Pillow Talk

I became a pillow-making machine on the weekend.

I was at the dollar store on Friday looking for plastic storage containers, wandered down the linens aisle and stopped at the placemats. I couldn't believe how many different patterns and fabrics there were.  I chose a green mat with a slight wavy pattern and two grey on grey mats with a Paris, France print.  I love the different fonts, and the fabric is quite thick.

The green one was two-ply so I tore out the stitches along one side with a stitch-ripper, stuffed the cavity with polyester fiberfill, and sewed the seam closed.  Easy-peasy as they say.

The printed placemats were thicker, a single-ply, but with a kind of vinyl backing.  I was concerned that the sewing machine needle wouldn't go through a double thickness, but it was no problem at all.  I matched them up, right sides out, and sewed around 3 edges. 

I was going to stuff it with fiberfill but I decided to use an old pillow form instead.  It was a dense pillow form - feather-filled maybe - and it made the pillow weighty and substantial.  I shoved the pillow form in further than it should go so that I could squeeze the open sides together and sew them up on the machine.  I hate hand sewing and use the machine whenever I can.

The pillow can't be changed out easily but I don't think I'm going to want to anyway.  I went back to the dollar store on Monday and bought two more placemats to make a matching pillow.  (I may even have bought 4 more in a slightly different shade - same pattern - for the livingroom.) 

I also bought two pillow covers on that first trip.  They were already finished with a zipper at the back. 

I bought them because the grey silk is a near-perfect match to the curtains in the guest room. At first I stuffed them with fiberfill, but they were too soft so I switched it out for some throw pillows I already had.

 So what was the total?

Green placemat - $1.50
Paris placemats - $6 (4x$1.50)
Silk pillow covers - $4 (2x$2)
Stuffing - already had it, but about $2
Pillow forms - already had, prices unknown

Total - $13.50 for 5 pillows, or $2.70 per pillow. How's that for some thrifty work?

Here is the guest room with all the pillowy goodness. 

I still need to switch out the picture above the bed - the room used to be green & brown and it matched then. I want to put a black and white picture up there - maybe even one I've taken myself. 

Something like this:

I think I have to stay away from the dollar store for a little while.  These were so easy that I could go crazy buying placemats and sewing them up. 

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I'm linking up here this week!

Updating a Mirror

I stumbled into a little decorating project by accident this weekend. 

I was trying to clean some double-sided tape off of a mirror in anticipation of hanging it up in the newly-painted entranceway (post to come about that, I promise!) 

This is the mirror before. 

Just an everyday mirror, from Lowe's I think.  I'm not sure what the frame is made of; I don't think it's real wood though.

The tape goes all around the outside edge and is a leftover from Christmas decorating (2 years ago).  I was just using regular nail polish remover to get rid of the sticky residue. 

It was quickly apparent that the tape wasn't coming off but some of the finish on the frame was. I wasn't happy about that at first, but when I rubbed a little harder along the edge and the original frame colour came through I thought it gave the frame a sort of oil rubbed bronze look.  So I kept going.

I would wipe some polish remover along the edge, wait a minute, and then rub it again until I got to where I wanted it. The whole thing took about 20 minutes to do.  It now has more depth and dimension. 

This shot is a good example of the before and after.

Here it is hanging in the hall. 

I'm not sure the detail comes through from this far back.

And unfortunately I still need to find something

to remove that darned tape on the outside edges.

What's better than a happy accident?  A happy decorating accident that costs you nothing!

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I'm linking up here this week!



Turtles for the Tails

A couple of months ago I entered a giveaway on Making Lemonade for any item of your choice from Chesapeake Ribbons.  Margie from Chesapeake Ribbons makes belts, headbands, dog collars, key fobs, and more.

And I won!   

I really liked her turtle belt/key fob pattern 

and I was hoping she could make a dog collar with it.

Chesapeake Ribbons

The ribbon has blue, green & pink in it, and since my dogs are such girlie-girls I asked if she could make it with pink webbing behind.  Of course she could!  I also ordered an extra one because Lord knows the pouty faces there would be if only one dog got a new collar. 

In less than two weeks the collars arrived. 

And look how cute they are! 

The dogs were pretty excited. 

Chloe's tail just about flew off, she was wagging so hard. 

To her, collar=I'm going outside!

Sasha just wanted to know what was in the package. 

Tom laughs because I'm always buying new collars for the dogs - long before they wear out - but he had to admit that these were pretty fantastic. 

I like the break-away buckle and how sturdy the construction is.

Not to mention that adorable turtle.

(You've probably noticed that turtles are kind of my thing.)

We had a fashion show right away. 

It was an effort getting Sasha to stay still, not to mention

get her face and the collar in the same shot. 

  

Chloe was our usual perfect (yet bored ) model,

"Hurry up and take the picture, I'm falling asleeee....oh is that a cookie?"

  

And now we have our official Turtles and Tails mascots.

(Get it? Turtles AND Tails.) 

Well, if you want to get technical one mascot is more

a Turtle and Stub, but we won't tell her that.

Thank you so much to Margie at Chesapeake Ribbons for the awesome design and for the excellent customer service, and thank you to Carrie for holding the giveaway and connecting me with Margie. 

I'm thinking maybe matching leashes next. 

Whatta ya say, Margie?