How to Sew Pillow Shams

I finally finished up those pillow shams for our bed, and I think they turned out really cute.  I love love love the fabric and they're a perfect little pop of color for the plain brown bed.  This brings the grand total of pillows on our bed to four, which seems reasonable to me.  Oh, and I've actually been making the bed more than half the time since we got the bedframe.  It takes only a few minutes and it makes the whole room look much cleaner.  I guess the key to getting me to make the bed was having a pretty bed frame!  Anyway, about the pillow shams: you can't beat the price: $2.99 a yard from Ikea!  It took roughly a yard of fabric per pillow.  Not too shabby.

I started out using this tutorial, and while it was very helpful, I decided to do things a little differently.  Here's what I did, complete with diagrams! 

And voila!

Sprucing

A couple of new additions to The Bear's room, thanks to the generosity of a friend and a stranger:

This lovable triceratops came to us from a kind friend of mine whose children had outgrown it.  The dinosaur (I don't know why, but I just think of it as a girl dinosaur) is three feet tall, soft, and very interactive.  Her head moves, her eyes open and close, her mouth chews, and she even wags her tail.  She makes friendly roars, chewing noises, and snoring sounds.  She has a handle behind her head so little kids can ride on her back (which bounces up and down).  This is such a cool toy.  The Bear was very wary of her at first, but they quickly became good friends.  Thanks, Heather!!!

I found this glider and ottoman on the free (!!) section of craigslist and snatched it up before anyone else could beat me to it.  The cushions need to be recovered and there are a few other minor flaws but it was FREE and it's very comfortable.  I am sure we will enjoy many bedtime stories in this chair.

There is a fun post coming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Party in the Front, Business in the Back

Someday we'll live in a house with an office but for now our bedroom does double duty.  Here is Mrs. Potts Headquarters:

We were in a big hurry to furnish the place when we first moved in, so we bought this cheap desk and file cabinet set from Wal-Mart.  I'm eager to replace them with something better, but they get the job done.  Above the desk is my bulletin board that keeps important things (like my BlogHer conference pass!) handy.  I also framed our college diplomas - they're fitting for an office setting, right?  I didn't want to hang them anywhere too conspicuous but we worked hard for those little pieces of paper, darn it, so I'm putting them up!  I want to paint the frames - they are really shoddy frames that Atticus has had since before we'd even met, but they were the right size, and I like the matching set.  I'm trying to decide between green and yellow paint - I already have both, and either one would go with the fabric I put on the cork board.  Maybe one of each.  But at the moment all of my painting projects are on hold due to the mysterious disappearance of my paint brush (The Bear is the #1 suspect). 

I got my desk chair for $10 on craigslist.  I love it, though it needs refinishing.  I would like to add a seat cushion in a fun fabric and I am considering painting it white.  Atticus says I'm not allowed to turn it into a 'girl chair' but what does he know, anyway? 
The closet behind the chair is my personal clothing closet and also inventory storage.

To the right of my closet is a big plastic storage box full of all my Etsy inventory.  It's a little like playing dress-up every time I open the box.  Past that is a basket full of all of my unfinished sewing projects.  There are two more storage boxes just like the blue one inside my closet.  One is filled with packing/shipping supplies and the other contains inventory that I will eventually get around to listing on eBay.

A Room Fit for a Bear

Many of you probably remember my original post about The Bear's room but I thought I'd show you how it has evolved as he's grown and since we've made the bedroom switch.  It's a simpler room now - I got rid of many elements that we didn't use and/or were ugly and/or were not toddler safe.  So it's pretty basic now but I've got some ideas to spruce it up... eventually.

 Here's corner #1 with the dresser that I showed you last week.  It still looks pretty much the same, though now my dress form and a trash can live to the right of the dresser in that corner behind the door.

