Twinkle Loon

A while back we saw these Dog Duvets at a swanky DC pet shop. You can just buy the duvet cover to put over your current doggie bed or you can buy the DIY Kit which comes with a stuff sack that they suggest you put your old unwanted clothes in. Beautiful design and reusing your old clothes? Yay! Count me in! But the price tag said count me out! I think this is a great idea but I had old pillows at home and enough sewing skills to get the job done my self.

First I picked out a sturdy 100% cotton fabric. The fabric I chose was a home decor fabric from Joann’s (which was on sale!); I bought a yard and a half which came to about $24.00

Materials:

Two old pillows, one old pillow case, 1 1/2 yards of fabric (depending on the size of your dog), scissors, sewing machine, and a needle and thread.

The first thing you want to do is wash and dry your fabric! This is really important! You want to get all the sizing out of the fabric and see how much shrinkage there is before you do any cutting.

Now, cut open one of the pillows and divide the stuffing into four equal parts. When you cut open the pillow make sure you cut along one seam because you are going to need the case for the next step.

Take your two pillow cases and cut each one in half long-wise. Then turn them inside out and sew up the long side to create a tube. You should now have four empty pillow case tubes and four piles of stuffing.

Now comes the fun part! Take one section of stuffing and separate it out so it’s not all in one clump. Then Stuff it into one of the tubes! Go ahead and work the stuffing around in the case so it’s all even. Repeat until all four tubes are stuffed and sew up the open short end of the tubes.

Now for sewing the cover!

When I sew, I like to cheat; I really think it’s the best way to go. I don’t really use patterns and I never measure. But I think with a few simple tricks and some basic sewing knowledge I can muddle through any sewing project by cheating and no one is the wiser! … except maybe my old fibers teachers.

You do need a basic knowledge of how to use a sewing machine; which I am not going to go over right now. Assuming you know how to thread your machine I’ll move on.

I laid the fabric out on the floor and arranged the pillows the way I wanted them on top of the fabric. I then folded the fabric over the top of the pillows and cut off the excess fabric. Yay! No measuring! I made sure to overlap the two ends to create a pocket opening in the back of the dog bed where I will later be able to insert the pillows. Now sew the edges that will show on the pocket so you don’t have raw ends hanging about. I chose a pocket opening because I despise sewing zippers! Plus I didn’t want to risk a zipper scraping my hardwood floors!

This next step is the big cheat! Once again lay your fabric out and fold it over your pillows. You can now go around the outside pining and pushing the pillows into whatever shaped bed you would like. I chose a circular bed; it may sound more difficult that making a square bed but since you are now creating a guide to sew with, it isn’t much different at all.

Do you see how you have just created a guide to sew along? If you want, you can use a pencil or disappearing ink marker to trace along your pin line. Now remove your pillows from the overlap pocket opening and sew along your pin line.

One trick that many new sewers don’t know about is that when you sew a curve you have to cut slits to allow the fabric to bend. So after you sew your seam, cut slits before turning the cover right-side out.

You can now turn your cover right-side out and stuff with your pillows.

Wiggle the pillows around so that they fit properly in the cover. If you have any empty or loose spots just fill them in with more stuffing or old clothing. I then used a needle and thread to close up the pocket; nothing fancy, just tacked it down in three spots.

Flip it over and let your little buddy enjoy!

Bruce: “It’s a hard life, you know! I have to run to the window when I hear mysterious sounds, take my humans for walks, and make sure they get enough exercise by throwing balls to me. I’m just all tuckered out at the end of the day.”

Happy Mardi Gras everyone! And for all you Yorkers, Happy Fausnaught day!

Another snow day! But this time I was able to play with my Bruce in the snow!

Don’t worry, I am working on making him a little sweater out of an old wool sweater of mine.. that I accidentally shrunk. Bad for me, good for Bruce!

Oh, Hello again! It’s been a while I know, but I have been a busy little bee. I am making a move soon! I am very excited to be moving in with my boyfriend and our fabulous dog Bruce in just four short weeks, so I have been trying to get everything in order. Sifting through things, throwing things away, making donation piles. Moving, always such a chore… Gasp! I just realized that I haven’t lived in one home for more that two years since 2001! You would think I would have this moving thing down by now. But I don’t.

