Stuffed

I'm getting ready to spray paint.  The sun's out and it's in the 60s.  I have to find my motivation first.  Right now I'm having a strong desire to lay face down on the couch on my new throw pillows while watching Gilmore Girls.  But I know if I lay down I'll never get back up in time to paint.  As it is, I'm watching Gilmore Girls and trying to channel my motivation.  It's there somewhere.  And I hate to waste the warm weather.

So, while I work on the desire to do something I'm going to show off my pillows.  Yesterday after work I worked like crazy to finish my pillows.  While watching Newsies.  Yup, Newsies.  I really hope you've seen that movie, if you haven't go watch it now.  It's one of my all time favorite movies.  I was making sure it was appropriate to show at school.  It pretty much is.

Okay.  Pillows.  There were only two left to sew.  I'd already done three of the flower print pillow covers and one tan one with a stripe of the flower print sewn in.  And I already had the main part of a lumbar pillow cover done.  And pieces cut for the sixth and final pillow.

So these are the pillows you saw yesterday.  I threw them on the other couch but still the same pillows.

Then I got to work on the lumbar pillow.  I had a plan.  It was a great plan.  I was going to make flowers to make a pillow look like this.

(source)

But it turns out I suck at making fabric flowers.  I can do a halfway decent job making them out of felt, but when it came to linen, they looked like absolute garbage.  So I gave up.  But not before busting out a $1 spool of cream lace.  I cut it into strips and hot glued it to the pillow cover.  My husband came home and was super impressed.  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I'll call my initial mis-step a success.

Seriously, how cute is that little band of lace.  I'm in love.

And then came the most ridiculously time consuming pillow I've ever made.  It was totally worth it though.  So super cute (in my opinion).  I sewed around 40 separate petals and then sewed them onto the pillow front.  Then there's the cute poofy center.  Adorable.  I used this tutorial.  I won't do a step by step, but her directions are great.  And this pillow was totally worth all the time it took.

And that's the pillow covers.  Now I'm off to at least try to finish painting my kitchen chairs.  There's a lot of spray paint in my future.  And sleeping in.  No school tomorrow thanks to Easter.  That's the best.

Pillow Preview

Since Missouri still hasn't got the hint that it's spring yet, we had a snow storm over the weekend, giving us a snow day on Monday.  That meant a snow day for me.  I mentioned on Monday I had a fun sewing project in the works.  It went surprisingly well.  I tend to not always get along with my sewing machine super well.  Not because my sewing machine is bad but because I'm somewhat inexperienced and impatient.  I'm working on both of those though.  And that's why a couple hours of sewing on Monday were just what the doctor ordered.

When I left you on Monday, I left you with this teaser.

If you pay an insane amount of attention, you may recognize that plaid fabric.  That is a pillow cover that I made back in the fall to cozy up the pillows.  Nothing like a little flannel to say winter.  But like everyone else out there, I am desperate for spring.  Absolutely desperate.  And nothing says spring like some fun flowers and a little linen.

I picked up some tan linen fabric weeks ago at Jo Ann's.  I had planned to just make all tan linen pillows with some embellishments.  Then I realized that was just too boring for me.  If you like all one color of neutral pillows, that's cool too.  But I'm a fan of bright pops of color.  So I grabbed this turquoise and tan flowered fabric at Walmart the other day on my way home.  I think it was just what I needed to tie it all together.

So Monday I busted out the sewing machine and sewed five pillow covers.  And started a sixth.  I'm only showing you two today.  I need to get #5 and 6 done so I can show off the rest.  But I had a slight run in with the sewing machine around 5pm on Monday and decided to call it a day.  But I have big plans for pillows five and six.  Some super fun embellishments are in my future.  I have hopes of getting them finished tonight.  If I can get the sewing machine back up and running, it shouldn't take too long.  And one of the pillows just involves hot gluing.

Ready for their big reveal, my pillows. I'm not going to give you a tutorial.  I stink at remembering to take pictures.  And they're just basic envelope pillow covers.  And I learned the best trick the other day.  Like so clever I couldn't believe I didn't realize it before.  There is no need to cut three pieces for your pillow (unless you're doing some insane embellishment on the front that will be hard to center).  Just measure and cut one long strip.  Hem the ends.  Mark where your folds should go (measure twice, sew once).  Then just pin your pillow and sew.  Seriously, why have I been spending all the time measuring and cutting three panels for a pillow.  Duh!  I feel so dumb.  It saves so much time and is crazy easy.  I only had to cut separate pieces for my super embellished pillow and if I'd been feeling extra clever or like measuring a lot I could've just left it as one piece too but I didn't want to mess it up.

