Pillow Mania

Lately, I have been in the sewing mood.  Therefore, I have went a little crazy with making pillows.  Here are three that I just recently completed.  (Don't worry, I know the pink pillow doesn't match.  It is for my daughter's room.)   

I have yet again been inspired by all of you that have in turn been inspired by Pottery Barn.  I am still going to ride the faux grain sack train for a while still.  I decided to take this Pottery Barn pillow and try my hand at it.

Image from Pottery Barn

I have been playing around the different techniques for decorating them.  The first is by far the easiest.  All I did for this pillow was put some painter's tape down and dry brush on some acrylic navy paint.  Like so:

Then just sew it together.  I don't think it turned out to different from the PB pillow.  What do you think??

This next pillow I just printed out my word in the font I liked, held it up to the window and used a fabric marker to trace the letters.  Make sure you are doing this on a sunny day and that you are prepared to have your arms "feel the burn."

 
This last pillow, I actually made a silk screen for it.  So, it was the most complex but there was no way I would have been able to catch all of this detail without the silk screen.  I love the way the font turned out.  Plus, with the screen I quickly made two more for my nieces.

Here is a close up of the font.  Sorry, but the lighting isn't great so the colors are not as they really are in the above photo.

I'm linkin' up at:

May edit to add links to parties.

Vintage-like Buoys

I originally started this blog to push myself to decorate my upstairs bonus room.  If you have read any past posts, you have probably noticed that I've been side tracked.  There are so many of you that inspire me to try different things that I seem to try to put more pots on the stove than there are burners.  Today, I was determined to complete some sort of project for upstairs.  I have been wanting some buoys like in Pottery Barn but felt unmoved to pay for them.  This summer I stumbled upon a blog, Under the Table and Dreaming.  Stephanie had a tutorial on how to make Pottery Barn inspired wooden buoys.  So, I bookmarked it.  My mom had a partial piece of 4" x 4" post used for my loft bed from about 15 years ago.  She had it outside so it had a great weathered look.  Hubby cut it in half and followed Stephanie's measurements to cut the tops.

I knew I wanted a vintage vibe.  So, I got out my chip brush, painter's tape, and acrylic craft paint and went to town.  I dry brushed on the paint to get the aged look for the paint.  I was too lazy to think about painting on numbers.  I like them just the way the are!

I plan on sharing this over at:

Whimsical Girl's Desk

Okay, this isn't about the free desk.  That is a work still in progress.  This is about another desk that was given to me for free.  My mother-in-law was getting rid of this little child's desk and asked if my hubby or I wanted it.  My hubby said yes.  At first, I was a little hesitant because it needed a little TLC.

This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new paint sprayer I picked up at the flea market.  So, before I got started I washed down the desk.  Then, gave it a quick sanding.  If I had felt a little bit more confident with the sprayer, I would have done a better job sanding.  I was for sure that I was really going to mess it up.  Anyways, it isn't perfect but this is the desk after I used my paint sprayer.

Not too bad.  I don't know about you but it felt a little bland.  I mean this is for a 3 year old after all.  Where is the glamour?!  So, I tried to channel my inner David Bromstad from Color Splash.  I just love him.  Okay, just know that I have a secondary mathematics education degree not an art degree.  Have a look see:

So, what do you think?  I free handed it.  David Bromstad makes it look so easy but then again he doesn't have a 3 year old trying to comb his hair with a foam paint brush does he?  Okay, enough with my excuses.  I think it adds a lot to the front, but the inside needed a little something too.  I took some scrapbook paper and foam board to add a little punch on the inside. 

I loved how it turned out.  I can just see my daughter sitting there already.

Please, let me know what you think!  If anyone has suggestions on how to work a hvlp gravity feed paint sprayer, I can use all the tips you can give me.  I especially need suggestions on how to thin and use primer with the sprayer.  As well as tips on how to thoroughly clean it.  It appears mine was made in China and came with almost nonexistent instructions.  

