I finished another project this week, and I have to admit, the results are not quite as good as I hoped. So I thought I’d share what I learned to help me remember not to make the same mistakes again, and maybe save someone else from the same errors.

I have some big, square feather pillows from Ikea that needed covering, so I had an idea to do some big appliqué flowers.

I used a heavy linen for the cover, and quilter’s cotton for the flowers. When I finished stitching up my cover, I put it on the pillow, and it was okay, but seemed a little stiff. I also think I could have made the flowers a little bigger. So I thought I’d try washing it, to soften it up a little, but it turns out the linen I used shrank more lengthwise than widthwise. So now my pillow is more of a rectangle. The flowers bunched up a little too. Petey, however, is indifferent to the pillow.

So, what I learned:

• Pre-wash all my fabric
• Try a little harder to keep the appliqué fabrics smooth, so they don’t get bunched up
• Make the flowers bigger in proportion to the pillow

Also, perhaps I should not write boring blog posts while still grumpy from allergies and while watching Raising the Bar which I Tivo’d last week. I can’t get past the bad haircut to decide if the show is any good. I don’t think I will be getting a season pass to this one.

Just a quick little post to show the after version of my little footstool.

Spray paint sure is fun. I wish you could get custom mixed colors, like regular paint. I do like this yellow, though. I’m still going to try lining the inside and making an embroidered cover for the cushion.

Show of hands, who else watches Clean House? Is it just me, or does that show make you feel just a little bit better about your housekeeping abilities? Actually, the first time I watched it, the hosts all kind of bugged me, but now I just really like them and their goofy jokes make me laugh, and I love it when Niecy gives the homeowners a well deserved smackdown when they won’t get rid of their stuff.

If you are a fan, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I saw a sign for a Clean House yard sale in a nearby town this past Saturday. I had to run errands on Saturday anyway, so I decided to check it out. I didn’t really plan on buying anything, but as soon as I walked up to the driveway, this little footstool caught my eye. There was a piece of tape on it that said "Antique", but no price. I only had $20 on me, so I wasn’t sure if i had a shot, but I had to try. Aren’t the legs cute? The cushion is faded and grungy looking, but otherwise in good shape.

I picked it up, and heard a rattling sound. I discovered that the top
lifted off, and the inside was filled with some lovely treasures:


Look at all those scissors! The big ones are pinking shears. I love the small, black embroidery scissors. Now I just have to figure out how to clean them up a little. I think I will take them to the knife sharpener and see what his opinion is.

Anyway, back to the yard sale, I was quickly accosted by Trish, who is so stinking cute, and a camera man. She said the footstool belonged to the homeowners’ mother and they were asking  $30. It  didn’t take much convincing for her to agree to $20. I even showed her that it was all that was left in my wallet. She said my wallet was very organized, which was quite a compliment, considering the source, and also that is was very cute and fierce. I’m not sure if I want them to include the footage of me. I’ll look like a gigantic Amazon next to Trish, and I’m not sure what all I said, but it’s likely that I sounded a bit flustered and foolish. Oh well, it was fun, and although I didn’t see Niecy, the others all looked like they were working really hard.

As exciting as my television debut was, I’m really happy with my lucky find. I’ve recovered the cushion with plain, natural linen. Eventually I’d like to do some crewel embroidery on linen to cover it, but I wanted to at least make it look a little more presentable in the meantime. I’ve also painted the wood with a coat of primer and a coat of glossy yellow. I think it’s going to need a little sanding and a second coat, but you can be sure I’ll take a picture when I’m done. I’d also like to line the inside somehow. with fabric or paper, I’m not sure which. 

I’ve also got pictures to share and a tutorial in the works for the t-shirt project, and I just caught up on the last two episodes of Project Runway, so maybe we can have another PR discussion too.Whew! So much to do!

The next step in The Great Living Room Project ™ is underway, although
there were a few hiccups. Speaking of hiccups, Winston gets them all
the time. Should I be worried about this? They only last for a minute
or so, but I’ve never known a dog to have the hiccups so often.

