Design Intervention

An Update

2011-11-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

Thought I would give you a quick little update. Quite a few of you sweet readers have asked me how I have been feeling. So, here's a quick update for you.

At the end of July I was finally able to get in the neurosurgeon. My appointment was at 9:00 Monday morning. By 9:30 they had already determined that surgery was our only option. By Monday afternoon, I was doing my pre-op appointment already. Wednesday I had to go back for the rest of my pre-op appointments. And, on Friday morning we were back at the hospital bright and early for my surgery.

I had a disk replacement between vertebra 4 and 5, and a bone fusion between vertebra 5 and 6 (in my neck). By Saturday morning, they were sending me home. Things were fine for the first 12 hours but by Sunday at noon, Handsome Hubby was packing me back into the car and speeding through DC traffic to get me to the Emergency room. I was admitted back into the hospital and ended up in ICU for 3 days. Five days later I was finally released to go home again!

Funny thing about being in the hospital...if you recall, we are military, so I had my surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. While I was in there (for the second time), I was able to look out my window and see the closing ceremony taking place. (yup...WRAMC officially closed while I was a patient in it - - it's kinda weird - - it turned into a ghost town, but I had fantastic care since the floor I was on was supposed to have around 60 patients and there were only 3 of us on that floor!)

Once I got home, I was basically stuck in the lazy-boy. I was very limited in what I was allowed to do and thankfully Handsome Hubby's aunt and uncle came to help us out. Just a week and a half later, we were all boarding a plane headed to Jamaica. We had bought our tickets for Jamaica in February so there was no way we were missing our family vacation! Everyone had a great time there - - although I do have to admit that I don't remember much of it since I was still on a lot of very good meds!

So, where does that leave me now? Better! I have been feeling fantastic! The pain is completely gone and the Dr. says everything is healing very well. I have been released to resume things, within reason and with limitations. It takes me a lot longer to get things done. I've found I can't whip out projects as quickly as I was able to before, but at least I don't have the pain, I can enjoy my kids and Handsome Hubby again and I can be the wife and mom that I want to be!

I am doing projects, but obviously I haven't posted anything. We have really been consumed with school since September. With a 5th and 3rd grader, it takes us much longer to cover everything and I am trying to keep my focus on them first, and projects second. So, if you see a lack of project posting, that's why....priorities. I'm working hard to make sure that my Handsome Hubby and kiddos come first!

Well, that's my update in a nutshell. I will be posting things as I find time, but not on any consistent basis. Thank you for all the support and concern you have all communicated to me!! :)

I'm feeling great and loving it!!

No... I didn't fall off the end of the earth!

2011-06-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

I thought that since I haven't posted in.... oh let's just say, FOREVER, that you all deserved a good update.

So, here's my story. Not much has been going on here in project world. In fact, not much has been going on here at all - - ok actually a lot has been going on in our family, but just the normal everyday, life is busy, the army is crazy, and life is flying by way to fast way. We have finally finished up our year of school and handsome hubby has begun a new army school and more grad school classes all at the same time. UGH!

But, unfortunately, nothing has been happening here as far as projects go. Which is killing me! I am a creative person, I love to create, I love to do hands on things, I love to use that creative side of my brain.

So, why no projects?

It seems that my body would rather have me flat on my back or very creatively and precisely positioned on the couch. I have been suffering from very intense pain in my neck, shoulder, and left arm for awhile now. I was really hoping that it would go away on it's own. No luck there. When I finally could handle the pain no longer, I made an appointment with the Dr. after some good drugs, a neck brace, physical therapy two times a week and an MRI, we now have some answers. As my Dr. told me, "you have the neck of an 80 year old woman." Seems that genetically I won the lottery for having an awful neck! The MRI revealed that I have problems all the way down my neck starting at vertebra #3 and going all the way through #7. I have bone spurs, bulging disks, and bone degeneration on or between each of the bones. These bone spurs and bulging disks are sitting right on the nerves that run down the left side of my body. If you have ever had any experience with nerve pain, you know just the extreme agony I have been in. It's horrible. Nothing can touch the pain. For awhile there, I was popping Advil like candy and it wasn't even phasing me. I now have the good stuff - - you know the kind that you have to sign your life away in order to receive from the pharmacist and after you have signed, then they take out their special key and unlock the special cabinet that it has been locked away in....the same drugs, that once you get home and look in the container, you find you have only been given enough to give you relief for 6 precious days. Six days that you will not remember because you will be unconscious from the drugs the entire time. But when that 7th day arrives and you have no more medication left, you are jolted back into reality by the pain!

And that is my life in a nut shell right now. Dr.'s visits, pain, and medication. Not much fun or creativity going on here.

I did have one project started before the pain kicked in. A project that would usually take me two to three days to complete. Let me just say it took me a lot longer, but I did finish it just in time. I had really wanted to make my own dress for the Army Birthday Ball. You see, that is one of the really fun parts about being in the army....the balls. I love dressing up. Finding the perfect dress and shoes to go with, getting a manicure and pedicure, and seeing my handsome husband in his dress uniform. I love it! This year, I had decided that I wanted to make the perfect dress. It took me FOREVER, but I finished it just in time!

Here we are at the ball.

Might I just add that I didn't realize the lighting was as bad where we were at....that is not a horrible tan line, but instead a horrible shadow!!

Christian comedian Chonda Pierce was one of the entertainers for the evening. She is so Stinkin funny! And sweet! We got to talk with her for a few minutes out in the hallway as we were sneaking out.

We ended up leaving early because I was in so much pain and I refused to wear my neck brace to the ball!

Close up of the detail of the front of the dress.

I leave you with a picture of me with my beautiful new necklace that I get to wear all day and sleep in at night!!!

The Dr.s are talking that surgery is probably the next course of action. At this point in time, I don't care what is next as long as it brings relief. Since no creativeness is going on around here, I do not know when I will be posting next. Perhaps with lovely pictures of me after surgery. I'm hoping that soon it will all be fixed and I will be back to my old creative self and posting lots of fabulous projects. Until then, thank you for the concern some of you have had. I treasure the sweet emails I have received asking me if everything was ok since you hadn't heard or seen anything from me lately.

I’m Guest Posting on CSI!!!

2011-03-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Exciting news - - I’m guest posting on CSI today! If you haven’t been to CSI, it is a fantastic site filled with lots of inspiration and linky parties! Each week there is a different category, and this week, it is re-upholstery and slipcovers. I wrote a tutorial for my guest post on how to re-upholster this chair:

to make it look like this:

I know I have received many emails from all of you with before and after pictures attached of the many re-upholstery projects you have been inspired to do because of reading my tutorials. This week is the perfect week to link up those projects to CSI and show the blog world what you have done!

Removing Staples!

2011-03-01T18:47:00.001-08:00

I get questions all the time about removing staples when re-upholstering.

What are the best tools?

Do I have to remove all the staples?

STAPLES - - - the bane of my existence!!! I hate those pesky staples too!! When I first started re-upholstering I thought I needed to get every one of those boogers out - - I have now come to the conclusion that unless they are sticking up - - they are not going to get in the way of my progress!! So no - - -don't worry about pulling them all out - - make sure you have a smooth surface to work with, but if that smooth surface happens to have 50 staples in it that are flush against the frame, I still don't worry about it.

I have found a great tool for removing staples - - at Harbor Freight they have a heavy duty staple remover that you just put under the edge of the staple then rock it back and the staple pops right out.

I love it!! And for $2.99 you can't go wrong!! (BTW - - - pick up a big magnet while you are there, then you can just pick up all your staples with the magnet and not ruin your vacuum or step on them!! It's my little trick!!) Often when i am removing staples, I will use that tool and loosen them all, then go along the entire side using my wire cutter pliers to pull them all out.

When taking off the old fabric, you are going to start by removing the dust cover on the bottom of the chair, then the skirt if your piece has one, followed by the back of your chair, the front of the chair, then the arms and finally the front of the back. Take pictures as you remove each piece, so you can refer back to them as you are putting your piece back together. When you are putting your new fabric on, you will do it in the opposite order that you took it off. So your first piece back on would be the front of the back, seat, arms etc. and finally finishing with the back of the chair and the dust cover.

Guest Post!

2011-02-21T17:57:00.001-08:00

One of the best parts about having a blog is hearing from my “new friends” and seeing all the projects you have been inspired to tackle! I met “Little Miss Penny Wenny” (met is a loose term since we really have only met over email :) ) when she emailed me with some re-upholstery questions. When she finished her project and sent me pictures, I was blown away! She did a fantastic job!! PW just did a complete room makeover and she is guest posting today to share all the details with you! Look for the beautiful black and white chair in the pictures - -- she re-upholstered it all by herself!!! Wahoo!

**If you get the chance, please help her out by voting for her in the Ivory Homes Interior Design contest if you can! All you have to do is go to Ivory Homes Facebook page, "like" them, and then "like" my submission. Last day to vote is today!

I am thrilled to do a guest post here today. I feel honored to be amongst the pages of such talented bloggers and DIY-ers!

My very humble and oh-so-small blog, Little Miss Penny Wenny began late last year in attempt to share the joy with others in some of my favorite domestic and creative hobbies- furniture revival and re-upholstery, cooking, sewing, decorating, and thrifting. The transition for me from a fast paced professional career to a stay at home mom was a difficult one to say the least. Finding the joy in this chapter of my life has truly changed my perspective. I feel so blessed and happy to be where I am! My goal is to help others find that joy as well.

My hubbs and I recently tackled a huge project in remodeling our Master Bedroom. This space hadn't really been decorated at all since we built the house last year. I had slowly been collecting pieces that I wanted to refinish or decorate with for the space, when my friend informed me about an interior design contest that he suggested I enter into. Me? Interior Design??? HA! Having had no professional experience or training in my life on the subject I thought it was a laughing matter. However, I do love a challenge. So within about a week (and absolutely no sleep) our bedroom went from this:

to this:

Wanna know the best part? We did this entire bedroom remodel for $539 including chair rail and picture frame molding.
Here's an overview of what went down during our weekend of ~~chaos~~ fun:
We painted the walls a soft calming gray, in an accidental cross between Valspar's "Gravity" and "Silver Leaf" custom mixed by Home Depot in Behr Paint and Primer in One (try and say that five times fast...);

We installed chair rail and picture frame molding;

I painted and glazed these fabulous vintage Henredon night stands;

I painted these Better Homes lamps (on clearance at Wal-Mart) and recovered these thrifted lamp shades,

I (with the help of my amazing and patient mom) sewed these euro shams and standard shams to go along with my gorgeous gifted white coverlet and teal silk duvet, and Target toss pillow;

I sewed this Waverly cross section charcoal fabric into my existing white curtains to extend the height and add some pizazz;

I spray painted and cut to size a 1/2" electrical tube (10' long) from Home Depot for my curtain rod;

I replaced the pictures in these frames from Family Dollar with my own scrapbook paper (and removed the glass for a more vintage feel) and assembled them above our bed;

I painted and glazed the frame to my PoppySeed Salt Lake City Temple print, where my hubbs and I were married;

I hung my $10 Sunburst mirror from Family Dollar above the French Wingback Chair that I painted and reupholstered;

and added some vintage pieces to tie together my theme, including this gold picture frame (thrifted);

and this antique silver kettle (a family heirloom).

After all of that, we ended with this beautiful and tranquil space:

I finished this remodel with literally not one minute to spare just in time to enter it into the interior design contest. With a bit more time, I would have completed the following:
- hung a new light fixture (I would like a lantern for a unique feel)
- finished reupholstering the ottoman to my French Wingback Chair and staged it at the foot of our bed to serve as a bench and ottoman to the chair
- hung black and white prints in an eclectic assortment of vintage white frames on our longest wall
I will post pictures of the additions when the room is complete to my liking. Still, our submission was selected as one of the finalists, and 50% of our score is based on votes. So far we are doing really well! If you like what we did and would like to vote for us, please go to Ivory Homes Facebook page, "like" them, and then "like" my submission.
I am still so flattered to have been chosen as a finalist. I hope our crazy efforts will inspire others who don't have any formal experience to step out of their comfort zones and take a stab at remodeling and decorating. Trust me- if I can do it, so can you!
For more details and tutorials on how the pieces in this room were created, stop by my blog. Thank you so much for reading, and a special thanks to Amy for hosting me!
~ PW

A Christmas Blessing

2011-02-10T06:11:00.001-08:00

All Photos by Jamie Lynn Photography

Remember months ago….while Handsome Hubby was still deployed…when I was still able to post lots and lots of projects? :) I gave you a sneak peek at a quilt I was working on. Many of you guessed that it was made from dress shirts, but that was all you could know about it at the time. I promised that after Christmas I would tell you the rest of the story and show you the finished project. So…. In my best Paul Harvey voice, “And here’s the rest of the story.”

