DIY Friday – seam wars

Friday you sexy beast, we meet again. And it couldn’t have come sooner as it means I can finally show you what I’ve been up to this week! 
But before I jump into today’s DIY, I will first say sewing is not my forte. My most sincere apologies in advance as I did not include progress pictures for today’s tutorial. I normally don’t sew beyond the basics of repairing clothes, but I managed to successfully sew up this little number for today’s DIY Friday, and it ended up being a fairly straight forward job. Which literally translates to – if I can do it, anyone can. 

It all started with a Star Wars t-shirt I saw it in H&M and had to have. More so for husband’s benefit than my own since he is the fan, and my eyes start to glaze over if someone talks about Star Wars for more than 4 minutes. Unfortunately, after one wash said t-shirt warped and is now too short in the torso for my liking {do not want muffin tops hanging out}. I didn’t have the heart to give it away, so I immediately thought of transforming it into a pillow {I’ve done something similar before with a skirt}. 

Luckily, I had a pillow insert that was the perfect size. Keeping the image centred, I drew the dimensions of the pillow. I cut it out including an additional inch border along all four sides. Since the t-shirt fabric was thin and a bit too stretchy, I used some fun, flowery fabric of my own as the pillow backing to give a bit of structure. I sewed the two pieces together and voilà! 

It was a pretty straight forward and I channelled my elementary school quilting techniques {drawing a line with a ruler, sew along said line}. And to further trick people into thinking it’s a real pillow, the t-shirt had its own little authenticated Star Wars label sewn in so I seam-ripped that baby out and incorporated it into the finishing pillow seam. Legit. 
Happy Friday, friends! I hope this week treated you well, and you have a totes awesome weekend lined up. xx A

Incentive

Roughly this time last month I took a virtual stroll over to the IKEA website. For years I’ve had my eye on their Stockholm rug, but it was always just a dream since they never ever had it in stock in Dublin. For months I would check. Months turned into years. I signed up to be notified of its return, and that too expired. Except for last month. In April they had 5 in stock.  

And boy did I. I went to there. And I got the last medium rug. WINNING. Want to know the awful thing? It’s been standing in the corner of our living room ever since. 
I bought it because I knew it would fly off the shelves. And it did, since it’s no longer in stock again. I should defend myself and say I’m not the type of person to buy something that lush and ignore it {quite the opposite}. I’m using our new rug as an incentive. I have a goal and I can only put it down once I’ve reached it. I know – silly and sappy and childish. It’s not a groundbreaking goal either. But it’s driving husband insane because he says I’m torturing myself by not rolling it out {to which I usually reply with a Big Lebowski reference}.

Am I crazy? Have any of you done something like this? That first question should probably be treated as a rhetorical one. Oh god I hope I’m not the only one …

All that black and white goodness. I got my eye on the prize {and so does Juniper, as it happens}.

DIY Friday – stuff I stole from Pinterest

For this weeks DIY Friday I compiled a short list of uber simple DIY’s inspired by none other than Pinterest. It’s so easy to become a serial pinner without actually putting your favourite pins into action, so I wanted to share three of the easiest pins I’ve found and used. I wish I could claim the below ideas as my own, but unfortunately, my conscience will not allow. On to the good stuff –

I have a thirsting passion for all things decanted so when I spotted this pin, l just had to add it to our bathroom. Do you like rich mahogany and the smell of leather bound books? If so, this pin may be just the thing for you. Ditch your ugly mouthwash bottle and proudly display it all classy in a decanter in your bathroom. Because you’re so sophisticated.

This is a great pin and caught my eye as a quick way to add a bit of glam to an otherwise boring sink – adding a cute cake plate to display your washing up side kicks. Because let’s face it, who actually likes standing at their sink? Speaking as someone who hasn’t had a dishwasher in 9 years {except husband, of course}, I will honestly say I am not one of those people. 

Lastly, it makes me feel old to learn that cassette tapes are now being referred to as ‘retro’ pieces, but at least their cases are making a mini come back. This pin showed that this otherwise discarded item can be flipped to hold your phone or as I’ve done here because I’m a nerd, to hold business cards. Since this cassette case was scratched and a bit haggard, I spray painted it to disguise the ugly.
And as for me, as of this afternoon I am so incredibly excited to say I had my very first photo shoot styling gig for House & Home. Mind = blown. I feel so lucky to have been asked to do it and what an incredible title to be able to add to my ammunition. At long last my OCD is coming in handy …

With that, happy Friday homies and I hope wherever you are you have a super weekend. We might have a mini BBQ celebration for dinner me thinks {any excuse really}. I hope your weekend is chalk full of grill. xx A