blogspot.com. Their shop on Etsy is called SparklePower and they make super cute graphic prints and quilts. They upcycle vintage sheets into fun banners and the graphic artist husband (Dylan) makes a great alphabet poster that is really cute while being educational. I felt inspired to try my hand at it today in my own color combo.

This is Candace and Dylan from SparklePower!

Be sure to check out their blog and their shop at Etsy!

The dimensions that I designed it in is 18"x 24". Go big or go home! Once you've finished your design any local print shop can whip it up for ya in jiffy. I ended up printing this one on my home printer at a reduced size of 8x10 which I think will be more sellable on ebay once its framed. I framed it in a wide offset mat and a 16" x 24" frame. The plain mat didn't seem cute enough for me so I've added a chocolate satin ribbon trim which is cute. I love the combination of the chocolate brown letters and the shiney black frame. Its kinda slick and sweet all at the same time.

I used Photoshop Elements and set the size of the document to 18"x 24". If you plan to make a large image be sure to choose a dpi (dots per inch) that is high enough to produce a high quality image free of pixelation (I don't even know if that is a word). I choose at least 800 dpi, but you may not have to go that high. Next get to work choosing fonts that are fun and interesting to you.  I try to mix up upper case and lower case letters and I also try to be mindful of letter styles that have serifs (those semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols) and the type faces that don't have serifs (sans serifs).

This is how mine turned out. I framed it before adding the ribbon trim to the mat and I'm posting photos of it with and without. You can let me know which you think is better.

I hope you all have a great day. And buyer beware! My theme may just be that I don't have a theme. I guess only time will tell.

*If anyone see's this and would like for me to send them the alphabet poster to download just let me know and its yours!

OMG! I'm writing a blog!

I'm completely having a bit of a freak out right now! I'm going to make my very first blog post to the web! The world wide web!  Woot woot! The whole world can see it! AAhhh!  Okay lets be realistic, its SO SiLLY to hold a shred of apprehension about this initial post especially since when I make this post no one is even likely to see it! Ha ha! I guess this falls into the whole "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it..." line of thinking. If I post a blog and no one is there to read it do I REALLY have anything to be worried about. I guess not. So lets carry on.

I decided that for my first blog I should write about how I came up with my blog name. I sometimes (translate - often)  find myself feeling like I really need to be better at keeping my house clean. With kids and dogs running around all the time it seems like try as I might, I just can't seem to win the battle against the dust, dirt and smudges all over here and there. And don't even get me started on the furry tumbleweeds that seem to grow over night along my hardwood floors. I also think I need to budget my time better. I need to learn more about cooking really great food for my family. I have such a love for photography and I'm not half bad at it... I need to be better at that and really focus on furthering my education. I need to contribute to my household finances more, maybe I need a part time job.

I need, I need, I need???

Well, I'm starting to think that all of these things are great and I can make all of them goals, but all I really need is heart.  A big heart to love up my kids and husband everyday. A brave heart to try all of these new things (like writing a blog!) A sincere heart so that the time I devote to any new endeavor is time well spent. A thankful heart so that I can appreciate all of the blessings in my every day. - All you need is heart.  The rest will come. Wish me luck and please join me for the ride. I'm going to work at keeping it interesting for ya.


Pics of the Day!  
For today I'm posting a few photos of my crew. 

Photo #1 - Zee and Routh (pronounced Ruth) - these are my kiddos. I always let them goof off and make silly faces following a photo shoot. I just love this one! This picture was taken this past October at the NC coast. We were trying to get a Christmas card photo. I was so pleased with the results that day - I'll share the highlights from that shoot with more information on location, conditions, and all my gear on an upcoming post soon.


                                                   


Photo #2 - Pepper is my goof-ball 2  year old Gordon Setter. She's a good girl but boy is she a handful. All of those endearing puppy behaviors that seem so adorable in little dogs are not as cute when the "puppy" is 65 pounds! She's a great family pet and she's awesome with the kids. We LOVE you Pepper-oni!

Photo #3 - This pretty girl is our other dog Brandy.  Brandy is a Llewellin Setter. She has such an amazing story!  In 2007  We drove from the Chicagoland area in Illinois to rural Kentucky and rescued Brandy from a truly dreadful situation. I'll fill you in on her whole story on another day. As you can see she is doing great now. Her path has been a long one, but life with her forever family is going great.

Photo #4 - This last photo was taken during the start of this years snowy season in North Carolina. Boy oh' boy are we lovin' the snow.  Its no news that the East coast is taking a beating with the winter weather this year.  My kids are just thrilled. They had become accustomed to the snowfall we received in Chicago and while we don't get the same quantity down south we sure think its beautiful!

Pics of the Day!