I used this skirt tutorial to make skirts for me and my girls. I know that this picture from my camera phone is completely dull and uninspiring so imagine us all wearing our new cute skirts and running about on a sunny autumn day in a field covered with red and yellow leafs and our skirts bouncing, twirling and looking completely darling and stylish.

I also thought a kitchen table map would make wiping down my dining room table easier and make for some fun dinner conversations. I bought this fun map from Utah Idaho Supply Map World because where else should you go to get a map but Map World. When I came home with it my husband wasn’t sure about the whole vinyl tablecloth look on our dining room table but after taking it off for a few day for a dinner party, he kept asking me to put it back on.

Yes, it does make wiping down our table much easier. There are just too many darn decorative cracks in our table top.

(I’ll admit I was temped to photo shop my banged up chairs to look perfect but that’s not real life, is it? I’ve gone crazy with stain and a sharpie marker before and it helps but not for long. I guess it matches the whole vinyl look. Ha.)

Leah, point to the elephant.

And last but not least. I made myself one of these awesome weekly menu boards in hopes of feeding my family more regularly. So far so good , too. I’ve let everyone pick out one meal a week. It’s fun to have the kids read what we’re having for dinner and hear them say “It’s your night for ____!”

So there you have it. I’m good at copying. How about you? Are you naturally clever or do you need some inspiring ideas to spring off of?

My biggest project was making two Rollie Pollies. They are big fun bean bag type pillows. They’ve been a hit and I occasionally have to go over and sit on them myself because I’m completely and totally in love with them.

They were so fun to make but were quite the LARGE project. I haven’t ever made anything like this so it was a new, fun learning experience. I was trying to get the kids to model for me but my little stinker, Isaac, wouldn’t smile for me. What a tough guy!

I stuffed my red striped one more then the gray one and I think we like the gray one better. It’s softer and molds more to our bodies better. If you are thinking about making them yourself, I’ll tell you that I filled my Rollie Pollies with shredded foam from foambymail.com. It was the best price I could find. I guess foam is what the Love Sacs have in them. I went with foam instead of poly fill or actual bean bag filling because I’m hoping this will allow them to last forever and stand up to all the running, jumping and rolling abuse they will have received without ever having to re-stuff them.

After spending a bunch of time stuffing the inner linings with the staticy, messy, vacuum plugging shredded foam I’m think that if I ever made these again I would pay the extra few dollars and take it to a local furniture mattress supply place I found that will fill the bag directly. How nice, eh!

Either way, they are finished and I think they are absolutely darling.

One for a girl…

One for a boy…

Anyone interested in purchasing? $45 plus shipping.

I have yet to open an Etsy shop for my baby booties (thank you for all of your nice comments, by the way) but she has started one for her quilts. Check out her Etsy shop where she has a few handmade quilts for sale.

Whoo hoo! Go Grandma Debbie!

I had my big sis snap a photo at the baby shower before I had to say goodbye to them. Sniff.

She put the photos on flickr here.

I couldn’t really find a example online that I loved for inspiration so I came up with my own. Looking all over the web has made me feel like hearts are kinda cheesy so I was going for a whimsical look. I did my best to make an uncheesy pillow.

Here is how to make it with a 16×16 pillow form-

Supplies

1. Fabric scraps for your hearts. Make sure that the fabric is bold enough to stand out on your background material. This was a bit of a challenge for me.

2. Appliqué material: I use Heat’ n Bond but there are a few other types. I’d get about 1/4 yard for this project.

3. Material for the pillow front, cut to 17″ x 17″ square. Look for something like lightweight canvas or even a muslin will work.

4. Material for the back. Cut 1 rectangle 17″x 14″ and cut 1 rectangle 17″x 10″.

5. 16″ x 16″ pillow form. If you choose to use a different size pillow you’ll just have to adjust the measurements of the pillow front and back.

***

Step 1: Trace or draw your heart shapes onto your appliqué material. Roughly cut out the hearts and iron them on to your desired material. This allows you to “fussy cut” each heart so that you can get the fabric pattern into the heart shape as desired. Iron the heart according to the directions on the appliqué material. (press & hold the iron over each heart for a few seconds) Repeat with all your hearts.

