Book Review - "Lovable Livable Home" by Sherry and John Petersik (#18 - 2016)

Lovable Livable Home by Sherry and John Petersik

I mean you can't read blogs and not know who Sherry and John are/were/are.  I followed and enjoyed their blog for years and eagerly bought their first book Young House Love, and really liked it.  So I was excited to see what they had in store for book #2.  I did not enjoy this one as much as the first book.  I think because it didn't focus so much on their projects, more on sharing other people's home and what they do that works for them.  Which is fine and the photos are beautiful.  However, I came to see what John and Sherry are up to, more about what they have been doing since the blog was shuttered.  But maybe that isn't the point and I'm just missing the blog.  Overall it's a solid book with lots of ideas, but if you are looking for more of what the blog was, pick up book 1.

Weekend DIY - Cashmere Sweater to Pillow

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Thanks for all the well wishes last week!  I'm feeling better and ready to get this week going and actually ticking some stuff off my "to do" list.  One of the biggies on my list is getting the husband's closet cleaned out and organized (the man has more clothes and shoes than I do with most of it being worn out or just not used any longer).  As I emptied out his closet I ran across this lovely grey cashmere sweater.  Great, right?  Only not.  Because the darn front was chock full of moth holes (great).  Well, I just couldn't throw away all that cashmere, I put it aside and thought about what I could do with it. 

Ah ha, I could try and sew a pillow cover out of that sweater.  I had a leftover bolster pillow insert from my girls worn out chair we got a few years ago.   Let the fun begin!

The sweater before the cutting began.

Cut the sleeves off (to use later) and got the back isolated so the sewing could begin.

Folded the back of the sweater (facing inside out) horizontally to the top of the shoulders and started hand stitching (I don't have a sewing machine).  Just a quick and dirty straight stitch across the whole thing.

The bolster insert

Turned the now tubular back of the sweater so that the stitching is on the inside and pulled the tube over the bolster.

Since the tube didn't cover the ends of the bolster I decided to cut the ends of the sleeves off, use the widest part of the sleeve (from shoulder to about elbow) to cover each end.

Turning it inside out, I took the elbow side of the cut off sleeve and just gathered the open end and just stitched it together (again by hand).  Nothing fancy just so it holds together.

Turn the sewn sleeve part so that the stitching is on the inside and then I slipped the sleeve over both ends of the bolster and tucked it under the tube sewn earlier.

Then I just tucked the raw edge of the tube against the sewn sleeve caps and just stitched over it (again quickly and by hand).  I used black thread I had in my sewing kit.  Could I have gone out and bought some grey thread so it matched?  Sure.  Did I want to buy something for this project?  No. The challenge with this DIY was to use what I had on hand to create something useful with out spending any $.

Here's how it looks when the whole thing is stitched.  Not bad right?  We'll call it "charmingly rustic".

Here's the finished bolster on the sofa.  It's not perfect but it is useful.  And so soft.  If the cats or kid eventually messes it up then no harm no foul.

Have a great Monday!

I want this! - Inspiration via Marchesa by Lenox

So I saw this accent plate online and knew in an instant that it would be my inspiration for decorating our master bedroom in the next house.  We have the chocolate furniture (not furniture made out of chocolate, though that would be pretty darn awesome, but I would just eat it and then we wouldn't have any furniture.  Okay, I will stop!) so just bring on the turquoise and white accessories.  I'm so excited!  Now if only our house would actually sell so I can get on with it!  Sheesh...
Marchesa by Lenox "Palatial Garden" accent plate - $40

Real Simple - Decorating with Purple

The January 2010 Real Simple magazine had a great feature about decorating your house with purple.  They had some great purple furniture, paint and accessory picks.  If you love purple, go check it out (also check out this purple color story I posted a few months ago).  Enjoy!

Images via Real Simple

Love this! - Branch Hanger

Branch Hanger - $19.99 each

Image via The Container Store

Lovely little Birthday presentation

I was going through some old emails and ran across these pictures from about a year ago from my friend's birthday that was held at another friend's house.  The presentaion is so charming.  I especially love that Buck the pug so wanted a piece of that cake!  Enjoy!