As many of you know we’re a military family. I first met Melissa right after we moved here when I visited PWOC for the first time. She was sweet, inviting, encouraging, and honest. She told me, Bill, her husband, had just gotten diagnosed with lung cancer, not even a year after retirement. They were fighting it with every weapon they could find. I was amazed at her strength and courage. At her faith and trust in Jesus.

After we found a church here, I was delighted to find out that Bill and Melissa were in our same small group. We watched, encouraged and supported as well as we could, over the next year as their family dealt with his cancer. And when we learned that he was dying, we felt helpless. How could we comfort Melissa and her sweet children? Words do not come easy for me, I am a hands on person.

but…this story is not about me…

It’s about the Melissa and her sweet family. and their courage. and pain. and heartache.

as a close friend of hers wrote on her blog (and I couldn’t say it any better than this):

“this is a story of redemption. about jesus and all He is to this family. He is the one who has seen this family through bill’s cancer, his chemotherapy, his struggle to live, and, eventually, his freedom from this earthly battle. bill knows jesus. and so he’s living with him now. knowing that is huge…and yet…

this sweet, broken family now has to continue to live here…without bill. with a piece of them missing. they will have to wait to see their husband and dad again. and therein lies the struggle…

but i do know this. bill is waiting for them. and they want to be there, too…but they have to live here now.”

In August, a few months after Bill’s death, Melissa came to me and asked the sweetest request she could have ever asked. She asked me if I would use Bill’s shirts and make quilts for her girls from them. I was delighted! Finally, something hands on that I could do to bring joy and comfort. Melissa told me that she had a friend stationed in Germany who was making a quilt for her, and another friend making one for her son. I would be responsible for making quilts for both of her girls.

In December, right before Christmas, all of the ladies involved with making the quilts, along with close family friends gathered at my house so we could see the finished product and pray over them. We prayed that as Melissa and each of her children were wrapped up in their quilts, they would find comfort, warmth, and security… and really so much more that cannot even be put into words.

These quilts were a Christmas Eve surprise for her kids…to be able to sleep under these quilts and wake up cozy on Christmas morning…

Melissa’s friend, and very talented photographer, Jamie Lynn, was there to capture the beauty of the moment.

Katie pieced Will’s quilt…

I pieced the girls’ quilts…

Megan’s quilt…

Lexis's quilt…

Abby both pieced and quilted Melissa’s quilt…

From Jamie Lynn's blog (her reaction to the afternoon - - again, put into words what my heart is feeling but I somehow am not able to put into words):

“this afternoon was absolutely incredible. revealing the quilts to these ladies that helped shape them. praying for each one that would use them…and then wrapping them up. aby dolinger is currently stationed in germany, so these quilts really did have to cross the ocean twice…what amazing work. i also wanted you to see the detail, not only in the material, but the quilting itself. go back and look closely. will’s quilt had stars, megan’s quilt had leaves and hearts stitched all over it, and lexi’s had leaves and flowers…i just couldn’t get over the detailing…

which got me thinking about how our God also cares about the details in our lives, that He cares that there would be something tangible for mel and her kids to hold on to that belonged to bill…it’s just so amazing to me that it matters to Him…

amy, katie, and aby…thank you for using your gifts freely, for giving generously. you’ll never know the depths to which these quilts speak…i’m not really sure any of us will…you’ve been a true encouragement to my heart…

melissa, will, megan, and lexi…as you wrap up in these quilts, may they be a constant reminder of the love your dad and husband had for you. he will always be with you. i’m so proud of you all…continue to run with perseverance the race marked out for you…always pressing forward. i’m truly honored to call you friends…and thankful for the gift you’ve given me in capturing these moments…”

Slipcovers in a new light!

2011-01-26T19:48:00.001-08:00

A talented photographer can make something pretty, and present it as beautiful! I made these slipcovers for my friend Nicole who is so very talented with the camera. You can see the pictures she took of Handsome Hubby’s homecoming here. Nicole captured the slipcovers (couch, chair and ottoman) in such an artistic manner - - I can’t decide if I like the slipcovers or the beautiful sunlight streaming in more! :)

Christmas 2010 Tour

2010-12-20T17:53:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my 2010 Christmas Tour!! I thought that if I was going to get these pictures up, I had better get at it and get them up before Christmas! I know there were lots of linky parties the past couple of weeks, but I have missed out on them!! I didn’t do much this year, but our house is just festive enough for my likes this year!

I started by changing out my curtains. I just put some festive green ones up - - they were the curtains from our dining room in California. I love switching out my curtains. It is just a few re-clips away from a new look!!

Next came the mantle - - since I have a great new sturdy mantle this year (remember last year my mantle fell off the wall - - and this summer I found a fantastic replacement) I stuffed as much mercury glass, lights, greenery, and greenery as I possibly could!!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care….

A few Christmas pillows on the couch, greenery over the mirror, lights and greenery wrapped around the pillars and….back by request of my kiddos: the magical hanging indoor forest in the hallway!

A small collection of mercury glass trees on the hallway table.

Simple, elegant, and easily packed up in January! I miss not doing the post tour of homes, but it sure was nice decorating in just one day and knowing that in a few simple hours it will all be taken down again!

Have a fabulous Christmas enjoying time with your friends and family!!!

All is well - - just busy!!

2010-11-18T18:59:00.001-08:00

Have you been wondering where I have been at? I have!! We have been enjoying our reunion so much. Handsome Hubby had over a month and a half off before he had to go back to work. In fact, he just went back last week. I have to tell you we were definitely spoiled!! But, i am so super thankful that he is able to come home every evening and have dinner with us!!

I have been working on projects, but things have been so crazy that I just have not had the time to document them. I promise I will get back to blog word - - -it just may take me a while while our family figures out the new normal!!

I did want to share with you all that I am guest posting on Infarrantly Creative’s blog this next week. Becky is doing a fantastic series called Pennywise Presents. An entire series devoted to Crafty gift ideas for the Holidays that are $10 or less!!! Fantastic!

So, although there is nothing new going on my blog any time soon - - - jump over to Infarrantly Creative and get some fabulous crafty gift ideas!!

He’s Home!!! And the very last deployment project #200!!!!

2010-09-29T16:02:00.001-07:00

He’s Home, He’s Home, He’s Home!!!!

Count all the arms in this picture….yup - - that is all four of us in one huge hug!

He’s home, and it is fabulous! We have been enjoying every minute together as family - - we are making the most of every moment we have together. There have been no projects happening here, no sewing machines humming along, no paintbrushes leaving their mark, no furniture getting make-overs and obviously no blog posts happening either! Nope – I’m taking a long awaited break!

Remember last spring when Handsome Hubby left this message for all of you?

Dear blog land-
I do not know who all will read this, but I must tell you how fortunate you are to visit this page. I am Handsome Hubby. I affectionately refer to Ms. Design Intervention as "Mrs.. America." I wish you all could see the things she does not post on this blog. She is the most sincere person who is absolutely loving and creative doesn't begin to say what she is. She is everything a man could hope for in a wife. She is fun and brave and supportive and challenging. She also happens to be good at Scrabble! I am glad to share her talents and our various home shots with you. But this summer she is going to disappear for a while. Do not worry... I will loan her out to Blog land again! She is my soul-mate and means more to me than words can express. I pray the Franklins can be a blessing to you through this site. Mrs.. America is truly awesome and I am proud to say she is my wife and the love of my life.
~~ Handsome Hubby from miles away

you can read the entire post here

I hope you didn’t miss that line in there where he says, “this summer she is going to disappear for a while…” Well, since his deployment kept getting extended, he is now home in the fall instead of the summer, but I am still disappearing for awhile! We are taking time to just be a family. I know we can’t make up for the time we missed, but we can make some new memories and enjoy our time with as little stress as possible!

If you haven’t met Handsome Hubby - - here’s what I wrote about him earlier this year.

I didn’t forget about the half-way contest that we did! Once I get back to our “new normal” I will post the winner and send out their prize package! I can tell you that I far exceeded my expectations of how many projects I would complete!

Speaking of projects - - here is #200! The kids and I worked on a huge welcome home banner to hang on the garage door to surprise Daddy with and also some signs for the airport! Do you see my kids cute artwork on these signs?

By the way, aren’t these pictures fabulous? When Handsome Hubby came home for R&R, I tried to capture the moment myself. It is very hard to take pictures and run to your husband at the same time!! So, this time, my very talented friend Nicole captured the moment for us. If you live in the DC area, and you are looking for someone super talented to take some fabulous pictures for you, Nicole is your lady!! Check out her other fabulous work on her website!!

Of course, I had to have the perfect patriotic shoes for the occasion!!!

Re-upholstery and a Refashioned Frock (Deployment Projects #198 &199)

2010-09-16T18:20:00.001-07:00

Ha! I did it!!! - - I know it only says 199 projects, but number 20o is already done and I will be posting it tomorrow!!! I thought it would be fitting to have just one more re-upholstery project on here before Handsome Hubby’s return. With the completion of this re-upholstered bench, I have a final count of 24 re-upholstery projects during this deployment - - wow!

This was just a simple, curved arm bench, in desperate need of a fabric facelift! The owner of this bench, loves to throw in a little animal print in every room in her house. She is in the process of decorating her master bedroom and decided that a little cheetah was just what her bench and her bedroom needed!

The second project for today is just a simple re-fashioning of one of my shirts. I love this shirt, but it was just a little too tight for comfort. I found myself wanting to wear it, but always choosing to not wear it because I knew I would be uncomfortable in it. So, I decided to re-work it and let it be a super cute shirt for Charise.

All I simply had to do was take in the side seams by about 2” on each side, which also made the arm holes her size. Then I simply stitched together half way up the neck opening so it’s not showing off too much!! Charise is super excited that she has a shirt that Mommy used to wear and I’m happy that my cute shirt will now get to be worn again!

Oh, by the way, did you notice the calendar in the picture above?

Here let me show you again….see those arrows?

What, you say you can’t see it well enough to see them? Look closer!

Yup, it says we are only 1 day away from Daddy/Handsome Hubby leaving for home!!!!

Just a peek (Deployment Project #197)

2010-09-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

This isn’t a completed project, but I have completed as much as I wanted to finish before Handsome Hubby gets home, and it is a surprise Christmas gift, so I can only give you a little peek at it!!

This is a special quilt I am working on, but I can’t tell you any more about it - -- if you keep following me, I promise that I will show you the completed project and tell you more about it!!

If you are interested in the pattern for this quilt - - you can download it for free here!!! It’s the Amy Butler Nigella quilt - - check out her other free quilt patterns on the same site - - I love them!!

Have I inspired you to go and check out her free patterns - - or even better yet, to make your own quilt?

Bonne Nuit – Goodnight (Deployment Projects # 194-196)

2010-09-13T18:43:00.001-07:00

Remember this PB inspired savannah slip-cover I just made for my friend?

Good news? She loves it!

Bad news? She’s moving (boohoo :( )

Yes, that is part of the military life. We move, we make friends, we live life together, and then we move. You just never know which one of you is going to move first. It’s also something that is awesome about the military. We make friends fast and we go deep quickly. There’s not time to mess around, we know we have a limited time together so we make the most of it!!

Shana and I both went through deployments together. Our kids are the same age. Our youngest daughters are twins - - they don’t look anything alike, but they act exactly the same - - they can destroy a clean, organized room in 3o seconds flat and never give it a second thought!

Anyway, I completely regress….so, Shana is moving and they just found their new house (yup, that’s another thing we do, go online, find a house for rent, send a friend who is already stationed at our next duty station to go and check it out, then sign a rental contract without ever actually walking through the house!) and it turns out their bedroom in their new home has one accent wall that is black. So, Shana asked me if I could make her a pillow to put in her new chair that was black, so she can pull the black throughout the room.

What do you think?

Bonne Nuit is French for Goodnight. I designed it with a freestyle script and embroidered it with off-white thread on black fabric. I love this font - - I am definitely going to have to use it on another project soon!!

I loved the pillow so much, I decided that I needed one for my bedroom that I just re-did! I added a little knife pleat border around mine.

The last project for today is another little Oiseau (bird) pillow. I love the green with the brown on this pillow. It is such a sweet, soothing combination!

I’m finishing up the last 4 projects this week. I think I am going to make it to 200 before Handsome Hubby gets home!!!

Linen Slip-cover (Deployment Project #193)

2010-09-09T19:03:00.001-07:00

This is a sweet slipcover. With cording around all the edges, a T cushion, round arms with pleats and a pleated back pillow, there were lots of details and attention required in the creation of this slipcover!

