This and That

We found a few more items that go well with our style...

Found this octopus over at onekingslane. com. Since we both love to interact with octopi - it has a lot of meaning to us.

This phone also came from onekingslane. It is a replica with buttons instead of a dial, but it's nice and heavy, just like real old phones used to be. Can't wait to hook it up!

Now that we have the dining set in the wood room, we've crossed the murphy bed off our wish list - but we did want to have a guest bed. Found this beautiful, all wood, day bed at the World Market store. It will be in my craft room so I have a place to snuggle up and let those creative juices flow. Don't worry - over time we will be finishing the basement.

Every time we leave it's getting harder and harder to do so and my new knick knack says it best.

 Aloha A Hui Hou!

My Poor Lamp

I was so happy with the driftwood lamp I made last Summer. It looked so unique and special and was so us.

When we returned in December I was sad to see that the driftwood couldn't take the tension of being clamped around the inner post of the lamp and it cracked.

I first tried screwing it back together, but I couldn't make the screw go where I wanted it to go and it didn't look good.

Next try was to glue and clamp it together. Did that and when I took it apart the wood just pulled apart again.

What to do?

Then I thought, we have so many shells, I could wrap silver wire around the wood to hold it together and glue a shell over the twisted wire.....that might do the trick.

On the day that we were out and about I found a box of small porcelain shell ornaments and hubby and I both agreed that one of them would work out perfectly. And it did!

What'cha think?

Aloha A Hui Hou!

It's All About Storage

I'm all about storage. Everything needs to have a place. That's why I'm so happy with all the built ins in the house.

BUT we lost the built in in the front room where we now have the Vermont bun baker. So when I buy something for the house it has to pull double duty.

This trip we found a nice wood chest, on removable legs, at one of our favorite Youth Ranch Thrift Stores. 

Right now I have it between our two wingback chairs and my crocheting is in it.

Hard to say how old it is, but it is made of solid wood, not plywood. We love that.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

New to the Family

Browsing Craigslist I came across this beauty

All real wood and a sweet deal at just 20 bucks. Texted the lady, paypal'd the 20 and my friend picked it up. It's now a part of the front room furniture family! Yay!

Now, my painting friends - What to do? As you know, I am going for the beach cottage feel (should make us feel great in the winter months - lol) 

The hutch will stand where the trunk is now.

and I know I want to leave the top and the bottom edge as is. 

I want to paint the middle. The hutch that I bought off Craigslist last year is white and hope that some day the carpenter will put a wood top between the upper and lower parts (or I'll save the money and someday give it a shot myself)

More about the hutch here

I guess I should match it to the color of the hutch, since they are in the same room. But think I would go for the chalk paint version, maybe a bit of stressing to bring out the weave pattern in the door.. What do you think?

Also, is this something that I should save for a Summer project? or could I do this, lets say in December or January  (I'll be painting in our unheated shop or our cool slightly heated basement)?

Oh and btw, sorry for the absence, my daughter is here for an extended visit and we are always on the go.

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Shared with:

Its So Very Cheri
Ask Anna

Cupcakes and Crinoline

DesignDreams By Anne

Setting For Four

Three Mango Seeds
Funky Junk Interiors

DIY - Pop of Red / Sea Horse Pillow

As I mentioned last week I have a 2nd red pillow case that I wanted to paint.

I know that I didn't want to paint another coral branch. So I looked for something else that would go along with the coral and I found this:

I thought hmmmmm.....Seahorse.....Seahorse? Yeah, seahorse!

Since this pillow case is darker than the first one, when I started to draw, it was so hard to see the marker lines and couldn't get the size right.

I then thought I'd draw a grid and then draw the seahorse.

Fail, the grid vanished faster than I could draw! Must have been the humidity in the air today.

Finally I just created a pattern on the computer. The pillow is larger than a piece of paper so I had to split it up in sections and then tape them together.

Using the stencil I traced seahorse onto the pillow.

Next came the fun and I had to paint fast!

I outlined everything first, to make sure I have my lines

and then I filled it out.

Stuffed it, and DONE! My fraction of the cost designer seahorse pillow.

Shared this pillow on the following sites:

Under the Table and Dreaming

Coastal Charm

Sugar Bee Crafts

Aloha a Hui Hou!

DIY - Pop of Red / Coral Pillow

Taking the color pallet for the front room from the area rug, I decided that my pop of color would be red. According to HGTV, the best way to add that pop was by accessorizing.

As I mentioned here, I sewed a bunch of couch pillows and they turned out great, but I was still missing that POP of color.

While we were flying home I was browsing thru the fly mall magazine. I saw something like this pillow

and thought HEY! I could make that in red!

I didn't have a craft store and teach a ga-zillion classes for over a decade for nothing!  Made myself a mental note of what I would need to make my POP.

I choose a rough cotton as the base. Thought it would be nice and sturdy and would hold up well. I also bought fabric dye and zippers - I was in business!

Quickly I prewashed the fabric and sewed two simple pillows - here are my instructions for that.

I used a trouser hanger to hold the pillow in the dye.

I was discouraged.

