: : Weekend Crafternoon - home sweet home makeover : :

This past Spring, one of my friends asked if I would help her surprise her neighbor with a little home makeover.  The Gardener and I were delighted to help.  My friends church came in tore out the carpet in the lower level revealing amazing hardwood floors that got shined up.  They painted the walls too with a bright clean white and one accent wall in a Tiffany blue that was amazing.

The stars aligned for this project.  I wish I could show you ALL of it but we were so busy working I only got a few pictures.  I can tell you this...Mostly what we learned from this project is that a little spray paint does wonders!  But you probably already knew that!

Another set of friends of ours had recently gotten married, combined households and were unloading some furniture.  We were able to snag some pieces to put into the house and give the neighbor a few new items.  Ok...maybe more than a few.  What a blessing!  The best part was we added a dining room table into the kids play room to give them a crafting / homework station that didn't exist before.

Giving furniture new life is so much fun!  One of the old desk chairs got a facelift...some new blue paint and a new seat cushion.  She looks just lovely at the neighbors new computer desk, don't you agree?  The desk was one of those dorm room laminated style desks which is like a plastic coating.  Great for a college kid but we added some plastic appropriate spray paint in white and blue.   It refreshed that old desk for a perfect spot the kids can sit to work on the computer.

By far, my favorite piece of the day was the old lamp table.  My husbands best buddy owned this lamp, big chunky wood and it had these...kind of awful... looking coasters on each corner that were adhered into the table.  As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I LOVED how it turned out and I was so excited to hear that this was the neighbors favorite part of the house makeover.  Swoon!  The bright yellow and zebra shade were perfect together.

I was given the task to redo / create new pillows for the living room.  Here are a few of my favorites.  The first one here, I used some home dec fabric from Anna Maria Horner and added felt leaves that trailed across the pillow along with a felt flower.  I sewed a bunch of buttons to the center of the flower.  Each pillow I made, I rounded the corners and also made an envelope style closure back.  (envelope style is the fastest / easiest style and since I had a stack of pillows to make...that made my job go by with ease).  Round your corners?  Yes...otherwise you end up with these dog ears that don't fill out.  Just a tiny rounding of the corner will resolve that problem.

A familiar and much loved style...a pennant banner with the added word LOVE stitched into it.  Using a disappearing ink pen, I drew the lines for my banner and the word LOVE.  I stitched using a stitch length of about 3.5 with black thread and went over each line at least twice.  I raw edge appliqued the banner flags - stitching a straight stitch just along the edge.  I made the pillow a little bit large and then using a decorative topstitch, went all along the outer edge.

This Sis Boom print paired so well with the bright red poppies.  Layering felt circles on top of one another and adding a black button center plus a line of stitching for the stem created this field of poppies on this pillow.  So bright and cheery!

We worked really hard for about 3 days on this project.  Sewing.  Painting.  Cleaning.  Moving.  Blessing a sweet family with some sunshine.  I can't wait to make a few of these pillows for my own house...maybe this "crafternoon".

Weekend Crafternoon is a new feature I'll be sharing regularly on my blog.  Sharing some fun weekend crafternoon projects to inspire you and I hope you'll join me.  I'll be opening it up as a linky list so that you can share your crafternoon projects too.

Now...I'm off to sew! (4H judging this week!  The peas STILL haven't finished their dresses!  Wish us luck this week!)

Mooahhhhahahah! (insert evil laugh here)

Did that spook ya?  My evil laugh and all?  It's a pretty good imitation, right?  I mean, I totally had ya thinking that like Count Dracula was right behind you didn't I?   OOooo!  I so love Halloween.  It is my FAV.OR.ITE holiday.  I just love it.  Love that it happens in the fall.  Love to think about Halloween costumes and what we'll put together.  Love the parties we have every year.  Love, LOVE, love LOVE LOVE it!!!

As a matter of fact, the day after halloween, I go out and scurry up anything that is left over in the store Plates, napkins, cute little trinkets for goodie bags and the like and I load them all up into my "Halloween Party" bin and put it back into storage.  Each year, I am all set with loads of fun stuff for our party and purchased at usually 75% off or more!  Mooahhhahahah (rubs hands together)  Love bargain shopping!

I have an entire Haunted Village.  You know how some people have Christmas Villages (ok, I confess.  I have one of those too - complete with skiers and snowboarders that move - you'll have to wait until Christmas for that post).  I have these villages that all make sound and have motion.  Well before the girls get home from school, I have those things cranked on.  And enjoy them I do - ohh!  So much fun!

And I love decorating around my antiques.  My old clock works perfect for Halloween decor don't ya think?  Complete with owl, black leaves, and rat of course!

A few years ago, I crafted some pillow covers for my couch.  I found some adorable festive fabrics.  Searched for this fringe trim in black over in the home dec section.

And then out of felt, I cut the shapes, used stitch witchery on them (because what else would you use at this time of year for applique with a name like that), and then did some decorative stitching on top.  Hello?!  Cute and so easy.  They are an envelope style.

That couldn't be easier.  Measure your pillow form size.  I add usually about an 1.5" to 2" to each side measurement.  Your front panel is one piece obviously.  Your back panel will be in two pieces.  You won't those pieces to overlap by about 3-4" so cut two pieces, accounting for seam allowances so you can create a nice clean hem on the edges, and cut them to fit for your rear panel.  Make sense.   That's all there is to it.  With right sides together, make sure your rear panel has your edges finished that will be exposed, and that they are overlapping enough, and stitch all the way around.

If you want to add trim like I did, you'll want to sandwich that inbetween your layers.  It will lay in this order, panel one, trim, and then panel two.

I know, I know.  Not really the best instructions.  Go here for a real tutorial on how to make these style covers.  They could not be easier, seriously!

Got any good ideas for our "Frankensteins Laboratory"?  We did one a few years back and the girls have requested we do it again.  I set it up on the kitchen counter and use a big black garbage bag that is shredded to hide what is behind the bags.  We did grapes for eyeballs.  Spaghetti for brains.  And a wig for hair.  But I need some new ideas this year.  Help me out!

And for helping me out...drum roll please...I'm gonna send you one of Halloween treat bags!  Just a lightweight little tote a little one could use to collect their candy in or you could put a cute Halloween gift in it for someone, like me, who loves Halloween better than their birthday.  (hint! hint! I know my husband reads this and if you are reading this right now, I sure would love that new Wacom tablet we talked about....what a lovely Halloween gift that would be for your dear sweet hard working wife who adores you - is this thing on?  hello?  Did ya catch all that?)  Sorry about that diversion...he does secretly read.  He says he doesn't ever read my blog but then he'll blurt something out that I shared and I'll say, "ahh, so you DO read my blog".

Where was I?  Oh yes, help me out with some ideas for Franks Laboratory and the two peas will pick a favorite idea and we'll send you a bag - heck, maybe a few other goodies too.  Ya never know.  We'll pick a favorite on the 21st of October and mail out your package on the 22nd so you'll have it in time for Halloween!

Can't wait to hear your ideas!

Last but not least, my September giveaway...lucky name out of the hat was Lise from inthepurplehouse.blogspot.com.  Send me your mailing address and a key fob and lanyard is headed your way.

xoxo,

Trish