Thursday, February 17, 2011

Accessorizing...

I know, I know ... I should leave well enough alone.

I really should.

But, I was taking pictures and my camera was in the pictures and ... well, I'm sorry, but the strap was just ugly. Hideous. And there was no way to get the camera out of the picture... so I just HAD to make it prettier.

And document it. For you. Because you want to do this too, right? (Please agree with me, or Brian may have me committed.)

So... late Monday night (because I had nothing better to do. Like laundry or dishes or... oh... I don't know, sleep perhaps?) I decided to make a camera strap cover of my own.

And though I'm sure there are tons of tutorials out there, I decided to wing it.

So I used some leftover of this fabric -- it's a soft flannel from the baby section of JoAnn's.



And I cut two strips 27 inches long and about 2 1/2 inches wide. I also cut a scrap a little bit bigger than my lens cap because I wanted to have a pocket on the strap to keep the lens cap safe. (I've dropped the lens cap more times than I'd like to admit. And I'd hate to misplace it.)



Then I hemmed three of the short ends of the strips like so.



For the piece that would become the pocket, I hemmed one side of it. Then I gathered the other side and attached it to the unhemmed end of the short strip. I folded the pocket fabric up, like so and pinned it to match up to the sides of one of the long strips of fabric. 



Next, I sandwiched both long end, right sides together, and stiched up the sides. Like so.



I turned the tube right side out, and it looked like this.



So I ironed it nice and flat



and slipped it over the (ugly) camera strap.



And we're all done... with the lens cap nice and snug in its little pocket.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Cinnamon rolls

Last week, this amazing baker/co-worker brought in to die for cinnamon rolls.

Decadent, dreamy, creamy cinnamon rolls. To. Die. For.

So, I did what any mommy/blogger/woman with a sweet tooth would do: look for the best cinnamon roll recipe on the Internet.

And there are a lot out there. A LOT! Like this one from Pioneer Woman. And this one from Joy.

So, after searching, I did what any mommy/blogger/woman with a sweet tooth would do: bought cinnamon rolls in a tube. From Kroger. Kroger brand.



They weren't the best cinnamon rolls we'd ever eaten.

But they were delicious!



And I'd like to report that Ben and I split them all.



But that would be a lie.

I cut him off after two... and the rest were gone by bedtime.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Peanutella... need I say more?

Have you ever visited the Smitten Kitchen?

If you haven't, you will after today. Please don't hate me for getting you hooked. The amazing photography -- food porn, really -- and mouth watering recipes are enough to make a girl melt.

Especially when a she posted about homemade Chocolte-peanut spread.  To me, the chocolate peanut butter combo is irresistible, so I had to make this recipe.

Even better -- it's so easy a two year old could make it. No really, see?

Gather the ingredients.


Toast the peanuts.


Liquify them...so fun to watch!



Add the rest of the ingredients.

Enjoy!


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Another pillow post

Please don’t hate more for posting about another pillow, BUT I saw this amazing tutorial for a PJ Pillow on Prudent Baby and couldn’t resist. (Do you know Prudent Baby? These ladies rock!)

Anyway, in typical me fashion. I read the tutorial, bookmarked it then didn’t even look at it before cutting and sewing my own version.

The rush was mostly because I also want to trim down my massive amount of laundry AND I have an idea for another version of this pillow and it was kinda’ my prototype. (Guess I should explain what a PJ pillow IS in case you didn't click the link. It's a pillow with a pocket in the back to stuff your PJs in! Genius!)

So without further ado, here’s my take.

I used this minky  and this old pillow case (which both made an appearance during handmade Hanukkah).


I cut one circle out of the minky and one our of the old pillow case.


Then I cut two semi-circles out of the minky. I kind of extended the length of each semi-circle so that there’d be room for the overlap. Like so:


Next, I sewed the two perfect circles together (right sides together) leaving room for turning. I turned the pillow right sides out and stuffed it with some batting. I also hemmed the straight sides of the semi circles.


Now, right sides together again, I pinned all the layers together like so. Being sure to get the area I left open for turning good and pinned shut so that I wouldn’t have to do any hand sewing OR lose any stuffing.


Stitch around the edges. Turn right sides out.

 

And stuff with PJs!



And, I have to report, this went over WAY better than the pillow pet. Which, Ben does NOT like. (In fact, he’s asked me to remove it from his room before.) He loves his pajama pillow and EVEN stuffs those PJs right in.

Success!


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

My work-in-progress bedroom

Many of you know the DRAMA with buying our new house about a year and a half ago.

If you don’t, I’ll spare you. But the short version is this: between the time we got pre-approved for our loan and the time we actually tried to close on our house lending laws and regulations changes DRAMATICALLY.

Of course, we didn’t find out until AFTER we secured a renter for our condo (which we still own) and set a moving date and closing date and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, we didn’t close on time, we had to “rent” our house from its previous owner for a month so that we wouldn’t be homeless (yes, I cried “we are homeless!!!” to anyone who would listen) and we had to put down a BOATLOAD more money than we intended.

So… our grand plans of renovating before moving day (oh, the dreams of hardwood and painting every wall and buying new doors for every room… sigh) flew out the window.

But (and I mean this) I wouldn’t change it for the world. This is my dream house, and I’m slowing making it my dream home one little bit at a time.

And so you get this:


This room is about 50% done… but that’s because the easy stuff is done. I want to find a wingback chair with wooden arms and an ottoman and recover them for a nook that’s too far to the right so that it’s out of the picture.

Oh, and I want to use this amazing tutorial from Centsational Girl to make a custom headboard like this one. In the mean time, I’ve begged the hubs (puh-leese!) to let me paint this bed frame white. But, he won’t let me… sigh…(And just in case you’re curious, the hold up on the custom headboard is that my husband wants a new, king size bed. I even gave in and, over Christmas promised I wouldn’t complain about not wanting a king size bed ever again… but he’s way more careful with big purchases than I am and is waiting for the deal of a lifetime.)

And finally, I want to silk-screen or freezer paper stencil our duvet... but can't decide with what... another L?

Until the deal of a lifetime, I’m really looking forward to garage sale season again so I can got on that chair re-do.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Pillows... make 'em. You'll be glad you did.

Pillows are a great beginner sewing project with even greater pay offs. We're talking instant face lift.

You'll need a pillow (or pillow form), some fabric and the basic sewing supplies.

Today,this wacky pink pillow (a Goodwill/Target find) with meet this lovely gray striped fabric (an Old Time Pottery find)... can't you just see the possibilities?


First, measure the pillow. Now, nothing here is super exact. Trust me on this one. I am allergic to math. And Microsoft Excel. You can totally do this. 


I'm making a basic envelope pillow (read: no zipper, no button!) so the back of the pillow needs to overlap so we can tuck the pillow in. To figure out the length of fabric to cut, I just wrapped my tape around the pillow and thought to my self, "this seems like enough of an overlap" and cut the fabric about 46 inches long. 


Now, fold the short ends over twice and sew along the seam like so.

 

Do this on both short ends.

Next (and again you'll see this is VERY exact... um, not really) I just wrapped the fabric around the pillow (right sides facing in) so that the short ends overlapped and the pillow seemed nice and snug and pinned the two short ends together at the over lap.


Then I slipped the pillow out and proceeded to pin up both sides of the pillow like so.

Then I stitched up both open ends, turned the pillow cover inside out and stuffed that wacky pink pillow back inside.

Ah.. the finished product in its rightful home, my work in progress bedroom... More on that later...