The final touch...

 I mentioned a few days back that i wanted to make a pillow for my little bench. So, today, I endeavored to do so. I had two wishes for the little pillow: 

1) I didn't want to spend any money

2) I didn't want it to be super matchy matchy with the wall and I wanted it to have a somewhat pieced together look. 

So, I thought I could use this quilt that I picked up at a flea market. I thought about just cutting out one of the circular patterns and sewing it onto a pillow, but I just couldn't bring myself to cutting up this beautiful thing. I just couldn't! Someone, a long time ago, spent,what I would imagine to be, a very long time hand sewing this quilt. I just couldn't find it in me to butcher it for the sake of one teeny tiny throw pillow.

However. I didn't find it as hard to cut off a few small pieces from around the already disintegrating edges. So I did and I thought they were so pretty and had a great texture to them. But I had no idea what exactly I wanted to do with them...

I also had this yellow skirt. My sister in law gave it to me in a bag of clothes she was getting rid of and I absolutely adored it! However, it looked really terrible on me. But I just couldn't part ways with it. So I cut out pieces of the skirt pattern that i liked and ripped out the sheer lining. 

And this is what I got! The gray pillow was made from a gray spare pillow case. I stuffed it with the old stuffing of  a pillow I don't use. I sewed the ripped edge skirt lining onto the front of the gray and then sewed the yellow skirt pieces onto that. Topped it off with a little quilt flower looking thing. The actual sewing of the pillow took maybe 20 minutes. The deciding what on earth to do with all the stuff took like 2 hours. Seriously. I have a problem with committing to a design. But, I love it now! :)

Isn't it the perfect touch for my wall? I really do love it. And I love even more that I made it for FREE! The only thing I am going to have to buy is either cream thread or fabric glue to tack down a few pieces of the yellow skirt. The best color I had was gray thread and it just looked weird as the applique color.

And that is the story of how this pillow came to be. 

And all of it together...

Isn't it so fun?! I love it! This is in my newly painted entry by the way...
The basket on the table is holding some pictures. I still think it needs one more little thing...and I plan to make a small pillow for the bench. But overall, I absolutely love it!! And I love that I made it using pieces/supplies I already had or that I bought for super cheap!

Candlesticks

Don't you love when you can change something you already have and make it work in a whole new way? I painted those black candlesticks gray and then brushed over them with white and distressed them a bit. I love them!

(By the way, I'm only making this many little posts about this silly project because I'm using my phone to post and it's just easier than doing one big post.)

Then this table changed a bit

This hobby lobby clearance table shown in the horrible camera phone photo got a few changes. I painted the top blue then white washed it and then sanded it and did it a few more times till I was actually happy with it. In real life it's not near this blue. I promise.

Those black candlesticks were the last project for the little corner. Coming up next!

And that refinished bench led me to buying these...

I bought several ugly frames at Christians in Action for about $15.
I then played around with their arrangement for quite some time. And finally I spent an insane amount of time painting them the exact right shade of colors mixed from paint i already had. I also painted a mirror I already had. And eventually got the display you see above. I love it!!!

And this turned into that...

The $12 flea market find turned into that after a light sanding, a coat of gray spray paint, and a reupholstered seat.

And this little bench sparked a few more changes... To be shared eventually!

project mode

I currently have about 13 shades of paint on my hands and legs. I've been painting and sanding and rearranging and painting some more.

And it all started because of this little flea market find....more to come soon! :)

what to do with 1100 prints

When we got home from our Port Aransas trip, I decided something. I said, "Self, you're going to PRINT these pictures. Print them, I say! Like in the old days (read: 2004) when you came home from vacation with rolls of film, printed them good or bad, and then did...something...with all the prints!" 

Well, after that talk with my self I had another. 

"If you're going to print these, you might as well print Memorial Day Pictures. And if you print those, you might as well do Easter too! And Mason's birthday..." And this went on and on and on until I had burned 1100ish photos to a DVD.

Obviously, I had no idea printing a year's worth of photos would result in 1100 photos. But I didn't care! Because, I'm sick and tired of never printing anything. I love going home and flipping through my mom's old albums. Even the "bad" pictures have something special about them. I take some pretty great pictures, and some pretty bad pictures too, but they're all held hostage on my computer and no one ever sees them.

No longer, I say! 

But before I spent, well, quite a chunk of change on the prints I wanted a plan for them. Because 1100 photos shoved in a box in a closet is no better than 1100 prints saved on a hard drive. 

And after two trips to Hobby Lobby and 3 trips to Michaels and much deliberation and mind changing, I came up with a plan. I knew I wanted whatever I did with the prints to be:

• simple - I'm fairly certain I will take more pictures in the future. Just a guess. And I want to have a plan that won't seem overwhelming so that I will keep up with it.
• cheap - uh, 1100 prints demands that. 
• kid/people friendly - I want these pictures to be seen! Flipped through! Enjoyed!
• and somewhat different/creative

Here's what I decided to do. I think I saw this idea on some blog or magazine a long time ago...

I printed the pictures. This is what 1100 pictures looks like.

 I sorted them by event or whatever made sense. Yes, our carpet is lovely, isn't it? Ha.

I used a hole puncher...

...tag cards, adhesive backed card stock...

...and various sizes of binder rings.

I punched holes in the corner. It's embarrassing how long I deliberated over the location of the holes.

I wrote a brief title for each stack of photographs on the tag cards. I tried to include dates and locations of the photographs if it made sense.I experienced brief handwriting anxiety. I contemplated printing labels somehow. "Keep it simple!!!" I yelled at myself. And continued writing my imperfect, crooked lined titles...

Now, the one thing I don't like about flipping through mom's albums is that many of the photographs have no captions.  There is quite a lot of guessing of ages, locations, etc. So I cut that adhesive backed cardstock up and wrote little captions for photographs that I felt needed it...

peeled off the backing...

and slapped it on the back of the photograph

 Then put it all together on a binder ring.

I debated for a while about display options. For now, they're in this flat basket I already had. I'm thinking over the years (if I keep this up, which I really hope I do) I'll put them in a variety of containers in a variety of places around the house - big glass jars, hanging from hooks, boxes, trays, etc. Only time will tell! 

So, there you go! Photographs. Printed. Who would have thought? :)