I'm linking up to the following parties:

 

I'll be editing to add links to parties as the week continues.

Dining room buffet

This is my find that I worked on during my week break from blogging.

I have been to the auction 4 different times to get buffets similar to this one.  Of course, I spent the whole day there finally to bid and lose to a vendor every time.  Well, I am always keeping an eye out on Craig's list.  I stumbled across this.  The lady was actually selling it with a table but I emailed and asked if she would be willing to do them separately.  Luckily, she said yes.  So, on the hottest day of the year, I borrowed my mom's blazer with no air conditioner, drove across town and brought it home for $100.  I never wanted to spend that much but seeing how I wasted 4 days at the auctions, I figure I saved somehow.

You can't tell from the photo but the top had to be refinished and I knew I would be painting it to match my table.  Initially, I wanted to stain the top a dark color but decided against it.  When I stripped the top, I really liked the bare wood/veneer.  I decided to just poly it.  For the body of the buffet.  I primed it with 3 coats, painted 2 coats of my heavy cream, distressed and glazed it, and applied my poly.  I took me a while because I like to sand in between every coat of primer, paint, and poly.  

Here it is:

                    

This is a little close up

I'm so proud of how it turned out.  I have been working on expelling the musty smell old furniture tends to get.  I cleaned it out the Murphey's oil, aired it outside for 2 days, and finally filled all the drawers with tons of crumpled newspaper and activated carbon.  I am letting it set for a week with the carbon and newspaper.  I don't really smell anything but will still wait to make sure.

I plan on sharing this at:

                                           

 I will be editing to add links to parties.

It's free! It's free!

I can't tell you how tickled I am to have gotten this for free!

Yes, you heard it right.  This beauty was at the end of my neighbor's driveway waiting for the trash man to get it in the morning.  I am guilty of not speaking a lot to my neighbors.  We all do the polite wave and smile but I don't really know them.  When I saw my neighbor putting this at the end of his drive, I thought could this really be?!  Could I be one of those people that can get a deal of the century.  You know, every time I go to a yard sale, thrift store, or flea market, I have dreamed about finding a gem for an unbelievable price that I only seem to read about in the magazines.  Well, today I feel like that dream came true. 

I first went to my neighbor's door to ask and make sure they really were getting rid of it.  Unfortunately, they did not answer.  So, I continued to their next door neighbors, which is a lovely couple from my church.  They said I should just take it.  Well, while we were talking a car came to a halt and woman jumped out and starting loading the drawers in her car.  My heart sank!  I mean, I was 2 minutes too late.  Well, apparently after she couldn't get it into her trunk, she must have made a call for help.  Within a minute, a man came.  Luckily, he must have talked her out of it because they left it!  I didn't hesitate to grab it take it to my house.  I haven't figured out if I'll paint it or refinish the top for my son's room.  I think the missing drawer will make a nice cubby hole for books.

So, I learned to never hesitate when it comes to free stuff and never ask a man for help if he may talk you out of it.

I'm so excited about this find that I am sharing it at:
Today's Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality

Pitch a tent

I have carried around this page from ReadyMade magazine all summer. 

One day last week, the kids and I decided we should make it.  We went to the local home store and bought the cheapest supplies possible.  Once at home, the kids and I ran out of steam.  Considering it had been in the 90's all last week, we decided that maybe making ice cream sundaes would be better.

As I considered the directions, I thought I would consult my husband when he got home from work.  Of course, he felt he needed to make alterations to the given set of directions in order to collapse it down when not in use.  After an hour, he kindly had cut wood and put the tent frame together.  All I did was dig up a tablecloth that I hadn't used in a couple of years and Velcro it onto the frame.  Now the kids have a tent that won't collapse off the back of the couch and cause a dramatic scene.

I'm planning on sharing this at :

















Note:  I will be editing only to add links to blogs I'm sharing this post.