DIY Beach Bedroom Series-DIY Pillows

My husband and I are finally getting around to doing something with our bedroom.  We both love the beach, but since we're not likely to get there anytime soon, we decided to make an attempt at a beach-themed bedroom.  It actually really all started with the headboard.  We wanted to make one but couldn't agree on what we wanted.  We scoured Pinterest high and low and came across picket fence headboards.  The beach-theme just naturally fell into place. 
We finished the headboard before I started the blog, so I don't have before and after pictures, but just imagine a very light tan wall and nothing where the headboard used to be.  Pretty bland....  I also don't have any pictures of what it looked like along the way, but it shouldn't be too hard to imagine.

Here's what it looks like now...

Not at all the finished product, but you get the idea.  I sent a picture of it to my mom when we finished it.  She said it looked whimsical..........Not what I was going for.  Hopfully with a few nautical accents it'll look better.


Anyway, onto what this post is really about.  The pillows!  I love me some accent pillows!
I saw some pillows at Ross that I could almost love.  If they hadn't been so boring and still rather expensive for our budget bedroom, I might have gotten them.  But what I did love, and what screamed beach decor, was the burlap trim around the edge of the pillow.  Since I have been in love with burlap as of late, I thought, "this is the perfect quick and easy DIY project for me."  Well...yes and no.  If this is a first project for you, it can easily be done.  Just pick the right material.  The blue and the grey/white fabrics are both from the home decor section at Joann's.  They were both easy to work with, not to mention they were 60% off plus an additional 15% on top of that.  I only needed a half yard of each, so it was only a few bucks for each fabric.  I already had pillow forms laying around.  I found a coral color I loved in the remnant section, which happened to be 75% off.  It was taffeta, but I could work with that.  So far, I was doing pretty good.  Now for the trim.  Here's a little tip...skip the trim section and look for the ribbon.  They have burlap ribbon that is way cheaper than the trim; however, they did have some burlap trim that I wanted to try on the coral pillow.  You can see it in the picture above.  It has decorative holes in it, that I think make it look a little more interesting.  If I was to do it over, though, I'd skip that too.  It was so hard to work with, especially on taffeta.  But it did give some nice contrast.

Step 1:
Figure out the size you'll need for your pillows.  If you're buying a pillow form the packaging will tell you what size it it.  Add about an inch to each side.  If you're using old pillows, take off the covering and lay it over your fabric.
 

Cut about an inch around each edge.  Turn right sides together.  Sew 1/2" seams around all edges, leaving a generous amount (I left about 10" but it depends on the size of your pillow) on one side open for stuffing the pillow inside.

When you turn the case right side out you want it about a half inch to an inch bigger than the pillow form.

You will be sewing the trim around the edge, so you will need this extra space.  It's easiest to sew the trim on without the pillow inside, so you'll sew the three edges first, stuff the pillow in and then sew the fourth edge with the pillow inside.

I bought ribbon that was about 2 1/2 inches wides, so I folded the two sides in and ironed it flat on a low setting.

Then I folded the ribbon in half and sewed to the edge of the pillow.

I also didn't try to do anything fancy with the corners.  Just straight lines on every edge.  When you get to the fourth edge it will be the same, just a little trickier, as you'll have the pillow inside. 

In the end, you'll have an awesome new pillow!  Good luck!!

Kale Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing

I've been making this salad a lot lately.  I'm not exactly sure where it originally came from.  I got the recipe from my mom a while back, so if anyone knows who originally made it, please let me know.  I'd love to give credit to whoever created this amazingly delicious and healthy salad!  Let me not forget to mention that it's super quick to throw together!

Doesn't that look delicious?!

Now, I'm not exactly a kale type of person.  The thought of  boiled kale makes me want to gag.  But you don't have to boil it and you don't have to put it in a smoothie to hide the taste!! 

First, wash and chop or shred your kale.  Make sure you remove the large stems as they tend to be a little bitter.  Put your chopped kale in your salad bowl and drizzle with olive oil.  I'm no chef (my toddler will attest to that) but from what I understand this also helps with the bitterness.  I could be completely off on that, so don't quote me on it.  Rub the olive oil into the kale for a minute or so.  It should glisten take on a nice green color instead of it's normal chalky appearance.  It'll look something like this...

Now you'll add the fixings!  This is where you can get a little creative.  I usually add a couple different types of fruits and then some candied nuts.  In the photo above I chopped apples and Bosc pears and then *candied some slivered almonds, but I've also used blueberries, raspberries, mango, strawberries, candied pecans and candied walnuts.  (I love the sweetness of the candied nuts, so for me those are a must!) 

