A perfect pair

Well the cubes are all completed.  I can't say they were easy but totally worth the end result.  Take a look. (Sorry about the quality of the pictures in advance)  

I wish I took better close ups of the before pictures.  

 Finished up some pillow for my mom's living room

My Mom is having her wingback chair picked up tomorrow and re-upholstered - I can't wait to see how it turns out.  Here's the fabric that we chose:  

A couple more things to finish up in her house with the hopes of being completed by Christmas Eve.  Can't wait to see everything come together.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Thanksgiving has passed and Christmas is around the corner, 27 days to be exact!   We got back from our trip on Saturday and have been on the go ever since.  Outdoor decorations are up, tree is decorated, and the house is cleaned.  We got a ton accomplished in a day in a half here.  However, we still have a long to-do list since I have my best friends flying in town on Friday for the weekend!!!  I can wait to see them!  Here's some pictures of what I got done since Saturday afternoon.  

 Gold Glittered small pears

 Gold Glittered homemade pears

 I had some extra fabric that I recovered an ottoman in and wanted a pillow to match - sewed it on  Saturday

 Boxwood wreaths on the backs of my dining room chairs

 Nutcrackers - I only have a few to display at this point

Mantel

Here's some pictures from Thanksgiving and all the pies.  I was wrong there weren't 40 there were 22, sorry about that.  It was a little overwhelming trying to decide which ones I wanted to taste.      

 Lots to do this week.  The curtains come in and I'm finishing up the nursery.  I should have pictures of that by the beginning of next week.  Projects that I'm working on this week - sewing some pillows - decorating the sun room and trying to pick out some fun throw pillows for my friends living room.  

Have a great Monday!

BLACK FRIDAY

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!!!  I sure did.

I'm still out of town and heading out to enjoy the last day with my in-laws.  As promised - here's a design board that I've been working on for one of my girlfriends.  She is looking to re-do her living room in the next couple of months.  Currently she has more of a country look and wants to update her room with a more modern flair.   The furniture is on order and we will be discussing paint colors and accessories in the coming weeks.  The only thing I'm unsure of is the rug????   I can't decide between a cream rug or something like this yellow rug since there is some yellow in the ottoman.   Right now I'm obsessed with pinks and grays.  That's why I love these throw pillows with this grey sectional.  Hope you enjoy!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  This is my first Thanksgiving with my in-laws and I'm super excited.  Last night was pie night which consisted of baking 8 pies, with 4 in the oven now, and that only includes this house.  I've heard there will be a total of 40 different pies to choose from after dinner is served.  With my sweet tooth that means I'm a happy camper!  That also means I'll be spending some quality time at the gym tomorrow in order to justify it :-).

Happy Thanksgiving - once again I'm extremely thankful for so many things; but most importantly family, friends, and our little boy that is due in a couple of weeks.  I can't wait to meet him! Have a great day and I hope to be back tomorrow or Saturday with a new design board, updates on house projects, and whatever else I have up my sleeve.

Accomplishments

I got a ton done this weekend but with everything still left to before Christmas I feel like I didn't even put a dent in my to-do list.  That's ok though I like being busy.  Here's some of what I did get done this weekend.  

My apple pie that I made for Saturday night's Thanksgiving party, which was GREAT(the party) and the pie :-)

 Take 2

 Pillows that I made for my mom

Sunday morning coffee before the busy day begins

 Birthday presents wrapped for Family Birthday dinner on Sunday

 Christmas Presents wrapped for Thanksgiving Trip since we won't be with some family over Christmas

Patterns picked for Living room design

GOING WITH YELLOW for wingback chair - Picking up fabric on Monday and the chair is getting picked up on Tuesday!!!  Can't wait to see the end result in two weeks.

Tomorrow night I'll finish up the second cube but in the meantime here's the updated storyboard for the living room.

    I'm getting more and more excited about seeing my mom's living room come together.  The fabrics are picked - sample paint colors are on the walls - just picking between two.  After Thanksgiving we are going to be busy getting everything ready for the Holidays, my favorite time of the year!  Plus my best friends are coming in town in two weekends so I'll need to get ready for them.  I seriously don't see myself slowing down before this little man gets here.

