Valentine's Day Pillows

Now that it is officially February, I am excited to share my Valentine's Day pillows that I made for our living room!

A couple of Fridays ago, I was checking out "Feature Yourself Friday" on Fingerprints on the Fridge and I came across this cute post. I loved this simple yet fun way to decorate for V-day. I decided that I would like to try my hand at making some cute pillows. Remember, I am pretty much a novice sewer. I'm sure there is probably a much more sophisticated way to make pillows, but the description below is how I made my little lovelies.

Here is what I used to make my pillows:

1) 1/2 yard red and white gingham fabric ($3.99/yd)

2) 1/2 yard red with white polka dots ($3.99/yd)

3) quarter yard square ($1.29)


Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the gingham. Sorry!

I started by cutting and sewing the fabric into pillow shapes, leaving a small opening to put in the stuffing. I ended up making four pillows, two out of the gingham and two out of the polka dots.

I typed up "love" on the computer using a neat, simple font in all lower case letters. I printed it, and then I cut the letters out and traced them onto the white fabric. Once the letters were traced on the fabric, I cut them out and used craft glue to glue them on the pillow shape.


After the letters were on, I started stuffing the pillows through that opening that I left. I used poly-fill pillow stuffing.


Next, I used a needle and thread to stitch up the opening.

Now, I have four lovely pillows for our front room and they look so cute in our dark colored chairs!

"Home" Art

I recently made a trip over to one of my favorite craft stores, Hobby lobby. It seems like I've been spending an awful lot of time at the crafts stores lately... Anyway, while looking around I found the cutest framed art. It was the word "home" written in different fonts with the H on the left side and the other three letters stacked on top of each other down the right side. It was in a black frame attached to a black ribbon for hanging. I loved it!

Hobby Lobby was selling it for $14.99. I really considered buying it but then thought better of it. I knew that I could make this for much cheaper. And I did... for under $7.00!

Here is what I used for this project:

1) 1 piece of vellum scrapbooking paper ($0.69)

2) 1 piece of dark gray scrapbooking paper (free-I already had it)

3) printed letters "Home"

4) black frame ($4.99 clearance at Target)

5) black ribbon (free- I already had it)

I started by printing out "Home" using different fonts and then cut the letters out. I used these as tracers, and traced onto the gray paper. Then, I cut the gray letters out. I'm really starting to think that I need one of those Cricut things.




Next, I cut the vellum down to size for the frame and then attached the gray letters to the vellum using scrapbook adhesive tape. Finally, I attached the vellum to the backing of the frame and put it all together. The last step was to cut the ribbon and attach it to the hook on the back of the frame.

Now it is hanging next to our front door and I am so glad that I decided not to buy it at Hobby Lobby!

P.S. Sorry the lighting in the photos is crummy. I was having trouble with the flash.

Black and White Table Runner

When we bought our house we knew that we would need some new furniture. One of the first sets that we bought was a new kitchen table and chairs. We found a set that we loved on sale and knew that it was meant to be. We got an espresso colored, counter top height table, and 8 chairs. We were so excited!

Once the set was delivered we quickly found that the surface of the table scratches quite easily. So, we decided we needed some way of protecting it, but we didn't want to use a tablecloth all of the time. We bought a table runner and 4 place mats that we found for super cheap. We weren't too specific when choosing them, other than the fact that they needed to be cheap. Now I have decided that they definitely aren't the colors that I'd like to use in the kitchen, so I have been looking for black and white fabric to make my own table runner.

On Saturday I went on another Joanne's adventure and found that the quarter yard fabric samples were on sale for $1.29 instead of the usual $1.99 price. I was sifting through these squares looking for fabric for other projects and came across these black and white samples.


I loved them, and they were exactly the right price... cheap! I ended up buying 2 of these, thinking that I could maybe sew them together to make a runner. Once I got home I went to town. You should know that I am still kind of new to sewing. I know just enough to get by with making pillows and sewing straight lines. Luckily for me, this project was as simple as it could have possibly been. I sewed them together and then sewed seams around the edges.

Overall, I think it turned out prefectly, especially with a price tag of less than $3.00. My next project for the kitchen is to make curtains. Yikes! Hopefully, I'll be finished and ready to post about them in the next few weeks.

Berry Breakfast Smoothie

Over winter break Trav and I read Jackie Warner's book This is Why You're Fat. Gotta love that title! I really like Jackie, so we were excited to read her book. I'll post more about this later, but I just wanted to share my favorite part of Jackie's weight loss plan. She suggests having a berry smoothie each morning for breakfast. I have been doing this each morning and I actually love it! I don't drink coffee so this is the perfect morning treat. I never thought that I would enjoy getting up early to do this, but I actually look forward to it. So, I thought that I would share this yummy idea with others.

Here is what I use to make my smoothie each morning:

1) 1 ice cube

2) 1 tbsp. flax seed

3) 1 scoop whey protein shake mix

4) 1 cup mixed berries

5) a little Truvia for a little extra sweetness

6) 2 cups of water

I start by putting the ice cube into the blender and crushing it.


Next I add the powder ingredients (flax, protein, Truvia).


Then, I add the berries and the water.