Here’s a picture of the chair before. Yes, it did have a seat cushion and a back pillow, but I had already covered them before I realized I hadn’t taken a picture and honestly, I didn’t feel like wrestling them off for a picture!!

This is a linen like fabric. It was fantastic to work with as far as weight, but it certainly does fray…a lot! I had to use my serger on every seam on this slip-cover to ensure a long life.

This is the softest, most comfy chair I have ever sat in, no wonder her owner wanted a slipcover made!! Her matching couch and ottoman are also getting new slips. I’m sure I will post pictures as soon as they are done!

Oh, by the way….can we say 8 days!!! :) Just in case you lost count!

Baby Quilt (Deployment Project #192)

2010-09-08T10:31:00.001-07:00

Ten days till Handsome Hubby leaves country and 8 projects away from 200! Will I reach 200 before he gets home? If I didn’t have anything else to do but projects, I could definitely do it, but with everything that I need to do, I’m not sure if I will make it! This homeschooling is kicking my patootie!! I guess as kids get older, their schoolwork gets more difficult! Go figure!

Here is a project that I was working on two weeks ago. I couldn’t post it right away because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise!!

Our good friends Chad and Elizabeth are expecting their first baby in October. We were all stationed in California together. They are still there, and of course, we are on the other side of the country. So, when I heard that our friends in California were throwing her a baby shower, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

This quilt is made using the techniques found in the book: One Block Wonders

Basically it is a lot of fussy cutting of one fabric into tons of triangles…

And then putting those together for form hexagons…

Then putting all those hexagons together to make the quilt!

These are my favorite quilts to make because you really only have to choose one fabric. All your blocks are made out of the same fabric. See the pink paisley fabric below? That is what all the hexagons are made from. The green fabric is the backing and the polk-a-dot fabric is what I used for the binding. Another plus about these quilts is that they look really involved and detailed, but they are really easy to make!! I made this quilt in two afternoons!

Congratulations Chad and Elizabeth! We can’t wait to meet your little one - - I know you guys are going to be awesome parents!!!

Pottery Barn Inspired Savannah Slipcover (Deployment Projects #190-191)

2010-09-05T19:02:00.001-07:00

I am super excited to share this next project with you! When my friend, Shana, brought me this picture that she ripped out of her PB catalog and told me she wanted this look for her chair and a half, I was eager to take on the challenge!

Here is a picture of her chair before:

The PB inspiration picture:

The final product!

If you look closely, you will see that I changed out the pillow back and made a fitted cushion back. It completely changes and look and comfort of the chair!

Pleats!!! I am so in love with these pleats! Now I want to re-do all my slip covered pieces and add these pleats to the bottom.

I’m working on writing up a slipcover tutorial for this chair, but be patient. Tutorials are long and involved! They take forever to write!!

Wanna see some more fabulous slip-covers? Head on over to Pink and Polkadot for the Slipcover Party!!

A Special Thank you gift (Deployment Project #189)

2010-09-01T19:30:00.001-07:00

When Handsome Hubby was home on his two weeks of R&R, we took a little vacation down to southern Virginia to our friends family farm. We had a fabulous time! Mamie and Pop Pop were the best hosts! One of the best things about going there was that Handsome Hubby and I had a place all to ourselves. The kids stayed in the house with the rest of the family and Handsome Hubby and I stayed in the chalet.

Mamie and Pop Pop

Mamie and Pop Pop took an old corn-crib and completely re-did it making it into the perfect vacation chalet. It had a large living room with tons of windows to enjoy the mountain views, a bedroom, full kitchen and full bathroom. Absolutely everything that one could need or want.

You wouldn’t guess that it used to be a corn crib!

We had such a great time there and appreciated so much everything that they had done for us. Mamie did not let me lift a finger while I was there. She (and the rest of the family) made all the meals and did all the clean-up. They just really wanted our family to have a time and place that we could relax and reconnect.

I really wanted to let them know how much we appreciated everything, so I came up with a little “thank you” gift for them. I made this custom embroidered pillow for them with a picture of the chalet on the front.

I sketched a picture of the chalet, scanned it into my computer, then ran it through my embroidery program and had it converted into an embroidery, which I then embroidered on to a linen fabric. I then made that into a pillow. I absolutely love how it turned out and by the “Thank you” card I got from Mamie and Pop Pop, so did they!!

Thanks again for a wonderful time!!!

In other exciting news, Handsome Hubby has informed me that in less than 20 days he will be headed back home!!!! That means that by the end of this month, he will be home for good!!!! I’m sooooooo excited! We have been waiting for this day for a long time! I still have quite a few deployment projects that I want to finish up, but at this point in time, if I don’t finish them, I don’t even care!! I’m just so ready to have him home!

Master Bedroom Final Reveal (Deployment Projects #180-188)

2010-08-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

Let me start off by saying that I am going to do what every good blogger would tell me not to do. I am going to cram a zillion projects and pictures into one post. The reason? We started school today. OVERWHELMED would be an understatement for me right now! I realized today just how much Handsome Hubby balances me. When I am having a bad day or I am overwhelmed, he can always balance me out and bring me back to sanity!

I realized today that the older my kids get, the harder their school gets, and the more time and focus it is going to require from me. So, in an effort to be able to focus on my kids and their education - - instead of dragging this reveal out over a time span, you get it all today. So that tomorrow when I am trying to teach, I don’t have a blog post trying to compose itself in my head!! This also means that posts may be fewer and farther between, at least until we can figure out our new “normal.”

So, with that in mind, here is the final product!! There is still some work to be done, obviously I still need some stuff to put on the walls, but I don’t want to hang something there just because it is what I have, I want to put things that I love on the walls, so in the meantime, they are going to remain blank!

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

As you can see, I have completely rearranged the room. Moving the bed in front of the window did three things: it finally gave me a place where the bed could be centered (all the other walls make the bed not centered on another area - - it just was not working for me), it helped make the room seem a little bit smaller compared to looking in through the doorway and seeing the long bed way on the other end, and lastly, it put it under the air vents in the ceiling so that we actually get some air at night instead of roasting!!

I was apprehensive of covering up the window, but with the two side windows, we still get plenty of natural sunlight and as a bonus, at night I can open the blind behind the bed and get a great view of the moon and stars!

One of the projects for this room was slip-covering this chair. I used the same method that I used for my dining room chair slipcovers, except that as I sewed the seams, I put a flat flange edging in the seam. You can find my tutorial on flat flange here. The chair was a fantastic Craigslist find - - chair and ottoman for $60. They were in great condition and super lightweight (always a plus when you move often and have weight restrictions!). The only thing wrong with it was that it is a yellow plaid, not the look I was going for in here, so it was the perfect candidate for a slipcover.

I wanted to bring some of the coral over to this side of the room, so I embroidered one of my birds onto the coral fabric and made it into a pillow.

This chaise was on etsy also - - except that it was a friend/client of mine who had it listed, so I traded pillows and cushions for it. It is my new favorite spot to lounge and read in my room!! I know the walls are still blank in that corner, but I am looking for the perfect lamp to go next to the chaise and I don’t know what I want for the walls yet!! :)

Next it was time for window treatments. I love this fabric. It is a vintage looking floral linen. If I had enough of this fabric I would have lined the walls with it!! It has the French blue in it that I have throughout my house along with the pop of coral and pink. Not enough coral and pink to make my husband hate it, just enough to give the room an unexpected pop of color! I made really simple balloon shades using shirring tape on the edges. The centers are just pinned so that when we move, I can adjust everything if the windows are a different size. On either side of the bed, I just hung the fabric in long panels to soften the edge between the headboard and the window frame.

This little settee was another craigslist find: $75. I absolutely love it! When I first started working on the room, I re-upholstered this in a blue/green velvet. It looked really pretty, until I put it in the room. Then I hated it. Every time I would start working on the room, I knew that something was wrong, but I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Then one day, I was playing around with my fabrics to go on my bed, when I set a piece of coral fabric on the settee. Suddenly I knew what was wrong - - the blue/green was not working in that room. I grabbed Cameron and together he and I ripped off the fabric and had the settee re-upholstered in 45 minutes flat (including ripping the old off!)!! Obviously it is an easily done piece. It uses the same techniques that I showed you in my re-upholstery 101 series.

I will admit that this project isn’t finished yet, I still have to put the double cording around all the edges. I was really hoping to be able to buy a finished braiding that would match the coral - - but I have not been able to find anything that even remotely matches.

This desk was my old sewing table. Needless to say, the top was very scratched up! I love this desk, I got it at a garage sale in CA for $30. I almost didn’t get it because I really wanted to talk them down to $20 (I’m cheap). I am so glad that I did splurge and spend the extra $10. Knowing how much I have used it and how sturdy it is, I would pay way more than that for it now! After having a sewing machine, pins, and scissors all leaving their mark on the top of it for the past three years, it was in need of some TLC. I decided to just give it a fresh coat of white paint and some new hardware.

Handsome Hubby has been asking for a place of his own where he can have his books and computer and be able to spread out without me telling him that I need more room to lay fabric out in his workspace! This is the perfect place for him. When he came home for R&R and I showed him that he had this spot all to himself, he couldn’t have been happier. Now, when he comes home for good and goes back to school to finish up those last 3 classes he needs for his Masters, he will have the perfect study spot just waiting for him!

Well, that is my Master bedroom in all it’s glory. Yes, it still has some gaps to fill in, but it much better than it was before. It works for me now. It kind of feels like a hotel room, with plenty of comfy seating, a desk to work at, and a big inviting bed! It is now one of my favorite rooms in the house!!

Master Bedroom Day 1

2010-08-24T19:33:00.001-07:00

Wow! Your comments on yesterday's post really made my day. You all are so sweet. It is so nice to know that there are others out there who appreciate and acknowledge the sacrifice the entire military family makes. It won't be long before handsome hubby is home for good and we cannot wait! I'm sure you can’t either, you're probably sick of hearing me talk about deployments and deployment projects!

Have patience with me this week as I try to balance Handsome Hubby going back, coming off of a weeks vacation at the beach, customers orders that have been put aside for three weeks, and of course, our home school starting on Thursday. We are excited to start our new school year, but I should could have used a couple more weeks of summer! Who am I kidding, if I were to have two more weeks of summer, I would still be saying I wasn’t ready for the school year to start!!

Well, as promised, this week I am going to show you the finished master bedroom. For today I am going to show you the before pictures and also a few sneak peeks at the fabrics and some of the details in the finished room.

This room is huge! We have never in our married life had a room so big. Honestly, it has taken me so long to do this room because I don't know what to do with all the space! Here is how it was laid out before.

Do you see how much room there is in here?

Overwhelmingly huge!

There is no real good way to lay the room out. Notice,this one whole corner just turned into a storage area for all things that didn't have a home.I finally got sick of it all,and when my friend Kristi came to visit,we completely rearranged the room.Tomorrow I will show you the new layout we came up with.

Re-doing the room involved lots of projects! Re-finishing an old desk (actually my old sewing table).

Adding new hardware.

Making a couple slipcovers.

All new fabrics for the windows and bed.

And of course a re-upholstery project. Have I peaked your interest now? Tomorrow I will show you the actual projects and take my Deployment Project count close to #200! I cannot believe how many projects I have gotten done while Handsome Hubby has been gone!!

Back To Reality… do I have to?

2010-08-23T19:29:00.001-07:00

I’m back! Did you miss ? Wow! It has been a crazy three weeks! I have missed all of you in blog land!

Handsome Hubby came home three weeks ago and it was a wonderful time of reuniting as a family and enjoying one another's company. We hugged and laughed and cried and enjoyed every moment together!

After handsome hubby got home we took a little vacation to southern Virginia to a friends family farm where we rode horses, went hiking, jumped in the creek, ate amazingly good food and hung out as a family.

We had an adventurous trip home when Cameron came down with a fever and the air conditioning went out on the track halfway home, it was hot hot trip. We ended up going to the doctors first thing in the morning when we got home and found out Cameron had an ear infection and strep throat. Charise, not wanting to be left behind followed in her brother's footsteps and had a fever two days later. We ended up just staying home the rest of the time and enjoying each other's company. We had lots of family movie nights and played lots of games together. The two weeks went by really fast and were over much sooner than we were ready to let Handsome Hubby go back. :(

Handsome Hubby left on Friday morning and on Saturday morning the kids and I left for North Carolina for a week at the beach. We went with four other families from church and had a fabulous time hanging out, eating the best food ever, relaxing on the beach, staying up way too late, and laughing way too hard! It was just what the doctor ordered! It was perfect timing for the kids and I to get our minds off of daddy leaving.