So, what are you guys up to?  Anybody else super ready for spring?  Or fighting with their sewing machine?  No, just me?  Okay, I'm working on it.  Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to share my extra fun pillows.  Can't wait!  For now, let's just stare at those other simpler pillows.

Hippie Dippie

I am a hair product snob.  It's a well known fact.  I will occasionally try to be cheap and grab something at Walmart or Target and it always becomes a total waste of my money.  And I refuse to buy salon brands other than from a salon or beauty supply store.  I'm not going to get on my soapbox about that.  I'm nicely stepping away from my soapbox. 

I've always been a Biolage girl.  The smell of the Hydrating Shampoo makes me think of my childhood.  Okay, maybe it's weird to associate the smell of shampoo with childhood but I do.  My aunt worked for a beauty supply company and we always had salon products.  So I'm a little spoiled.  A lot spoiled.  These days I try to wait until Beauty Brands has a sale and I stock up. 

Despite using really good hair products I have a serious hair issue.  It's so gross and embarrassing.  I blame it on having the driest skin on earth.  The dry skin has always been a problem.  But this winter that has morphed into serious dandruff.  Gross!  Why did I just tell you guys about that? 

So I've been using Coconut Oil from Trader Joe's because that is supposed to help.

And it does.  I heat it up a little and rub it into my scalp especially and a little more throughout my hair.  It's also supposed to make your hair grow faster.  I can't tell you that for a fact though.  My hair grows pretty fast on its own.

So, the coconut oil was helping, but not enough.  Then I remembered I'd heard vinegar was supposed to help get rid of dandruff.  After a little search on pinterest, I found lots of suggestions of how to use vinegar for dandruff prevention.  Then I hit on a pin that used both apple cider vinegar and coconut oil.  Sold!  Go here to read more about it.

Here's a run down:
-Before you get in the shower, mix up 1 cup of apple cider vinegar and 1/2 a cup of hot hot hot water.  *I made it super hot so that by the time I was ready to use it, it was still warm.  And since the apple cider is just room temp, you're going to need a little help in the warmth department.  I just did it all in a plastic measuring cup and sat it on the side of the shower until I was ready to use it.
-Wash your hair like normal.  I always wash twice because my hair is super thick.  That's just personal preference though.  I did not condition.
-After your hair is rinsed, pour the apple cider vinegar mixture through your hair.  Rub it in really well.
-Rinse out the vinegar and towel dry your hair.
-Rub in a couple table spoons of coconut oil and let it set for 2 hours.
-Wash your hair again.  I recommend rubbing in the shampoo before you get your hair wet.  This will make the oil come out more easily so you don't look all greasy after you wash your hair.  I would definitely shampoo twice.  You can condition if you want, but you don't have to.

I'm in love.  I'm a total believer.  My scalp is so much happier.  And the vinegar strips all the build up and junk out of your hair.  I did it right before I got a color because the vinegar can potentially damage your color and I didn't want to run the risk of wasting tons of money.  The dandruff situation is much better.  My hair is nice and soft.  My hair smelled a little rough until I put the coconut oil on but after that it was fine. 

As a bonus, coconut oil smells amazing.  And you can use it for thousands of things.  I like to use it as lotion when my legs are super dry.

Any natural "products" you love?  I'm also a big fan of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap.  I used to only be able to buy it at the health food store but now I pick it up at Target.  I seriously swear by this soap.  It's kind of tingly.  But it's great on a sunburn, I swear it keeps me from peeling.  It cures heat rash in the summer.  I also never get bug bites when I use this soap.  I tell everyone I know that they should use it.  I don't use it as shampoo though.  It says you can but....  Just not my personal preference.

So, are you a hair product snob like me?  Or are you less picky?  Do you love natural products?  Or love finding weird natural remedies for stuff on Pinterest?  Has anybody tried the homemade laundry soap, and do you like it? 

You Know It's Time...

....to do some crazy organizing when you realize your laundry room looks like an episode of hoarders.  Ug.  Our laundry room is a serious problem area in our home.  It's giant.  Which is wonderful.  It also means I dump stuff in there when I don't want to deal with it.

A while (a very long while) back I decided I could be more efficient if I had a recycling can and a shredder right beside the door so I could shred mail right when I came in.  Just so happens there was also a massive box right next to these two things that was holding an embarrassing amount of paper waiting to be shredded. So, instead of actually shredding things as they came in, I would just toss them on top of the box.  Not cool Mary, not cool.

