Surprise, Surprise

I told you not to get too excited about this little project I have been working on.  Yes, that's right- more pillow covers.  I may have a serious problem with changing the pillows in our living room.  Rob and I were watching videos of Aiden from early last summer and we both said- "what are those pillows on the sofa? I barely remember them".  Maybe that's because I have changed them about 5 times since then.  This addiction stems mostly for my love of fabric.  Also, everything in the living room is pretty neutral, so I can easily make this change over and over again.  Of course, I need to take into account the dining room wallpaper and yellow walls.  I don't want things in the living room to clash too much.  I know I've said it before, but I want these 2 rooms to feel like they flow into each other.  Anyway, I won't bore you too much with my thought process, here is the sofa.  

 

I have really been liking the color gray recently.  It started with this $12 clearance item I found at Target this past winter. 

I love Amy Butler prints and have admired this print for awhile.  I thought that the gray colors would work with everything else and it has a touch of yellow to tie in with the dining room.  I wasn't sure if I would like the dark brown pillows with them, but I think they are a nice contrast.  

I also really wanted to make a pillow for the chair in the living room.  This chair is so pretty, but since Christmas, it has served as a place to put Aiden's monkey.  I felt like it was time to move monkey into Aiden's crib and make a pretty pillow to show off the chair. 

 I wanted a smaller pillow, so I picked up an appropriate size insert and made this cover for it.  It is the same color gray as in the other fabric.  

So, there you have it.  The bird pillows were just a little too much for me at the moment, and I like these more toned down pillows for now.  

*just a tip- I have a hard time finding samples of fabrics that I like and have sometimes ordered things online and been disappointed with the actual colors- they are often much brighter than they appear on the screen of my computer.  I noticed that a lot of fabric stores on ETSY sell remnants or fat quarters of fabric for how much a sample would be anyway.  I always figure I can use the pieces for other projects anyway.  So, this time I ordered some fat quarters of the fabric I was looking at and was then able to see what they look like in person before committing to a bigger order.  

Sorry, but not much to report

I am truly sorry for the lack of posts this summer.  It feels like things have been busy these past few weeks around here- I spend most of my time chasing Aiden around.  And, to be perfectly honest, there is not much going on in the decorating department.  Part of that has to do with contentment- there is nothing that feels pressing.  We have done most of the bigger things that we have wanted to since moving in.  I am sure there will always be things that I want to repaint, change, etc.  But, for now, we are happy with the way things are.  I may be lying a little bit here.  There are some small things that I want to change that I probably think about every day.  The biggest one is new chairs in the dining room- not around the table, but the 2 in the corners that we use when we have guests, and on a daily basis, mostly used as Aiden's time-out chair.  They are falling apart, and I loathe them every day.  One of the arms is falling off of the one and is becoming dangerous.  I desperately want these chairs from West Elm.  

I keep hoping maybe one day they will just show up at my front door.  The second thing that I wish for maybe every other day, is a new rug for our bedroom.  The one that we have is from Ikea and it produces this weird gritty white mess underneath.  I don't know what it is or why it happens, but I don't like the way it looks to begin with, and every time I clean the floor in our bedroom I get so frustrated with it.  I would really love this rug (also from West Elm and currently on sale).  

At the moment we don't have the money to spend on these 2 things, but hopefully sooner rather than later.  Until then, I will just keep hoping they show up at our front door.     

I do have one small project that I will be working on that I will post about soon.  Don't get too excited- but I will give you a little hint....

No Place Like Home

Last week we were on vacation in Maine.  We had a great time and we always complain that it goes by too fast.  However, once we got home, I realized how much I missed our home and couldn't have been happier to be back.  This may have something to do with the 14 hour drive, but regardless, there are things that I appreciate about returning home. 

We came back to blooming zinias in the garden, and putting them in my green mason jar vase on the kitchen table makes me smile every time I walk into the kitchen.

 I love the way the breeze blows these gauzy curtains in the front windows.