For the dressing all you need is honey and lemon juice.  I use real lemons when I have them on hand, but I have to be honest, that isn't often.  My husband and I both think it tastes fine with the lemon juice in a bottle.  Mix together equal parts of lemon juice and honey.  You may have to adjust for your tastes.  My husband likes it a little sweeter, so I end up using less lemon juice.

And the great thing about this salad is that it stores really well, even with the dressing on!  Let me know what you think and if you come up with any other great combinations!!  Enjoy!

Pretty Princess Quiet Book

UPDATE:  Here is the link to the post that includes the templates.  If you have any trouble accessing them, please let me know!  Pretty Princess Quiet Book

So to kick-start my blog officially, I've decided to begin with one of the projects I've been working on for a while.  It's not that it was incredibly difficult (though it did take an overwhelming amount of time, since I had to create all the patterns for each piece) It's just that, well, when you have a two year old and a newborn, it can be a little hard to find the time to get dishes done, dinner on and the house cleaned.  It's nearly impossible to get even begin to conceive working on projects.  But with the holidays coming I really wanted to finish this book (In part so I could get working on new ideas!!).

I wanted to do something girly, pink, and princessy (yep, that's now a word).  Most of the ideas are my own but a couple I got from Pinterest (who hasn't?).   I'll do my best to site my resources.  But all of the patterns are ones I made.  Feel free to copy any ideas, but if you'd like to save yourself hours, upon HOURS, creating patterns, I will be posting the templates here on the blog once I can figure out how to upload a PDF.  I decided against selling the templates.  My gift to my readers!!  And who doesn't like that?!


Here it is!!  Enjoy!!

I decided to do the cover as an actual book, instead of just a front and a back.  (Pardon the photos...It was late)  It's all one piece, bound like you would do a quilt binding.  I put a thin batting between layers to make it a little thicker. I embroidered the "Quiet Book" on the front with my Brother machine.  For the lettering on the name I just cut out some fabric, Ironed on some stabilizer I got from Joann's and then used a zig-zag stitch.

To hold all the pages together I used two Eyelet stitches next to each other (you could also use a button hole stitch) so that I could put binder rings through.  That way I can change out the pages when she gets bored of the princess pages.

The cover is not included in the template for purchase, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about it.  If you do have any questions, please feel free to contact me or leave comments!

Now for the pages!

This is the first page I made.  This was before I decided to do the rest of the book off a Disney-inspired theme.  I decided to keep this page, though, because I like the idea of being able to dress up a crown using magnets.  I considered using snaps, but since she will be taking this quiet book to church, I wanted to keep it fairly simple for now.  There are 10 magnets sewn into two layers of the crown.  These magnets were purchased at Harbor Freight, but I'm sure you can find them other places too.  Sewing the magnets into the crown was a little tricky, and were I to do it again, I would probably take the template, mark where the magnets were to go, sew them in, and then cut out the crown, because it was a hard to keep those tiny little buggers in place!
I bought the jewels in a packet of mixed shapes and colors at Joann's and then I used E-6000 glue to glue the magnets onto the backs of the jewels.  If you've never used this glue, it is AMAZING.  It is far superior to super glue, in my opinion and when you're trying to glue smooth surfaces like this, I haven't found anything better.  Some of you may have other glue that you like, and that's just fine, but keep in mind that if the magnet comes off, it may end up in your child's mouth.  Always keep an eye on your child when playing with this.  Safety first!!!

For the adorable little pouch, I just used one from the Dollar Store.  You can use whatever you want (there's no template for it) or you can also buy a pencil pouch and put it at the end of the book.  That's what I did for one of the pages coming up.  For this pouch I just sewed about half way up the sides and across the bottom.  Isn't it just perfect for this page?!  Lucky Dollar Store find!

This is what the magnets look like glued onto the jewel.

Here we have the Beauty and the Beast inspired page.  This was also a pattern I created.  I like this page because it was fairly simple and I don't know about you, but my daughter loves to look at herself in the mirror!  I tied to find a flimsy mirror that would break.  The kind they put on baby toys.  I called a number of places but couldn't find one.  Instead I used a real mirror...I know, what was I thinking?!  But the flimsy mirrors scratch pretty easily, making it hard to see your reflection, and I think with all of the padding around it we'll be okay.    I sewed around the opening to make sure the felt doesn't stretch over time.  You can decide what you want for yours, and if you happen to know where you can get pretend mirrors, please, share your wisdom!  You could also use a different fabric for your background to make it a little more fun.  Since I had plenty of white already cut out and ironed onto some interfacing, I chose to keep it white.  With my next ones I think I'll use different colored fabrics.

