Changing Table -Turned Dog Bed

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a beat up, run down changing table on the side of the road. It was no longer safe to put a baby on. It was missing two shelves, and was super rickety. Because it was made of real wood and had interesting spindles, I felt the need to bring it home and make something out of it.

The hubs was obviously unhappy that I was bringing more junk home;o) Story of our lives, right?

Anyway, I thought it would make a perfect pet bed.

 This is how it started out. 

I used an electric hand saw and chopped the legs off. That was definitely an experience. Note to self...use a sharp blade next time. I was literally shaking so hard that I had blurred vision while cutting this piece because the blade wouldn't cut through the wood:o) 

I sanded down the feet to get a nice edge.

I then ripped the safety buckles off of the bottom.

And then spray painted it.

The cushion is made from painters' canvas and two large pillows from my couch in the bonus room.

I made the cover removable by adding a zipper to the back. That way when it gets dirty, I can just throw it in the wash.

Not bad for a roadside rescue?

Painting a Pillow

Is anyone else being hammered by hot temperatures right now? Even though it's blazing hot here in the South, it hasn't deterred me from working away on Fall decor. I'm so glad you are back here today with me. I have a little tutorial on how to spruce up a plain burlap pillow using stencils and fabric paint.

 I found this image on Pinterest. 

I fell in love with the pillow and thought "how fun would that be on my new bench". 

If anyone knows the source of this photo, please let me know so I can give them credit. Thanks!!

So I gathered all the supplies I needed. 

A pillow form(purchased), burlap(purchased), stencils, black fabric paint, and paint brush. 

 I made the pillow cover, and added a zipper. I am really into adding zippers to pillows because it makes it easier to clean the covers. If you are able to do it, I would highly recommend it!!

After the pillow cover was made, I taped some paper to the width of the cover and traced the letters on the paper to see what it would look like on the pillow.

One word...dumb.

These are the only letter stencils I have, and they were waaay too big for the pillow, and waaay too swirly. I could barely read what they said. So I nixed the "Fall Greetings" idea and searched through other stencils I had.

 I found this one in the stash. Obviously it's been used before, but I can't quite remember for what..oh well:o)

I centered and taped the stencil to the burlap cover and painted away making sure not to push the paint under the stencil. If you have some spray adhesive for stencils, that would work great, but we don't use that fancy stuff around here...we just stick to the trusty old Scotch tape:o) 

Here is the finished stencil. Now you should wait until the paint dries before inserting the pillow form...or be like me and go ahead and put it in anyway:o)

And here is my new pillow on my new bench. The hubs keeps telling me I need to bring the bench back inside because it's too nice to be outside..he's so sweet. It's staying put for now:o)

I plan on sprucing this little area up some more with mums and pumpkins...can't wait to finish that up and share the final reveal.

On another note, say a little prayer for me. I go tomorrow to have a scan on my gallbladder. It's been acting wonky, and I have been feeling sub-par for the last 3 weeks. I'm hoping the doctors will find that it's only the gallbladder and get that sucker out of me. I'm ready to feel normal again!

Pillows-Chevron, Stripes, and More!

Hello, hello, hello! I have been on a crazy spring cleaning spree these past few weeks! I have been organizing EVERYTHING in my house. One of the most exciting things for me is my newly organized craft room. I can't wait to share with you all the transformation. I still have a few finishing touches, and then I'll be ready for the reveal. So to hold you over until then, here are some pillows I whipped up for my monogramming friend. 

 Don't you love the color combo? And don't these pillows just scream "keep me on this bed with this awesome duvet cover?!?"

Sadly, they must go to their intended home;o)

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!

Engagement Party

This past weekend, I had the honor of helping put together an engagement party for a very sweet friend's nephew. It wasn't supposed to be at her house originally, so when I got the call, we had to put all crafty gears into over drive.

I had her email me a few pictures of things she wanted to see at the party and ran with it.

I'll provide some of the details, but I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

This little sign was at the base of the stairs as you walked up to the front porch. It's made of balsa wood. The sign was stained and hand painted with their names and the date of their wedding.

 In the front entrance, there was an heirloom Bible for guests to sign or highlight their favorite verse along with photos of the bride and groom when they were children.

The gift table

Aren't the flower arrangements beautiful? I love hydrangeas and blue mason jars...you can never go wrong with either of those:o)

There was additional seating outside.

 Here are the center pieces for the tables. Battery operated votives and tea lights were life savers for this outdoor affair.

This was the drink station. I thought it was pretty lucky that we share the same last initial...The mother of the groom made the little flags for the paper straws. I wish I had taken a closer shot of them. They were adorable. 

I had a lot of helpers in putting this together, and it wouldn't have happened without all of their help. 

I was so grateful to be apart of making this sweet little couple feel extra special and I wish them great joy and happiness in the years ahead! 

Sneak Peak of Quilt and a Pillow

We are saying a prayer of thanks today. S.R. seems to have made it through this dreaded flu business. So far, no one else is showing signs of catching it. Keeping our fingers crossed;o)

Since we haven't been able to leave the house, I have been working diligently on her new bedding. I finished the scallops on her quilt yesterday. Now I am waiting on the rest of the fabric to arrive so that I can complete the quilt. I am a tad bit nervous about the actual quilting bit. It may take me a few days before I can muster up the nerve to tackle that:o)

I have a ton of fabric scraps leftover, so I decided to make good use of them and turn them into pillows. I have never spent this much time on one pillow, and I will have to say that I am pretty proud of the results.

