Make This: Caitlin Wilson-Inspired Pillow

I love Caitlin Wilson.  Her fabrics are a fun, fresh, modern take on chinoiserie.  They're feminine without being too girly, and add the perfect punch of color to any space.

What I don't love are her prices.

Sorry, Caitlin, but I just can't justify to my husband spending $60 on a throw pillow.  Ryan is in no way abusive, but I'm pretty sure I'd catch a beating if I brought home a pillow that expensive.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I came across this beauty whilst wandering around the aisles of Target, as I am wont to do on a Thursday afternoon.

I know Target does a lot of high-end knock offs, and these two pillows may as well be sisters.

Caitlin Wilson

Target

And no, the Target pillow is not that annoyingly orange in person.  It's almost the exact same shade of coral as the CW pillow.

And, at $24.99 is a considerably cheaper option.

But still, $25?  For a PILLOW!?

Maybe I'm just in the dark here, but I just think that throw pillow prices these days are akin to highway robbery.

I mean, it's one thing if it's a really cool design/fabric that you can't find anywhere else, but a greek key grosgrain applique on a solid background? C'mon.

And so, being the DIY master that I am (ha!) I had a moment of insanity clarity and thought "Hey, I could totally make that!"

And off to the fabric store I went.

One yard of coral flannel (it was the only solid coral fabric they had), and a spool of cream grosgrain 1/2" ribbon later, I went home to get down with the Stitch Witchery.  I don't own a sewing machine... although my birthday is in July (hint, hint Ryan, because I know you're reading this).

45 minutes, a couple iron burns, and several curse words later, et voila!

My very own greek key coral pillow!

I've been trying to find an accent color to spruce up our master bedroom with (in case you haven't noticed, the whole damn thing is black, grey, and cream).  But what color?  Chartreuse?  Magenta? Nay, coral!  That fun, irresponsible cousin of pink who drinks a lot of tequila and has a badass shoe collection.

Yes, I did purchase the vase of fake flowers from Target.  Don't judge me.  I like how the pillow pulls that in, and I also have a colorful Furbish tray on my dresser that ties in nicely.

That is also the closest you will get to my handiwork, because if I gave you a real close-up you would be thoroughly unimpressed with my craftsmanship.

Some things I learned along the way:

1. Buy a damn sewing machine.  It just makes the process that much easier.

2. So does measuring out your fabric, as opposed to using another pillow cover as a stencil.

3. Applying the ribbon BEFORE assembling the pillow would make life so much easier.

4. As would drawing out the design as opposed to "winging it."

5. Don't get Stitch Witchery on top of your ribbon, because it will melt that shit to your iron.

6. Just cut the ribbon into pieces and applique that way.  Don't try to do it in one long piece with knife edges.  Just don't.

BUT, shoddy craftsmanship aside (and really, it ain't that bad, and it's not like I'm opening an Etsy shop or anything), it was totally worth the eight bucks I spent on fabric and ribbon.

And I'll take an $8 pillow over a $25 or $60 pillow any day.

But now the rest of the bed looks so lonely.  What do I do?  I'm thinking maybe some Euro shams with a nice navy blue hotel edging?  A coral throw for the end?  Punchy artwork?  A semi-grownup's work is never done.

Installing a Header in Blogger

Good morning, my little lemon drops!  I hope you had fun experimenting with all kinds of wonderful fonts and brushes yesterday, because today I'm going to show you how to upload your very own header onto your very own blog.

First, you're going to want to open Blogger, and go to the "Design" page.  It should open up this interface:

The very top box should have your blog title with (Header) right next to it.  Click "Edit."

A box like this should pop up.  Make sure your "Blog Description" box is empty.  Where there's a picture of my header, on your blog will be an option to upload an image.  Upload your header, and make sure the "Instead of title and description" option is checked.

Make sure to save!

Now, in order to make sure your blog lines up, go to "Template Designer," and then "Adjust Widths" make sure the width of your entire blog is the same width as your header image.

Save!

Now view your blog.  Your header may or may not be perfectly lined up.  If it's not, go back to the Design Page, go back to "Template Designer," and click "Advanced."  Scroll down to "Add CSS."  There should be an empty box.

Copy the following code (minus the */) and paste it into the box:

*/.header-outer {

margin-left:0px;

}*/

If you increase the margin-left from 0px to say, 40px and save, you'll notice your header image has jumped to the right.  Just play around (I usually increase/decrease in intervals of 10px) with the value until your header lines up with your blog.

