A New Pillow, or Four

The covers we've had on our throw pillows in the living room have been in our house since we were married, almost five years ago.  I thought it was time for a change.  Using the green fabric leftover from this project, along with some other coordinating fabrics I "happened" to pick up, combined with some inspiration photos from online, I have four new pillows on our couches.  Well... they look brand new, at least. I can't ever get myself to buy new pillow forms while I still have perfectly good ones on the couch.  

This first picture is from my sister-in-law's blog 

and here is my version: 

 The last three inspiration pillows are all from Anthropologie

 We like things a little off-center in our house... 

 and a close-up of the cummerbund pleats that took me WAY longer than they should have:

They all have envelope closures so they're 1. easier to clean and 2. easier to replace the covers when I get bored of them.  I think they bring a little color and whimsy to the room, if that's not too cliche to say.  Aren't we all ready for spring to really be here, though? 

A Shower Curtain for My Monkey

About a year ago, I wrote here that I replaced the brown and blue shower curtain in the hall bath (my son's bathroom) with a plain white curtain... with the intention of adding some Curious George type embellishments.  In the middle of February, I FINALLY did it.  Instead of Curious George, though, I used the Monkeys from the shower curtain hooks I got from Target that hadn't been working out.  I also used some green upholstery fabric to trim the edges of the curtain and add a little more color to the room.  

One afternoon, while my son was napping, I laid the curtain out on my living room floor, tossed all 12 monkeys in place and sewed them on (you can see the thread where their arms and legs meet their little bodies)

 And even though I think the brown on the walls is far less bleh with the addition of some color to the room, I think I'm pretty well decided on painting the lower portion Weathered Glass. 

I also need to repaint all the white above the chair rail (we never did that because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do for paint in the room), and change out some of the fixtures, including a new fan. I also want a little more storage and I have a picture to hang, but then we'll finally be done with one of our rooms. I hope. 

New Take on a Gallery Wall

So, it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted anything about what we've been doing with the house, but I'll try to get caught up over the next couple weeks. We have a ton of things done and planned... mainly because we're working towards converting the guest room into a nursery! Unfortunately, it's not as simple as it sounds... We've had to work on organizing the shed, to organize the bonus/music/game room, to empty out the office, to move my crafts/sewing supplies.  A lot of work.  So anyway, back to the post at hand: 

For Christmas, my son got these picture frames for his room: 

 We put pictures of friends and family and threw them up on the wall like taped up polaroids. 

 They come with these tacks you nail into the wall... 

 and the frames snap right in place. 

It was a fun little project to add a little more personality to his room. 

Merry Christmas!

For our first Christmas in our new house, we really wanted to make things special -- particularly with the sad state of affairs we were in last Christmas (three words: one bedroom apartment). We went out the Monday after Thanksgiving to get our tree and the decorating continued from there. 

We decorated the mantle and hung our stockings with care

 

switched out the fall decor in the entryway for Christmas decorations

 

including our new advent calendar which Santa has been putting Hershey kisses in each night

a little craft project I did involving a wood plaque, scrapbook paper, and a lot of decoupage glue & sealer

a snow globe I gave my husband the first Christmas we were together

our giant tree that my camera fails to do justice for

and some of our favorite ornaments: 

 

a picture from our wedding

  a new ornament from Shore Acres (one of our favorite places to visit on the coast)

 some random pictures my son and I thought were fun to stick in the tree

and of course -- Santa

and this is the tree we put up in our son's room

  He started asking to have his own tree before Thanksgiving.  

How could we say no?

Merry Christmas!

From Halloween to Thanksgiving

You might remember this post a few weeks ago where I shared about my little Halloween vignette in the living room.

The day after Halloween, it was time to transition to some simple fall decorations.

We went to Wal-Mart where we spent $5 on these two sets of flowers and leaves. 

 Add to that same vase I had out for Halloween a little cord and fabric that I've had for about 10 years...

Then I stripped all the remaining leaves and hot glued them to some more cord to wrap around some white Christmas lights. And voila! My Halloween vignette is now my Thanksgiving vignette. 

 It's the small things that keep me going... :o)

The Hillside Thanksgiving Wreath

Anyone who's been to our house has probably noticed the lack of decorations in every room except my son's room.  And then I entered and won a giveaway at the Hillside Home. I was super excited to hang it on our front door... and then I did and realized just how ugly our front door is. So I set it on the table in our front entryway, added some little pumpkins Peter picked up at the store a while back.   

I used my son's trick-or-treat bag to take up a little negative space while I figured things out

 I eventually needed to hang the wreath (which, in reality, looks better anyway) because my cats kept getting on the table and chewing on it.

 I found a bag of dried... plants? at the dollar store and threw them in a square vase I already owned.  Then I added some more dried fruit and another vase which I'll eventually put some fall-ish flowers into. We found this string of Halloween lights while cleaning out the bonus room, so I draped them over the table to turn the whole fall theme into a Halloween theme.

 

For better pictures of what the actual wreath looks like, you can follow this link which comes complete with how-to instructions.