Heart Pillow Tutorial

I was inspired by this Heart Pillow Tutorial so Eliza and I made up some heart pillows for the whole fam (she even helped pick out the fabric!). This would also make a really cute gift for someone special or just a little treat for yourself! Anywho, here's a little tutorial on how I did it:

Materials:

paper

pen/pencil

scissors

2 coordinating fabrics

sewing machine & thread

sewing pins

iron

So first, grab your paper and draw a half heart on one side to the size you want your pillow to be. Cut it out.

Grab the fabric you chose for the heart and fold it just enough for your half heart to fit on. Place your half heart on the folded edge so that when you cut, it will unfold to be a full heart.

Cut out your heart and repeat for two matching fabric hearts.

Next, cut out a rectangle for your pocket. I just kind of estimated on the size (remember you will need about .5" extra on each side to fold over). Iron down the edges (with the front side down) about .5" on each side and pin. You're going to sew one of the longer edges (this will be the top).

Next, pin your rectangle to one of the heart pieces with the sewn edge on the top side. Make sure to somewhat center it! Sew around the two sides and the bottom (leaving the top for the opening!).

Now grab your other heart piece and place it face down on top of the first heart piece so that the fronts of them are touching. Sew around the entire edge, leaving a 3"-4" gap somewhere to turn it out. Clip the curves and center of heart. See here for help. You do this so that when you turn it out, the curve won't turn out weird and bunched.

Turn out heart, stuff it, and sew up the gap.

Heart pillow! Yay! This was "Mommy's" pillow. The pink one is for Eliza (obviously!) and the blue one for Dad! They're kind of random and I don't know where to put them but I think I'll use them to write little love notes. Yeah?

I'm in the process of cute-ifying/handmake-ifying my house! I'm sure it already appears that way but I'm making even more and I'm on a role!! Which means... lots of fun DIY's in the near future! Be prepared.

Core Values

As you know, I had a rough day yesterday. And yes, it had a lot to do with the events that made it bad but also those being combined with some long-term troubles I've been having such as financial difficulties, the successfullness of my new store (or lack there-of), and then life- keeping up with school, housework, Eliza, making sure everyone get's fed. It's just a lot. I'm usually very good at keeping positive and just taking things one day at a time but when I have a bad day, it all seems to come crashing down. Like yesterday.

But, I had a very good day today!  And I want to thank Courtney for cheering me up, you're the best! I had a really good day at work (woot woot!) and have spent the last couple hours doing some real soul searching to re-evaluate some things in my life. I was going through my emails and found this article by Handmadeology (wonderful resource for selling on Etsy) about how to find your core values. So I decided, what the heck! And tried it out. It was pretty insightful and might turn out to be a lot of help so I thought I'd share.

I narrowed my "core values" down to these five:

1. Family
2. Happiness
3. Passion
4. Creativity
5. Personal Growth

And here's what they mean to me:

1. Family- my family comes before everything else. They are at the heart of everything I do, definitely the most important aspect in my life. What would you be without your family?
2. Happiness- keeping a positive outlook on life. Seeing the beauty in what I have and enjoying it. Having an appreciation for life, the people around me, and for myself.
3. Passion- to do with love. To have a deep affection in the things I do and live life to the fullest everyday.
4. Creativity- to be able to make pretty things to surround myself with. Creating beauty with my imagination and the skills I have learned. Do you ever yearn to make something?
5. Personal growth- to excel in whatever it is that I try to do and come out a better person. To learn as much as I can!

 It's hard to describe what simple words can mean to you. What about yourself? What are your core values and what do they mean to you?

** Also, a little side note: I hope you guys don't mind my ranting too much. I was reading Indie Jane Photogrophy's blog the other day and was inspired by how personal it was. Not like too personal but within reading a couple of her posts (or maybe ten... I may have been stalking her a bit...), I felt like we were friends! So that's what I want to do here, get down and dirty! Haha, no but really. I just want to be able to connect with you guys on a real level. I'm not perfect, just trying to do the best I can! Don't be too shy to comment! I love to hear what you guys have to say and I promise I'll comment back (: Sometimes I think I'm talking to myself out here, so join in the conversation. I won't bite!

Trouble Posting Comments

I don't know if anyone else has these problems but sometimes it won't let me comment on blogger blogs! I finally decided I had to get to the bottom of this and found a few solutions:

1. Go to Internet Options and delete your temporary files, history, and cookies.
2. Try unclicking the "remember me" button when logging into gmail.
3. If those don't work, go to design under blogger and edit html. Download your template just for a backup copy and then click the "revert widget templates to default" - this one is what works for me.