Step 2: Now with scissors cut out your hearts and peel off the paper backing. Arrange them on your pillow front material. I placed my fabric on top of my pillow so I could get a good idea of what it would look like and how far to stay away from the edges. Make sure to stay at least an 1.5″ away from the edges to leave room for sewing.

Step 3: Once your design is how you like it, iron over each heart to tack it in place. This will keep everything in place while you sew them on.

Step 4: Now you can sew along the inside edges of your hearts. A zig zag stitch or blanket stitch could work as well.

When I sew my hearts on I move my foot from heart to heart without cutting the strings so it goes faster. Afterward I’ll go back and cut the strings on the front and don’t even bother with the back side.

Step 5: To prepare your pillow back, fold one of the short edges of each pillow backing piece in 1/2″ and press, then again 1/2″ and press. Sew to hide any raw edges. These will be the edges of the envelope back. If you are confused about which edge to sew, lay out the pieces on the pillow front to give you and idea how it goes together.

Step 6: Lay the backing pieces right sides down onto the pillow front over lapping the centers. Make sure your right sides are facing towards the right sides of your pillow front and your outer edges match. Pin around the edges well.

Step 7: Sew a 1/4″ to 1/2″ inseam around the edges. Then clip your extra corner fabric off so the corners will turn nicely. Turn it inside out and stuff a 16″ pillow form in it.

Ta da! That’s it. Enjoy your pillow.

I present to you my Wintery Forest Pillow… Ta da…

I have to say it was so much fun to make and even more fun to sit and look at once it was done. I was very tempted to add a star and polk-a-dot ornaments to one of the trees and in fact cut them out and stared at them for half an hour but… I forced myself to restrain. Maybe I need to make a second one that looks more Christmasy. My only beef with my pillow is that I wish I had moved the trees up a bit so the trunks weren’t sitting right on the bottom.

My super-duper-internet-searching-sister found the inspiration on Etsy and of course made one of her own. Go check them out and feel inspired yourself.

In my sisters search for fall decor she found this darling pillow tutorial. My mom saw the post and being the sewing fanatic that she is, loved it. She called me to say that we needed to make it and immediately went out a bought two pillow forms.

We made it last Friday and every time I walk into my family room and see it sitting on my chair it makes me happy. I think it turned out so cute. Thanks Mom.

I’m loving this pillow so much that I thought I would make a little card from it. I created this to share will my faithful digi scrap’n blog readers. I want to say thank you for downloading my templates. I am so happy to share my creations with you. I want you guys to know that I always read every comment too. Your comments give me a good idea how many downloads I get and what kind of templates are most popular.

This 5×7 could be printed out and pasted on cardstock for a quick thank you card. It could also be re-sized. I may even be tempted to drag it onto a fall layout.

To download this 5×7 tree template click here.

I used Dani Mogstad’s Falling Softly kit that I got from The Digi Files 8 to cover my template. I’m not sure if her kit it is up at the Sweet Shoppe yet but I love the soft fall colors. I created my own stitches though and now I just need someone nice to give my card to.

Now that I’m all ready for fall, the winter weather is knocking at my door step. We woke up to snow Saturday morning… Sheesh. I’m not quite ready for this.

The pink pair took some trial and error to figure it out. It’s a simple pattern but it’s just like me to sew things on backwards or miss catching an edge in the stitch. The second little boy pair went much faster.

It’s a perfect project for leftover fabric. I just had to get some thick soft fabric for the soles and interfacing for the uppers and waa laa… toasty toes in the winter time.

Here is Leah not really wanting to model for me. I couldn’t quite figure out how to get a good angle of the shoes without just getting a picture of her chubby legs (which I thought was darling but I’m biased. I spend hours during the day just squeezing them.) She was more interested in eating leafs and attacking my camera than giving me a smile. She’s a cute little stinker anyway.

Pretty fun, eh?