(I would love to share pictures of all of this, but my camera is acting up and will not let me download the pictures)

After we were done at the beach we loaded everything back into the truck and headed three hours down the road to Fort Bragg to go and visit friends there. Cameron's best friend from Fort Irwin lives there. I surprised Cameron and took him to visit his friend. It just so happens, that his mom and I are great friends to! He said it was the best surprise ever! In fact, we had so much fun that I forgot to even get the camera out.

Now I am trying to catch up from being out of the house for three weeks. School starts on Thursday and this mama/teacher is so not ready for it to start.! I've got lots of projects to show you this week and I did finish the master bedroom before handsome hubby got home, so I'm going to be showing you the bedroom all throughout the week! Big yay!!! I am so excited to show you the finished product I think it turned out beautiful and Handsome Hubby absolutely loved it! He kept saying the entire time he was home that it was just like a hotel room and it was the only room he wanted to hang out in. What a compliment!

Well, part of coming back to reality is the 15 loads of laundry I now need to do, and then I must start getting myself to bed at a decent hour! Thanks so much for waiting patiently for a new post while I enjoyed time with my Handsome Hubby!

Daddy’s Girl! (Deployment Project #179)

2010-07-24T19:26:00.001-07:00

We are ready….so ready!! That phone call cannot come soon enough!

I’ve been talking with the kids about Daddy coming home, I love to listen to their excitement and their expectations. Charise was quite worried the other day. She was worried that Daddy would not be able to find her in the crowd. I’m not quite sure what she is imagining in her mind, but this was a big concern of hers. I thought I could ease her worries by making her a little outfit that will definitely stand out in the crowd!

There is no doubt in my mind that Daddy would be able to find us no matter what we are wearing, but Charise feels so much better. Glad she knows what she is going to wear - - I still have no clue what I am wearing!!

Every morning this Daddy’s girl runs downstairs and takes another link off our countdown chain and then announces to all of us how many days we have left (tomorrow is her last day to report any numbers to us!!)

Don’t you love those corker bows on her little piggies? Daddy just melts when she wears her hair in piggies - - and she knows it, so she requested that she wear her hair in piggies to pick up Daddy! I had my new blogger friend, Heather, make us a set of red, white, and blue corkers!! She sells them on her site and they are fantastic! Great quality, great price and she is so fun to work with!!! You should go and check out her site!!

OK - - now, I’m off to finish that bedroom! Just to let you know how crazy I am right now, I decided to re-upholster a loveseat for at the end of our bed. I decided at 7:30PM that it was the wrong color and I wanted to change it, so I got the kids to help me rip the fabric off and by 9:00 we were finished with the entire re-upholstery job! Don’t worry - - when I finish it all I will share pictures!

Now, I gotta go and work!

UPDATE!!!! He's home and we are gone on vacation as a family!!!! The reunion was wonderful and Charise looked so cute at the airport waiting for her daddy!

I'm linking up to the CSI project today - - but unfortunately, the button will not work for me - -- at all!!! -- like I said, we are on vacation and I am using someone elses computer - - it is not cooperating!!

ok - -- off to enjoy my hubby!!!!

Cameron’s Room (Deployment Projects #177-178)

2010-07-22T19:16:00.001-07:00

OK - - just a quick post tonight - -probably with lots of pictures! I have finally finished Cameron’s room. I think boys rooms are tough. Not so much when they are babies, or even toddlers, it’s that 9 year old, going on 10 that I have found tough. I had lots of ideas of what I wanted to do, but Cameron is now developing his own creative ideas and opinions. That’s hard for me. One, it tells me he is growing up, and I really don’t like the thought of that and two, it means I need to allow him to express his ideas and not just do what I want to do!

I learned that Cameron is a very neutral guy. We must have gone shopping 10 times looking for a comforter. I would point out something I liked - - he would hate it every time. You know what he wanted? Plain brown - - he let me choose between a lighter or a darker brown! I learned that he doesn’t like color - -except blue. He doesn’t like patterns. And he doesn’t like my idea of organization. He is a no nonsense, either it’s right or it’s wrong, no frills kind of guy!

He wanted an adventure room. I’m still not sure exactly what an adventure room entails, because every time I would suggest something he would, in his sweetest, most kind manner tell me, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings Mom, but that’s not what I was thinking of having in my room.” He was so concerned about hurting my decorating feelings - - it was so sweet! Finally I told him to just start pointing out things he liked and we would make it all work.

I don’t know if it all really works together, but it was a process and really, it was more of a process of a mom letting her son grow up and express himself, and a son learning how to voice his opinions and not worry about disappointing his mother. Does the room have things I would change if I were just decorating it myself? Yes, of course. It’s hard working a frog habitat, legos, rock rugs, and all brown into a room. But he loves it and really, that is what it is all about. A room for my little man to love hanging out in, a room to bring his friends to, a room to feel comfortable in!

See these mini cloches? They were Christmas bell ornaments that I bought on clearance after Christmas. I took the bells out and they turned into perfect small cloches to “highlight” the bug collection. The picture on the right is what is under the cloche on the right!

Nothing helps set the theme of the room like an Adventure pillow with the definition of adventure embroidered on it! I used zipper edging to trim it out and a pieced together back to give it a very “adventurous” feel!

If you look closely, you can see his two fire belly frogs hanging out in their habitat!

The wall next to Cameron’s bed it like an ever growing bulletin board. We put up “invention” pictures and shelves to hold treasures. And of course pictures of him with his favorite people!!

*In non decorating news, we are so close to Handsome Hubby coming home for R&R -- - I think I will only have one more post before he gets here, we’ll see!! I have been super busy finishing up orders - - in fact, in the past two days I have made 18 pillows and I have 11 more to finish up by tomorrow night. I still have our bedroom to finish, and in a perfect world, I would have a whole week of posts showcasing the bedroom all pre-written and ready to post while Handsome Hubby is home. But who am I kidding? That would be a perfect world! - - I certainly don’t live in one of those!!

Some Tips!

2010-07-18T21:01:00.001-07:00

I have been working like crazy around here! I’ve been trying to finish up customer’s orders so that they can have them before Handsome Hubby gets home. I’ve been working on our bedroom, finishing up Cameron’s bedroom, trying to get this house in order, and realizing I definitely need to go grocery shopping before Handsome Hubby comes home!! One week - - -eeeeaaaaakkkkk!!! We are sooo excited!

Are you sick of hearing about that?

Sorry - - you may just not want to visit my blog for a couple of weeks if you don’t want to hear about Handsome Hubby and our excitement!!

Anyway, as I have been working on all these projects this week, I learned a few new things that I wanted to share with you and I thought I would introduce you to one of my tools that help make the job easier!

Now, my first tip may not come as any huge surprise to you, you probably already do it, but I just realized it this week - - (I have been sewing for 10+ years and never thought of this!)

TIP #1

When you are making cording and attaching it to the first surface (not your final attachment) change your stitch length to the longest possible stitch.

By doing this, you can make your cording in half the time and attach it to your first layer in half the time!

Just remember to put your stitch length back to the proper length before you put your final piece together!

TIP #2

Did you know there are different weights of drop cloths?

I totally did not know that until this week! I stopped by Lowes quickly this week to pick up another drop cloth - - not for painting of course - - but I grabbed from the top shelf instead of the bottom shelf this time and didn’t know until I got home that there were different weights - - and a big difference between the two! I picked up a heavier weight one and it was so hard to work with! I always wash and dry my drop cloths before I work with them and even after washing it twice it was still incredibly hard to work with!

I would say that the heavier weight would work fantastic for a re-upholstery project, but it is definitely too heavy to be sewing with - - it does not hang or drape well.

So, my tip - - - check the weight of your drop cloth before you buy!!

By the way - - do you think the drop cloth manufacturers are wondering what the heck is going on since they have seen sales double since the blogging world decided that drop cloths are the answer to all decorating dilemmas?

AND NOW FOR MY HELPFUL TOOL:

Have you seen these? Do you have one? It is a bias tape maker (ok, that may not be the technical name for it, but it should be if it isn’t!) I use mine all the time. It is a simple little tool that you pull your fabric through, ironing it as you pull it through, and when you are finished, you have perfect bias tape that matches your project perfectly!!

Here’s how it works:

1. Cut your fabric in 2” strips

2. Take a piece of tape (I usually use scotch tape, but I used electrical tape so you could see it - - and because that was what I had on hand!) and attach it to the end of your strip making a 1”-2” tag.

3. Slide your tag end into the wide end of the tool

4. Using a straight pin, pull the tape tag through the end of the tool (the tape tends to be a bit stiffer than just the fabric and therefore it is easier to push/pull through than just trying to make the fabric go through)

5. Once your fabric is through, hold the little handle (this is so that your don’t burn your hand as you start ironing)

6. Iron along the folded edges, pulling the fabric through as you move your iron along.

7. Keep pulling until you have pulled and ironed all your fabric through the bias tape maker.

Tahdah!! You have made your own bias tape!

Now, all you have to do is attach your tape to your project. Just make a little sandwich, with one half of your tape under your project, then folding the other half around to the top, you can sew right along the edge of the tape attaching all the layers as you go!!

Wasn’t that fun?

Now, if you are still looking for some more fun today, Head on over to the CSI Project - - they are having a furniture re-do link up today! I’m linking up some of my projects today - - jump over there and get some inspiration from all the projects!!

Ramblings and Pillows (Deployment Projects #171-176)

2010-07-12T18:49:00.001-07:00

Did you know that we are almost…ALMOST in the single digits for our countdown for Handsome Hubby to come home for his two weeks of R&R? I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Am I ready? YES! and NO :( I am so ready to have him home, so ready to have him next to me, to see him interacting with our kiddos, to cook and bake for him, to just sit and look at him! I am not ready to send him back after those two weeks. I’m trying not to focus on that, but it is in the back of my mind.

I am also not ready with all my projects. Seven months 175+ projects and I am still not ready? Yeah, I know, underachiever! Actually - - my number one project since he left is to do our bedroom. I have not decorated or hung pictures, I’ve hung about 5 different sets of curtains but no permanent ones, I just cannot focus on that room! But, time is running out - - ALMOST single digits here - - I gotta get me some motivation!!!

Don’t hear me wrong here, Handsome Hubby is really not going to care what the bedroom looks like. It’s just something I really want done before he gets home. So, knowing that I have an entire bedroom to design and decorate, what have I been doing?

Making pillows!! I have some more pillows to put in my etsy shop. These ones are really fun! They have vintage images “printed” on them. They really aren’t printed, it’s a process called sublimation. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it: A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto a medium such as a plastic card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name is applied because the dye transitions between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage.

So anyway, my aunt has one of those fancy printers (and her own blog!) and she printed these images from Graphics Fairy onto my fabric and they turned out fantastic! I just love how the fabric absorbs the color instead of it sitting on top or having the sheen of an iron on transfer. And these can be washed!!

I also made an embroidered number pillow. Four is our number - - four of us in our family. I’m going to offer custom embroidered number pillows in my etsy shop, so if you have a favorite number and you’ve always wanted a pillow to go with it, I’m your girl!

And, last but not least - - I should have posted this last Sunday. I just wanted you to know that I was patriotic on the 4th. I made this dress on Saturday, when I wore it on Sunday, I kinda felt like I should be singing and dancing everything - - I felt like I was in the musical “Oklahoma” - - I’m still not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

Well, that was a lot of rambling about nothing, but I have successfully put off working on that bedroom for yet another hour! Gotta get motivated!!

Dining room slipcovers (Deployment projects #163-170)

2010-07-11T18:38:00.001-07:00

They’re Finished!!!

I’ve finished all my dining room chair slipcovers!! Eight big chairs – what was I thinking?

They look soooo much better now!

Look at these before pictures.

They weren’t bad in our last house where we had orange in every room, but here, they just clashed!! It was too much in that room!!

Now, with all the new neutral slips, this room now fits with the rest of the house. Calm, peaceful, light and bright!!

If you are wondering about the walls in this room, (remembering that we are renters!) you can read all about them here.

So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of the simplest slipcovers ever made!

All of these steps will be done with the right side of the fabric next to the chair. The fabric I used was a hopscloth linen look fabric from JoAnne's. I prewashed it in hot water and dried it on high so that all possible shrinkage had taken place!

1. Lay the fabric over the front of the chair from the top to the bottom. Allowing about 4” extra on both the top and the bottom, cut off your length of fabric.

2. Lay your fabric on the floor folding it in half lengthwise. Split (cut) your fabric along the fold. These two pieces will become the front and the back of your slipcover.

3. Pin your front piece of fabric so that it lays over the entire front of your chair and over the top back. (You are just pinning it so that it doesn’t fall as you work with your fabric.

4. Lay your second piece of fabric down the back of your chair and start pinning around the shape of your chair. I like to use my pins as if I was drawing a line with them.