The crib side of the room.  Still have my dad's baby blanket hanging on the wall - I love the vintage embroidery.  Got rid of the crib bumper pads - they were kinda flimsy and The Bear kept stomping on them until they were smushed down between the mattress and the crib rails.  For the next baby I'll definitely be investing in some thick, sturdy bumper pads.  Have you been hearing all the recent hullabaloo about the dangers of drop-side cribs?  It's making me a little nervous, but not nervous enough to rush out and buy a new crib.

To the left of the crib is the little bookshelf with our collection of children's books that is slowly but surely growing.  I would like to hang something above this shelf, not quite sure what.

 Here's Rhino the hamster.  We're hamster-sitting her for the summer while her owners are traipsing all over the country.  She's awfully cute.  Luckily The Bear isn't tall, strong, or coordinated enough to get the lid off of her cage.  He's not quite gentle enough to handle her yet.  Once she goes back home, I want to put a comfy rocking chair in this corner for bedtime stories.

 Across the room is The Bear's toy box and his igloo fort.  Atticus begged me for a month to let The Bear have this tent, and eventually I gave in.  Atticus was right - it is The Bear's favorite thing in the whole room.  He loves to play and roll around in it.  I guess Atticus knows boy toys better than I do.

And we've still got the fun rug on the floor.  It makes the room just colorful enough for the time being.

Still to do:
- Get or make curtains for the window (already have a curtain rod)
- Find a few more things to hang on the wall
- Get a sturdy floor lamp that The Bear can't knock over and a rocking chair

As soon as I've got all that done I'm sure I will have thought of more projects.

Summer Sale!

I have just opened a summer sale section in my Etsy shop where many items are now 40% off!  Take a look!

Chore Buster

I've been chipping away at the little end table project and will be able to show you the finished product very soon.  It's a challenge to get anything done when you have a one-year-old who spreads butter on himself and hides your car keys behind the dryer (true stories).  In the meantime, I'm going to share one of my favorite websites with you.  I give you:  Chore Buster.  This is how it works:

Enter in people and chores
 Specify how hard / undesirable each chore is, and how often it should be done
ChoreBuster automatically generates a fair schedule of chores
 Schedule emailed to you daily or weekly - no need to log in

And best of all, it is free!  We have used this website off and on for the past few years, but I'm always a happier camper when we use it.  It's easier to keep track of what needs to get done and whose responsibility it is.  It even allows you to assign specific chores to specific people so that if there is one you particularly hate, you can give it to your husband every time (though I would never do that... **wink wink**).  It also has the ability to assign a certain percentage of the workload to the various people on your list and, if you have kids, to track the monetary compensation for doing various tasks.  I've assigned myself 75% of the workload since I'm home during the day, and Atticus gets the other 25%.  Nifty, eh?  Every Sunday, the new chart for the week shows up in my email inbox, I print it out, hang it on the fridge, and we're ready to go.  Here's what our chart looks like this week:

	Atticus	Mrs. Potts
Monday	Clean kitchen counters, Take out kitchen trash	Clean bathroom, Clean Bear's Room, Clean up living room clutter, Do dishes
Tuesday	Clean up living room clutter	Clean kitchen counters, Do dishes, Do one load of laundry, Take out bathroom trash, Take out kitchen trash
Wednesday	Clean kitchen counters, Clean up living room clutter, Take out kitchen trash	Clean Bear's Bathroom, Clean bedroom, Clean hallway clutter/vacuum hallway, Do dishes, Empty trash in Bear's bedroom and Bear's bathroom, Sort mail/pay bills
Thursday	Clean kitchen counters, Do dishes	Clean Kitchen Floor, Clean up living room clutter, Do one load of laundry, Take out kitchen trash
Friday	Do dishes, Vacuum living room/clean carpet stains	Clean kitchen counters, Clean up living room clutter, Take out bathroom trash, Take out kitchen trash
Saturday	Empty trash in Bear's bedroom and Bear's bathroom, Take out kitchen trash	Clean entry way, Clean kitchen counters, Clean up living room clutter, Do dishes, Do one load of laundry, Sort mail/pay bills
Sunday	Do dishes	Clean kitchen counters, Clean up living room clutter, Take out kitchen trash