Lastly, I blend it all together and VOILA yummy morning deliciousness!


Jackie suggests adding spinach to this for added vitamins and minerals, but I haven't been brave enough to try that yet.

I love these smoothies for many reasons, one being that I get one serving of fruit and 2 cups of water first thing in the morning. But the main reason that I love it is because it is delicious! It's almost like starting the day with dessert. What could be better than that?

Weekly Menu Planner

I think this is probably my favorite project I've done so far and I hope you like it too!


Each weekend Trav and I plan out our dinners for each night of the upcoming week. This way we can make one trip to the grocery store and it also helps to ensure that we are buying exactly what we need instead of a bunch of random junk.

For the past five years, I have purchased magnetic notepads that we keep on the fridge to help with this meal planning process.

We just wrote in the name of our dinners next to each day. This system has worked wonderfully for the past few years.

That is until I came across this project post on Under The Table and Dreaming. She made a reusable menu planner out of a regular old picture frame! Once you have it all together, you can use a dry erase marker to write down your menu for the week. You just write right on the glass. Then, it's easy to wipe off to erase and redo the next week. I think this is pure genius! Not only can you save on paper, which is obviously earth friendly, you can also customize it to go with the decor in your kitchen. Genius I tell you!

Here is what I used to make mine:

1) scrapbook paper for the background (I used black and white)

2) a sheet with the title and the days of the week printed out (I used white cardstock)

3) thin black ribbon

4) 8x10 frame


The first thing that I did was choose a fun font on our computer and typed out "This Week's Menu" along the top with the days of the week down the left side. Next, I cut the printout to the size that I wanted and mounted it onto the pretty scrapbook paper. Then, I cut down the scrapbook paper to 8x10 so that it would fit in my frame. I added a strip of thin ribbon to dress it up just a bit. Finally, I put it in the frame and got out my dry erase marker. It was such an easy project. In all, I think it probably took me about 20 minutes.

I love this project for many reasons but mostly because you can make it as detailed or as simple as you want. We have used this every week since I made it, and I love that we are saving paper!


P.S. Please disregard our out-of-control kitchen utensil canister. I know it's kind of ridiculous!

Jewelry Storage

A couple of weeks ago I bought this magazine called Real Room Ideas. There are so many great ideas in there, and I just love it! One of my favorite ideas, which I quickly stole, was a necklace keeper. Jewelry storage has been an area of frustration for me personally because it has been hard to find a reasonably priced jewelry box that is not god-awful to look at. When we moved, I bought this jewelry tree from Target.


I think it's so pretty! I actually I bought it more because I just think it's a cool piece rather than to actually hang my jewelry on. I did eventually end up hanging earrings and necklaces on it, and it quickly just became too cluttered. So, you can imagine my excitement when I found an affordable alternative in my new mag.

In the magazine, they suggested buying a shadow box frame that has a front hinging door. I found something similar at Target one day for $15. It was a frame especially made for album covers. I think the size is around 12x12. This frame is much more shallow than I had in mind but I thought I would give it a try.


I also bought a package of black and white scrap booking paper (also from Target, $0.99) to use as a background.


I used the cardboard that the frame came in as the background piece that I would stick pins in.


I covered this cardboard with a piece of scrapbook paper to make it pretty, and attached it to the inside of the frame with some adhesive pieces that I had from previous projects.

Since I had decided to use an album frame rather than a regular shadowbox, I found it difficult to find pins short enough to allow the door to close. Originally, I thought that I would use some clear, regular bulletin board pins that I had, but quickly found that they were not short enough. I went to Joanne's in search of something that would work. I found some sewing pins that luckily were short enough. They really are cute little pins! The only problem is that they were not as sturdy as I would like for them to be because they are so very small.


Next, I decided that it need a little more flair. I glued tiny black buttons (left over from my "button art" project) onto the head of each pin so that they would stand out a little bit. I also cut out some little flowers out of yellow card stock and added black and white buttons for detail. I glued these guys in the corners.


In order to solve the sturdiness problem I decided to put hot glue on the pins as I was sticking them into the back piece.

Now, my necklaces all hang in my frame and my earrings hang from my lovely tree. I also lay my watches in the little nook at the base of the tree.



What do you think? Do you have any great ideas for storing jewelry?

Front Door Wreath

Again with the wreaths... I know! But, this project turned out much better than our last attempt at a wreath.


I have been wanting a cute wreath for our front door, and thought it would be neat to have one for each season. But I wondered where I would store them all when they weren't in use. Then one day I found a cute wreath idea on Living Life Crafty and thought it would be cute to have for our front door. I thought about it for a couple of weeks and then decided that I must make one. I also figured out a plan to incorporate my seasonal wreath idea. I would make a simple and bare wreath and then add seasonal items that could be switched out with each changing season. This way, I won't have to store a bunch of wreaths. Instead, I could just store the accessories. Once I had that plan in mind, I just had to do it!

I took myself to Joanne's and found a simple wood branch wreath for $3.99 and an M for McChesney. You know me and monograms, I just love them. I also bought some black, outdoor, craft paint, red ribbon and a couple stems of red artificial berries.

I started by painting the M black.