Out of Africa

So, remember how I said I had a project I have been working on?  Well, surprisingly enough, it is NOT for our house!  Rob's sister, Gwyn, works and lives in Uganda.  She is home for the summer, and a couple months before coming home, she moved into a brand new place.  She got to pick out a lot of the details in the apartment because the University where she works  built brand new housing for the staff.   She was able to pick the tile and paint, things like that.  She wanted to add some more personality with curtains, pillows, etc.  Since options in Uganda are limited, she wanted to get these things over here in the states while she was home.  So, off to the fabric store we went when she got home.  Gwyn has good taste, so it was fun to help her pick stuff out and figure out what would work best.  There was A LOT of fabric needed as I am making curtains for her living room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms.  She also wants cushion covers made for 2 chairs that have a wood frame with 2 large cushions.  And then of course some pillow covers for throw pillows for the sofa.  

The fabric below is all for her living room.  The striped fabric is for the cushion covers on her chair, the throw pillow is for her sofa (there are 4), and then the cream colored fabric is for the curtains.  The room is painted a green similar to the green in the fabric.  The fabric for the curtains has beautiful embroidery which you can't really see in this picture.  My advice was to use some different prints but stay within the same colors.  

This fabric is for her kitchen window.  Her kitchen is blue and yellow and this fabric will look perfect.  It is really light, almost gauzy.  

This fabric is for curtains in her second bedroom, which will have a red sofa in it. 

And finally this fabric is for curtains in Gwyn's bedroom.  She wanted to keep the colors light and this picture does not do this fabric justice.  It is much prettier in person.  

I don't think I ever mentioned on here that I got a new sewing machine for my birthday this year.  Let me just say, it has changed my (sewing) life.  I cannot even believe how easy sewing is on this machine- it almost seems wrong.  I had been using my mom's sewing machine since I learned how to sew and lets just say that Rob would often find me cursing at the thing or on the phone with my mom trying to figure out why it wasn't sewing correctly.  Well, thankfully, Rob's parents, and my parents went in together and got me this pretty baby for my birthday.  I was totally shocked when I received it but couldn't be happier that I have it.  Although I don't sew a ton, it makes sewing so much easier and enjoyable and I would not be able to do big projects like this without it.   It also makes me want to sew more.  

The thing I have realized about sewing is that the sewing part is not what is difficult and time -consuming.  It is the measuring, cutting, and prepping of the fabric.  The curtains for Gwyn couldn't be simpler- I am just hemming the sides becuase she is using a wire with little hooks to hang them.  But it takes so long to cut the fabric, make sure it is cut evenly, and then prep the hems ( pressing them with an iron/ pinning if necessary).  Once that is done, the sewing goes so quickly.  My goal was to get all the curtains done before we leave for Maine on Saturday- and I did.  So, now all I need to do when we get back is the large cushion covers, which I am doing like a big pillow cover, and then 2 more throw pillow covers.  I feel confident and not stressed that I will get this all done before Gwyn goes back on the 30th.  

Gwyn promises to send pictures when she gets back to Uganda with her new cutains hung and pillows covers in place!  

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone has a wonderfuly July 4th weekend with lots of yummy, fun picnics.   

Sorry for the lack of posting recently.  I have been trying to stay off the computer more and spend some quality time with the child and husband and the nicer weather recently has allowed us to be outdoors more.  But stay tuned-there is also a project that has been using up a lot of my spare time.   

Beach Bound

Rob and I are heading to the beach this weekend for our 4 year anniversary.  I am looking forward to some major R&R, not cooking, no changing diapers.  It is our first time really leaving Aiden for this long, but I think it is much needed.  I LOVE the beach.  I often dream about owning a beach home some day, mostly so I can decorate it.  I love the blues and greens, sisal rugs, white slipcovered furniture.  If anyone ever needs some beach house decorating inspiration, I would love to help!!  Anyway, I will leave you with these dreamy beach house pictures by the fabulous Windsor Smith.  

Not much going on here

Things have been pretty slow around here in the area of decorating.  It's been kind of muggy around here recently and I haven't been too motivated to do much of anything.  Aiden is also becoming more and more busy, which makes me more exhausted.  For example, yesterday morning he climbed up the whole flight of stairs.  He has never even climbed up one stair before.  And he is SO fast.  Anyway, Rob and I have recently been dreaming about building our own modern house some day.  I really want it to have a pool.   Some inspiring pictures  (all from "Home Sweet Home")