Yarn Eggs (Pinterest Challenge)

Are you ready for some Pinterest goodness?

Katie from Bower Power & Sherry from Young House Love are hosting another Pinterest Challenge, along with Erin from The Great Indoors and Cassie from Hi Sugarplum.  The idea is to take something you've found on Pinterest and put your own spin on it.  Then link up at the host sites so everyone can see what you've created.

I missed out on the last one because I couldn't get my butt in gear fast enough.  I did eventually post a Pin-spiration, the pinecone map ornament - better late than never, right?

This time I knew what I was going for.  At least a month ago I bought some styrofoam eggs from the dollar store.  How's that for planning?  Then I forgot about them.  That's more like me.  But this past weekend when my sewing machine broke down and I had to buy a new one, a walk through the yarn department reminded me of those poor lonely eggs and my plan for them.

google.com

I've been wanting to make yarn-wrapped eggs for a while and thought I was going to use jute twine - my first love - but I also realized that the house needs more colour.  Since the living room is going to be grey-beige with navy curtains I thought some eggs with blues and greens would be just what it needed.

Here is my inspiration:

Nest Candy via pinterest

The Remsnyders via pinterest

Aren't they sweet?  And done up in warm, fun colours that could be displayed all year round.

So we hunkered down to clear off some of the 15+ hours of programming on the DVR while I wrapped eggs in yarn. Regular Monday night, right?

I decided to use plain white glue instead of hot glue, mostly to reduce the number of burns I'd receive.  Reduced it to zero!  Go me!

It was a little slower though as you have to wait for the glue to dry a bit or the yarn will slide around.  I started by gluing the end of the yarn to the bottom of the egg, and then winding it around in a circular pattern.

Do you see how the yarn is twisted so that the pattern repeats itself all the way up the egg?  I love that.  You do see a pattern, don't you? I see a pattern. By the third and fourth eggs my fingers had so much glue on them that I was having trouble getting the yarn to stick to the egg.  Yarn-wrapped fingers?  Maybe I'll start a trend.

One egg:

Two eggs:

Three eggs (bwah-ha-ha!):

All the eggs:

I tried them out in different places, but I think my favourite is just in a bowl with some moss.  Makes it a little rustic and natural-looking.  Maybe a wooden bowl?

I did have six eggs to work with but ran out of time.  I'll finish the other two later this week and get them displayed.  I might even work in some terracotta hues to pull in the tile around the fireplace.

I hope you'll head over to the hosts' sites to see what everyone came up with this time. Everyone has such great ideas and awesome projects. You can't help but be inspired to create something new.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Sweet Dreams Chloepants (DIY Dogbed Cover)

Remember that project I mentioned way back when?  The one that was taking longer than I thought it would? Well I finally finished it. 

The princess got a new bed this weekend.

You're not tired of posts about my dogs, are you?  This one is only dog-adjacent so it won't be too bad.

Our dogs have too many dog beds.  I'll say that up front.  One in every room.  Sometimes more than one. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more.  Have you seen the ones at Costco?  They are so nice.  The dogs wear them out fast because of the necessary "fluffing" that must be done, and the fact that one little dog still thinks she needs to remove the zipper and piping whenever possible. 

We just replaced our curtains - you know about that - and I thought the material from the old ones would make excellent dog bed covers.  It's thick - almost like a brocade.

The bed I chose to cover first is a thick, cushy, orthopedic jobbie.  It did have a fluffy, sheepskin-like side.  Now it has see-through netting.  And it did have piping.  Now it's more like fringe.

So Chloe and I got down to making the new cover. 

It's nice that she likes to help.

I cut the hem off one curtain all the way around and was left with 51x62 inches of material.  Being the math nerd I am (I'm an accountant dontcha know) I played around on a piece of paper to get the most use out of the material.  Here is my template (drawn in Excel of course):

The bed is a simple rectangle with piping all around.  And I wanted to put a zipper at one end so that I could remove the cover and wash it easily. 

With this configuration I only needed to cut two more side pieces from a new curtain, and some more lengths for piping.  After cutting it all out I realized that the hems I had already cut off would make excellent piping, I would just have to feed rope through them, no sewing required.  That saved a lot of time, and headaches (and swearing). The swearing came later.

Then began hours of pinning and sewing.  I sewed the piping onto one side of the material, and then sewed the second piece to it.  I tried to attach all three at the same time but I just wasn't coordinated enough.

I also had to go out and buy a new sewing machine because mine crapped out.  Just as I was about to attach the zipper.  Not exactly confidence-inspiring for someone who's never sewn a zipper before. This is where the swearing figures in, in case you were waiting for that.

So huge delay.  But my new machine is a beauty.  That zipper went on with no problem.  Remind me not to be so ambitious as to attach a zipper right at the piping next time.

Of course by this time I was getting tired of all the pinning and fabric wrestling, so I decided against piping on the bottom.  Yep, I'm a bad mom. 

Finished product! I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of it. 

And I think Chloe likes it. 

It's hard to tell because I finished it at 11pm and she just wanted to go to sleep.

She was nice enough to let Sasha have a turn on it.

Now I just have 3 more to do.  I should have an update around October. :-)

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I'm linking to these parties this week!



Next Stop, Hollywood!

Look who's famous!

Chesapeake Ribbons

I previously wrote about the beautiful collars that Margie made for my dogs, and sent her pictures of the girls proudly modeling them.  I went to her site last night and was shocked to see Sasha right smack dab on the homepage! 

And Chloe is the model when you click on the turtle collar.  Does she have the pose down pat or what?

Chesapeake Ribbons

I'm so proud!