O Taste and See : Tutorial

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is that man that trusteth in Him." -Psalm 34:8

I love this verse. Particularly the reference to tasting. 

I like the idea of tasting His goodness. Sampling His sweet kindness. Savoring His love.
I love this verse.

And I've had the idea brewing for some time that this verse would find its place in my kitchen. 

This was really a matter of "Use what you already have."

I had this home decor plaque {or whatever you'd call it}

One coat of black latex paint and we're rippin' and roarin'.

I found a pear silhouette simply by 'bing-ing' "pear silhouette", printed, cut, and used to stencil. I used Americana Hauser Light Green.

Now came the longest portion of this project. First, picking the fonts I wanted. Second, using a Xacto knife to carefully cut out each letter to create a stencil. I can now tell you in all honesty it was absolutely not worth the money I saved taking the time to do this myself. Next time I will just order the vinyl! 

After laying out my stencil I painted over the letters using Americana's Bleached Sand. Its a nice, warm creamy color.

This is now one of the first things you see {read} when you enter the kitchen. 

I think this one little piece makes our house feel more like home. :)

Blessed and content,

Kaylee

Painted Curtains and Pleated Flower Pillow

Lately I've been itchin' to revamp some things around here. Starting with the usually neglected room of the house: the Master bedroom. No one but us sees it, so its not on top of the priority list.

Loved Dear Lillie's Painted curtains. Little work; big impact! I took a stab at it...

We already had the white drapes so I  just had to pick up  the painter's tape, plastic drop cloth, and of course some paint. {*Mistake- not taking the color I wanted to match-up with. The first  two photos you'll see my tan/beige looks a little on the yellow side.}

First, I measured my stripes by marking every 12 inches, and then taping on the inside line of the white stripe. 

Then I laid  them out on the kitchen floor and started painting. The joints in our tile made this a little tricky, but it worked. {As you can see.. yellow. Repainted with the correct color the next morning}

Very pleased with the finished product!

Probably should have fixed the bottom of the curtains before I started snapping pictures. :)

{Click pictures for a larger view}

I also had this little number stuffed away in a closet. 

Using some fabric I picked up for $2 at Joanne's, an old bed sheet cut into strips and then sergered {serged? what the right word?}, and a broach; I recovered the pillow and somewhat followed this tutorial. {minus the tea-bags} This was a start-to-finish in one nap-time project! 

Two looks- $12! Well, it would  have been only $12  had I purchased the right color paint the first time. So let's say $12 + $9 mistake. Oops. Still... not too shabby.

This weekend my sweet DIY husband and carpenter father-in-law are building us a new bed! Or headboard. Which ever they realistically have time to complete. 

Here is the look we like:

Happy sunny Thursday!

Give Thanks & Burlap Tutorials

Here we are, two days away from the first day of Fall; and although I appreciate the arrival of each new season, I LOVE Autumn and Winter best!


Ahhhh... how I love Fall!
Fall is full of the cozy's:  sweaters, apples, candles, baked goods, teas & lattes, roaring fires, crock-pots, books... my list goes on.

Oh, and I love to decorate for Fall! However, I do make myself wait  until October. If I do not wait until then I am tired of it all by Thanksgiving- which is when I want to appreciate it the most.

So, while I wait.... I decided to try my hand at some projects!

I loved {and so was then inspired by} Dear Lillie's "give thanks" pillow.

Here is how I went about it:

Give Thanks Ruffle Pillow Cover -


First- I grabbed one of my tired pillows off the couch, removed the pillow from the cover, and then used that cover as my "pattern" for cutting.

I folded the fabric {some type of canvas I found in the utility fabrics at Joann's} so that I would cut two equal pieces. Then I gave myself about 1/2 inch all the way around for the sewing, and just started cutting.

Then I cut a third piece, equally wide but half as tall.

This third piece will work folded on the back side of the cover, to insert the pillow.

Next, I grabbed some beige, jeweled wedding-veiling. Yup, I just so happened to have that lying around. Going to make a ruffle out of this. 

Since the veiling is so sheer, I folded it in half to double-up my ruffle. Then  I started cutting what I guess to be about 5 inches wide. {guessed being the key word}

Now here is where I forgot to keep taking pictures... {so I'll just give you a sneak peak as I explain}

I was distracted by the fact that my normal method for sewing ruffles using a high tension on my machine was  not working! Disastrous story short... the easiest way to ruffle veiling is to bunch/scrunch it and then pin it. 

So I scrunched, and bunched, and pinned it to my cover fabric as I went. 

Then I sewed a straight stitch down the center, attaching the ruffle to the cover.

{Sneak Peak}

After attaching the ruffle, I knew where to write. First, I used a pencil to freehand script "give thanks"... I followed Dear Lillies and then added some little curly-q's of my own. Then I went over the pencil writing with a Sharpie Paint marker.

Next, I took the two back pieces for the cover and folded the bottom of each to just about 3 inches; and ironed that fold.

Then I pinned the larger back piece to the front cover piece. Pin: Right sides together or it's wrong. {Thanks, Sue} And after that, pinned the small back piece {overlapping the larger back piece} to the front cover. Again: Right sides together or it's wrong.

Now, I sewed all the way around, using a 5/8 seam. 

Yay! Done!

So I folded the cover right-side open and stuffed it with the pillow. Pretty cute I think. 

Fall Burlap Candle Wrap-
I was inspired by my sister- Laurin- who is preparing for a burlap Christmas, and recently started wrapping her candles in burlap.
I cut a strip of burlap {long and short enough to wrap my favorite BBW candle- Leaves} and then used my Sharpie paint marker to write out "fall" in the center of the strip. Then I wrapped the candle, using a piece of Scotch tape to temporarily secure the wrap while I tied some twine around it. I double wrapped the twine on top to make a little bow, and once on the bottom to secure the wrap on the candle.
Done. Love it.

What do you think?

What are you working on for the Fall???