Anyway,
back to the GLRP. I started on some curtains. I’ve had this green
fabric for quite a long time, and I wanted to pair it with some nice,
light, white to keep things bright and sunny. I picked up a pair of
sheers from Ikea for $9.99, thinking they would work well and be
economical to boot. I also originally thought that they would be cute
with long, skinny tied tabs and then I realized that for three windows,
with two panels each, I’d be making skinny ties for the rest of the
year. So, I made one curtain, minus ties, and my economical solution
was economical for a reason. The fabric from the Ikea curtains was too
light, and the grain was way off, so it was a big pain to cut out and
then it didn’t hang right. Back to the drawing board. I have some
natural linen, which I will be using to slip-cover the wing chair, so I
decided to try that. Unfortunately, it was slightly narrower than my
green fabric, of which I was using a full width for each panel, so I
had to piece it together, and I didn’t even have to sew it to the green
before realizing that it was way too heavy and where I had to seam it was just way too stiff. So, on to the next option.
I had a couple pieces of a nice linen-cotton blend. Again, I had to
piece it, but it’s light enough that it doesn’t affect the drape of the
fabric at all, and it’s heavy enough that it works well with the green.
So, I think we have a winner. Two panels are done, except for the
hemming, and the rest are all cut out, so I may try to get one done
each evening.

So, yeah, it’s quite green. I don’t care though, I like it. It’s a
Susan Sargent fabric, from the same line as the fabric on my sofa, so
it works. I’m violating my self-imposed blog rule of no photography of
wrinkled items, but I still have to take them down for hemming, so I’ll
press them all nicely then, and with the morning sun coming through, it’s too dark to see the wrinkles anyway. Eventually I also want to make white canvas
Roman shades for each window. I also need to figure out something for
the window on the front door. Probably something plain and white. I sure wish I could remember where I put my switch plate cover thingie. I’m sure it’s somewhere very safe.

I don’t know if any bird experts read my blog, but we have a bit of
an infestation of these little birds. They’ve built little mud nests
under the eaves of our shed, which isn’t a huge deal, but there seem to
be way more birds than nests. There are about 5 or 6 nests, with more underway:

We’ve also found three of them dead in
various places, and it doesn’t seem to be the work of the dogs. Bear
has caught a few little critters in his day, and he enjoys playing with
the corpses and then swallowing them whole (gross, I know, but he’s a
bird dog and an excellent rat catcher, so what can you do?), and we’ve
found the little bodies, completely undisturbed in the middle of the
driveway, where he surely would have found them. I don’t mind a nest or
two, but it’s getting a little creepy how many there are, just flying
around. I’m wondering if I should knock their nests down, so they’ll go
find somewhere else to live. We were thinking that maybe they used to
live in the tree that was cut down last fall. But there are lots of
other trees where we live, so it’s not like our shed is the only
option. Does anyone know what they are? I’m just not sure what, if
anything, we should do. I tried to get a picture of them all flying around when I get close to the shed, which is not easy, but here are a few of them:

They don’t look so creepy there, but trust me, it’s kind of creepy.

Okay, next topic. I did a little cooking this weekend, and have
perfected a wasabi cream sauce, which is so tasty over seared tuna.
Actually, perfected is perhaps a little too grand of a term, I just
took a little sour cream and added some stuff, mixed, tasted, adjusted,
and tasted again. Anyway, if you like sushi, you might enjoy this:

Seared Tuna Steaks with Wasabi Cream Sauce

2 4-5 ounce Tuna Steaks, very fresh!
1/4 c. sour cream
1/2 t. wasabi paste (you could probably use wasabi powder as well)
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
1-2 t. soy sauce

Make the wasabi cream: mix together the sour cream, wasabi, lemon
juice and soy sauce. Taste and add more soy sauce or wasabi if
necessary. Add a teaspoon or two of water and stir. It should be just a
little runny.

Season the tuna steaks with a little salt and a lot of freshly
ground pepper. Sear for a minute or two on each side. They should be
quite pink in the middle still, although not cold. Slice and drizzle
with Wasabi Cream sauce to serve. If you’re squeamish about rare fish,
or you question the freshness of the fish, it would probably still be
quite delicious if you cook the fish through.

We had this last night with some steamed sugar snap peas and this cold noodle salad from hello yarn and it was all so very delicious.

The overwhelming majority said turquoise, and because I am basically lazy, I decided to go along with the majority.


I liked the suggestions to paint it the same color as the wall, and if I start hating this, maybe that’s what I’ll do, although I think if I start hating this, that will be motivation to take the time to look and find something I really love. I’ve got lots of little pops of turquoise, yellow and green around the room, so for now this fits in just fine.


Five people actually called me weird and my sconces hideous. It’s okay though, I can take it.