DIY Decorative Throw Pillow

There aren't too many things that I enjoy more in life than decorating! I've seen every episode of Fixer Upper on HGTV and I think that if Joanna Gaines and I ever met, we would be best friends (at least I hope so; but who doesn't, right?). But decorating can cost SO MUCH MONEY! And being a stay-at-home-mom with two kids; ain't nobody got the cash for that! I'm that girl who looks at Pottery Barn and Pier One and tries to figure out how I can make the same exact thing out of stuff I have laying around or things from the Dollar Store.

Growing up, my mom decorated our house from top to bottom at Christmas time. She has the eye for tiny, little details and always knows exactly where to put that extra "something" to make things look perfect. This is our first Christmas in our very first home and I was DETERMINED to make our house into the perfect winter wonderland (thanks, mom). But with being on a budget, I had a lot of work ahead of me when it came to DIYs.

Throw pillows are always the perfect way to top of a room with that added seasonal "touch". Whether it's in your living room, your bedroom, or maybe on a front entry way bench, they're the types of little things that make a house into a home (and give your room that added "magazine quality" look - am I right?). But they can be obnoxiously expensive. Seriously. I went to Home Goods the other day. Yes, usually you can find a lot of great deals at Home Goods, and trust me, I do. But when I was strolling through the decorative pillows, I almost died looking at the price tags. You want me to spend $29 on ONE throw pillow? Do you know all of the things I can get for $29? A case of diapers. Two cases of wipes. Six grande caramel brûlée lattes from Starbucks. I mean, the list goes on and on. Not to mention the fact that Jake would probably kill me if he ever found out I spent that much on one stinking pillow that I'm going to yell at him about laying his sweaty head on while he watches football on a Saturday. (Of course I would yell at him, that's a $29 pillow). So, as I kissed my throw pillow dreams goodbye, I headed home. And on that ride home, I started thinking. And once I got home, I started Pintresting. People make pillows out of everything, I swear. Old clothes, blankets, tablecloths, curtains. The pins were never ending. And everything called for sewing, and well, unfortunately I wasn't blessed with my Grandma's sewing genes. I can barely thread a needle, let alone use a sewing machine. So once again, I kissed my pillow dreams goodbye. Then one random day while scrolling through a Facebook group that I'm a part of, I saw a post about a lady who used placemats as pillows. Of course she sewed them back together and I got annoyed and exited out of the post and went to go do the dishes. Then, in the middle of soapy bottles and hot water, I had this crazy idea to use a hot glue gun. I knew this could be risky but I decided I had to attempt it.

I ventured out to Target. Of course. It had to be Target. One, because I'm obsessed. And two because, well, have you SEEN their Christmas decor this year? AH-MAZE-INGGGGGGGGG!!!! They have SOOOOO much stuff. Seriously, if you haven't gone and spent at least an hour obsessing over every single thing there, get on it! Anyways, off to the Home section. They had SO many placemats. Seriously tons. And they were pretty decently priced. One placemat was $4.99 but at the time, they were on sale on their Cartwheel App for $4.25. (If you don't have the Cartwheel App - download it NOW). And then even on top of that, I had a coupon for $10 off any $15 purchase, and I have the Target Red Debit Card so you get 15% off of every single purchase. Basically - Target is my best friend and once again, came through for me to give me a GREAT deal!! So with that good of a deal, I ended up picking up 3 placemats (and a couple packs of gum to push me over that $15 mark so I could use my coupon) and I only ended up spending a couple bucks for all of them!

Then I headed over to JoAnn Fabrics to get the pillow "filling". I spoke with an employee there and she suggested using a polyester fiber fill because it doesn't bunch up and it's washable. So that's what I went with. And if you are a shopper, you know that there are always some type of sales going on at JoAnns or Michaels and you can always find coupons online for them. I picked up 2 (2lb each) bags. I know it seems like a ton of filling, but I used a whole bag and a little bit from the second bag on my three pillows. They were originally $12.99 each, but they were 40% off so I paid under $17 for both (and I still have enough fill left to do two more pillows so you know I'll be heading out to Target this weekend to get me some more placemats)!