5. Continue pinning all the way around the entire top of your chair.

6. Once the entire top is pinned, it is time to move to the two side panels. Cut two squares of fabric long enough to cover the side panel.

7. Pin around the top three sides of the square, curving it around the corners of the seat, and matching it into the back “seam” of the chair. Repeat this for the other side.

8. Step back and take a look and make sure that it looks just like you want it to look when it is finished. Carefully pull it off your chair and take it to your sewing machine!! I used my serger for this so that it would cut and seal all my edges at the same time. This fabric frayed really easily and I know that these are going to get washed a lot!

9. Starting with the seat portion, follow the pin line (taking the pins out as you get to them) and sew/serge all the way around the seat sides.

10. Next, you just have to sew/serge all the way around the back sides and top. Remember, just keep following your pin line.

11. I forgot to take pictures of this last step… put the slipcover back on your chair (right side out this time), mark your hem-line by pinning it. Take you slip back off and finish the hem of your slip, the same way you would for a skirt.

11. Put your slip back on your chair and enjoy the beautiful new easy to achieve look of your simple slipcover!

12. Repeat steps #1-11 seven more times so that your entire dining room set is slip covered!!

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (Deployment Project #162)

2010-07-08T16:37:00.001-07:00

Just a quick little project for the day. It’s so incredibly hot here. I thought it was hot living in the middle of the Mohave Desert in CA, but this humidity thing is killing me! It makes me not want to do anything. In fact, the biggest thing the kids and I have been doing is going to the pool - - every day!! Even with sunscreen, the kiddos and I are turning very brown!!

I designed this embroidered pillow last night (while watching So You Think You Can Dance - - love that show!). It’s a simple eye chart that upon closer examination reads, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It is a fabulous accent pillow with a cute hidden message!

In very exciting news - - I have decided to open my own etsy shop. Right now, I am just putting different embroidered pillows in it. I’ve been selling some of my designs on etsy for awhile now, but I’m making it official now!!

To see this pillow on etsy, click here!

Charise’s Bedroom Reveal (Deployment Project #161)

2010-07-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

Are you ready for the big reveal of Charise’s room? Lots of pictures today!! Originally I was going to do a pink and white, ruffley, vintage, little girls room…BUT, it just wasn’t working for me. That’s not Charise. She is so full of energy, so vibrant and brings so much joy to everyone around her, I had to change directions and go vibrant!

I put the white quilt, the gingham balloon shades and pillows, and all the frills back on the shelf and pulled out this fabulous orange comforter set that we used three houses ago (it’s actually been in two garage sales since then, but never sold - - guess I know why now!)

I still need to add something more to the wall next to the bed, but I’m not quite sure yet - - -remember, I’m only using what I have or can re-do into something else! So, perhaps that will be another deployment project!!

I took the door off the closet and hung a curtain instead. The door couldn’t actually close with the bed where it is, and it blocked her cute hooks that I showed you yesterday! It is amazing that such a small change can make such a huge difference, the room seems so much bigger without that door in there!

I picked up this vinyl clock on clearance at Target a few months back - - this is also what the leftover vinyl birds were from. Look above the doors and wall art for those!

Remember these chairs from Re-upholstery 101? I have been trying and trying to find a place for them in my house. I love them sooooo much, but I just did not have a place that they worked. So, what’s a girl to do, but plan a room around them! I used the same fabric for the top of the curtains. (These curtains hung in our living room in CA, they just had different fabric on the top - - I simply clipped the new fabric to the top and tucked the bottom edge of the fabric into the braided cording edge - - -I’m telling you, make it easy, make it simple - - there was no need to make new curtains, I just needed to repurpose what I already had)

Speaking of repurposing… I just spray painted her old pink chandelier turquoise.

I hung a sweet little mirror right at Charise’s height so she can primp and fix and beautify herself all she wants!

The two chairs that have finally found a home!

A sweet room for a very sweet girl!!

*thanks Laura Kay Photography for all the awesome pictures of my beautiful baby girl!!

High Impact – Low Cost Wall Art (Deployment Projects #159 & 160)

2010-07-06T17:55:00.001-07:00

I’ve been working hard on the kids rooms and I think I am finally ready to show you Charise’s! I still have some details to finish up and I still need to add a few little “surprises.” But all in all, it is finished. I had the same policy with the kids rooms as I had with the guest room. I didn’t want to buy anything for these rooms - - only use things that I had.

Here’s what I came up with for one of Charise’s walls.

I had this picture hanging in our guestroom before I re-did it. I knew I was not going to use this picture again – I’ve had it in three houses already - - it had served it’s purpose, but my style has moved on.

So I took the picture, matting and glass out of the frame…

I made sure that all the staples were removed, then gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint - - I used lot’s of this wonderful spray paint in her room!!

Next, I took a set of vinyl frames I had picked up months ago on clearance at TJ Maxx and put them on the wall inside the frame.

I let Charise pick out four of her favorite pictures and put those in the frames.

Did you notice that I just used straight pins to hold the pictures to the wall?

I also had some leftover vinyl birds from another project in her room, so I perched one of them on a frame.

A little sneak peek of the new picture frame on the wall! Notice more of that turquoise spray paint? I also gave her pink chandelier a coat of paint.

Now, for a second super quick super easy project. We had these three hooks in her room before the re-do, but they were always falling off the wall and every time they moved, they left a black mark on the wall – not cool when you rent! So, I took a board that we had in the garage. It just happened to be this size, I didn’t cut it down or anything. I gave it a coat of paint too - - then, with my white paint pen, I added a little white line detail. I put screws in to keep the hooks on the board and voila! I hung it on the wall, then added another one of the vinyl birds above the hooks.

Total money spent: $0

Creativity Used: just a little :)

Cute Girls Room: Priceless! Check back tomorrow when I share the entire room with you!

In Our Home (Deployment Project #158)

2010-07-05T14:04:00.001-07:00

I saw this fabulous “Do” list on someone’s blog the other day, and I cannot for the life of me find it again. In typical Amy fashion, I put it in my idea file, but forgot to make sure I had the link saved also. So - - I know it is on one of your blogs - - if it’s yours, send me an email and I will link you to this!!

Here’s the wall that inspired my next project:

Don’t you just love it? I love that it is a positive twist on a household “list of rules.” I took the words and ran with the idea, making my own movable version. That’s what we do in the military - - we make movable versions of everything. That along with checking the weight of a piece of furniture before we purchase it!!

I plan on hanging this on the wall in the hallway outside the kids room. It’s actually just leaning there right now until I can go and get the hardware needed to hang it.

Here’s the line that really sold me, “We do loud really well.” If you knew my family, or hung around with us for any amount of time - - - especially if Handsome Hubby is around - - you would know that we do LOUD really well!!! We joke that my husband has the laugh, “heard around the world!” It’s true - - it’s really loud! When we were dating in college, that would be how I would find him. I would just open my dorm room window - - listen for a few seconds, hear his laugh, and head off in the direction I heard it! I love that my man is such a happy person and not afraid to share that joy - - especially with his family!

So, yes, we do loud really well!!

To make the sign, I dry brushed my blue paint on my board, used my T-square to chalk some guidelines on for writing my words. Then free-hand painted the words on my board. After it all dried, I used some sandpaper to distress the entire sign and added some white accents using my paint pen. It was a quick and easy evening projects that serves as a great reminder to all of us of the things we, as a family, should be doing!

Flat Flange Edging Tutorial (Deployment Projects #154-157)

2010-06-30T20:23:00.001-07:00

Have you noticed flat flange edging? I’ve been seeing it everywhere and I really like it! I love the simple yet sophisticated look of it. Such a clean line, custom look. I’ve been throwing it in on some of my projects lately. And some of you have sent me questions asking about it, so I thought I would do a little tutorial on flat flange edging!

First, some inspiring photos of flat flange. Let me just throw it out there that these are all pictures I have ripped out of magazines, so a. the quality isn’t that great and b. I have no clue where I got them from, but I can’t take credit for them :)

Here’s how you do it:

1. We have to start by making the flat flange. Start by cutting 2” wide strips of your fabric.

2. Sew all your strips into one long strip. The easiest way to do this, is to overlap your two pieces at a 90 degree angle.

3. Sew diagonally across the two pieces.

This will form a little triangle seam…

Trim off the extra triangle of fabric.

4. Iron your entire strip in half

Just match up the edges and iron down the length of your trim

5. Now it’s time to make the pillow with the flat flange. Cut out your front and back pillow fabric, adding 1 1/2” to the size of your insert on both the length and width - - this will be your seam allowance.

6. For this pillow, I am attaching a zipper closure, so I folded and ironed a 1” edge along one side.

7. fold the rough edge inside and iron to give it a finished edge.

Grab your zipper

And….here’s a little trick of mine. To attach my zippers, I love to use my double cording foot. I simply center the zipper under one of the channels of the zipper foot and it slides along like there is nothing there at all!

8. With your sewing machine, sew along the edge of one side of the zipper - - letting the zipper slide through the channel of your cording foot.

9. Attach the other piece of fabric to the opposite side of your zipper (this is why I like to use the double cording foot, because I can just let the zipper slide under the opposite channel.

10. Now you have one big rectangle of fabric connected by a zipper in the middle! Fold this in half, right sides together. Make sure your zipper is opened at least 6”.

11. You are going to make a sandwich. With your rough edge of the flat flange facing out and starting with the flange between the opened edge of your zipper. Your front and back pieces (right sides together) are the bread, and your flat flange is the peanut butter!

12. Now, all you have to do is sew around the three sides of your pillow, using a 3/4” seam. Now, look at how the corner is pinned closely. I just freehand folded and pinned as I got to each corner. You don’t need to accordion fold it as much as I did, you can just fold it and make it a 90 degree turn. Because there is a zipper all along the bottom, you only have to sew the three sides. If you wanted edging along the zipper, you could have just added that in as you were sewing the zipper on.

And, here’s your finished pillow! So cute isn’t it?!?

I just finished these pillows, duvet cover, and chair cushion for one of my friends. Her daughter is growing up and needed a “more mature” look for her room. I used the flat flange edging on all of these projects. The stripes along the duvet cover are also flat flange.

Are you inspired to go and try doing it yourself now?

Making a Balloon Shade from a Panel Curtain (Deployment Projects #148 &149)

2010-06-29T18:48:00.001-07:00

You may notice that my project #’s are out of order this week - - I had written this post last week but I forgot to post it! :)

I picked up a set of pink gingham panel curtains at a local thrift store for $2 each. After I got them home, I decided that I really would rather have them as balloon shade toppers instead of long panels. So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of how I did it!

Start with one of your long panels. Trim off somewhere around 21” from the bottom of your panel. I did this for two reasons: 1. the total 72” is too long for a balloon shade, it just makes it way too bulky and 2. I wanted to make some matching pillows, so the 21” from each panel is sufficient for two pillows.

Next, you will need to hem the bottom of the curtain - - just folding and ironing over the edge twice and then sewing it along the bottom. I decided to add a ball trim to the bottom edge of the curtains, of course this is optional.

Next, you are going to use 1” wide two strand shirring tape. This is the best stuff! You can find it buy the yard at most fabric stores in the upholstery and drapery supplies section. You are going to need three pieces per panel, each piece cut to the length of your panel minus about 6”.

Attach the shirring tape by sewing a straight line down the outside edges of each piece. Just be careful not to sew over the solid white line. The white line is where the string is hiding that you are going to pull to make your shade bunch!

You will be attaching 3 pieces of shirring tape to each panel. One on each outside edge and one in the center. To be honest with you, I just eyeballed it and sewed it on - - it is going to be bunched together, so it doesn’t have to be too exact. Make sure that at the bottom of the tape, you secure all the way across the edge. I like to sew across the bottom edge of the tape 5 or 6 times just to be sure that I catch those strings in there - - otherwise when you go to pull them, you will just pull the string right out.

Now comes the easy part. Grab the two strings and just start pulling. Your fabric will gather as you pull the strings and you will probably have to ease your fabric down along the tape, but just work with it and pull it until it give you the tightness (or looseness) that you are looking for.

Continue this for all three pieces of tape. When you have those strings pulled tight, take the two from each tape and tie them in a knot.

And that is all - - -see, I told you it was super easy. Not bad for $4.00! It took be about a total of 20 minutes to do both panels. Since the panels already had rod pockets in them, all you have to do it put them on your rod and hang them up. I think the hardest part it just trying to take a good picture of curtains hanging in a window!!

Don’t we have fabulous views out our windows? :) What a lovely house my neighbors have, so glad we get to look at it every day!

Guestroom Projects!

2010-06-28T19:15:00.001-07:00

Welcome back to my guestroom! Today were going to take a closer look at some of the projects in the room!