So today as I've started tackling the massive pile of laundry we had, I decided it was time to do something about the pile of paper.  So I've been a shredding fool this morning thanks to yet another snow day.  Oh sure, I have fun projects in store, but first, I'm working on this business.

On the left you can see my recycling can is totally full and needs to be taken to town to the recycling center.  When you live in the country, you're on your own for recycling.  Then those are two shopping bags full of magazines and other recyclables.  And on the right is the embarrassing box.  Why am I showing you people?  Oh right, so I can maybe shame myself into doing something about this.  And yes, that is a dog cone in that box.  Where do you store that?  Our vet told us to keep it.

Okay, my dryer just buzzed that it was done.  Time to get back to being productive.  But real fast, a sneak peek of the fun to come soon.  I have big plans for my afternoon.  Any ideas?  It's going to be fabulous!

How do you guys organize your mail center?  Please tell me I'm not the only one that has these problems!  Any ideas or suggestions?  There has to be something better out there than what I've got going on because it is obviously not working.  At all.  Any fun projects over the weekend?  I'm trying to get over being sick-ish so there were no projects for me, a quick trip to my parents and then a lot of laying around and watching movies once we got home.

Hey Good Lookin', What You Got Cookin'

My grandparents, well my sort-of grandparents, are moving out of state in the near future.  I am helping throw a going away party for them this weekend.  So I've been a baking fool.

Let's back up the bus for a second and explain the sort-of grandparents thing.  I don't have any living grandparents.  And haven't for quite some time.  My last grandparent passed away when I was in college.  So, along the way I've acquired grandparents that I claim.  Grandma and Grandpa H are a couple I've known my entire life.  My mom has known Grandpa H her entire life.  They are amazing people.  And even more amazingly, they claim me too.  We've always gone to church with them and they've always been around.  They are two of the most wonderful, caring people I know.

We really felt like we needed to send them off well.  They've had a huge impact on the small community I grew up in and they will be deeply missed.  Thus the going away party.  And baking six dozen cupcakes yesterday.  Man, that's a lot of cupcakes.  I of course decided I needed to document my shenanigans.  And in baking the six dozen cupcakes, I fell even more in love with my KitchenAid mixer.  When I'm making that many cupcakes, I use mixes because I'm a little lazy.  Well, with the KitchenAid, I could dump two mixes in at once and get everything into the oven in one giant batch.  Yes, that may mean I have too many cupcake pans.

Lots of cupcake supplies.  There's still a lot of icing to be made. 

Go KitchenAid, go 

 A dozen eggs down....

And that six dozen cupcakes.  I ran out of cooling rack space.  Now they're all in the freezer waiting to be thawed and iced for the par-tay.

What have you guys been up to?  Anybody else baking crazy amounts of cupcakes?  What's your favorite kind of cake?  I love anything with chocolate.  Especially black forest.  Yum.  Any exciting plans for the weekend?  I'm hoping the snow holds off so we can actually make it to the party.  Otherwise I'm stuck with a ton of cupcakes.  Cross your fingers!

Confession

I love wedding shows.  I mean, I really really love wedding shows.  We've been married for about two and a half years.  I no longer have any real reason to watch wedding shows.  Other than the fact that I desperately love them.  Tonight I may or may not have been watching Say Yes to the Dress.  I think I missed something but they were definitely making a dog wedding dress.  Struck me as a little odd, but who am I to judge?

So, in honor of my love of weddings and the fact that the weather sucks, it's going to be wedding day on the blog.  Yup, you read that right, the weather sucks.  It snowed all day today.  And is supposed to snow for the next three days.  Apparently mother nature missed the fact that spring has started.  Fail.  So, while I wait to see if I'm going to have another snow day we'll focus on something else white that is much more fun.

I think one of the reasons I love weddings so much is that I love planning.  I mean it's the best thing ever.  I loved planning our wedding.  If I could be a successful wedding planner, I'd do it in a second.  However, being more of a jeans and t-shirt girl, I don't really come across as a typical wedding planner.  Also I like to do things super cheaply.  I've been a "Day of Coordinator" for two friends weddings.  I think that means I like to be bossy but can do it nicely.

Anyway.  When my husband and I got married, I went dress shopping with my mom and his mom.  I had an idea of what I wanted.  Nothing too fussy.  No train.  Strapless.  Sweetheart neckline.  A little sparkle.  No lace and no embroidery.  Ug.  Those are my two least favorite.  At least for me.  So, I think I tried on probably less than a dozen dresses.  I was going to share pictures, but they seem to have disappeared....  Oops.

