Velvet Pumpkins

I bought five plastic pumpkins for a dollar each at Big lots {Dollar Tree will have some, too}. I was able to pull most of the stems out and set them aside. Using some velvet shirts {I found slightly stretchy velvet works best for this}I cut a circle out. You have to play with what size: I used a plastic child's plate and that was perfect. I also wanted it to be pulled tight. I ran a basting stitch around the edge of each velvet circle, and gathered it lightly, popped the pumpkin inside and continued gathering. Eventually, the velvet ran out of space to keep gathering, and the pumpkin was too tall for the circle. So I tied off the loooong threads and used those to sew opposite sides of the circle together until it was snug up to the hole where the stem was. I popped the stem back in, and had four velvet pumpkins!

I did not hem the velvet, the raw edge gets hidden nicely and it would have been to bulky anyway.

The last one I painted with white pearl Martha Stewart paint.

Welcome Fall!

New Sofa

Our old sofa was a free hand-me-down from my parents {Daniel asked for it}. It was very comfy, but big, ripped, and the wrong color. It overwhelmed the living room. Our new sofa is antique, bought from a friend, longer then the old one, but dainty. Someday I'm going to re-upholster it myself. We're still looking for the perfect fabric. Though now I'm OK with keeping it this way until all future babies are past the spit-up stage!

Chair Re-uhpolstering

Ikea curtain with permanent marker

I bought this chair at the thrift store while we were engaged. I knew it would be easy to re-upholster, but I didn't have a fabric picked out. About a year later, I saw a similar chair in a magazine with fabric that had French handwriting on it. I asked around at all the upholstery stores, but all they could give me was this fabric. Not what I was looking for! So, I decided to make it myself. I found curtain fabric at Ikea that was the right weight {and cheap enough!}and considered screen printing it. But the complexity of doing so deterred me. So, I skipped some steps and just wrote on the fabric with permanent marker. I tested it for water-fastness and discovered ironing it on the highest setting {this is cotton fabric} made it water and soap fast. I did not try it the washing machine, though.

The text is from Pride and Prejudice, you can find the full text online here. I copied selected portions into Google translate.

Work

My favorite part of the week: having taught children how to throw on the wheel all week, at the end they get to teach their parents what they learned.

Frame Re-do

 I bought this frame at the thrift store, intending to make into a chalkboard for the kitchen. I like the nice wide moulding, but didn't like that it said family across the top {to trendy for me}. So I knocked them off with a putty knife and sanded the glue down. But I couldn't match the paint color or the finish or ever sand it smooth enough without messing up the surrounding areas.

Then inspiration struck! make something to cover the areas up. I originally thought of ceramic flowers, since I could make them it at work, but I would have to paint them. And then I remembered my Sculpey stash. I couldn't find chalkboard paint in a color I liked, and though I had a recipe to make some, tracking down 2 tablespoons of unsanded grout {I didn't want to buy the whole bag and then have to store it}proved difficult, so I put the glass back in with some scrapbook paper, bought whiteboard markers with an office store return, and hung it in my laundry room {the kitchen didn't have enough wall space}.

Pinterest

About a month ago, I heard about Pinterest, an online "bulletin board" and got my invite from a friend. I love saving pictures (one of the causes of clutter in our house: unfilled magazine tear-outs) and my computer is choking on all the data stored on its hardware. Enter Pinterest.

No, it won't scan all those magazine pages for you, but it does save and organize pictures from the web or already on your computer. You can also easily grab pictures that other people have posted. You can create as many boards as you need, and pin as many pictures as you want without worrying about taking over your computer's space. I have a board for clothing ideas, a board for home ideas, boards for pretty pictures...

Currently I am working on a baby shower for a co-worker, so I have a board just to save all the ideas for her shower. The theme is rainy days (shower) with lots of clouds and rainbows.

http://pinterest.com/gretas/adrienne-s-baby-shower/

All photos are the property of their respective creators.
Most of the photos are from Bump Smitten http://www.bumpsmitten.com/
The rest are from various sources cataloged through Pinterst. All photo sources can be found by going to http://pinterest.com/gretas/adrienne-s-baby-shower/