Next, I attached the M to the wreath using small red ribbon that I happened to have. Let me just say, this was not my first choice of materials to use to attach the M. I was hoping to use fishing line, but unfortunately we are not fishers, hence no fishing line. I know it doesn't look the best, but I figured that I could get away with it because of the red berries that I was going to add later. I plan to switch out the red ribbon for the fishing line when I dress it up for spring. This will give me a couple of months to find some.

Once the M was attached I added the berries in clumps of three, sporadically around the wreath. Lastly, I cut a long piece of thick red ribbon and tied it loosely around the top of the wreath.

Now, our lovely winter wreath is hanging on our front door. I love it! AND it will be easy to change out when spring comes around. The sooner the better, I say!

Christmas Wreath Wreck

Say that five times fast...

Here is a little story to warm up your "after the holiday blues"... I meant to actually post it during x-mas, but just never got around to it.

As Trav and I were putting up our Christmas decorations this year, we realized that we were a little short on supplies. We thought that we had plenty, but quickly figured out that we had more than enough for our little condo which was half the size of our new house. This year our decorations looked a bit sparse.

In typical Sara fashion, I turned to my favorite blogs for help. I was on the hunt for cheap DIY projects. ALAS, I found a cool post for making a cheap ornament wreath on one of my new fave blogs, Fingerprints on the Fridge. Check it out if you have a minute, it's great!

All I needed to make this was... 1) a wire hanger and 2) a bunch of glass bulb ornaments. EASY!!! Anyone who knows me well, knows about my love of the Dollar Tree. So, I headed there in search of ornaments and found all that my heart could desire! I bought 6 packages of different colored ornaments. I was a little worried about the wire hanger part though. The previous owners of our house left us with an abundance of wire hangers, which I promptly threw out because I think they are the devil. Once I got home from the dollar store, I went on a hunt for any remaining wire hangers. Luckily, I found one who had escaped my wrath.

I started sliding the glass ornaments onto the wreath using the metal hoops at the top of each ornament and in no time at all I had a great looking x-mas wreath.

Remember, this post is called "Christmas Wreath Wreck". So here is where the wreck part comes into play. My hanger was all filled up and was ready to tie the two ends together. The last step was to tie a lovely piece of red ribbon at the top so that we could hang it from our door. I asked Trav to use his big strong muscles to wrap the two ends of the wire together to complete the circle. He had no trouble with this, except for the small fact that the bulbs kept popping off their toppers. Unfortunately, I had overlooked the small step of hot gluing the metal toppers on each ornament. Trav was having a hell of a time getting the two ends together AND trying to manage all of the bulbs popping off. And then finally, in a Christmas miracle he was able to get the wreath finished with all bulbs back on their toppers. What a swell guy! He was walking the wreath over to me in the kitchen when IT happened...

It was like one of those moments where time slows down and everything goes into slow motion... One little bulb jumped off the wreath! Trav being the awesome husband that he is, reached out to catch the bulb... I can picture it now. Trav saying "Oooohhhh Nnnnooooo!" in the deep slow motion voice that they use in the movies. While Trav was reaching out trying to catch the stray bulb with one hand, the wreath slipped out of his other hand and went smashing to the ground.

Many of the bulbs broke into tiny smithereens. Here is proof! I had to capture this mishap on film.

Luckily, I was able to salvage some of the bulbs that were still intact. We had a good laugh while sweeping up all of the broken glass. What else could we do? We had to admit defeat by this evil project. Looking back I should have hot glued the tops onto each bulb. I think this would have saved on a lot of frustration.

Now, the survivor bulbs are tucked away safely in a storage box in the crawl space, until... next year... (enter the Jaws music theme).

Five Favorite Things

Today I was thinking it might be fun to post 5 of my favorite things. Not because they will be interesting to anyone else, but just to document some of the things that I am into right now. After a little more thought I decided this would be fun! Here it goes...

#5) Chai Latte

As a teacher, every year for Christmas, teacher appreciation week, and at the end of the school year I receive many Starbucks gift cards. I love it! This helps to feed my addiction to these bad boys. Yum!

#4) Home Magazines

I LOVE to read, but have never been a huge magazine reader. However, since we bought the house, I have been scavenging the magazine racks for home magazines. Towards the end of the summer I came across Fresh Home and Do It Yourself. I love both of them. Unfortunately, they only come out like 4 times per year. The wait between issues is slightly unbearable.

#3) Crocheting

I just started a new project for our family room. I have made afghans for many other people in my family and realized that I have never taken the time to make one for us. So, I decided the time is now. I have started a green afghan. Can't wait to see it finished!

#2) Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbenia Countertop Cleaner.

On the recommendation of my favorite Young House Lovers, we recently bought some of this cleaner for our kitchen. It leaves our kitchen smelling so clean and fresh. Plus, you can purchase the larger bottle of cleaner and add water to reuse the spray bottle. We plan to do this when we need a refill.

#1) Florence and the Machine

I have been listening to this band a lot on Pandora lately and I just love them. I foresee that I'll be purchasing this album in the very near future.


Welp... there you have it. My current top five favorite things. What would you rate as your five favorite things?