And then, I set home to start my project. It took MAYBE 20 minutes from start to finish for me to do all three pillows. It's taking me longer to write this post! And being a mom of two toddlers, I can only distract them for so long without them wanting to see exactly what I'm doing and to start "helping". Easton did "assist" me with stuffing one of the pillows, so I think this would be a great project if you had kids that were a little older. Maybe let them pick out their own placemats and they can do their own pillows. Super quick project that you are guaranteed to love!

DIY Decorative Throw Pillow!

Materials:

- Placemat

- Fiber Fill

- Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

- Small Scissors or Box Cutter

* I will post links below of the exact materials that I used *

Directions:

Remove the price tags from your placemat and plug in your hot glue gun so it can heat up.

Using the small scissors (which is what I used) or the box cutter, cut a tiny part of the thread that is holding the front and back pieces together. I cut mine on the bottom, but you really could cut the top or either side, I don't think it matters.

Continue to carefully cut an opening that is just large enough for you to get your whole hand in there.

Now for the fun part - take that fiber fill and start stuffing....

.... and stuff ....

.... and stuff ....

.... and stuff!!!

Make sure you get into all the corners and stuff that baby until it's nice and fluffy! Once you got it fully fluffed, it should look something like this:

Now, on the inside of your placemat there should be a small overlay of fabric that looks like this:

That is where you are going to put the glue at. I worked with about an inch at a time. Put a small line of hot glue on and then pinch the two pieces of fabric together and hold it for about a minute to insure that the glue is binding both pieces together.

Continue to do this in small sections at a time until the entire hole is glued back together.

I then took a small pair of scissors and trimmed up any tiny pieces of thread that were hanging and any large pieces of glue that maybe squeezed out.

Time to fluff things up again to spread out all of the fiber that's inside. And finally..... throw that pillow on your couch or bench, sit back, and enjoy the beautiful masterpiece that you just made! (And high-five your bank account for all the money you saved!)

Links to specific items that I used:

Poly-Fil Fiber Fill

(This link is for a 16oz bag from JoAnn Fabrics; I used a 32oz bag but only the 32oz bags are available in stores)

Green Plaid Car w/ Tree Placemat

Cream & Gold JOY Placemat

Velvet Reindeer Placemat

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

This project was cheap and seriously only took a couple of minutes! It's the perfect way to add a little something extra to your rooms for all the different seasons. They have placemats for everything so you can do so many different ones and switch them out often! You could even make some and give them as gifts! I hope you try your hand at a couple and if you do, please let me know how it goes and send me some pics!

Happy decorating!

- Christine

Disclaimer: I was not obligated in any way to review or share the products that I used with you and I am not being compensated to mention them. 

DIY: Refurbishing an Old Dresser!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We enjoyed great food, spent time with family and friends, and we even got in some Christmas shopping. I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've made any posts but I have a very good explanation! I've been busy doing some refurbishing. You read that right. Refurbishing. An old dresser - to be exact. I NEVER thought in a million years I would be able to tackle this kind of project but I did and I was so happy with it that I had to share.

I owe two HUGE shout outs. The first: My cousin Amber. She has refurbished (what seems like) a million pieces and each one looks flawless. So of course, I was a never ending basket of questions for her. Seriously. I had to of called or texted her at least 500 times to ask her about spray guns and paint and sanding and so many other things. And, like always, she helped me and was so nice and encouraging. It made the entire process that much easier. Thanks Amber!! And secondly, a shout out to my husband Jake. I really thought he was going to hate me by the time this project was done but thankfully he doesn't. I asked him just as many questions and I made him do some of the staining and spraying because, well, we have kids and I wasn't going to let this project sit in the garage for 5 months partially finished. So he helped me out a ton too. They both made this project possible. So here's all the details.....

Now, on to the dresser. I had been on the hunt for a buffet for in our dining room for awhile now. But the dang things are just so expensive. There was no way we were fitting a $500 buffet into our budget. So on to Craigslist I searched. After a couple of days, I finally found one. It has a really nice mirror with it and I plan on refinishing that shortly to hang in one of our hallways. But the dresser/mirror combo wasn't local. In fact, it was about 45 minutes away from our house. And after a little while, Jake caved and agreed to go with me to pick it up. So we went out on a Sunday afternoon and got it. It was super heavy so I'm glad that I brought Jake along, and he thought it was best to bring our utility trailer.

