Upcoming project: Curtains

Tomorrow we receive keys to our new house! If you do not remember, when we moved here we were offered an older house with the promise of a newly constructed house when they were completed. We were not expecting to move until later in the summer, but it came early! I am so excited! We walked by the house last week and I love it.

The challenge is that this house is bigger and has more windows. Therefore, I need more curtains. Target no longer sells the curtains I currently have in the living room, so that means NEW CURTAINS! Darn! (haha) As many people know, curtains are pretty expensive. Since I have some basic sewing skills, I will be making my own.

A lot of people are working with drop cloth for curtains. I looked them up yesterday out of curiosity and I totally see why it is all the rage. I might be jumping on that bandwagon. However, I am going to add some color by sewing some patterned fabric on them. I just have to figure out how I want to do it.

I received a Joann Fabric gift card for my birthday, so I am hoping to use that, but all the fabrics I am falling in love with are on Etsy. I'll have to make a trip to the store before deciding. Here are the fabrics I am considering:

Charles picked this one as his favorite

DIY Button Necklace

If you did not know already, I love buttons! I cannot quite explain it, but I love looking at all the different kinds and colors. I have some in jars sitting on my coffee table right now. I even received a bag of buttons for Christmas and was thrilled!

I saw this necklace on Etsy and fell in love. I was very close to buying it several times. Then I turned to Pinterest for a tutorial and found a great one. Why buy when you can DIY?

The Littlest Big Spoon Etsy store

Here is what you'll need to make your very own button necklace:
- Buttons (of course)
- Necklace closure. I went with the toggle variety.
- String, wire or yarn. I used quilting thread. (If I make another one I might go with a thicker string.)
- This tutorial

 

Wooly balls

About a year ago, I switched from dryer sheets to wool dryer balls. My cat, Calvin, loves to find the wooly balls that make it out of the dryer after doing laundry. This Christmas, I found some wooly balls with jingle bells inside on Etsy. I thought they would be the perfect present for Calvin. I ordered them and both Calvin and Hobbes thoroughly enjoyed them. They liked them so much that, for the most part, the wooly jingle balls are destroyed. Two of them lost their jingles and all of them I've had to sew up some holes.

I found a tutorial for dryer wool balls so I thought I would give it a shot. I bought some yarn at Michael's and got to work. I used this tutorial at Home for Hire--DIY Wool Dryer Balls. I think I ended up using the same yarn for some of the balls.

So far, both cats seem to enjoy the homemade version. Mine are not as jingly as the ones I bought on Etsy. I may have to experiment with another way of including the jingle bells. The way I did these was to thread 3 bells on a piece of wool string. Then I wrapped wool around the set of bells to make the ball shape. I think some of the wool strands got inside the bells. It must interfere with the jingle. You can tell there is something inside because it makes a slight noise, but not quite what I was hoping for.

I made two sizes--small with bells inside and large like dryer balls. In this picture, Calvin is playing with the large one and the smaller one is sitting nearby.

Finally picked...

So, I finally decided on some fabric for my couch pillows. I remembered that you can buy fabric on Etsy and that opened up a whole new world of options. My husband has been poking fun at me because I just couldn't decide. He kept reminding me that it is an easy thing to change if I order or buy something and I don't quite like it.

Anyway, here's what I have decided on. I'm hoping they will look great together. I am nervous about buying fabric online without seeing and touching it in person.

The Esty store I originally found this on only has one yard left. I found it on a couple other Etsy stores, so hopefully one of them will have enough. I am making sure to buy extra in case I mess up or want to use the leftover fabric for anything else.

I decided to just do a green fabric for the ruffles instead of doing both green and yellow. It was hard enough finding two fabrics I liked enough to commit to rather than 3!

A collection, in my mind

Back in high school, I went to GA on spring break with my friend to visit her mom. One day, we went into a few antique stores (something random to do). I saw a cute salt and pepper shaker pair. I don't even remember what they were. But that sparked a desire to start a salt and pepper shaker collection. However, I have yet to start this collection.

Here are some cute ones I found today on Etsy in the Vintage section:

www.etsy.com/listing/49503831/bear-and-beehive-salt-and-pepper-shakers?ref=cat3_gallery_2

www.etsy.com/listing/77443736/in-this-corner-vintage-salt-pepper?ref=cat3_gallery_10

www.etsy.com/listing/68437713/vintage-cat-kitten-twin-salt-pepper?ref=cat3_gallery_31

www.etsy.com/listing/76303565/souvenir-shakers-key-lock-nashville-ind?ref=cat3_gallery_24

www.etsy.com/listing/77413732/poodle-with-wicker-style-salt-and-pepper?ref=cat3_gallery_38

www.etsy.com/listing/77936408/vintage-wooden-rolling-pin-salt-and?ref=cat3_gallery_25

www.etsy.com/listing/77532681/vintage-tomatoes-anthropomorphic-salt?ref=cat3_gallery_19

www.etsy.com/listing/63879044/vtge-pair-of-covered-wagon-sp-shakers?ref=cat3_gallery_38

Entered the Etsy World

I have decided to enter the world of Etsy as a seller. It's the cool thing to do. :) I really enjoyed making those ribbon flowers for my yarn wreath and I had some pin backs lying around from a previous project. I thought they would make great pins. So I made a few from the ribbon I have on hand and listed them on Etsy.

Check them out here!