Did you notice those pictures on the wall? I needed something to fill up that long white wall. I had a book of shell prints, but no frames to fit them. Remember, I was only using what I had in the house, so I had to get creative! So, I carefully tore the pictures out of the book.

Can you see what I used to hang them? T-pins. Yup, I just stole them from my sewing table and pushed them in the wall.

I got creative on one and just added a little metal number tag. It happened to be hanging out on my sewing table by the T-pins, so I just grabbed it and added it in. I like to throw unexpected items in my decorating. It makes people really look and be entertained by the details.

What do you think of my beach sign? It makes me so happy!

I made it -- - in like 15 minutes!

I wanted something big for the opposite wall and I really wanted it to be my focal point. It is the first wall you see when you look in the room AND this room is right at the top of our stairs, so you see it every time you go up or down the stairs. I had the hooks and numbers sitting in the garage -- - I had bought them at Lowes a few months back I think the hooks were around $3 each and the numbers were $2. So my total cost was $25

To make the sign, I screwed together three boards of slightly different widths and lengths. I got the boards for free at a garage sale - - I didn’t cut even trim them down. I left a little gap between each of the boards. Then I quickly painted the boards with some blue paint I had on hand - - and when I say quick, I mean quick! I just slapped it on there, letting the wood show through in some places.

After that, I sanded down the edges, screwed on the hooks, and nailed on the numbers.

To finish it off, I used my white sharpie paint pen (love it!) to write the word “beach” along the top. It didn’t show up quite enough for me, so I grabbed my black sharpie pen and outlined the letters.

How about this little quick project…

Again, I apologize for forgetting about before pictures - - I get in the moment and forget to document, the creative juices are just flowing and I just keep going! I had these fabulous family pictures and I really wanted to put them in the room. Some people say you shouldn’t use family pictures in your decorating. I say it’s my house, my family, and my pictures and I should decorate with what makes me happy! And my family and my family pictures make me happy - - so dog-gone-it, I’m going to use them!

I had picked up this frame from Home Goods when we still lived in CA for $2.00. I was white, banged up and had some crazy pictures in the openings. I gave it a fresh coat of paint, cut scrapbook paper to fit the openings, and put one picture in each of the openings. $2 art… You can’t beat that!

By the way - - -check out those pictures in the frame - - -are they not the best?!! Those were our pre-deployment, pre-moving, family pictures done by the very talented Missie from Sunflower Studio. We traded talent. I re-upholstered a chair for her and she took our family pictures!

I still have some details to finish for the room, but really, the biggest thing I am missing for this room - - is guests!! Whose coming for a visit? I have 4 weeks to fill up before Handsome Hubby comes home for his two weeks of Rest and Relaxation (R&R). Hoping these 4 weeks FFFFLLLLLYYYYYY by!

Guest Room Re-do (Deployment Projects #148-153)

2010-06-27T16:49:00.001-07:00

So…. How was your weekend? Mine? So glad you asked! It was CRAZY!!!! Not crazy like we were running all around town to this and that - - nope, never even left the house the entire weekend except to go to church this morning. Not crazy like my kids were driving me nuts and I was inches away from disowning them - - nope, they got along great this weekend!

NOPE, it was CRAZY exciting! Now, granted, not as exciting as it will be when my beloved comes home, but exciting none the less! It started Friday night when I decided that our guestroom needed a make-over. I’m like that, I get random ideas, and then just act on them – sometimes not even thinking the whole idea through before hand. For example, I probably should have thought ahead to the fact that I am still in the middle of re-doing my kids rooms. Yes, that would be two rooms completely in upheaval and I decided to add a third room to the mess!

Of course, it was also exciting on Saturday morning when I got up and checked email and had blog comments galore! I had to go and see what this was all about. Nester - - - that’s what it was all about!!! I jumped over to her site and what was greeting me? A picture of me and my beautiful children! I was on her Saturday Bird Watching! How exciting - - and welcome to all my new followers!!!!

So, after I got over my huge shock from Nesting Place and came back down from cloud 9, it was back to the guestroom re-do.

It was such a random idea, that I didn’t even stop to take before pictures - - -which is a real shame now because it would be so much fun to show you the before pictures at this point! But, I guess if I was going to be completely honest it wasn’t decorated before….at all. I had hung curtains (but they had fallen out of the wall three times - lack of anchors and kids playing hide and seek in them will do that!) so there were no curtains any more and I had just thrown and orange quilt on the bed. There was a Mickey Mouse TV gracing the dresser and all the furniture was in the wrong place making the room feel even smaller than it is.

So I got the gumption and just started moving furniture around (with the help of my very strong 9 year old!), got rid of the old curtain rods that wouldn’t stay in the wall anyway, added anchors and hung new curtains, made some pillows for the bed, shopped the house for accessories, made some art for the wall and improvised where needed!

I decided that I wasn’t going to leave the house to do this room. I decided everything needed to come from the house - - re-use, re-purpose, borrowed from another room or taken from my stash.

So, without any before shots to share with you, here are the after!

I started by moving the bed in front of the window. Originally it was coming out from the wall where the beach sign is. It made the room so tight, you could barely walk through the room. So much roomier now!

Next, I changed out the bedding. I went all white. I have a long standing policy with Hubby - - if the hotel doesn’t have white bedding, I’m not staying there. It just makes me feel like the room is clean and fresh. So I did the same for our guest room.

Next I hung up some new curtains. I used rotating cafe rods. Two reasons I went with these: 1. these windows are super wide and getting a rod that is long enough requires taking out a loan and 2. I happened to have these rods on hand! I had bought them on clearance years ago knowing that I would need them “one day.”

I also squeezed in a small corner cabinet next to the bed, making sure the clock is visible from the bed and that you can turn the lamp off from the bed. It is a stretch, but there is nothing worse than being in a house you don’t know and you have to walk from the light switch to the bed in complete darkness!

I was able to fit in a small antique dresser, the perfect place to store the guest towels, sheets and extra blankets. I like to put dryer sheets in the drawers to keep everything smelling fresh! I also had room to put a small reading chair in the corner with a floor lamp. The chair is from my Grandma. I was originally going to re-do the chair. Painting it and re-upholstering it, but it is in fabulous condition and it has so much sentimental value to me, I just couldn’t do it. Now that I have it in this room and the color works perfectly, I am so glad I didn’t touch the chair!!

Speaking of sentimental things - - the bed was our wedding gift from Handsome Hubby’s parents. Would it give it a more beachy, cottage feel if I painted it white? Yes, but again, sometimes the sentimental side wins!

Well, now that I have shown you the complete “after” pictures, you will have to come back tomorrow to see some of the projects I did for this room. I’m so excited about them, here are some sneak peeks!

I’m a Winner!!!

2010-06-22T07:24:00.001-07:00

Ok - - I so should be doing something else - - like dishes, or laundry, or cleaning , or teaching, or sewing or or or…….

But, I’m so excited! I just won the most beautiful necklace from the blog Thirty-six Ten!!

It’s a Vintage Mother of Pearl Button in Sterling Silver Necklace. Isn’t it beautiful? And so fitting for me - - I love my vintage button collection, and almost all my pillows are made using vintage buttons for the button back closures. Perfect!

If you think this is beautiful, you should check out her etsy shop….

Cute aren’t they - - love the monogrammed rings!! Why Oh Why didn’t I give my children names that started with different letters?

She’s getting ready to go on vacation for a couple of weeks, so there isn’t too much in her shop right now, but look through the sold items to see what she has made, then you can have her make a custom piece for you when she gets back! Just gives you a little time to make your decision! I’m still trying to decide which piece I “NEED!”

My version (Deployment Project #147)

2010-06-18T09:06:00.001-07:00

I have had this picture in my “files” for over a year now - - I absolutely love this shirt. I have no idea where I found it - - somewhere on the big world wide web! I decided it was time to see if I could come up with my own version.

I started by buying two identical long sleeve cotton shirts on clearance for $1.99 each from Target.

Next, I cut out round petal shapes (I did a trial run with some extra jersey fabric I had on hand, just to make sure everything would work as planned, it works out well since you will be able to see the added pieces easily in the pictures.) Once I knew that my process worked, I did cut all these pieces from the second shirt I bought. This way I knew that my cotton fabric was going to match perfectly.

After I cut the petal pieces, I ran them through my sewing machine. Sewing a straight line down the center of the petal so that I could “ruffle” them.

Next, I ripped various sized strips of fabric. Ranging in size from 1” – 2 1/2” wide.

I ran these through my sewing machine also.

Then I pulled the bobbin thread and “ruffled the long strips.

Now it was time to get artistic! I started pinning my ruffled pieces onto my shirt. Starting at the shoulder and adding pieces until it had the look that I wanted.

After I was satisfied that it was going to work, I cut apart my second shirt and did the entire process with the grey fabric.

Since I bought the shirts on clearance, they were long sleeved. A good thing for giving me lots of fabric to work with, but it is summer now, and it is HOT and HUMID here. I am not a patient person (meaning, I did not want to wait until fall to be able to wear my new shirt!) So I put the shirt back on my twin, then put one of my favorite tanks over the top. I marked the armholes for the tank and cut my black shirt along those lines.

Next, I cut a couple more strips 1” wide. I folded them in half and attached those around the arm holes. I just left the rough side to the edge since I wanted it to continue having the raggedy edge.

What do you think? I’m quite pleased with the finished product!!

One of those weeks (Deployment Projects #143-146)

2010-06-17T13:01:00.001-07:00

This has just been one of those weeks! Charise has not been feeling well all week, and after having a low-grade fever for the last 4 days, I thought I was time to get her in to the Dr. this morning. After some x-rays and an exam turns out she has pneumonia. I guess that explains why she has been so miserable. This week has consisted of a lot of cuddling and movie watching! It means I didn’t get much done creative wise, but it sure was nice to have an excuse to just sit with my little princess!! Now that she’s on some good meds, hopefully she will be on the mend soon!

I’ve also been dealing with a sick van. It’s sickness is completely my fault. It is our old van - - the one Handsome Hubby drives when he isn’t on an “all expense paid 9 month long vacation to a sandy beach with no ocean.” I knew I was supposed to drive it every once in a while, or at least start it up and let it run. But life got in the way, and I just kinda forgot about it. So, I’m paying the consequences now. Just another thing to add to the to-do and deployment stresses list!

Last weekend, before my wee one got sick, the kids and I started on a big project around here. We are working on switching their rooms so they both have what used to be the other person’s room. Yikes! That was a lot of work! We had to switch room because Charise’s window faced the front of the house (aka the sidewalk where all of her friends would come to socialize with her after she was supposed to be in bed) and she in not one that makes modesty high on her priority list if you know what I mean! So, we decided that it would be best to make an adventure of the two of them switching rooms and getting their rooms decorated how they wanted. - - That was a dumb idea!

Look at all these displaced stuffed animals out in the hallway, waiting to be moved to their new room.

I have far too many ideas of what my kids rooms should look like for me to tell them that they can have it how they want it!

For today, you just get a peak at some of the projects I have been working on for both of their rooms, and hopefully by the beginning of next week I will be finished and I can post the final pictures!

Lots of pillows - - of course! Can you see what I used instead of cording?

This was a fun project using leftovers from curtains - - more on that tomorrow!

And of course some embroidery!

A sneak peak at some hardware going up.

And of course some great Craigslist finds!

Have I left you wondering and guessing as to what goes where and what it all looks like? Yeah - - I’m wondering myself!! How do I make their ideas and my ideas gel? We will see what we all come up with!

Tooth Fairy Pillows (Deployment Projects #136 -142)

2010-06-14T20:04:00.001-07:00

I had a friend ask me if I could make some Tooth Fairy Pillows for her boys.

Her only requests:

1. use fabric scraps that I had on hand and

2. Personalize them.

Easy!

I thought they turned out pretty cute and the best part is that they were quick little projects, that let me be creative. A nice break from the large demanding re-upholstery jobs!

We’ve been busy around here finishing up our school year. Today was our last day of testing - - woohoo!!! We are going to continue doing some schoolwork every day through the summer. One to keep us busy and make the time go quickly till Handsome Hubby comes home and two, because I want to keep moving forward and not have to re-teach everything at the beginning of the year next year!

Quick and Easy Dress to Skirt (Deployment Project #135)

2010-06-08T19:03:00.001-07:00

Today, I’m sharing a super easy project I did last week. And when I say super easy, I mean super easy and super fast!!! I actually did this in about 5 min. (including taking pictures) last week in the morning before we left for a day out on the town!!

I found this Liberty of London dress on the clearance rack at Target for $4. I absolutely love the print of the fabric, but the shape and cut of the dress was doing absolutely nothing for me.

So, I made it into a skirt! In a very simple, almost primitive manner! First thing I did was cut the top halter of the dress off.