Once we had it all strapped on, we made our way to Lowes to pick out paint. I knew I wanted a medium grey shade. We decided on Sherwin Williams "Armitage Grey" color. I thought it was the perfect grey that I was looking for. While we were there, we also picked up some "Flood- Floetrol paint thinner" to thin out our paint.

First things first, we unloaded this beaut into our garage and set up shop to get this thing looking amazing again. I took off all of the hardware - and SAVED it. I wanted to use the original hardware because I liked how it looked. I guess you could use new hardware if you wanted to; you might just have to fill the original hardware holes with wood glue or filler if they aren't going to be the same size. Also, the dresser that I got has a door on the front that opens up to more drawers, so I took the door off as well and all of that hardware. I also took out all of the drawers and set up a station on a folding table to work on them separately.

Next, it was time to sand. I can't express enough how important this step is. You have to give your primer and paint a good surface to adhere to and the best way to do this is to give everything a really good sanding. I used an electric hand sander on the large, flat surfaces and then used a rough sand paper by hand in all of the small, detailed areas that a hand sander couldn't get to. After that, I wiped the whole thing down with a damp cloth to get all of the sanding dust off.

On to priming. We bought a paint spray gun from Harbor Freight for $16 and I swear, it's one of the best investments we've ever made.

It made this project go by so much quicker and I think it made the paint look so much more professional. They are totally worth it! Although make note that when you use a paint spray gun, it is best to thin out your paint so that it sprays better.

We used regular, good old KILZ premium primer and thinned it down with some water. (Your primer should have a recommended amount to use when thinning that will be listed in the directions.) We suggest you use some old cardboard and test out your spray gun to get the hang of things and the right amount of paint flowing before you actually start on your project piece. They do say practice makes perfect, right? We did one good coat of primer and then let it dry. Because we used the paint sprayer, it dried fairly quickly.

Time to paint! The directions that were on the back of the paint can for thinning were really confusing; so I basically had to do a lot of trial and errors with measurements. For our paint sprayer, I found that our perfect measurements was: filling our paint sprayer bottle halfway with paint, adding two tablespoons of water and two tablespoons of the Flood Floetrol paint thinner. Then I mixed it all up real good before putting the spray gun all together. Remember: test your sprayer out on an old piece of cardboard before you go spraying your project piece. Once we got the spray gun rocking and rolling; it was go time. I - yes I - (I didn't even let Jake do this part because I thought the spray gun was so cool and I insisted on doing it myself) - started spraying away. The dresser and then onto the drawers. To do it all, it took maybe 10 minutes. Then we cleaned up and headed inside for the night to let it dry.

The next day, I woke up in the morning and I sanded with a very light piece of sand paper to prep it for the next coating of paint. And then I sprayed it all over again. This time, I made sure to really take my time and get a good, even coat - as this would be the final coat of paint. After I was done, I left it to dry for the rest of the day.

Now on to the hardware. Give it a good washing. I just used Dawn dish soap and hot water. I wasn't too worried about what it looked like because I knew I was spray painting them. Once they were fully dried, I sprayed them all with white matte spray paint. It only took about 30 minutes to dry before I moved them and spray painted them again, making sure to get all the angles and giving it a good coat. This next time I waited a good couple of hours to really let it dry. Then I sprayed them with a Polycrylic protective finish clear gloss top coat and let it dry.

After letting the dresser dry, I came back outside and went on to sanding the top. I didn't think things through at the beginning (If I had, I would have tapped off the top to avoid any paint getting sprayed on it - but I didn't think of that) so I had to sand off all of the excess paint that got sprayed onto it. The good part was that I was able to use the hand sander so it went by pretty quickly.

Once I was done sanding, it was time to stain the top. I wiped it all off with a damn cloth to get the sanding pieces off. Then, I doubled up on disposable rubber gloves and got an old towel that I ripped up into a couple pieces. We decided on Minwax Polyshades Espresso colored stain because it is the same stain that is on our dining room table and I wanted it to match. We bought the polyshades because it has stain and polyurethane in one, and we bought it in gloss finish. I shook the stain up really good and then opened it. Next, I dunked about 2-3 inches of the towel into the stain and rang it out a little bit. Then I went to staining. It is best, when staining, that you only run along the wood grain. So I continuously ran the towel back and forth, from side to side, following the natural grain in the wood. I did this over and over; re-dunking my towel into the stain when needed. Stain goes a long way, you don't need a lot. And you don't want to cake your stain onto it, you really want the wood to absorb the stain so you have to be patient and really take your time. After the entire top was done with the first round of stain, I let it dry over night.

