letter pillow

I love letters!! I love letters on quilts, pillows, walls...etc. I am currently looking for a cool H for the wall.

Anyway, I decided to make my boys some letter pillows for their beds. Zac's pillows were small, so I (actually my mom made his) did his whole name. For the other boys I did large letters, so only their first initial.

Here is Jake's pillow on the couch.

I'm terrible with tutorials, but here it goes...if you have any questions or something doesn't make sense....leave me a comment and I will respond in the comment section or leave your email and I will send you an email.

How to make the pillows....this is what I did anyway:)

• trace or draw your letter onto a piece of poster board...make sure that you take into account a 1/4-1/2" seam allowance, so that your finished pillow will be the size you want.
• cut out the fabric for the front side of your pillow. make sure that the right side of your fabric faces the correct way.
• cut out the fabric for the back side of your pillow. cut the back side so that the right side of the fabric is the mirror image of the letter...does that make any sense....your letter should be backwards on the wrong side of the fabric.
• place the rights sides of your fabric together and pin, if you want...I didn't...I'm lazy like that.
• sew a 1/4-1/2 seam around the fabric leaving a 3-4 inch gap open for stuffing the fiberfill into the pillow.
• stuff the pillow to desired firmness.
• hand stitch or machine stitch opening closed.
• done.
  
  

Zac's pillows...I know they don't really match the bedding, he was temorarily sleeping in this bed when I took these photos.

Posted over at Kimba's DIY Day.

from gas fireplace to wood stove

We recently...as in just finished this past week...tore out our gas fireplace(my wonderful bro-in-law did most of that part:)) and replaced it with a wood burning stove. We are SO excited to burn some wood and stay warm this winter. We had some pretty high gas bills last year(not from using the gas fireplace), so we are hoping to save some money by burning wood. Last year to keep our gas bill from being TOO high, we kept the thermostat at 62 degrees and put some radiator heaters in the kids bedrooms so they wouldn't freeze.....this year maybe we can be WARM during the winter!! Now my husband is looking forward to the cold weather.

before

don't pay any attention to the fact that we STILL haven't cut in next to the crown molding.

Also...need new couches or slipcovers or SOMETHING!!

After

still need to re-attach the molding next to the door and lay some tile on the concrete between the rock and wood floor.

before and after....front door

BEFORE...or actually during..

We moved into our home almost 2 1/2 years ago and we have MANY projects on our to-do lists!! One of them that was towards the top was STAIN front door and trim!! It took us a year before my husband dared try to stain the laminate door himself! I must say that I think it looks absolutely fabulous! I definite improvement!! He did a great job, now(for the last year and a half) I don't cringe every time I look at the front door as I pull into the drive.... instead I SMILE!!

After

I will be showing you other projects around the house as we finish them and can mark them off the list! It seems that our list just keeps getting LONGER, not shorter!