Two separate pieces - - I just threw the top part away, it wasn’t really a big enough scrap to do anything with - - although, now I’m thinking I should have saved it and made a fabric flower to embellish the shirt I wear with the skirt. Oh well, too late now!!

Next, I made a simple folded over top hem and sewed my elastic directly on top of the hem, stretching the elastic as I went, which made the skirt ruffle up perfectly when I was done.

Quick, Easy and Fabulously cute!!!

A Perfect Fit (Deployment Project #134)

2010-06-06T17:13:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I drove up to Leesburg, VA and met my good friend Kristi at Old Lucketts Store.

The description from the Virginia Visitors website describes it this way:

The Old Lucketts Store, is a beautiful, 3-story landmark building that was originally built in 1910. This historic building was once the post office, general store, then the Lucketts family home. The building has since been restored and is the home to over 20 antique dealers and is overflowing with vintage furniture, lighting, collectibles, garden artifacts, linens, and accessories. The Old Lucketts Store motto is, "You never know what you might find."

It’s true - - you just don’t know what you will find. It was a quick slightly more than an hour drive there (of course, it took me 2 hours to get back home because it was Friday night DC traffic) but it was a pretty drive through Virginia country and through many Civil War battle fields. (my kids were staying with a friend for the day, but as I drove, I was actually considering taking a “field trip” in that direction for the kids to see the battle fields and then we could somehow magically end at Lucketts! - - think they would catch on?)

I went not needing anything but knowing that I would find something I couldn’t live without! Look what I found:

An old fireplace mantle! If you remember back at Christmas time, I had a big mantle fiasco, all stemming from the fact that in our rental home, we just have a big hole in the wall fireplace between two windows - - no mantle, just a big blank wall. So when I saw all the mantles at Luckett’s, I knew I NEEDED one!!

I know, it looks pretty rough here, but this is what it looked like when I brought it home. I literally had a 1/4” to spare when I put it in the back of the truck (good thing the kids weren’t along because I had to fold their seats down!) I was super impressed with the prices and selection. There were probably a good 10-12 mantles there and 3 or 4 that I was seriously considering. But this one stole my heart - - and didn’t break the pocketbook at the same time!! The best combination! I paid $65 for it. I thought that was a great deal!!

I brought it home, washed it down twice with degreaser and a mold and mildew remover. The mantle cleaned up pretty well, and I really loved the crackly paint. It looks like it had been painted about 10 times!! Once I got done washing it down and it dried, I brought it in to check out the size - - you would not believe it, but it fit PERFECTLY!!! Right between the two windows with just a 1/2” to spare and the opening was exactly the size it needed to be!!

Do you see that little spot between the window sill and the mantle frame?

But, I didn't’ like the finish on it once I brought it inside - - it still looked really dirty to me, so I gave it a couple of quick coats of white paint.

Then I hot glued white felt over the entire back so that it wouldn’t leave any rub marks or old soot marks on the walls.

Next, I needed to secure it to the wall. I didn’t want my Christmas fiasco to happen again!! I used two super heavy duty door magnets. I screwed the large part to the back of the mantle (there was a perfect little indentation that they fit right in. Then I screwed the metal piece to the wall. I had to put a 1” block of wood behind the metal plate to make up for the trim that was around the fireplace. Let me tell you, these baby’s are tight! This mantle is not moving!! It takes quite a bit of muscle to “disconnect” my mantle from the wall!!

Do you see the small board with the metal piece? The magnet is STUCK to that piece!! The gap between the wall and the mantle is about an inch, but my curtains butt up right next to the mantle so you can’t see it from the side. You can’t see it from the front because it is actually in the shadows and the fireplace surround is black. The only place you can really see it is on the top, but once I accessorize, no one will notice that either!!

If this were our house, I would have just secured it directly to the wall, but since we are just renting, I needed to do something with the least amount of damage to the walls. Plus, when we move, we can just pack up the mantle and put it in our next house, even if we don’t have a fireplace, we can still put it against a wall and have the architectural element there!

I love to sit and wonder about the history of this - - what house did it come from? How old is it really? Oh, if mantles could talk!!!

Just a few views of the living room with her new jewel!!

I am not Wonder Woman, Super Woman, or even Super Mom (Deployment Projects #122- #133)

2010-06-03T12:44:00.001-07:00

I have come to the sobering conclusion this week that I am not Wonder Woman, or Super Woman and I’m pretty sure I’m not even making the cut for Super Mom this week!! Don’t get me wrong, we are all still surviving - - we have even had some balanced meals this week (they were at a restaurant, not homemade!), the kids are clean (once we may have counted pool time as bath time), the house is still standing (lets just leave it at that and not go into whether it is clean or not). But it has just been one of those weeks. You know the kind where you are supposed to be in ten different places all at the same time, and every time you try running out the door, you are forgetting something essential for the day. I feel like I have made a thousand U-turns at the entrance to our subdivision this week, because I keep forgetting things. At least I haven’t forgotten either of the children….yet! The biggest gut-kicker of the week has been my sewing machine breaking down…yet again…the DAY AFTER my warranty ran out. Now, don’t think of me as shallow - - the world does not revolve around my sewing machine - - but it was just the straw that broke this poor, I-have-no-sanity-left, could-anything-else-go-wrong, sleep-deprived, is-the-school-year-over-yet-because-I’m-not-sure-I-can-teach-another-day, deployed-momma’s back!!

I have actually refrained from posting for a week because I have been so MAD at the sewing machine company and the poor customer service, that I knew if I got on here I was not going to be nice! So I will just say that I will not be buying another sewing machine from this company and if you are in the market for a sewing machine you may email me and I will suggest some brands that seem to have better customer service and a better track record for not breaking down!! Even Ethel decided that she didn’t want to work this week!

But, I can show you what I was able to make before all the sewing machines in my house decided to take their summer break!

First up - - remember the Miss America to Hello Beautiful re-upholstery project from last week? Well, this week I re-upholstered the ottoman that goes with it.

Before

After

I also made two pillows for the bed in the room that the chair and ottoman are going into. I love the little knife edge pleat around these pillows. Such a custom, tailored look and a nice break from cording!!

I also made two more “Always” and “Forever” pillows for this room. If you want to make your own - - you can check out my tutorial on that here. These two pillows are similar to the last two that I made, except that the pleats are smaller/tighter. That is the joy of the ruffler attachment, just by adjusting your stitch length and the number of stitched you want between ruffles, you can change the look.

These two little mini pillows will go in the room also!

Look at these fabulous fabrics I got to work with this week. I made cushion covers for outdoor wicker furniture - - two chairs and one long couch cushion. These are just the covers without the foam in them yet, so you just have to use your imagination until my friend sends me a picture of it all put together!!

Oh, and one custom Father’s Day pillow!!

Goodbye Miss America - - Hello Beautiful!!! (Deployment Project #121)

2010-05-23T18:33:00.001-07:00

There truly wasn’t anything overly wrong with this chair before I re-upholstered it. The fabric was in great condition. And, for having a white background, it was also very clean. In fact, this is the first chair that I have ever re-upholstered that I didn’t find popcorn in the chair when I took the old fabric off!!

The only thing wrong with this chair was her style. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a very patriotic lady, and so is my friend who is the proud owner of this chair. But she was ready for a change. We headed over to Joann's and perused their selection of fabrics - - we finally decided on this fabulous blue and cream fretwork fabric.

I absolutely loved working with this fabric! It was the perfect weight, had the perfect amount of stretch, and it looks fabulous on the chair! It is “Lovely Lattice” by Waverly.

A Surprise for Daddy!!

2010-05-19T19:29:00.001-07:00

My friend Laura is a SUPER talented photographer - - like the real professional kind!! I didn’t know that when I met her in our small group at church, then one day I stumbled upon her blog and realized that I already knew this talented lady!! She volunteered to take some pictures of the kids and I to surprise Handsome Hubby with while he is deployed.

The plan was to take pictures outside, but it was actually too sunny outside and Laura just started clicking away inside our house. She completely blew me away when I saw the proofs. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the thought of pictures inside my house certainly doesn’t sound inspiring to me.

Laura did an awesome job! She made it look like we were in a magazine shoot or something - - and really, she made my house look amazing! It sure does help that my kiddos are so CUTE!!!

She captured us in our everyday activities.

And she took some shots of me so that I can put an up-to-date picture of me on my blog!!

We love you Daddy and we miss you so so much!!

We are going CRAZY without you!!

Laura specializes in engagement and wedding photography. You defiantly need to check out her site and see all her work. She is getting ready to move to Fort Campbell, KY so if you are in that area, you may want to look her up!!

A Pretty Oops! (Deployment Projects #112- 120)

2010-05-17T18:08:00.001-07:00

Today was a day filled with pillow making – and a few other projects! I made 8 pillows and a cushion today - - I call that a productive day! Four of the pillows were for a friend, and 4 were for me.

I wanted to change out the pillows in my living room - - nothing fancy, nothing too dramatic, I just wanted to bring in a little more blue. Last week while I was perusing our local Salvation Army, I found a king size flat sheet that is the perfect color blue. For $1.99 you can’t beat the price! I was able to make 4 pillows and I still have fabric left over!

Two of the pillows are finished with a vintage crocheted lace trim. They turned out so sweet!

The other two were supposed to have a matching tiny knife pleat edge (this would be where the Pretty Oops comes in) - - I was a little sidetracked while I was sewing the second pillow and I didn’t pay attention to which direction I sewed the pleats on which meant that the rough edge ended up on the outside. I decided that instead of ripping it all out, I would just go with it and see what happens. Turns out, I really kind of like the effect. It has a rough, fraying, ruffled effect.

Isn’t is a pretty look on the couch - - the blue really frame the bird pillows beautifully.

Here are the other pillows I made today - - this is a fabulous idea - - my friend is getting ready to move, and her new home has a front porch with plenty of room for a wicker couch and two chairs. I’m working on the cushions for the furniture, but today I made the pillows. She had me embroider the house number on one pillow and “Welcome” on the other. These will be on the chairs right by her front door. What a cute way to help people find your home!! Love it!

This last pillow is for my friend’s new dining room. She has an old church pew that she is going to put along one wall in there for extra seating. I made the cushion for the pew today and this sweet pillow.

“The fondest memories are made gathered around the table.”

“Dear Jesus, Please make the time go by quickly.” Breaking 100 in the Deployement Project #’s!!

2010-05-16T18:29:00.001-07:00

Along with their other requests and praises, my kids pray this every night before they go to bed. They want the time until Daddy comes back home to go quickly. I couldn’t agree more, but I do have to say that I believe God is answering their prayers! I tell you what, the time is flying - - and that is a good thing, but I’m not sure if I can keep up!! I did not even realize that my last post was two weeks ago! Yikes!!

Thank goodness you all are patient, kind and loving readers!! It is not for a lack of projects for me to post about, that is for sure!! I have been sooooooooooo busy with projects, I feel like I have about a 100 to post (ok, maybe not 100 that might be an exaggeration) but actually finding the time to post seems to be the problem!! Of course, tonight I am taking a project break while I sit here writing a post and watching the Survivor Finale at the same time!! Multi-tasking at it’s best.

So, here’s a Deployment Project Update: (sorry, I didn’t take pictures of it all - - it’s that whole time management thing!!)

Since I last posted, I have made 14 pillows

Embroidered 4 more sheets

My mantra for now! Keep calm and carry on!

Sewed 3 dresses and 1 shirt

Painted 2 more Station Signs

Re-upholstered 2 couch cushions

Sewed 3 camera straps

and Re-upholstered this sweet bench.

And - - through all of that I have taught school ( we are almost finished for the year - - wooohooooo!!!), kept the house fairly well maintained, made it to they gym (although not as much as I would have like to!) mowed the lawn (until the mower died, then I just gave up on that one!), chauffeured the kids back and forth to swimming, fencing, art lessons, guitar lessons,Awana, and birthday parties, had my Mom and Dad visit for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s Day, had a great friend come this weekend and give me some “Design Intervention,” picked up some sweet deals on craigslist (can’t wait to share those with you!) - - oh, and I even fed the kids a few well-rounded healthy meals!

Whew! See why there hasn’t been any posts lately? That takes my Deployment count to 111!!!

I could sit and beat myself up about not posting as often as I would like, but I had a sweet new blogger friend, Linda, remind me in an email this week, “Looking forward to your next blog, but remember that your kids come first and your blog groupies understand that so we wait patiently.” Thanks Linda!

Hopefully there will be more posts, more often, but I can’t promise that. I can promise you that I do have some fabulous projects that I am currently working on and eventually I will post about them!!

Bolster Pillow Tutorial (Deployment Project #81)

2010-05-04T19:30:00.001-07:00

Let’s use all those sweet pleats I showed you how to make yesterday and use them on a bolster pillow!!