The next morning, I came out and sanded the top with a 220 grit sandpaper. Just enough to get it a little rough so the next coat had something to adhere to. Then, I did the same staining process all over again to add more stain. The best part about stain is you have to work in steps so you can decide just how light or dark you want to go. After applying the second coat and letting it dry, we decided that we liked the color of the stain where it was and that was our last coat of stain.

Last but certainly not least, it was time to put on a top coat. Jake thought it was best to use Minwax water based Polycrylic protective finish clear satin top coat so that's what we decided to use. He made the decision to "yolo" it and apply the top coat with the paint sprayer gun. It was reallyyyyyyyy strong so we opened up the garage doors and I stayed inside because it was that strong. So next time, I would suggest applying it with a brush instead. But he used the spray gun and it worked! He did two coats of top coat and we let it dry for 24 hours.

We brought it inside and put it where we wanted. Then it was time to install all of the hardware back on.

Once all of that was on, I put the drawers back in their spots and stepped back to take a look.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
HOLY SMOKES; DID I DO THAT??
It is such an amazing feeling knowing that YOU worked on something so much to make it so beautiful!

I stood in amazement for maybe 2 minutes before I had to start decorating it for Christmas! The best part of the year; Christmas decorating! When I got all of my favorite things on there, I was even more in love with it! It isn't perfect, and it isn't Art Van worthy, but it is something that I worked hard on, something that I'm proud of, that I love, and something that works great for our family! I just love my dresser-turned-buffet!

I can't wait to start on more projects. I plan on painting our kitchen cabinets and we have plans to remodel our master bathroom and I plan on refurbishing an old buffet into a bathroom vanity. But I'm sure those will also be worthy of their own posts so watch out for those! Have you refurbished anything?? Show me a pic and let me know how your project went! Also, I'm always up for tips and tricks!

Have a blessed Sunday!
- Christine

Disclaimer: I was not obligated in any way to review or share the products that I used with you and I am not being compensated to mention them. 

U.S. Presidential Election of 2016

I've spent quite a bit of time this morning debating if I was going to write a post today. Something has been pulling at my heart to write, so I am. This post will talk about the presidential election and this post will talk about religion, so there's your fair warning. You may not WANT to continue reading but I highly, highly suggest you do. It just may bring some insight to you that you didn't have before.

Yesterday was Election day and we voted for our 45th President of the United States of America.

Today is Wednesday November 9th, 2016.

Many people woke up this morning filled with happiness, a sigh of relief, excitement, and positivity.

Many people woke up this morning filled with anger, disappointment, fear, and distaste.

But FAR TOO MANY woke up this morning forgetting one thing - they woke up.

We live in a country where we have the right to vote. We live in a country where we have the first amendment; stating that we have the freedom of speech. We live in a country that has democracy which allows us to have free will; the power to have different beliefs. But that is the beauty of it all. You are ALLOWED to believe what you wish; you are ALLOWED to vote for whom you want you. You don't HAVE to agree with anyone else.

So many turned to social media today as an outlet. An outlet for all of their anger and for some, an outlet to rub things in peoples face. So many have turned on friends and even family - name calling, bashing, hating. Is this really the kind of world we live in? You may have loved how the polls played out. You may have hated how the polls played out. But is spewing hate and anger the way to handle it? Absolutely NOT. What happened to agreeing to disagree? How happened to respect?