And always, always, ALWAYS remember to save after everything you do!

Creating a Custom Header with Photoshop

Hello, love muffins!  Today I want to talk about blog customization.  I'm no website designer, but I think I've done a pretty decent job of swank-ifying ye olde blog here (there's still more work to be done!) and I thought I'd share some tips and tricks as I go along.

Today we're going to start with one of the most obvious elements on your blog - your header!  That's the big picture at the top. :)

Now, blogger has all kinds of header styles you can choose from, but they tend to fall a little flat design-wise.  So, why not make an awesome one of your own!?

I'll show you how I made my current header, and it was way easier than you might think.  So, off to Photoshop!

First, you're going to want to create a new image.  For a cohesive look, you're going to want to make your header the same width as your blog.  My blog is 1000 pixels wide (more on how to adjust that later), so that's the width I'm going to make my header.  I didn't want anything too tall, so my total dimensions are 250x1000 pixels.

Next, input your type.  This is going to create a text layer over your background.

For the "watercolors" in the background, I downloaded two sets of free watercolor brushes.  If you choose to also do so, just click on the folder and open it up once downloaded, and they should automatically load into photoshop.

There are a lot of fun preset brushes in photoshop, so play around with sizes and textures until you find something you like.

For my header, I set my brush size to 300 px and the Opacity to 65%, so the colors would show through each other like real watercolors.

Save your image!  Whenever I'm using graphics for a website, I always like to save as a Portable Network Graphic (.png).  They always retain their image quality very well.

And now you have your very own custom blog header.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you how to install it in blogger.

Sources:

Bebas font from font squirrel

Pee Pants Script from dafont

Watercolor brushes from here and here

A Greener Clean: Homemade Kitchen Wipes

I'll be honest: I'm the queen of the gimmick.  If it comes in a cute can, has a nifty spray nozzle, and has a foam that turns into seventeen different colors to let you know your surface is ready to scrub, I've probably bought it.

But no more!

I've been slowly greening our cleaning supplies and I've been really pleased with the results.

Not only can most of the ingredients needed to clean your home be found in your pantry, they're also really, really cheap (Hello, baking soda? They practically give that stuff away!).

My first step was homemade disinfecting kitchen wipes.

Here's the "recipe":

In a container combine 1 cup water

1 oz liquid castille soap (I use Dr. Brommer's)

and 6-8 drops of an essential oil (I use tea tree oil, as I like the smell and it has the added bonus of being a natural disinfectant)

Add some squares of cotton cloth (I conscripted one of Ryan's old t-shirts)

Now wipe up those gunky counters!

Review:

I was really pleasantly surprised by these.  I made these immediately after using up the last of my Lysol kitchen wipes, and these actually did a better job of cleaning up!

The fact that my wipes were made out of cotton give them a better scrubbing power than whatever weird construction those commercial wipes are made out of.

Bonus?  My kitchen smells like peppermint and tea tree oil instead of a hospital!

Which brings me to beg the question: do you associate the smell of bleach with the idea of cleanliness?  I know I always did.  But I've been using tea tree oil for my skin for a long time, and now when my kitchen and bath smell like it, I know those spaces are clean.

It was an interesting and unplanned experiment, reprogramming my brain to associate a new smell with the idea of clean, but it was definitely worth it.

Restoration Hardware Hack: Framed Sheet Music

About a month ago, the Restoration Hardware Source Book arrived in my mailbox and I've been trying not to drool all over buy everything in it.  Because I'm moving in a couple months, I've been avoiding buying anything decor-related for my apartment; but when I saw this picture I realized it would be a pretty easy DIY.

via

A gallery wall of framed sheet music?  Lovely!  Paying $199 a pop over at RH?  I don't think so.  Being a musician, I have TONS of old sheet music laying around so lucky me.  If you're not musically-inclined, there are a ton of websites out there where you can download free sheet music, so no worries. :)

DIY Abstract Art

Happy Labor Day!  Sorry for my absence, I've had a lot going on in the "real world" this last week.  But I did manage to find the time to wander into Michael's and boy, doesn't that always get you in trouble?  I went in for some silver leaf (which I didn't even end up buying) and left with three canvases and a bunch of Martha Stewart's new craft paint (which was totally 40% off!) and went home and came up with this...