I mainly wanted to write this down so I could remember but I hope this helps someone out there having the same trouble as me!

my day in webcam pics

So this is how my day went. First, Eliza and I woke up on time and were both in a great mood! I got both of us ready and were out the door on time, woopee! She didn't cry when I dropped her off at mother's day out and I went off to my own school. So far, so good.

School ends and I go to the library but can't get internet. So I go to McDonalds for free wi-fi and decide to get some fries, they were gross. Whatever. I find out that I have to take a test by 5:00 and I don't have time before I pick up Eliza. Ugh, maybe before my class at 4:00? If Brandon will sacrifice his nap so kindly for me (he's running on 3 hourse of sleep). Then Brandon calls (his phone is dead) and he lost his wallet (story of my life). He doesn't have enough gas to make it home so he has to wait and hope someone turns it in. Great, I have to somehow manage to take a test while watching Eliza.

But all hope is not lost! Brandon finds his wallet and makes it home before I take my test. He and Eliza fall asleep while I finish my test. I have some extra time so I look up something good to eat and I get a call. It's my school, it was closed down for the day so Brandon and I have the rest of the day off! Woohoo! Eliza and I go to the store and cook an awesome dinner!

Then things just go downhill. Brandon and I get in a stupid fight over tv shows, basically "Why won't you watch this show just to make me happy!" "You always pick the movies! I never get to watch what I want" "That's not true!" Blah, blah, blah.

I put Eliza down and Brandon falls asleep in the meantime. So now I'm in this terrible, mad mood. I don't like being mad but am too stubborn to let it past me (cause I'm totally right!). I'm stuck in this terrible rut and can't do anything about it and am just mad and don't feel like doing anything! Urrgggg.

What's a girl to do? Hopefully tomorrow will be better. We don't have school on Wednesdays so I will get to work, that always makes me feel good. I like being productive. It keeps my mind of negative things.

DIY U.S. Map Pillow

I saw this U.S. Map Pillow tutorial a looong time ago and recently decided I needed some more pillows! So I whipped one up the other day and it turned out super cute! Here's what I did:

First, gathered my materials. You will need:

Fabric for the pillow, I chose a vintage floral fabric

2 colors of felt, one for the U.S. and one for the heart.

Thread

A sewing machine

A needle

Scissors

Paper

Printer

 Print out this U.S. diagram, provided for us by the lovely KikiCreates. I actually saved it and then put it into a Word document to get a size that would fit the felt that I had. Cut out the diagram, pin to felt and cut out your felt U.S. Then cut 2 rectangles of fabric for the pillow and a heart with your second felt.

Pin your felt U.S. to one of the pillow fabrics and hand stitch.

Next, grab your heart and hand stitch to U.S. in your place of residence (mine was Houston).

 Then place your second pillow fabric right side down on top of the one with the U.S.. Pin edges together.

Sew all edges leaving a 3"-4" gap somewhere for turning out.

 Clip the corners.

 Turn the pillow right side out through the gap.

Stuff it and pin together the gap.

Stitch up the gap.

And you have an adorable U.S. pillow!

It's nice to have a DIY come out better than expected. I really love it! I have some other pillow ideas up my sleeve, we'll see how those turn out! I feel so overwhelmed with work/homework/life today but don't feel like doing any of it! On top of that, Brandon got a flat tire today and is running around town trying to get a knew one. Hopefully the rest of my week goes well.... oi vey. Wish me luck.

Thrifty Finds

Ok, I know this isn't a DIY but I found some awesome stuff about a week ago and just had to share!


 I decided to make another quilt so I went out and gathered a bunch of vintage sheets. And I have to say, I hit the jackpot! And I found this hook thing (name?) to replace one that Eliza ripped down. Let's see how long this one'll last

 I've also found a new purse! I love how it looks but the snap is a little annoying. There's another one under the big one and it's just a hassle to do both.

 I found this... thing. I had intended to use it as a rug but apparently it's a table cloth! So I'm fixing it up a bit (a future DIY?) to be a rug.

 And the steal of the day has to be this little baby! I don't know if you can see the little keychain but it's a Michael Kors bag...


I'm not one for brand names and designer labels but at a thrift store, yes please! I got this baby for $10 and guess what?! My laptop fits inside, score! So I've got myself a new purse and a new laptop bag.




Of course, there was a downside to this purchase. The handle was broke. But luckily I found an easy fix which I'll share with my tablecloth/rug makeover. Well here's to Monday guys! Hope everyone has a magnificent week!

And the winner is....

Lisa!

Woohoo! Thanks soo much to the few people that participated, I really enjoyed hearing your answers! Oh, and I apologize about being so late. I've got some fun DIY's coming up, and can't wait to share. Maybe I'll even post one today!

**Lisa- Congratulations! Leave me a comment with your email so we can discuss the details! Thanks (: