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Sewing Easy Pillow Shams – Tutorial

November 8, 2017 By Laura 4 Comments

“Someday, I’m going to learn how to do that.”
I’ve got a list of things I’ve said that about. Doesn’t everybody? Do you? As for me, some of those things I’m actually working on now and then, and some are still sitting on the mental ‘someday list’, completely untouched. But learning how to sew, and run a sewing machine, is something I’ve actually gotten to! Oh, there is always more to learn, and I will. But my main motivation was simple:  Pillow shams.

This girl loves throw pillows, as part of our home decor accents, as well as comfort. That include seasonal and holiday throw pillows. But seriously, I’m sure you could agree that there is only so much storage room available, for gads of interchangeable throw pillows. And the perfect solution to that, as far as I could figure, is pillow shams. I could just change up the shams on the pillows with the seasons and holidays!  They would take up virtually no space at all, just folded nicely in a pile somewhere.

But first, of course, I needed to learn how to sew.

Old Simger sewing machine
And I really wanted to learn how, using my mother’s Singer Fashion Mate (Model 237).  It’s old, it’s ugly, and I’m pretty sure [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Holiday Crafts, Home Decor, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Seasonal Home decor, Sewing, The Homestead, Tutorial Tagged With: easy-pillow-shams, home decor, home-accents, homemade-gift-ideas, how-to-sew-pillow-shams, pillow-shams-easy-tutorial, sewing, sewing-pillow-shams, sewing-pillows, sewing-projects, sewing-tutorials

Fall Garden and Home Outdoor Decor

October 15, 2017 By Laura 2 Comments

Fall is here, and while nature readies itself to bless us with the year’s annual grand finale display of beauty in New England, our gardens had found it time to wither and fade, with an early prep for a long winter rest. Especially since we opted to not plant anything new for a fall harvest this first season in our new garden area.  We still have lots of carrots in the ground, and we’re still picking peppers of all kinds. But everything else was pretty much done. So with a good wait in front of us before a pure blanket of white snow covers all that is post-life and ugly, we wanted to keep the beauty going a little longer, with some festive Fall garden and home outdoor decor.  We thought you might enjoy seeing the photos of our efforts.

We worked with an abundance of the typical Fall elements: Glorious mums in a variety of shades, pumpkins of various kinds, straw bales, cornstalks, and gourds. But we also planted our first big arrangement in a huge whiskey barrel, and we’re excited to show you that!


We had started getting everything ready to go, but then Storm Jose’ was heading our way. So we put many plants out behind our house in a more sheltered area to wait. Besides, we were also still having some days that felt a whole lot like summer. The heat is no good for many of these cool-loving plants, so keeping them in the shade until things cooled down a bit, was the right thing to do, also. (Even though I was so excited to get working on making everything FALL TIME, like the calendar said!)
The days came where I couldn’t wait any longer.  So we got to work over a weekend, and banged it all out. 
Then we smiled.
–


Here’s an overvew of the fenced garden. We’ll give you a closer look around in a minute. But let’s talk about the fresh layer of straw over all of the beds first. We use it all gardening season long around the plants in the beds as a mulch, to protect the soil from the sun. It does a great job of keeping the beds moist, and not drying out to a dush in the heat. It’s important to be sure you are using straw in gardening though, as opposed to hay, because hay has seeds, and unless you are going for wheat fields, you really don’t want all these seeds falling on your garden soil.

The straw is not only a beautiful golden color for a Fall look, but throughout the bitter winter here in New England it helps protect any perrenial plants buried in the garden beds, holding in some heat from the earth. Come spring thaw, what is broken down can just be turned into the soil with other more enriching  compost.

Ok, less talk, more photos, now.


Our garden-entry gates.
Come on in.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: FALL Home Decor, Gardening, Home Decor, Home Page, Seasonal Home decor, The Homestead Tagged With: corn-stalks, fall-decor, fall-festive-gardens, fall-gardens, hay-bales, mums, outdoor-fall-decor, pumpkins

The Way to Easter in the Heart & Home

April 8, 2017 By Laura 1 Comment

Whatever seasons or holidays we are in the midst of, they are most always reflected in a little bit of decor details around our home. I’ve just always enjoyed the changing of seasons, the anticipations of family holiday celebrations around the bend, and weaving that inspiration into the fabric of my homemaking.