The dress I ended up buying came from David's Bridal.  I was originally completely against buying a dress there.  But I fell in love with my dress.  We walked in, I saw it, and I knew I had to have it.  It was everything I wanted.  And perfect for an outdoor wedding.

I made our invitations.  I found an invite I liked in a catalog and then I recreated it myself using our colors.  And shimmery card stock.  Add sparkles is always better.

We got married at a shelter house overlooking the lake we go to in the summer.  Our reception was at a resort at the lake.  The room our reception was in had a deck overlooking the lake.  And my father-in-law's band played.  We had perfect weather, even for October.  I mean it truly could not have been a better day.  Weather wise, or even in general.  

We had barbecue.  And Boulevard beer.  The same lady did all of our catering and our flowers.  She was insanely cheap.  And everything was amazing.  There was dancing.  There were toasts.  There were cute babies.  There was the Electric Slide to Achy Breaky Heart.  It was perfect.

That tablecloth, my Granny made it for my parents wedding.  It's hand crocheted.

My mom made my bridesmaid dresses.  The guys wore their own shoes (rental shoes gross me out).  We took pictures wearing our sunglasses.  I wore the necklace my dad bought my mom in high school as my something old and my mom's garter as my something blue.

So guys, tell me about your wedding if you're married.  Or your dream wedding if you're not.  Or the best/worst wedding you've ever been too.  Anybody else ready for the lake and summer?  Or the ocean if you're lucky.  Do you constantly watching wedding shows too?  I'm hoping I'm not the only weirdo.  I promise to be back to DIY as normal soon, the snow is just cramping my style.  My poor kitchen chairs are still in the garage half painted.

Shopping Spectacular

We went to Dallas.  As a whole, I don't love going to the south.  The main problem, is the humidity.  But spring is a completely acceptable time to go to Dallas, it wasn't horribly humid.  Hooray.  And it was warm and sunny.  And we ate at my favorite fast food place.  Yes, my favorite fast food place.  As we were driving down, I kept screaming the name every time we drove past one of them.  I want to give that place kisses.  Weird, I know.  But man, it's good.

Whataburger!  Mmmmm!  It's so delicious!  I had a cheeseburger and fries if you were curious.  A bunless burger so that it was soy free.  And they fry their fries in canola oil.  I asked.  Score!

And we went to Ikea.  It was amazing.  I can't wait until the KC location opens.  I think I mentioned yesterday that I only spent around $15.  Fabulous.  The hubby spent more at Home Depot that day than I did at Ikea so I call that pretty successful.  I should've taken more pictures of things I want.  I thought my mom would think it was weird.  Until I whipped it out to photograph these pillows because I'm pretty sure I can make them.  We decided it wasn't worth the $15 or so that they cost but that I could make them.  And then I regretted not whipping out my phone earlier.  Sigh.

Of course I brought a couple of things home.  I've gotten so good at being frugal lately.  So I bought three turquoise candles to replace the white candles that were living on the mantle.  For like $2 a piece.  And I bought that cute little lantern for around four buckaroos.

 I also bought a picture frame but it doesn't have a home yet.  I have plans for it though.  We need to replace our thermostat, when that happens the frame is going around the thermostat to fancy it up a bit.

Since I was adding stuff to the mantle again I snagged something else while I was at my parents house between Dallas and coming home for real.  We had an amazing cake topper on our wedding cake.  I custom ordered it on Etsy.  It had never made it back.  So my mom and I dug into the closet and I brought that back.  Now it's happy on my shelf.

Yes, we are holding fishing poles in wedding attire.  And that is even made to look like us and my wedding dress.  See why I wanted to display it so badly.

Since we're kind of talking about shopping, I thought I'd share a couple of things I saw at Hobby Lobby the other day.  I'm kind of wishing I'd bought them.  Maybe next time.

Completely adorbs, right?!  I'm thinking I could make something similar to this.  I totally wouldn't need the ribbon and clothes pins because I would want it just for cuteness and not for hanging things on.

And isn't this just the cutest?  I think I could do the three planks and maybe paint a bird.  Or I could just spend the money and buy it.  You know, when it's 50% off.  

Where have you been shopping lately?  Any great finds?  Or inspiration to make something fab?  Or maybe you're like me and see things and not buy them but later regret being a cheap skate.  Sigh.  At least Hobby Lobby is a little more convenient to shop than Ikea.