Anyway, i digress. This is supposed to be about the master bedroom not tangents on moving! I’ll save that for another time. For now look at my pretty photos of my lovely room which most likely currently looks like a tornado of boxes, clothes, black garbage bags and rogue knickknacks. Now what box should a Tai Chi practice sword go….?

Before

Depressing, right!? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. I actually lived with it looking like this for at least a month. It was pretty much like camping… except with bright glaring street lights to keep you awake because you don’t have any curtains.

After!

Ahhh, I can almost hear your sigh of relief. Fresh paint! refinished floors! And furniture!Look! I bought a real bed! And matching side table! My very first bedroom set! I feel so proud. But now you will be relegated to the guest bedroom in your new house. It’s ok, I still love you.

After- closet (hmm still original mirror doors, yuck) and dresser (my Grandfathers)

After- Dresser (ok technically a highboy) and wall arrangement

I have a tendency to make little arrangements like this. It’s pretty much the only way I know how to decorate. I always start out with a doily nailed to the wall so that I can see all my hanging earrings all together with their pairs. Last Christmas my friend made cork board frames for everyone so I decided to tack the doily to the cork board. I like the way it looks and it makes changing the arrangement around a lot easier.

After- Bedside table and creative storage

I still have not gotten around to making a lamp shade for my bedside lamp. But it’s still awesome! Thrift store find!  It has the main light but the orange glass base also has a light inside that you can have on by it’s self. Very pretty. And those two hat boxes, each one belonged to one of my Grandmothers. In the white one I have all of my crochet thread and the black one holds all of my different sized curlers and clips. And you wanna know something funny? I used to use the black one as my travel bag when I was a little girl! Even as seven year old I knew how to travel light.

After- pinstripe wall!

And just because I didn’t have enough projects I decided to paint pinstripes on my wall. As with many older homes the master bedroom had faux wood paneling. Yikes! But instead of just painting it over and be done with it I thought it would be fun to accent the um…trenches? as if they were pinstripes. I went with a kind of mint green color in high gloss and then the rest of the wall in matte Swiss Coffee; my favorite shade of white paint. I feel a little odd about saying that I have a favorite shade of white wall paint. But there you go, i said it.

I got snowed in at my Dad’s house… so naturally we cooked! We cooked massive amounts of spanakopita. We are Greek after all, what else would we cook on a snow day?

kefalotiri and a mouli

two different kinds of feta, kefalotiri, ricotta, spinach, yellow onions, scallions, parsley, eggs and dill!

Butter and oil!

Anyone who thinks spanakopita is “healthy” should take a second look at this photo because I think my Dad and I made at least four pans of butter and oil for brushing on the filo dough!

Yes, wearing pajamas is a requirement for snow day cooking!

Yummy! I wish you could smell it! So GOOD!

All told we made two large 9×13 pans and 31 individual triangles. Of course we cooked up and ate some of the triangles. Our reward for a hard days work. The pans are for a Christmas Party and Christmas Eve dinner. You’re welcome family!

Happy Snow Day!!

This holiday season I am all about making recycled decorations and I got everyone at work on board too! So this season we made a Recycled Holiday window at the store. Everything in the window was made with old magazines, packing material, and used printer paper.

I love these magazine trees! They are so easy and fun, all you have to do is fold! I have seen these lots of different places so it’s hard to credit one person. But I think the first time I saw these was at one of my favorite stores in Hampden, Red Tree. Theirs were different shapes but same basic idea.

And just because we are all OCD artists, we made a Yellow Pages Tree! I think that at least five people worked on this. But it was just too big so we did have to cut it in half.

We also made these super simple ornaments with the covers of magazines and a stapler. A few people went above and beyond and really got creative with it.

So there you go, a fun holiday window for zero cost! Happy Holidays!

Progress has been made on the basement bathroom! I sanded and patched… and sanded and patched some more and then I primed a couple times. Patching and priming walls and ceilings is no fun at all! Especially ceilings, such a pain! It could also be that I am very detail oriented and had to get everything perfect. But the walls are done for now, I will probably paint some “accent” walls and the trim or something… Um, when I have time. Ha!

Mud has been floated in the shower stall floor and a platform has been made under the toilet. Since this is a basement bathroom the plumbing has to be higher than normal for proper sewage drainage. But it will be tiled and hopefully blend in so you won’t even notice… till you sit down and your feet are dangling. In these old houses you have to kinda work with what you’ve got. Unless what you’ve got is boat loads of money!

