Pillows!

Not too long ago I pinned some pictures on one of my Pinterest boards and soon after I got a text from my sister that read, "A Pillow board? Really?!" It made me laugh!  I love pillows because they can add a pop of color, texture and style to a room without having to change the big things like furniture.  But I'm amazed at how expensive they are to buy!

I also love the wall hangings that are all the rage right now, that have inspirational quotes or a word like "family" and then a collection of words that describe what family means.  I love words!  Anyone who knows me well would tell you I have A LOT of words I must use every day.  I'm inspired and moved by thought in print and I love words all around me...in books, on wall hangings, on pillows...

So all this leads me to my latest project: pillows!  I wanted to make a pillow with my blog name, an entrusted life, as an inspirational sort of reminder that I want to make each day all that it can be.  So I borrowed a Cricut machine from a friend and set about making some templates for my pillow.  Here's a look at what I came up with.

I bought a huge cotton drop cloth at a local hardware store that I thought would be perfect.  It's 9 ftx12 ft so it will make lots of pillows! And it's the perfect textured, off white, vintage look that I was going for. And for $16!  So I blocked my templates out on a piece of the canvas, like so...

Of course, it took me an hour to arrange everything just so-even though there are only three words. I hate to commit to anything prematurely!  Now I bought some fabric paint and some spray paint since this is my first time doing this and I wanted to be able to compare results.  On this one, I used a silver, metallic, matte finish spray paint. Here's how it turned out.

I didn't edit these photos at all before I downloaded them, so this is a little dark, but you get the idea.  It's hard to see here, but the spray paint bled more than I liked so I decided to move on to the fabric paint.

Here's a pic of half of my living room, just for fun.  This project was spread ALL OVER!!

On to my next brainstorm!  I have seen t shirts in tourist shops with the name of your location and the latitude/longitude of that location.  And I thought how fun it would be to make a pillow with the word "home" and the latitude/longitude of my home's location.  I'm brilliant! (Maybe someone else has thought of this, but I haven't seen it. So don't burst my bubble!) So I made up a template and blocked it out over the course of two more hours and a very sweet movie about a boy and his dog lost in the wilderness.  On this one I used a brown fabric paint and I was ecstatic with the results! 

 Ha! I just realized you can see my toes as I'm standing on a chair to photograph this.  Well, it's staying!  And here is the finished product!!!

I absolutely LOVE it!! In fact, I'm thinking maybe I will sell these on Etsy?!  More details on that to come as I think through the details.  Tell me what you think! 

Peaches!!

Every year I look forward to peach season!  When my kids were young, August always meant a trip to the peach orchard for picking lots of juicy, delicious peaches at Green Bluff. This year, with my kids all gone, I cheated and got my peach fix at the Farmer's Market. And of course fresh peaches means lots of eating and lots of baking!  

  I got some Red Havens for baking and...

...these little donut peaches for quick grabbing and eating.  Aren't they cute?!

Getting Started

Have you ever wanted to do something but you can't seem to figure out where to begin?  ME TOO!  Maybe you don't know exactly what you want to do, or how it should look. Or you need to think it through and nail down the details, and then you'll do it. Or maybe you are too AFRAID to put yourself "out there" and just do it!  This has been the story of my life...but not any more!  

I made a canvas around New Year's 2013 to remind myself every day to take some risks, start doing some of the things I want to do, but never do! Here's what the canvas looks like:

So here it is, halfway through 2014 and I am finally taking a risk doing something I've wanted to do for a long time: This blog!!!  Here's what I'm thinking. Life has been entrusted to us and I believe someday I will have to defend how I lived this one and only life I have been given.  The point is to learn, grow, FLOURISH!!!  And I have found that I do these things best when I have other people walking the road alongside me.  And that's the purpose of my blog- to be someone who shares their walk along the road of life. With that being said, here are my "disclaimers" right up front.

1. I'm Ordinary!  I can already hear my sister telling me to change my thinking, but it's true. I'm not an amazing diy'er who has projects galore just waiting to be shared.  I love food and I can cook and bake with passion, but I'm not going to be the next new face on The Food Network.  I want to be healthy and fit but I don't have a following on YouTube or any other social media site.  I love to read and exchange ideas but I won't be publishing any original, earth shattering ideas any time soon.  BUT...I do love sharing the simple things in life that make me happy, whether it's making my home a cozy, relaxing place to be, whipping up some yummy dish in the kitchen, or sharing a thought that came to me while I was watering (which is usually when I'm most inspired-really!).

2. I'm a hot mess a lot of the time!  (Again I hear my sister's voice) I wish I had it all together but that's just not the case.  I'm still a work in progress and the reality is that my life is messy, unpredictable, bumpy and glorious all at the same time, and I live on one side of the spectrum, it seems, more often than not.  But I do delight in the simple things like good coffee every single day, playing badminton with my kids when they're home, hitting the Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning, getting lost in a good book, and a good night's sleep. You get the idea.  This blog will be the real me, with real life and my thoughts on it.

Happy getting started! I hope you'll join me!