I stayed up until about midnight (now that I have kids, I can't stay up like I used to) then I threw in the towel and went to bed. Jake stayed up until about 4am this morning watching CNN and taking it all in. Everyone has differences in their marriage; Jake and I have plenty. He tends to be very opinionated and he voices his thoughts about things, while I tend to be subtle and keep things to myself. I've always believed the whole "You believe what you want and I believe what I want. You aren't going to change my opinion and I'm not going to change yours; so there is no point arguing about it." He on the other hand tends to be very strong willed and blunt about things he feels passionate about. It's one of the reasons why I fell in love with him. When he cares about something, he CARES. Not that I don't care about things, I just tend to stay quiet with my opinion most of the time. But our differences is why we work. We bounce off of each other, we build off of each other. We each have strengths and weaknesses and we both bring things to our marriage that we need. His passion helps us just as equally as my subtleness helps us. He builds us up, I settle things down. It works.

After the chaos of yesterday and the chaos brewing on social media today, it has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I really wanted to share with as much people as I can.

First and foremost; Let go and give it all to God. A few weeks ago, our pastor did a great service about being submissive. I know many of you are thinking I'm crazy with the whole submissive word. But our church gave out a magnet with a powerful phrase on it. I walked by the magnet on our fridge this morning and I stopped and read it over a couple of times. It says "A Submissive Community: A community of humble people, who are respectful, ready to listen to others' opinions, as well as see others' needs and put them before their own." It also says on the bottom of the magnet "Submit to one another out of reverse to Christ - Ephesians 5:21". THIS. Humble. Respectful. Listen. I know some people may not be religious, and I am not one to force that on you. But for us, it is all in God's hands now. He has a plan that is much bigger than we could ever imagine. And because of our religion and God, it has made this election that much easier to understand and accept. In the bible there is a very powerful verse. I often find myself coming back to it during hard times. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. - John 14:27."

I woke up this morning. My husband woke up this morning. My children woke up this morning. We all woke up in our nice, warm beds. The thermometor in our home was set to a perfect 70 degrees. It rained last night but that didn't even affect us. We all had breakfast. The point? We are blessed to have a home. To have shelter. To have heat. To have food and water. To have beds. There are so many people that don't have those things. There are too many people in other countries who have never had those things. People in other countries that don't get to wake up and see their husbands or wives or children because they have been taken from them. People who have to walk miles for water to drink. People who go days without eating and when they do eat, it is equivalent to a couple crackers. People who are fighting just to stay alive. Too many people in our country take so many things that we consider "basic necessities" for granted.

For those who don't know our family personally; my father has some severe health conditions and because of this he lives with us. This morning, I woke up and drove my father to Dialysis. There are two very important things about that last sentence. The first: I drove there. I am blessed with a working vehicle. We live in a country with transportation. Like I said before, there are countries where people walk miles and miles just to get water because they have no other choice. The second important part of that sentence: Dialysis. We are BLESSED to live in a country with medical advancement. We live in a country filled with doctors and nurses and surgeons. We live in a country where my father, and so many others, can get the medical treatment that they NEED in order to live. We have so many hospitals right here in America that are considered the BEST in the world. We don't have to worry about our children getting the medical attention that they need. Do you even understand that it would be like if you didn't have that luxury? A life where the closest doctor is hours and hours away. A life where that same doctor only has a handful of tools to perform simple and basic exams. Those same doctors who are unable to help you with life threatening issues. We live in a country where we have access to the medical help that most people NEED to survive. We have treatments for illnesses ranging from small to huge. THIS ALONE makes our country great.

The next couple of things I am going to write about are pretty powerful to me and I feel very passionately about. I am writing them for people to read, for people to truly understand and hopefully it will touch a place in your heart.

REGARDLESS of who my husband or myself voted for, REGARDLESS of who won this election: we are BOTH STILL PARENTS to two little boys and it is OUR job to raise them into men.

We WILL raise our boys to be kind.

They will learn that sometimes in life, you will run into mean people. People who will try to bring you down. People who will use actions and words to hurt you. And you won't like how those actions and words make you feel and sometimes, you will want to use mean actions and words to hurt them back. But they will be raised to know that kindness will always win in the end. It is better be kind to others than to stoop down to their level and use negativity against people. A kind heart will always beat a mean one.

We WILL raise our boys to treat everyone equally - no matter what.

White, black, brown, purple, green blue. Christian, catholic, muslim, hindu, atheist. Male, female. Adult, child. Jock, cheerleader, band geek, science wiz, school president, loner. Rich, poor, middle class. Cops, doctors, teachers, parents. They will treat everyone equally. They will be respectful. They will be polite. They will use their manners all the time. They will be kind to everyone. They will know that there is difference in the world but they will know that those differences should never interfere with how you treat someone. 