The fabric was NOT sucking up the dye the way it should. I tried all kinds of things and it just wasn't happening. I even tried wetting the fabric and it hardly took on the water!

I thought I'll try some salt where the dye did take, to get this effect.

Interesting tidbit: Salt will absorb the dye (in this case silk paint), leaving an interesting pattern behind.

Didn't work either. Considering our humidity here, I'm guessing my salt was too "wet" to do any kind of absorbing.

While I was taking the 2nd pillow out of the dye it dropped in and ruined it. 

Crud...

Not wanting to cry over spilled milk, I went ahead and just dyed them both all red. Since parts of both pillows were in the dye longer, they turned out two toned.

I then thought - WAIT A MINUTE - Fabric paint! I could paint a coral pillow. Coral would go well with the beach-ie theme I have going on. Added bonus is that I could create such a pillow at a much better price than what a finished, fancy pansy, designer pillow would cost. 

S0 that's what I did. I went to Ben Franklins and bought a textile medium and a slightly off white paint.

Using a vanishing maker I drew my vision of a coral branch

I covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and put it inside the pillow

To make it a bit taunt, I stretched the fabric across the cardboard and taped it in the back.

According to the instructions on the textile medium you need 2 parts acrylic paint and 1 part of the medium. Easiest way to do it is to make three same size dots of paint and then mix them together.

I had to paint two coats because the red kept bleeding thru.

Red loves to do that you know....bleed thru....

All done! Now I have to wait a few days to let it set, then it could be washed.

And here it is, my finished pillow and I like it!! Now all I have to do is figure out what I would like to paint on the other pillow case.

Shared this post on the following blogs:

Coastal Charm

Under the Table and Dreaming

Sugar Bee Crafts

Get out of my head {Please}

Aloha a Hui Hou!

DIY - Simple Pillow

While thinking about what I want to use, to bring color into the front room, pillows are one of the first things that popped into my mind.

I went shopping and have you looked what couch pillows cost lately? OMG!

Well at least the ones that I liked were pricey. They cost more than a steak dinner for two!

My alternative was to sew my own. I could get fabric for about 4 to 8 dollars a yard, a zipper, some thread and my time...easy enough.

While we were still in Idaho I took a paint sample to the local Joann's store and went fabric hunting. I found a nice assortment of fabrics that would fit nicely.

The ocean colors and my pop of red.

While some of you might be avid sewers, others might not be. So here is my quick way to make a simple couch pillow.

For my simple pillow I used 1/2 yard of fabric, 14" zipper and matching thread.

1) Fold the fabric, right sides together, woven edges matching. 

2) Fold the zipper in half and the fabric in half the long way. Using a piece of tailors chalk mark the middle.of each. 

3) Pin it together

4) Line up the middle mark on the zipper up with the middle mark on the fabric (as in pic above).

5) Using the zipper as a guideline now mark the space that will be the opening. I make the opening a touch smaller than the zipper

6) Now it's time to pull out the machine. I sew a 2.5cm (1") seam and start with a 2.5 stitch

Oh and yes, my sewing machine is sewing much better now, thank  you very much.

7) When I reach the first chalk mark I back stitch a few stitches (I do this to secure my seam so  that when I open the middle part for the zipper, the rest of my seam will stay closed. More about that below).

8) From this point on I lengthen my stitch to 6 (which is basically a basting stitch). When I reach the last chalk mark I back stitch again and finish off  the seam with a 2.5 stitch. Now that part is done! Bravo!

9) This is where I cut my fabric to size. By folding my fabric to a triangle and cutting away what is standing over at the top, I get a perfect 18"x18" square.

10) Next I iron the seam open. When I pull the fabric apart a bit you can see the difference in stitches.

11) Place the zipper face down so that the chalk marks line up and that teeth of the zipper line up with the seam.

12) Switch out your pressure foot for the zipper foot. I set my machine that the needle will stay down when you stop - makes turning easier.
Start sewing just behind the chalk mark, this is the start end of the zipper.  Notice I have the zipper open a bit. The reason being, the pull is so chunky and it pushes the zipper foot off to the side and it makes me sew a wavy line.
Once I'm past it I lift my zipper foot and I close the zipper. Repeat this when I pass it on the way back up.
Next I sew till I reach the bottom of the zipper where have another chalk line. Lift the pressure foot, make a quarter turn and sew across the zipper and then repeat to sew back up the other side of the zipper. Finished it off with a few back stitches when I reached my starting point.

14) Using a seam ripper I opened the part that I sewed with the long stitches.

15) Open the zipper - I forgot to do this once and basically had a closed square piece of fabric. Had to fart around with it a bit, to get the zipper open so I could turn the pillow. 

See? A nice, hidden zipper!

16) This is where I sewed all the way around - 1" seam. After that I trim off about half of the seam allowance and cut the corners on a diagonal (so that when you turn your pillow out side out you have nice pointy corners and not lumps of fabric).

17) I like to zigzag the edge so it doesn't fray easily.

18) Turn, press if needed and stuff the stuffing in there and your pillow is done!

So far I've made almost 20 pillow cases....don't know which I will wind up using, but I sure am having fun!

Aloha a Hui Hou!