But increasingly over the years I have found, that the way to Easter in the heart and home, doesn’t come so easily.
I don’t want to bring out the Easter specific elements of our decor in the weeks before Easter.  I don’t feel drawn to embracing that beautiful spirit of Easter joy just yet, that I know is on it’s way, come Easter Sunday morning. I don’t jump on the anticipation of excitement, as I do with any other approaching season or holiday.
But I do know why.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Celebrations, Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Holidays, Home Decor, Into the Light; The Series, Seasonal Home decor, SPRING Home Decor, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, Catholics, Christians, Communion, Easter, Easter-Sunday, Good-Friday, Holy Week, Holy-Saturday, Holy-Thursday, Jesus-resurrection, Lent, the-Eucharist

March | St.Patrick’s Day | Spring Mantels Decor-2015

March 16, 2015 By Laura Leave a Comment

     As promised, today I am sharing with you our spring mantels decor for March, the month of St. Patrick’s Day, and the beginning of the spring season. (Calendar-wise anyway. God-willing the weather will reflect the same.)  
The decor for these mantels is super minimal and simple. It also features artwork I recently did, 4-Leaf Clover Art, which I blogged about most recently. Visit the link to see more about the inspiration for the piece.  But right now in this post, here are some photos to [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Mantel Decorating (Ideas), Seasonal Home decor, SPRING Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: decorating-mantel-decorating, home-decor-ideas, home-decorating-mantels, mantel-decorating-ideas, mantels, mantels-decor, march-mantel-decorating, spring-decor, spring-mantel-decorating-ideas, st-patrick-day-mantel-decorating

Reversible Fall to Thanksgiving Home Decor Blocks Craft Tutorial

November 18, 2013 By Laura 8 Comments

 I’ve got one last Fall-themed project to share with you this season, before I move on.
You may remember I shared these happy Fall blocks in this post, in which I was giving you a little close-up tour of my Fall mantels. I mentioned that I had made these blocks, that they were more versatile than they appeared, and that I would share why when I got to that project post.

Well this is that post!

Here are the blocks already shown to you.   They were created to look well worn, long loved, and a bit old.
Just how I like everything.  ๐Ÿ™‚

And shown here, are the blocks backsides . . . .
I made the block to transition from every day Fall, to a Thanksgiving-themed message for those weeks in November.
What do you think?  Nice surprise? Good idea?  I was thinking so!

They are really simple to make.  I just found making these blocks fun and relaxing.
I tend to get a little Zen, working in my studio anyway.
So if you think you’d like to make some, sometime, I’m going to show you just how I did it, right now.
–

I started out with 10 blocks, just like these.
Well, actually, I started out with 8 blocks just like these. Then 9. And finally 10. But that is a frustrating story I’ll tell you about later on.   But the project took 10 blocks, anyway.
These simple wooden blocks come in various sizes; these are the 2″ blocks.   I got them at A.C. Moore’s. They are not available at my local Michael’s, anyway.
They are smooth and finished-feeling on 4 sides, except for what I considered the tops and bottoms.
–

I chose my favorite Fall hues of acrylic paint, and painted them all. They did take two coats.
–


Next I had Michael cut two inch letters out of vinyl, and weeded out the letters.
–

After covering that sheet with transfer tape, I cut each letter block to size.
–

Peeling off the back, I then applied them well to a face of each block, one at a time with a squeegee, and pulled off the transfer .
It was important to make sure the rough surfaces were not used. The vinyl would work as a mask.
–

I had a pile of scraps that looked like I had been working really hard, so I photographed it, and left it for awhile. ๐Ÿ™‚
–


White acrylic paint and flat brush, ready to go.
–

All painted in.  I think it required two coats.
–

Before the second coat dried all of the way, I carefully peeled off the mask.
–
Now while painting them was rather enjoyable for me, these next steps are the part I really love to do….
But I didn’t really photograph those steps. :/  Sorry!   It’s easy enough to tell you about though.
I’m talking about sanding and aging the blocks.