First I embroidered my words, “Always” & “Forever” on a piece of white fabric.

Then I cut this fabric down to pillow size. For a bolster pillow, I cut it 2” wider than the pillow (for your seam allowance) and then - - this is really technical - - I wrap the fabric around my pillow and overlap it by 6” ( to allow for my button closure)

Next, it is time to attach the pleating. Lay the pleating, even with your cut edge of your fabric…

Sew your pleating to your cover - - remember, you will want the finished edge of your pleating facing in and the rough edge matching up with the cut edge of your fabric. Attach it from top to bottom – – we will finish the edge next.

Making the button closure:

Make a 1” hem along the top of your pillow cover. Iron and sew it down.

Find the center of your pillow cover – along the edge that you just sewed – and mark it with a small dot. This is where your center button hole is going to be. Make a mark every 3” to the right and the left. I usually try to have an odd number of buttons. It just seems to look better (usually I go with 5).

Sew all your button holes.

A little trick for opening up your button holes is to put a straight pin at on end of the hole…

Poke your seam ripper into the opposite end of the button hole…

Slide your seam ripper up until it hits the straight pin. See wasn’t that a fin little trick?! ;)

Now it time to make your pillow a perfect fit.

Lay your cover face down…

Place your pillow on top…

Fold your unfinished edge over your pillow…

Fold your button hole edge over the unfinished edge to determine exactly where you should finish the other side. Remember that you want an overlap so that you can attach your buttons!! Finish this edge exactly the same way that you did the first one.

Now, with the fabric wrapped around your pillow again, it is time to mark where your buttons are going to go.

Simply fold back at each button hole and make a small dot.

Sew all your buttons on.

Now, all we have left is to put the sides on your pillow. Cut out 2 circles of fabric that are 1” wider all the way around than you pillow.

Clip along the rough edge of the side you attached your ruffle to - - this will help ease the seam as you sew around the circle.

Now, line up your end of rough ruffle edge that has the button hole end with the edge of one of your circles. Sew this all the way around your circle overlapping the end that has the buttons attached over the button hole edge.

Repeat this with the other circle.

Turn your pillow right side out.

Insert your pillow form…

Button your buttons and enjoy your finished pillow!!

Knife – Edge Pleats Tutorials (Deployment Projects #78 –80)

2010-05-03T18:52:00.001-07:00

When I made these sweet pillows for a friend of mine I knew I wanted to add some knife-edge pleats to the edge of them, so I thought I would take pictures as I went and make a little tutorial for you. I’m all heart like that!!

I love me some pleats!

I used them on this chair…

This one too…

On these pillows…

Even as trim on this dress.

So, if I use pleats so often, they must be fairly easy to do! You know - I don’t do anything that is too time consuming or too detail oriented!!

The trick to knife –edge pleats is this little tool right here:

It is a ruffler attachment for your sewing machine.

I found mine at Joann's, I believe it was right around $20 - - of course I used my 40% off coupon - - but it is definitely worth every penny I paid for it! They fit on most any machine - -you just need to know if you have a short or long shank. You may want to check with your machine manufacturer and see if they have a specific one for your brand of machine, but this one is a general one that fits on all my machines.

To attach the ruffler, remove the screw that holds your presser foot ankle in place. Set your presser foot to the side.

The ruffler attaches with the forked bar on the right side of the foot, around the needle clamp screw, and then the presser foot screw gets put back in place to tighten the ruffler to the machine.

Now that the ruffler is attached, it’s time to get our fabric ready!

Cut your fabric in 4” strips - - remember you are going to need about 3 times the length of your final product, so cut lots of strips! I try to error on the side of making more than I need!

I find it is easiest to attach all those strips and make one long strip. The easiest way to do that is to overlap your fabric (right sides together) at a 90 degree.

Then sew them together in a diagonal line from corner to corner. Trim off the excess fabric.

Now you will have one LONG strip of fabric! Take that strip of fabric fold it in half and iron it. So you will have a super long 2” wide strip.

Start with one end of your strip and slip the fabric between the feeder and the base of the ruffler attachment. (Your fabric will not be against your machine)

Now you let the machine and your ruffler do the work! This is where you can choose the length and depth of your pleats. You can choose to have a pleat made every 1, 6, or 12 stitches. By adjusting your stitch length you can adjust how long you want your pleat. There is a screw on the front of the pleater, and by adjusting that you can adjust the depth of your pleats. It is something you just have to play with a little bit to get the look that you want.

When I am putting my fabric through the pleater, I try to keep my left hand on the pleats that are being formed. It helps the fabric run through smoothly and holds the pleat until your machine stitches it in place. Make sure the fabric you are feeding in is very loose - -it will not be able to pleat if it is trying to pull the fabric up to your machine.

Aren’t they pretty? :)

The very last step is to take that long strip of pleats and iron them so they are nice and crisp. Make sure you set them on your ironing board so that the pleats are facing to the left and your iron can just run right over them.

Easy huh? I told you it wasn’t hard! Tomorrow, I am going to show you how to make a bolster pillow, using your knife-edge pleat for trim!!

I thought I was halfway there….

2010-05-02T18:43:00.001-07:00

Have you noticed an absence of posts lately?

No, I haven’t forgotten about blog world, but life definitely comes before blogs!! Life kind of smacked us in the face this past week.

We started the week off with both kids and myself sick - - not fun :(

That was followed by trips to the dentist for fillings - ouch!! (Why do those drills have to sound so horrible?)

And all that fun was punctuated with Handsome Hubby calling and telling me that his orders had been changed and he will now be gone longer than originally planned. The bad news is that he is gong to be gone a lot longer than planned, but the good news is that he is now going to get to come home for R&R (of course, R&R is after he was originally supposed to come home, but at least we will get to see him for a little bit before he has to go back!) That is just one of those things that you need some time to process. So, after a week of processing and working through some emotions, I am feeling like myself again.

This is how I found my sweet baby girl sleeping a few weeks back. She is sleeping with a picture of her and her daddy. He truly is her hero!!

The hardest part of course was having to tell the kids. They have been so strong and they have been such troopers, it made me so sad to have to tell them that the end wasn’t as close as we thought it was.

So, one of our projects this week was to make a paper countdown chain. The kids worked hard one morning during school and glued all 85 chain links together. That is the number of days until Handsome Hubby comes home for R&R. We will make a new one to represent our final countdown after he goes back.

That’s a lot of chain links!! The good news, is that it could be worse and right now, we are just focusing on the positives. He has been able to talk to us a lot, he is still coming home and it still isn’t a year – we could have it way worse!!

I’ve had some people ask for some tutorials on some of my past projects - -so this week, along with some of the projects I have been working on, I am going to do some special request tutorials!! The first one, that I will post tomorrow, is how to make mini- knife edged pleats.

Amy Butler Sun Surf Halter (Deployment Project #77)

2010-04-26T20:22:00.001-07:00

Just a simple project to share with you today. If you are a new or beginning sewer - - this is the perfect beginner project for you!! I love Amy Butler patterns - - to me, they are the easiest patterns and directions to follow!!

This sweet little top is only 4 pieces of fabric and super simple. But it looks so cute on my little model!!

We went to Mount Vernon last week for a field trip and I couldn’t resist getting some pictures of her with the Potomac in the background!!

On a side note - - if you are a beginning sewer and would love a step by step how to - - join up with Grosgrain for her Frock by Friday as she helps us make a compete dress by Friday. Jump over there to find the link to the free pattern and make a dress along with her!!

A few Simple Changes

2010-04-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

I wanted to take another look at the Drop cloth chair re-upholstery and point out some of the things that I changed while re-upholstering this chair. Design changes that make the re-upholstery job quicker and easier!

If you take a closer look at the arms of this chair before shot - - you can see that they have been sewn together without cording.

When I re-upholstered this, I found it was much easier to add cording to both sides of the arm.

By adding cording to both sides of the arm – that allowed me to easily use curve-ease to put the sides of the chair on.

On the original chair, they used upholstery tacks to attach the sides – this a decorative way of adding details, but it is:

A. not the look I was going for

B. not easy to do at all!!

If you need a tutorial to help you with curve-ease, you can visit mine here.

By using curve-ease, you can see that I got a very smooth finished side that shows of the shapely curves of the chair!!

Just a couple of little changes, that made my re-upholstery job much easier, and added new details and definition to the chair. As you do more re-upholstery projects, you will become more confident in knowing what things you can change around in your projects!! I try to use curve-ease whenever possible because it makes the job so much easier and the finished look is so much nicer looking!

Introducing Ethel and Drop Cloth Chair Re-upholstery (Deployment Project #76)

2010-04-21T19:39:00.001-07:00

Let me introduce you to my newest family member… Ethel.

After my new (less than one year old) very expensive embroidery/sewing machine broke down for the third time in year that I have had it. I knew something had to change. That was 2 months ago and my machine is still in the shop getting fixed - - actually, it got sent back to the factory, but is STILL not fixed. After talking with a representative from my sewing machine company, I found out that I was actually killing my machine with all the re-upholstery stuff I was doing on it. Going through up to 10 layers of thick fabric actually broke the feed dog spring on my machine - - not a common piece to break! He suggested that I find an old 1950’s Singer machine and use that for my re-upholstery projects.

I found Ethel on Craigslist a few weeks back. She’s simple, but she is a workhorse! She will plow through anything and just keep right on going - - no little annoying beeps or error messages.

There is something enduring about her.

Her simplicity.

Her history.

As I’m using her, I wonder about her past. Who used to own her? What did they make with her? Has some mother sat at her and made dresses for her little girl? Has a grandmother sat at her and made a quilt for a newborn baby? Has a mother and daughter worked at it together to make a wedding gown?

Let me just throw in here that if you are only doing one re-upholstery project, or even two, you have nothing to fear - - you are not going to break your machine. I do one to two re-upholstery projects a week - - that much pounding on a machine is just too much!!

So, let me show you the first project that Ethel has completed.

This is the chair I was telling you about yesterday. This chair is going in a little boys’ room. My friend wanted a vintage look that would be durable for two toddlers!! She also did not want to spend a lot of money on the fabric for the chair. I ended up using drop cloths to re-upholster it.

I had never used drop cloths, but of course I have read about them everywhere on blog world. I decided to try it out. I would say that all in all, it was easy to work with - - maybe a bit more difficult to work with than a heavier weight upholstery fabric - - but for a loose, informal look I think it is fantastic. I did wash the drop cloth before I used it - -they stink something fierce straight out of the package!!

This chair has quite the history. My friend bought it when they were stationed in Germany. Brought it to DC when they moved here, and now, I’m re-upholstering it before they move back to Germany!

Look at the before fabric - - ugh! Time for a make-over!

When I got the fabric off, I realized that this chair had been re-upholstered once. There was still some of the original fabric on the chair. It was originally upholstered in a chartreuse green silk. I can only imagine that with all her fun curves and details, she was one fancy lady!!

Embroideries (Deployment Projects #67 - #75)

2010-04-20T18:39:00.001-07:00

Seems it’s time to update you on some of the projects that have been going on around here in the Deployment Count. Things seem to be going crazy around here. With spring in the air, it seems new projects are popping up every day!!

So my embroidery machine has been working overtime lately! I have had a ton of work embroidering things for friends and even some for myself.

I’ve done blankets,

and onsies,

sheets,

and pillowcases,

napkins,

and a custom pillow.

Let me tell you about this pillow!! My friend Michelle is getting ready to PCS (that’s army for permanently move Permanent Change of Station) to Germany. Being the organized person that she is, she is making sure that she has all her decorating ducks in a row! So my machine has been busy making stuff for her! When they move, she is going to have her two little boys share a room and she is completely re-doing their room - - going with a vintage transportation theme. It is going to be adorable. The sheets that I personalized above are for her sons. My favorite part is this pillow that I surprised her that will go on her chair that I am finishing up the re-upholstery job on tonight.

Isn’t it adorable? I took this old graphic of 4 vintage airplanes found on the Graphics Fairy (one of my favorite go to sites!) cropped in on just one airplane.

Then I created a “company sign” for her boys own Transportation Company and added their names as pilots. Next I had my embroidery program convert the graphic into an embroidery design and then embroidered it on a very thick weave textural fabric. I am so pleased with how well it turned out. I have never wanted a video camera more than when I showed my friend! You would have thought I had just told her that she had won a million dollars!! It was priceless!

And, just a little aside, here is another project I’ve been working on - - one of my favorite projects. I’ve been teaching Charise how to sew. Isn’t she just adorable?

She wants so badly to sew with me and be my little helper. Right now we are just sticking to straight lines, but I have no doubt that someday, she will pass me up in her sewing skills!!