Weekend update

We had a nice low-key weekend, just like I like! 

Friday night I worked on a floral camera strap. Can't wait to see how it turns out! :)

I've been making a point to get up relatively early on Saturdays and Sundays because I'm slowly learning how much you can get done in the morning, so I was up by 7:30 both days this weekend! I used the time (and the nice weather) to go on a walk around our neighborhood. My Saturday walk was actually 3 miles because I turned on the location tracker .28 miles into my walk, and so it didn't count that distance. Mark joined me on Sunday morning before church but he didn't want to walk very far because the sprinklers were running back at our house...

I did come across this bus that is parked a few streets away from us. Classy, but ironic?

We came across this street sign and it reminded me of my friend Heather so I snapped a pic and sent it to her. ;)

I also did some errands and returned things on Saturday and happened to pop into the ALDO outlet at the right time and scored this bag for under $40. I've been looking for a new purse and I like the neutrals of this bag so I can carry it in all seasons!

Motley was exhausted running from the vacuum all morning so she claimed her spot as soon as the bed was made. #spoiled

I scored this necklace on super sale at J. Crew so I wore it to dinner to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday on Saturday.

I really want a new front door, so I finally started googling around trying to find the style I like. I want it to be half glass since our living room faces north and doesn't get much light. 

I'm thinking similar to these images below:

I hope you all had a great weekend too! Only 4 days until the next one!

Friday things

Happy Friday folks!

One of my favorite bloggers April at A. Liz Adventures is usually who I team up with for Five on Friday, but she is taking a break for the summer so I’m inclined to as well! I’ll still post from time to time, but it’s going to be SUPER random! Hang on!

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     We took our nephew Noah to the park last Saturday and made the drive for the promises of this one in Allen. It was pretty cool! It was accessible so it had a HUGE playground flanked by lots of swings and a splash park. It was within a sports complex so there was lots of wide open space and the weather was perfect! We got in some cardio playing tag and hide and seek, too! ;)

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     I had an impulse Craigslist moment on Tuesday and ended up finding and buying a dishwasher. It is a used KitchenAid Superba dishwasher in stainless steel. YES it works, and it fits perfectly. We are slowly transferring all of our appliances to stainless steel (hello, resale!) and this made a big difference in the look of our kitchen! Mark and I both think it helps ‘define’ the space more. (design nerds)

(bad iPhone pics taken at 10pm - I'll take more with my real camera this weekend!)

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       All of my friends and coworkers know about my constant struggle with my hair. It has a LONG troubled history and I’m always lamenting the fact that I can never get it to grow to my liking. At work this week I was talking about even at my longest, my hair has never gotten super long. To prove it, I pulled out the pictures of my hair in high school to show the girls at work. Brace yourselves:

 

This was the longest it has ever been, and those are NATURAL curls. Yep, I used to just shower, apply gel, and let it air dry and that’s what I got. 10+ years of heat and a flat iron has all but destroyed my pretty curls. Now I get kind of a mix of curly, tangled, and frizz.

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-      I’m going out on a limb and trying some DIY things to let a bit of my creativity out so I swung by Joann’s to pick up some fabric this week. I came home and put together this little reversible pillowcase. The floral was confirmed as ‘grandma’ by 3 out of 4 people (I was #4 of 4) but I think it came out pretty cute. I’m thinking about making more and possibly selling them? I was inspired by this pin:

 

So I have a question for you, then. Is this something you would ever consider buying? What other types of patterns/prints/solids/trims should I try out? How much would you spend on a pair of pillows like this? Would you be more likely to buy them if they were monogrammed? Think how cute they could look in themed kids rooms or guest rooms. They could add a little spunk, class, or personality to any bed! I need your thoughts, people! Thanks in advance!

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That’s all the random I have for today. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a happy weekend! 

Oh, deer!

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mark and I had another much appreciated low-key weekend, which meant I was able to get things done AND blog about it!

If you follow me on Pinterest, you can tell that I'm crazy and pin way too many things. I do try to stay realistic and pin things that I would someday like to try. I knew when I pinned this image that I would be adding it to my project list:

It's the Blooming Reindeer Pillow that was previously sold for $88 at Anthropologie. 

If you look closely, the deer is actually comprised of needlepoint, but I wasn't going for an exact copy, just something similar because I liked the look. 

This was the site that the image was pinned from...

...And this was their final product:

Like the bad student I am, I didn't even bother reading the 'how-to' on the site where I found this and instead I just used the Anthropologie pillow as inspiration and I started off on my own. 

I'm always checking out Ikea's pillow section and I picked up two grey and white striped pillow covers ($3 each, I believe) about a year ago for our house. You know I love stripes, so I found it was easy to work them into our decor. 

I then purchased two different fabric patterns at JoAnn about two months ago intending to use them to make a valance in my bathroom. Since then, plans have changed so I had some extra fabric laying around. Once I got to thinking, I realized I could use a striped pillow cover and the fabric I already had to make this pillow.

I neglected to take photos of the process, but basically I purchased some double sided fusing cloth from Hobby Lobby in the fabric section. Then I free handed the deer silhouette from the photo on my phone. If you read the original blog post, they link to a print out so you can easily transfer it to your fabric. I like to make things more difficult than they have to be, apparently! I cut out the pattern from the fabric and then traced and cut out the fusing cloth to match. I followed the instructions that came with the fusing cloth and ironed it to the striped pillow cover. Wherever there was overlap, I used my sharp sewing shears sort of like an exacto knife and carefully removed the fusing cloth that was showing. Then I used some thread I had on hand to stitch the edges for some extra detail. Ta-da, that's it!

In one day for relatively no cost I went from this:

To this:

Mark is still undecided about my deer-head pillow, but I love it! It was a relatively easy project and it was even better since I had almost everything on hand. 

If you're interested in something like this or similar, message me and I'd be happy to talk details! :)

Have a great week!

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One more thing! Please be sure to check out my Etsy shop! I've added lots of things, tweaked some things, and lowered prices on many of my handmade custom items. I hope you can find something you like and I always welcome your feedback. Thanks so much!!!