To sand, I used 100 grit sand paper on a sanding block. I use the sanding block because it keeps my sanding surface flat and hard, for my uniform sanding.  Also, it’s a lot easier on my fingers, which get torn up very easily.  Where do I sand?  I like to hit the surface, to wear that a little. But I really go at the edges and corners, where they would normally wear the most.
But after sanding, we are left with clean, bare new wood. Not good, for antique blocks. Right?

So next I rub around some dark wax, with an old t-shirt rag.  I-love-this-stuff! It really does age the look of the paint, and just dirty things up just right.
You rub it on and essentially, rub it back off to. While working not as hard to get it off, where you want to leave more.
Make sense?  The stuff is messy, as you might guess from that rag up there. And it stinks to high Heaven. But, somehow I don’t mind it much, working with it. It’s like the smell of creativity, at work!

Here’s a closer look at the effects of my sanding and waxing . . . .

And now, my blocks all on display . . . .

Ta-DAAA!!!  I was so happy not to have to put my blocks away, to make room for some Thanksgiving decor.
I’m already pondering making more block sets for other holidays and seasons. In fact, actually, I already have a set for spring (in a very different finishing style and size) I made last year and never shared. I plan to come spring though.
But, back to the here and now.

–

Because it’s the details I worked so hard for (in a fun/playing sort of way), that make these blocks look like maybe one of our grandmothers passed them down to us, I couldn’t stop photographing them . . . .

Ok enough of that. Now, you can skip this little story-paragraph if you want, right down to after the next photo.

But I’d like to explain the story of the 10th block: 
For weeks, I only had 8, and then 9, blocks. Because that’s all there was at the store!  In fact the first trip, I bought none, because there wasn’t enough to spell what I wanted!  I needed 10 to do this project. I inquired though, and the lady assured me that if they were low, more was coming in the next day. So I returned the next day, and there were still only 8!!  So I figured…I need to buy those, so they be sure to get more! (Because supposedly, it’s all electronic.)

Next trip, the bin there was still empty. I was desperate!! So I plopped down on the floor and pulled out all of the other sized blocks onto the floor, hoping to find some 2″ers  in the wrong bin.
And I found ONE!!  ARRGGG!!  So I worked with the 9 I had. I got those all done, and had enough to make my HAPPY FALL.  But I’d need that last one to complete GIVE THANKS.
Finally, a new shipment of them came in, and I got my last block, which I did start to finish, all by itself, just in time. It was the “A” in THANKS.

What to do with the other side? . . . .

I made an exclamation point!  To use from then on, with my HAPPY FALL(!).  Because if you all know me, you know it’s worthy of an exclamation point.  I do love Fall, that much!

If you love what I’ve done here, believe me when I say, (if you have a vinyl cutter of any kind), you can do this!  And if not, other crafters will love you for sharing the idea!

So go ahead and PIN the image below on Pinterest, share on Facebook – whatever!!


That’s a wrap for projects for this season this year. ( I think. ๐Ÿ˜‰  )   Time to start thinking about Christmas!
Thanks for making my day, and coming by! 
Hope you take a moment to share your thoughts, and say hello!
~Laura

 

 

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project, FALL Crafts and Creations, FALL Home Decor, Holiday Crafts, Home Decor, Mantel Decorating (Ideas), Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Seasonal Home decor, The Homestead, Tutorial Tagged With: aging-painted-wood, antiquing-painted-wood, craft-tutorial, crafts, fall-crafts. fall-home-decor, fall-decor, finishing-wooden-blocks, making-wood-pieces-look-old-worn, sanding-painted-wood, thanksgiving-decor, using-dark-wax-on-wood, wooden-block-crafts, wooden-blocks-diy, woooden-decor-blocks

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