Images via Peggy Petrocy

Minimalist Christmas?

I ran across these two Christmas items this week and while the ideas are intriguing, I'm thinking it could be a bit too Minimalist/Modern for moi.

possibiliTree (available in 2ft, 3ft and 6ft versions) - image via Design Crush

Minimalist Nativity Set by Oliver Fabel - via here

I think the tree in the 2ft tabletop version could be really great (in an entryway perhaps? with beautiful ornaments), but the Nativity set is a bit odd for my taste.  What do you think?

Yes, I love toile

I'm not that traditional in my "decorating" but I do love a hit of toile here and there, just not too much.  I mean not the walls, drapes, bedding, etc.  That's a bit much for me.  But a touch here and there, that's just about right.  Traditional Home has a whole slideshow with images of decorating with toile and these two pictures seem to illustrate the "right" amount of toile for me.

A nice upholstered headboard.

Maybe a fun lighting fixture?  That would work.

To tell the truth, I never gave toile much of a thought until I worked for a well known printed fabric company. Only then did I realize how intricate they were (or could be) and the stories each different toile told.  Now I have a much deeper appreciation for them and enjoy having them around the house.  Trust me there's a toile for everyone, if you haven't found yours keep on looking.

Images via Traditional Home

I want this!

Loving these sparrow hooks from Fred Flare. Sold in sets of 2 for $20 (they pick the color combos). A fun little touch!

Image via Fred Flare

House of Pain

I’ve been a little less frequent in my posts lately because we are in the process of selling our house in order to move to a new city for a job transfer. You can imagine how difficult this has and will be right now. My husband has already “moved” and I’m here holding down the fort and going back and forth. We had our first Open House (for realtors only) last Tuesday so I spent most of the weekend and day before cleaning and tidying and just trying to make the place presentable. Tuesday morning, as I was walking through the house doing a final check, I had a very sobering thought – I hate the way my house is decorated; it doesn’t reflect our style in the least – yuk!

Look, I’m a designer, but I’m not an interior designer by any means. People find out I design fabric and they assume, wrongly, that my house must be like something out of a magazine. I have always struggled with visualizing and figuring out how a space should and can look. My Mother is really gifted at this, she can create little vignettes on tabletops and mantles, while I create chaos and confusion. I try so hard and always it’s just a mess and I give up, overwhelmed and frustrated. A good example of this is when we moved into this house. I arranged the furniture in the living room and I thought I did such a good job. It stayed this way for a few months until one weekend my husband, who had evidently been hating the arrangement, took it upon himself to redo the entire room, moving the sofa there, and chairs here and buying new end tables (I couldn’t decide what kind to get, got frustrated and just used wooden TV trays – yeah). When my Mother came back to visit she raved about how the living room looked so much better this way, she said what a good job I did, and I had to point out that my husband did it. (cue the losing game show music – again).

I’ve been thinking and thinking about why I have such issues with this, part of it has to do with being overwhelmed easily with the amount of space and volume and the other part has to be wanting to make things look “perfect”. I want the just right chair or the just right table and if I can’t find it, I just do without or get something to just get me by for a while until I find it – “a while” usually being “forever”. Not to mention that between my husband and I we have a mash up of things from relatives and from our previous single lives that we have to somehow make work together.

So I have made up my mind that when we move into our new house – whenever that will be – I am going to make a herculean effort to make the house more of a reflection of who we are. I want to feel like I can have people over and not make excuses for how the house looks (“Uh, we’re still unpacking and trying to figure out where things should go.” *nervous laughter*). Now if I can talk my husband into this then we’re in business.

In the meantime I will start an inspiration board of images that I would like our house to look like and what would work with our current furniture (sometimes just a small change can make a big difference – new throw pillows for the sofa for example). I’m just going to take it little by little so I don’t get overwhelmed and maybe hunt down a good interior designer to befriend (ha). Wish me luck!