The window is in a small nook and I would like to make a seat to put there since it’s kind of a dead area. I am thinking a seat with some storage underneath. And I am going to put some kind of frosting on the windows (after I thoroughly clean them!) and then put flat curtain panel over the bottom half so that you can lift the window but still have privacy. I know that window is so beautiful right now you are probably thinking why bother doing anything to it? sarcasm

And here are my tile selections! A little bland, i know. But I am thinking of potential renters in the future. I don’t want to do anything too crazy that will turn people away. The large tile will be the floor tiles (as well as the tile for the toilet platform), the small beige tiles are for the shower stall floor, the white subway tiles will be for the shower walls and the green will be an accent on the walls. I haven’t decided how to work in the green tiles. A boarder around the outside? A stripe around the shower, about two thirds of the way down the wall? I’m open to suggestions

This past weekend we had some friends over which, for me, is another reason to finally get to various DIY projects on my list. A few weeks ago I saw a beautiful, modern wall decoration that consisted of cut cardboard tubes (can’t remember what blog it was on :/ …Apartment Therapy? maybe?). I used the stiff paper from the inside of a wrapping paper roll. By using stiff paper instead of cardboard tubes I was able to change the sizes of the circles.

I’m really happy with the way they turned out. I’m thinking about adding more to the wall and maybe painting the inside of every circle dark grey. You know, just to make my life more difficult.

Yet another free item of clothing I took from the clothing swap was the white jacket below. Of course I realized after taking it home that it had a few stains on it. Gah! what to do? I am usually the stain remover queen! But I always make sure to get to the stains before they are washed and (most importantly) dried. The dryer is the downfall of stain removal! It’s evil I tell you!

But there is one trick that my Mom learned from an old lady that owned this awesome frame and antiques shop by our house. We only used the following method on cotton and rayon. I have no idea what this would do to silk or wool! So be warned. You will need a large plastic tub, powdered dishwasher detergent, cold water and a lot of time. Make sure that you get the powdered detergent without the blue bits. Very important! No blue bits! Unless you want blue dots on your heirloom antique white tablecloth… but I don’t think you do.

First make sure you have enough water in the bucket to completely cover the stained item. Before you add the clothing sprinkle about two tablespoons of the detergent into the water and agitate with your hand to mix. Then add the piece of clothing and make sure that it is fully saturated with the soapy water. Now comes the time for patience! For the next four days you want to move the clothing around and check on the stains. On the fourth day make a new mixture of soapy water and dump the old water out. You might have to do this for weeks. Seriously. But don’t give up! Keep checking it every day and changing out the water.

If that doesn’t work or takes too much time (as is the case with me) then it is time to get creative! Sure you could cut t up and turn it into something else. You could buy a “Kiss me I’m Greek” patch and cover up the stain. Or you could whip out your needle and embroidery thread (wiggling eyebrows up and down)! You see what I’m getting at?

Voila! A beautiful flower where there was once an ugly stain. I have a feeling that this jacket will be filled with embroidery in a few years time. Not because of me! I’m quite neat, my boyfriend however… well, lucky for him I’m crafty.

Before

After

A few days ago I had my 29th birthday and guess what? I can’t wait for next year! I don’t like to make a big deal of my birthday but I do usually treat my self to something just for fun. This year, as you can see in the photo above, I got a haircut and wild coloring I went to this really great salon nearby called Sprout. It is an organic salon, but yes they do have to use some chemicals in hair dye (I’m way passed my henna days! sorry). They are very nice and love to do hair styles that are a bit more… experimental.

My favorite thing to do is going out to eat with some family and friends. Don’t give me presents, I just want food But I do like getting older. I think it’s exciting that next year I will be thirty! And I love thinking about my 13 year old musings on the future. Why do we always think that when we get older things will all be figured out? That all the puzzle pieces will suddenly fit together? Well I am very glad that is not true! It would be an extremly boring life if that happened to me. Challenges are what make life exciting!

I was just talking to a friend about aging and we were both complaining about the complainers. Those people that lament getting older. “Ohhh my Goood, I’m sooo ooollld” Pa-lease! Be happy you are alive! For all the wonderful people I have loved that passed away well before they should have, I simply cannot do anything but appreciate every single day that I have.