We WILL raise them to stand up for what they believe in - in the right way.

I will raise boys who will stand up for the kid that is being picked on, instead of looking away. I will raise boys who will encourage the kid who is having trouble speaking in front of the class, instead of making fun of them. I will raise my boys to give everyone a chance, even if they don't think that person is "good" at something. I will raise them to sit with the kid who is by himself at the lunch table, or ask the kid sitting outside by myself on the bench if they want to play. I will raise them to understand that there is good and evil in the world, and that is it always best to fight for the good. I will also raise them to understand that their voice is the most powerful when positivity is coming out of it. We will raise them to understand that they should never use violence to get their point heard. We will raise them to BE the change they wish to see in the world. 

We WILL raise our boys to always lend a helping hand.

They will know that it is always better to give then to get. They will know that you don't need to get something, in order to give something or to help. They will know that sometimes people will burn them, but it is always better to be the bigger person and to help people when they are in need, rather than giving others a cold shoulder.

We WILL raise our boys to respect woman.

They WILL be raised in a home where their father treats their mother the right way. They WILL be raised to know that they should never physically lay a harsh hand on a woman, ever. They WILL know what consent is and they WILL know that they are NEVER to do anything to a woman that she doesn't give them 100% permission to do. They WILL be raised to know that speaking about woman (or anyone for that matter) in a sexual, derogatory, demeaning, degrading way is uncalled for and unacceptable and just plain cruel. They WILL understand that there are people, cold ugly people, out there in the world who do these things. That sometimes people in high power do these kinds of things. People who others may look up to, like celebrities or musicians or sports stars, may do these kinds of things. They WILL understand that just because other people do it, it does NOT make it okay. It is NOT cool. It is NOT right. And I will raise them to ENCOURAGE others to NOT be like that. 

We WILL raise our boys to know right from wrong.

They will know that anger and hatred will not get them far in life. They will understand that God has given us free will to do and say as we please but that we should walk the right path, and try to help those that are walking the wrong one.

We WILL raise our boys to understand that it is okay to disagree with people, as long as they go about it the right way.

Some of my closest family members and some of my best friends have different beliefs and opinions as I do. That does not make me love them any less. That does not mean that I have to shove my opinions down their throats every chance I get. That does not mean I should get physical with them. That does not be I should cut them out of my life. We have agreed to disagree on things and that is OKAY. 

We WILL raise our boys to think POSITIVELY.

We will teach them about optimism. We will teach them to see the good in things. We will encourage them to think positively in all that they do. We will explain to them that there will always be negativity everywhere in the world. But dwelling on the negativity doesn't get anyone anywhere. Spewing negativity does not make things easier to deal with. They will know that there is ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel.

We WILL raise our boys to appreciate this country that we live in.

They will understand how great it is. They will know its history and how far we have come. They will understand slavery and how it was abolished. They will understand women's rights and how things used to be. They will understand our government and how complicated and sometimes corrupt it may be. And because they will know our countries history, and how far we have come, they WILL appreciate it. They WILL appreciate the people who have fought for our freedom, who have DIED for our country. They WILL appreciate all of the hard working men and woman who - in some way, shape, or form - give to them; from the military and our armed forces, first responders and medical care workers, all the way down to the old man who runs the hardware store down the street or the elderly lady who checks out our books at the library. They will KNOW that everyone has a role in this country. We all NEED one another.

So today, I ask you to think positively. None of us know what the future holds. We don't know what will or won't happen. We don't know how this entire thing is going to pan out. But what we do know is that we have the ability to set examples. We have the ability to teach our children valuable life lessons. To raise them into the strong, loving, KIND men and women we want them to be. We have the ability to guide them in the right direction, and to help them choose the right paths in life. We have the ability to SHOW them the RIGHT way to act, instead of the wrong way. We have the chance to show them the CHANGE that WE ALL WANT to see. So stop bashing. Stop pouting. Stop throwing negativity every chance you get. Today, our country has changed. BE the change you want to see.

(And I promise, this will be my first and probably my last political post. ;)

Be kind. Be Positive. Love one another.
- Christine