Slacker Blogger!!!

Man, I have been so busy and can't believe how long it's been since I posted.  Well I have tons of projects in the works so please keep posted for those.  I just wanted to say that I am not dead!!!

New Favorite Blog!

I just found this blog today and I LOVE her furniture makeovers.  She is awesome.  Check it out.  I plan to stalk her alot in the future to get some cool ideas.   http://www.akreativeknack.blogspot.com/   She did the cutest desk with spring wallpaper on the front!!! Soooo pretty!

Couponing Project!!!

My latest project the past week has been learning how to coupon and save big!!! Wow, I have learned alot the hard way already in a week.  I need to go to a class or something.  I got onto the Daily Herald person the Amy the Savvy Shopper  http://www.savvyshopperdeals.com/  to start learning how to do it.  She does stuff specific to Utah County which I love cause couponing is not the same here.  We don't get alot of double and no triple coupon stores that I know of.  Anyways, if anybody would like to do this with me or has some good tips, please let me know.  Just a few good deals that I got this week.  BBQ sauce for 14cents a bottle  It would have been free if I realized and used double coupon on tuesday.  They would have owed me money to buy it!  Four FREEE boxes of toothpaste.  Razors for 99cents for Ryan.  I paid 50cents a cartridge which cost 4.25 at Wal-mart a piece. It really does work!!! It will take a little work to get organized and learn the ropes!!!!!

Anthropologie Brilliant Gathers Lampshade Knock Off...The Finished Product

I am really happy with how the lamps turned out.  I didn't take a before picture of the shades.  They were this waffle type old fashioned shade with gold trim.  I bought both sets of lamps and shades for a total of $14 dollars at D.I.    The Anthropologie lampshade alone without the lamp base is $98 a piece.  Their lamp bases run about $130 for a cheaper one.  That is about $450 in lamps from Anthropologie.  Yeah, like are you SERIOUS???? Does anybody spend that much for lamp?  Please, not me!!!!!.  I spent about $50 for both lamps!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the finished lamps in our partially finished bedroom makeover.  I was able to use some of the same material from the headboard in the lamps.  It's cool.  You can see the two pillows I made on the bed that I have shown on a previous post.. Sooooooooo Cute!  I am so happy that I have a cuter bedroom.  So much more that I can do...the possibilities are endless.

Anthropologie Brillant Gathers Lampshade

I am working on this knock off for my bedroom...It's from Anthropologie for $98.  Do you think I paid that much???? No WAY Jose!!!!!  For the lamps and shades it is about $25 a lamp.  I am doing two.  I can't wait it looks soooooo good...I should be finished this weekend.....It has involved way more sewing than I prefer but it's totally worth it!!!!!

Shabby pleated pillow

I wanted to re-feature this pillow cause it was at the end of my headboard post and it got lost in the crowd.  I didn't do a tutorial on this pillow but I love it and wanted to give it some attention.  I saw a grey one at Target for like $35 and I said to myself "I can do that for cheaper and in the color I want to match my room".  Because it's all shabby and the pleats are uneven it's great for people like me who don't like to sew neat and straight and perfect and pin everything down.  You just fold and sew crooked on purpose to give it the look.  I want to make another one for my bed and will do a tutorial then. 

The Target Flower Pillow Tutorial

Okay, here is the tutorial on how to make the flowers for this pillow.  I didn't take pictures on how to make the pillow.  I forgot and was so excited to start.  I just bought a pillow for $2 at thrift store.  I bought a yard of each material, the front and back are different fabric.  You probably don't even need that much, you could make two with a yard.  I measured my pillow and cut the fabric to fit and just sewed the sides together inside out and left a big enough hole to stuff the pillow into.  I turned the material right side out and stuffed the pillow in. After the pillow is in, I then just did a whip stitch and sewed them together.  It's not the prettiest but I'm too lazy to do an invisible seam. Learned how to do these flowers on somebody else's blog and I can't remember the blog to give her credit. This is my first tutorial so please give me feedback on whether it was too hard to understand or if I explained well enough.  thanks.                

                                                                                                                                                   

Then I measured and cut my squares of fabric for the flowers.  I cut 19" squares of fabric because I wanted my flowers big.  They are about 4-5" flowers.  The smaller your flower the smaller the square.  I cut out 9 squares for my pillow.

  

 Then I folded and ironed 4 pleats.  For smaller flowers you will probably only need 3 pleats.

 

So, here are your 4 pleats, folded and ironed. 

 Then we are going to sew a 1/4" down each side.

Now turn the fabric the other way and fold and iron 4 more pleats.  You will have pleats going each way.  Nice toes in the picture. 

 Then sew a 1/4" down the other two sides and make sure not too sew too close to the other pleats cause you don't want to sew down the pleats going the other way cause when you pop out the fabric later it won't work.

 Here is what it looks like before you pop it out.  4 pleats each way and sewn down on all sides. 

 Now just pop out the fabric.  It seems weird and you are like how will this work. 

Then take the top of the popped out fabric and begin to twist it.  This is the tricky part.  It doesn't have to be perfect and will feel really awkward like it's not right.   Just twist and press down and iron down the corners as you move from the outside of the flower in.  You will finish with the top of the flower.   

  

  

 Here is the finished product.  It will help if you use steam in your iron or a spray bottle cause it will help flatten the flower better.   

Give them all one more press with the iron before attaching them.   

 I also made sure to iron the corners of the flowers under so the didn't stick out.  When I sewed them on I made sure the needle went up through the flower as I sewed around to make sure it didn't pop out and was tightly sewed down. 

 Here is the back of the pillow. 

  

 The finished product.  A beautiful pillow that was more than half the cost of the Target pillow, which is $35.  You can even do it cheaper if you can get your material on super sale which I didn't because I had a hard time finding the colors I wanted for my bedroom.