Now I need another project for my house.  I'm thinking the downstairs bath as well as our master bath.  Maybe the hubs will get some good tools for Christmas so he and my wonderful brothers can install some fun new tile.  I'm sure I'll keep you posted.  

Yellow??

I'm in need of a yellow fabric (I think) for my mom's living room.  The two parson chairs are finished and they look great.  I need some pops of color with the new fabrics and my options are; yellows, greens, blues, and tans.  Tan's don't really pop.  Also keep in mind that there is an existing leather sofa and love seat that we are using.  Since I think leather is more on the masculine side but good for kids and dogs, I want to soften it with beautiful fabrics.  I found one yellow fabric that I really do love but I also love this bluish/green fabric (2nd picture).  WHAT to do?  Yellows are sooo hard to chose from - I can't have something too bright but I don't want it to look like a nuetral.  Here's two fabrics that I think could work and one of them isn't yellow :-)

The living room is coming together nicely.  We are still searching for a paint color - the delay with this is because the space is sooo big it has to be just right.   Hopefully the decision will be made on Sunday. 

Every night this week has been incredibly busy with something so I hope by Sunday I will have most of the pillows done, finish the other cube, and pick the paint color.  I'm also working on another e-design of what I want to do to our master bedroom over the next couple of months.  Happy Friday everyone!

Here's one of the yellow fabrics I found and the next one I just fell in love with so now I'm kind of torn. 

Here's the most recent update to the nursery - better pictures to come. 

Work, work, work

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is next week and day by day my to-do list is growing.  Speaking of Thanksgiving - I wanted to take a second and reflect on what I'm thankful for.  Life goes by so fast that it's easy to go through the motions without being thankful for the small things.  I am extremely thankful for my wonderful husband, family, friends, and abundant blessings that have followed me through my life.  ALSO - our little boy who is due in January; every day I get more and more excited about meeting him.  Lastly is something new I'm thankful for - this blog - I didn't realize how much fun I could have sharing about something I'm passionate about.  

Since my last post I have been frantically working on trying to finish the other storage cube, sew some pillows, and pick a paint color for my mom's living room.  Last night I worked on some throw pillows - here's the result of one of them. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it, so I have my work cut out for me over the next couple of days.

 

Here's a quick back story on how I started sewing -

A couple of years ago my girlfriend and I were walking through a fabric store and I decided since throw pillows cost so much money I was going to start making my own.  I think at that exact moment my obsession for home decorating began.  I grew up watching my mom, grandmother, and aunts all sew, so I knew I had some good teachers if needed.  Plus I figured how hard can it be to sew a square??  I immediately went home and convinced my husband I needed a sewing machine.  He thought I was crazy.  WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I going to do with a sewing machine??? After much debate, I won and  happily clicked the "purchase" button.

A couple of days later my sewing machine arrived and I was determined to show my husband this would be the best INVESTMENT ever.  Every weekend I would run to the fabric store and buy more fabric to sew more pillows to prove to him this machine was worth buying.  In the midst of trying to prove to him this was worth the money - I fell in love with decorating and re-decorating.  I think every project has improved my sewing skills and I truly look forward to accomplishing a project.  I have made so many pillow covers it's kind of insane.  The majority of them are sitting in my craft box waiting for someone/anyone to use them at this point.  You many ask - why so many??  Here's the thing - whenever I want a quick update to my home, I run to the store, pick a fabric, and sew a couple of pillows.  It instantly changes the look of the room.

Recently my sewing skills have expanded towards sewing curtains, crib skirts, and slipcovers to recover anything I can get a hold of.  Since I'm working on this project for my mom I figured I would help to keep cost down and sew everything myself.  Plus I love a good project.  

Here's a couple of pillows that I have done over the past year for my house.

Hope everyone is having a good week.  I'm so excited about the weekend.  Besides my house projects that will keep me busy we have a great party that we are going to on Saturday and on Sunday we are celebrating a bunch of family birthdays.  I love this time of year!!!   

Living room story board

E-Board for my Mom's living room.

Here's an idea of what I'm putting together for my mom's living room.
More to come as the project gets underway.