 I hate any form of hand stitching, but after seeing this mermaid pillow, I knew that there might be some hand stitchery in my future:o)

(source)

While I was piecing the scallops together, I kept thinking that the little puppy on the fabric would be adorable hand embroidered on a pillow. I have NEVER hand embroidered anything, so obviously I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Thankfully I had the materials I needed tucked away in my craft closet. I bought the thread years ago thinking I had the patience to cross-stitch...HA! I also had a couple of hoops from a craft project gone awry.

It took a couple of hours to finish the embroidery part, but I really didn't mind it at all.

I love this little pup! 

I can't wait to get started on the rest of the pillows and to finish the quilt.

But first, I must go make S.R. an outfit for her Easter program...which is tomorrow. She's so excited that she gets to participate in it. It's our last preschool program..sniff, sniff. My babies are growing up WAY too fast!!


Participating Here:

Snuggly Lap Quilt

Our weather has been awfully dreary here lately. Lots and lots of rain. Perfect weather for reading, board games, and snuggling.

As I was cleaning out my craft room, I ran across some quilt squares I had cut out a couple of years ago...yes, years:o)

I decided to make a quick quilt out of them...who knows why it took me this long!

 The fabric for the backing was given to me, and how lucky was it that it matched my squares? 

This quilt was meant to be:o)

 It has become THE favorite blanket in the house...too bad it isn't big enough to fit all four of us under it.

However, it's perfect for a day like this, when it's cold and rainy outside.

I hope you all are staying warm and dry!

New Year, New List of Things to Do..

Happy New Year to you all. I realize I'm a week late, but better late than never, right?

For the past week and a half, I have been in purge mode. You wouldn't believe the amount of junk I have cleared out of closets and our attic. I still have a few areas I haven't hit yet. 

I have been working on my craft room too, and I'm going to have some crafty bundles in my Etsy shop here in the next few days.

I have decided that my motto for 2013 is to SIMPLIFY. 

The hubs is definitely on board:o) We are clearing out clutter, junk and debt. 

 One of our next DIY's will be to update the kids' bathroom. If you follow me on Facebook, I may have said that I was going to tackle that this past weekend...well, it didn't exactly happen:o) The supplies have been purchased though, so all we have to do is get the motivation to make it happen.

Another item on my list of things to do is to make S.R. a quilt for her bed. She LOVES purple, and has asked a couple of times if I would make her room purple. I'm sticking with the green, but will replace the pink with purple. A quilt, some new curtains, new lamp shades, and a new canopy will do the trick. Things that I can do over time. My goal is to get the quilt done before her birthday...which is the beginning of March. Daunting, I know!

These are the fabrics I chose. They are from Riley Blake and it's the Dress Up Days line. I'm really excited about this really cute fabric! 

This is the one I fell in love with...isn't it adorable?!?!

This is the quilt that I will be fashioning out of the above fabrics....crazy I know. I'm sure my "crafty ADD" will be able to manage all of these scallops(NOT), but I'm going to go in with eyes wide shut;o) HA!

Photo from The Girl Inspired

The quilt pattern is from this book and you can find it at Amazon.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

I am really excited about this quilt. I just have to be like the Little Engine That Could, and do it!!

Have a great Tuesday!!

18" Doll Bed, Quilt, Pillow and a Mattress Tutorial

Are you guys ready for Christmas yet? Do you have all of your gifts bought, wrapped and tucked neatly under the tree? We are done for the most part. I think I am going to make one more thing for E and then we will be done. 

Today's post is about what we(the hubs and I) made for S.R.

She has asked for an American Girl Doll for Christmas this year. She is 4 years old...she ain't gettin' an American Girl Doll. However, she is getting a "Famerican" Girl Doll...(Faux-American). Ole Santy Claus is bringing her the doll from Target that looks just like the real deal, and it's 1/3 the cost.

So, I came across a really cool building plan for a doll bed on Ana White's Blog. It is perfect!

I knew the hubs could make it, and so he did:o) 

I decided that I needed to make some really cute bedding to go along with it. 

This Famerican Girl will be resting in style:o)

(I got a little impatient, and decided to take pictures before the hubs could get it stained..pics of the final product will come after X-mas)

This is my very first quilt to actually quilt myself. I found an easy tutorial at Mommy by day, Crafter by night. I was able to make this little quilt in about an hour and a half. The fabrics were from a fat quarter bundle purchased from the Hob.

 The pillow was an absolute must as well:o)

 Here is the under-side of the quilt.

When I laid the quilt and pillow across the bed, the quilt wouldn't lay right. The spindles were in the way, and it just looked like it needed an extra something, so that's when I realized this bed needed a mattress.

This is sort of a tutorial, but not really a step-by-step because I was in a rush to get this done before S.R. got home from school yesterday:o)

I started with two fabrics, you could use the same fabric, but this was leftovers from the fat quarter pack, so I used what I had.

I stitched them together to form what looked like a pillow. I realized I didn't have enough to cover the base of the bed, so I had to add a strip across the top to lengthen it. Once it was re-stitched, I laid it across the bottom of the bed to make sure it fit.

I then stuffed it with poly-fil, and closed the end up by hand-stitching. I usually avoid any hand-stitching at all cost because I am too impatient. However, I really wanted this to look nice, so I bit the bullet, and used my little needle and thread. 

To prevent the mattress from looking like a big pillow shoved into the bed, I tufted it. I had a fabric button covering kit(is that what they're called??), and I used the purple polka dot fabric to cover the buttons. This task was a little more labor intensive. I used a long needle, and lots of patience. At one point, I really thought I was going to need a Band-Aid as well...OUCH! 

This is the back-side of the mattress. Yes, I realize that there are two sets of buttons...why, you ask? Because this was a last minute project, and I didn't have time to go buy matching buttons:o) And, yes, it's staying that way.

So it's complete, and I am thrilled with the results. 

 Perfect for her Famerican Girl Doll!!

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Classy Clutter