Monogrammed Pillows

I've been busy making pillows as part of my 

family room makeover which you can see HERE.

I found this lovely tan and black toile awhile ago at a thrift store and I've been saving it for something special. Pillows for my newly reupholstered chairs were just the thing!

  

To make them a bit more interesting I wanted to 

add a monogram. 

I cut two 4" squares from a coordinating linen fabric. 

I designed two monograms, one for me and one for Scott. I printed them on transfer paper and ironed them on. Make sure you print out your design in reverse image!

I merely top stitched them on to the center of the pillow fabric and frayed the edges a little.

I like to make my pillows with an envelope opening so I can easily remove the pillow form. Here are the right sides overlapped , pinned and ready to sew. 

My favorite pillow forms are made from feathers or down. They are so comfy to rest on and fluff up nicely. 

Happy sewing! 

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Family Room Makeover

This has been a long postponed project. We first decided to update the family room two years ago. After we got a couple of bids to see what it would cost to redo the fireplace and install a new large HDTV and sound system we decided it was really out of the budget. Instead we updated all of the bathrooms with granite countertops , new sinks and hardware.

 A year later we were ready to do the family room but this time our central air conditioner died. Boy was that expensive to have replaced! 

So now, after waiting another year, we have finally done the family room! Here are a few "before" pictures.

I posted about the fireplace redo HERE.

Now for the "after" photos! I'm thrilled with the stone surrounded fireplace, and the new TV is everything a man could want. I've tried to declutter and simplify the look by choosing a neutral palette. 

One of the biggest changes we made was to remove all of the carpet and have the floors redone. My family room is a high traffic area with doors leading to the backyard and another to the garage. Trying to keep the carpet clean was a never ending battle! We chose an acid stained concrete finish in  warm brown tones. Now it just needs a damp mop to clean.

I've kept a wool Oriental rug in the seating area to make it cozier and to absorb sound.

I do still love baskets and think they work well with my European Country look. 

 I had the two club chairs reupholstered in a cotton canvas fabric that I bought at ...Home Depot! That's right, all of those blog and Pinterest posts about drop cloths as upholstery  made me brave enough to go for it. I did not do this myself, but hired a pro. He Scotchguarded the fabric for me and I could tell he was just as happy with the outcome as I was!  These are very large chairs and would have taken about 10 yards of fabric each. I needed two large drop cloths. 

Cost of fabric- $30 per chair. 

I've been making lots and lots of pillows. I'm sure I'll post about them later! 

Yippee! So nice to have a big project completed! 

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Wine Bottle Basket

I found this fun basket last week out thrifting. It's got dividers to hold a dozen wine bottles. 

 I decided to dress it up by adding a wooden plaque reminiscent of a French wine barrel. I transferred an image I made on Print Shop onto a stained wood disk. I drilled a couple of holes and tied it on with a gingham ribbon. 

So French!

This would make a great centerpiece filled with flowers or herbs or in your kitchen storing your favorite vintage wine.

I'll be taking this as well as several other treasures I've found recently into my space at Merchant Square Antiques. Come see me!

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Fireplace Makeover

We've begun a family room makeover at our house. We moved into our Arizona stucco house 14 years ago and the family room has gone through several changes over the years. However, I have never been happy with the fireplace. It's a gas fireplace set in  stucco with a stucco bump out mantle and  another big hole for the television. Yuk!

This picture was taken shortly after we moved in. Look at our tiny TV in the niche!

Later I faux finished the "mantle" to look like wood. 

Better, but not great. And then we got a new television to fit the space. It weighed a ton!

It was finally time for an upgrade! 
Here's the work in progress...

We did stacked stone around the fireplace capped by an oak mantle. 

We had someone rebuild the wall flat to accomodate the new HD TV.

 Next week the floors are getting refinished and the club chairs are currently at the upholsterers getting redone.

More photos to come!
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Honey Bee Napkins

I found some lovely linen napkins at the thrift store last week. There was set of six ecru hemstitched napkins that appeared to be brand new. They were so inexpensive ($2.39 for all!) so I decided to have a little fun with them. I added a little Honey Bee graphic courtesy of the The Graphics Fairy.

I think they turned out very sweet!

This transfer method is the easiest of all. I just used the iron on transfers by Avery, ran it through my printer, cut them out and ironed on. Easy peasy!

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Pink Candy Buffet

It continues to be wedding season here in Arizona. I have three friends with children getting married within the next two weeks. My friend Andie's daughter got married today. Andie loved the candy buffet I did for Megan's wedding and she asked me to do one for Taylor and Seth. The color scheme was ivory and pink, so soft and pretty! I used heart mints, Good and Plenty, strawberry taffy, yogurt raisins and yogurt pretzels, grapefruit sour balls, champagne flavored gumdrops, and pink sixlets (basically an m&m but cheaper!) 

I made personalized candy bags and had pink and tan baker's twine to tie the bags with. I wanted a little glow to the table so I used the little electric tea lights in tall glass candleholders. I also labeled each candy jar with an identifying tag. 

To see how I put together a similar candy buffet for my daughter's reception but with a different color scheme click HERE. These are really fun to do and are a big hit with the wedding guests!

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A Bushel of Cherries

I hadn't planned on making jam today. But I heard that someone had brought a truckload of cherries from Utah and was selling them at a great price. I couldn't resist. I got up at 7 this morning and met Morrie about a half a mile from my house selling 20 pound crates of cherries from the back of his refrigerated semi-truck.  He was down to the last of his crates and let me have 2 for the price of one. Great! Only what was I going to do with  40 pounds of cherries?

I was busy by 8 a.m.washing and pitting.

I use the basic recipe on the box of pectin. I like using pectin because it ensures that the jam will set.  It took 4 cups of cherries finely chopped, 7 cups of sugar ( which I divided using half sugar and half Splenda) and a couple of teaspoons of fresh lemon juice. 

Bring to a full rolling boil and add 1 pouch of liquid pectin. Boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. Fill hot sterilized canning jars, screw on sterilized lids and immediately invert onto a dishtowel. After 5 minutes turn rightside up and listen for the POP of the jar sealing.

This made 6 cups of cherry jam. Yum!

I also made some fruit leather. Yes, in my car. Put trays in the dashboard  and the car acts like a giant oven!

I put more pitted cherries on cookie sheets to freeze. Then I bagged them  in 4 cup batches to use for future pies and cobblers.  

I had enough of my cherry bounty to share as well, so a few neighbors got bags of cherries. Cherry season is short, you have to enjoy it while you can!
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