                 I will have to improvise with the budget and finding everything to go with the original pieces that my mom has, but here's an idea of what I'm thinking about. This living room is a huge space so we are going to incorporate two different areas.  One for seating and then possibly a reading corner with the two arm chairs.    

I found an amazing mirror at HomeGoods on Friday and I can't wait to show it.  It was exactly what I was looking for but half the price.  Can't wait until it all comes together.

As for the nursery we did hang some prints this weekend and I'm still waiting on my curtains which should be done soon.  Since I'm in the homestretch of my pregnancy I'm trying to get the majority of my house project done before the little man comes, so I'm super busy.  There's a long list but the top priorities are the nursery, living room, and getting the house ready for the Holidays!!!  I LOVE CHRISTMAS and love decorating to make my house festive.  I have a couple of fun projects that I'm working on as well - I'll be sure to share.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to a great Monday!!

Nursery Preview

Here are some pictures of the nursery in pieces.  The rocker was delivered yesterday and it's so comfortable.  Good thing since I hear I will be spending a lot of time in that chair.  The biggest thing I'm waiting on is the curtains and that should be done in the next two weeks.  Hopefully by December 1st, the little man's room will be done so I can run around and finish my holiday shopping.  Here's some pics - ENJOY.  

 Drum Lamp Shade from Shades of Light - OBSESSED!

 Ordered from ETSY 

 Part of the ottoman that I reupholstered - similar to the cubes I just did

 Love the baseballs

 His first pair of TOMS - LOVE THEM

DIY upholstery

As I mentioned in Monday's post - DIY upholstery is one of the easiest ways to customize your look.  I found these great storage cubes and am getting ready to recover them with a fabric that I LOVE for my mom's living room.  If you can see past the UGLY it will totally be worth the time invested. 

I thought this project would be a quick and simple fix to turn these ugly ducklings into beautiful swans, I was mistaken.  After I sat down to measure out the fabric and make sure I had enough for both cubes, I realized my project was going to be much more labor intensive.  Not only do you need to make sure your cuts are exact, but due to the intricate pattern - the sides won't match up with the lid without actually sewing all four side.  Now, I realized I would be sewing much more than anticipated to accomplish perfection.  

Of course if you don't care then you could simply wrap the fabric around the cube and sew only one side.  Since this is for a client (my mom) I actually want everything to look perfect.  So by the time I cut all the fabric, pulled out the screws for the lid, and lined up everything to get ready to sew, I didn't have it in me to pull out the sewing machine and finish the project last night.

After a long day at work I really wanted to get started on at least one of these cubes.  So I just finished the first cube about 10:30pm.  With one done and one to go I can hardly wait for these beauties to be completed.  I was hoping for perfection - let's call it 98% perfection with bits of imperfections throw into it :-)

Here's some pictures to go along with my hard work

 After the project

 After

 Side by side - Ugly Ducking, Swan in the making - I still need to add the legs

 I told you the before was UGLY!!

  

Over the past two weeks I have watched my ideas start to come together and I can hardly wait for the big reveal.  I have the upholster coming on Thursday to pick up the arm chairs and I think I found the fabric for the wingback chair.  I still need to sew some pillows, buy some DOWN inserts, pick a complementary paint color, and start putting the pieces into the room.  Word of advise in regards to throw pillows.  INVEST in some down/feather inserts.  They will make the room.  You really don't want to skimp on some polyester inserts that you can't use.  I made that mistake and almost immediately had to replace them with a better quality insert.  The best thing is - they aren't that expensive, Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn have great ones to chose from.  Also, some great fabric stores have them for a decent deal. (Additional Note - one of my girlfriends mentioned IKEA has great inserts for super cheap - thanks Nellie!)

My goal is to upload before pictures this week but since we have a baby class, full-time jobs, family in town starting on Friday, and a couple of thing in the nursery to wrap up - I'm really going to try to set aside some time to get these pictures done. 

Any fun projects out there that you have watched come to fruition over the past couple of months?  If your looking for inspiration - head over to Pinterest, you will find plenty of ideas there.  You can click on my Pinterest button to the right and see if you can draw inspiration from any of the thousands of boards out there.    Can't wait to share more.