Next comes the Cinderella-inspired page  I first started with the glass slipper.  My daughter is really into Cinderella, so I definitely wanted a page like this.  I decided since the glass slipper shatters, it'd be fun to have her do a puzzle.  I'm thinking it may be a little advanced for her right now, so I'll have to help her a lot with this one.  You'll have to cut out three slippers.  The first one is appliqued to the page.  Then I cut out the next to and cut out the puzzle pieces.  I sewed them together and then sewed button holes to each piece.  On the appliqued piece I drew lines where the puzzle pieces would fit and then zig-zag stitched along the lines, so she'd know where each puzzle piece fit.  Then I sewed on the buttons to each section and then hot glued some rhinestones onto the buttons.  When the page was done it still felt a little empty, so I made a "Gus-Gus" for her that she could make "scurry" across the page.  For the Gus pieces, I just used the hot glue gun to put all the pieces on.  Then I cut the outline of his body in brown so that I could glue the upper and lower portions together, leaving a space in the middle for the ribbon to go through.  I sewed the ribbon to the page.  She loves it!

Right now "Tangled" is her favorite movie, so of course I had to include this Rapunzel-inspired page.  I got the idea for this page here but I wanted the tower to look a bit more like the "Tangled" version. I have to be honest, I'm not the best at stitching faces!  I got the hair accessories at Walmart, but I'm sure you can find them other places.  When my daughter is a little older this page will be great for practicing braiding as well!  This page is one of her favorites.

This brings me to the last two pages, and by far the most time consuming!  The dress up page is also one of my favorites.  I got the inspiration for the dress-ups from here.  The castle is my design and was done on the sewing machine.  Again, feel free to use this for your own dress-up inspiration; however, the template for these dresses and hair took hours.

Here is an example of the dress-ups with the dress and hair.  Hopefully you can guess who it is!  (If you didn't guess Anna from Frozen, please don't tell me.  I'm under the delusion that the dresses look enough like the princesses dresses to recognize them!)  For all the dresses and hair I just cut out the pieces and used the hot glue gun to put them together.  If you want to be really impressive you can use the machine to stitch them together.  I just don't have that much time!

From left to right, top to bottom:  Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Jasmine, Elsa, Mulan, Belle, and Anna.  Also included in the templates but not shown in the picture are Meg (from Hercules), Rapunzel and Pocahontas.

Left to right, top to bottom:  Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Jasmine, Meg, Belle, Rapunzel, Pocahontas, Anna and Mulan.  Also included in the template, but not shown in the photo is Elsa.

And with all those close, of course you need a place to put them!! This wardrobe was designed by me.  Inside the doors is a pocket to hold the clothes.  It doesn't fit them all, so this last picture is just to show you what I bought at Walmart to hold all the extras.  For this page I cut out the wardrobe and appliqued it on.  Then I cut out the doors and zig-zag stitched around the three sides that aren't sewn down.  Then I sewed the edges of the doors that would fold out to a brown rectangle and then appliqued the "hinged" sides to the wardrobe.  (I'll include more detailed pictures)  Then I stitched the bottom of the brown pocket to the wardrobe so the pieces wouldn't fall out the bottom.  Last, I sewed on some buttons.

Here is the pencil holder I purchased from Walmart.  It just happened to have binder holes that fit the quiet book perfectly!  

For each of the pages I ironed on medium-weight interfacing.  I sewed whatever was supposed to be on the page, then sewed two pages, right sides together, leaving an opening on one side to turn right sides out.  I top-stitched around the edges.  For the grommets, I just purchased a small package at Joann's that came with the tool to "install" them.  It was the first time I've ever put in grommets and I have to admit, it was a lot easier than I expected!  I was pleasantly surprised.  I wanted the holes to be about the same as a three-ring binder, so I just used a piece of lined paper as a guide for the holes.  I marked where I wanted the holes to be and then cut an X where I had made the mark.  You don't want the X to be too big, or you may have problems with fraying.  There are plenty of tutorials online, but if there is any interest I can make a short video explaining the process.

And there you have it!!  And I was able to get it done just in time for Christmas!  Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions! And if you love burlap don't forget to stop by later to see the next project I conquered!