24 Olive Street

stuffed animal chair

Don't you love when you can check something off of your very long to do list??! I mean, my list is so long it's hard to find where the beginning is!

Ever since I saw this cute stuffed animal chair (and pinned it of course!) I couldn't wait to try it out. Such a cute concept. Every mother knows the dilemma of having way too many stuffed animals in the house. And the more kids you have the more they multiply...at alarming rates!

I have a hard time with just giving them away. Cause I know how much they cost and often I'm the one that shelled out the money at some point for all of these. Not all but a lot of them.

And some of them have sweet memories...first Build A Bear, first Disney stuffed animal, blah blah blah.

So what a neat idea - use them to fill a "bean bag" chair!

And yesterday I finally sat down to make one and I thought I'd share my results with a few tips that I learned along the way in case anyone else wants to make one.

I printed the pattern from here (pin here). The only way to get the pattern to print at the correct size is to print in Landscape. Then I followed the directions from here. You need a little bit of knowledge of how to do zippers as her photos don't show every single step but it was pretty easy. I used a 24" zipper (instructions call for a 25" zipper) and it worked just fine.

When sewing on the zipper don't sew to the end on either end. You'll need the outside and inside liner to be separate when you're sewing it to the bottom pieces. I found that out the hard way when I was sewing the pieces together & had to pull out the seams a bit on the ends. I detest seam ripping...a necessary evil in sewing at times. It still wasn't perfect but it worked.

I didn't add the hexagon on the top. I liked the look of the points coming together and didn't mind if they weren't perfect. I did notice that once the bag is filled it puts a lot of pressure on that point so be sure to add a few extra stitches across the top (thankfully I did). I also noticed that if you don't fill your bag quite as full it won't pull as much at the top (also makes the bag a little more squishy).

When closing things up I didn't hand stitch but rather just stitched really close to the edge. You can't even tell. I don't hand stitch unless completely necessary or on something that's really important (like my daughter's First Communion dress). I have joint pain (thank you Crohn's) so I avoid it at all costs.

Fabrics used L-R: yellow-Hobby Lobby, Cruzin' (Henry Glass), Ta Dot in pink, Zig Zag Strip in Bright, grey for lining-Hobby Lobby

Instead of batting I used fusible fleece...because that's what I had on hand that I use for all of my bags and I didn't want to fool with sewing the batting on.

Because all of the pieces (except the bottom) are cut on the fold you can save fabric by folding the selvage pieces to the center and then you have 2 folds to cut on. Learned that tip from sewing class years back :) I did that for the lining since I used all the same fabric for that.

I managed to fit 37 stuffed animals in it (big and small). See photo above...those were all inside! And you can see I put a bunch of good sized stuffed animals in there. I ended up taking out 3 or 4 of the bigger ones to make it a bit less full and relieve a little stress on that top but it still holds a ton!

My little one has snagged the chair for her own...she absolutely loves it and freaks out if anyone has the nerve to sit in it! My son wants me to make a smaller one for his room so I'll be on the hunt for some more "boyish" fabrics for him. I'm thinking plaids & stripes.

I think the question everyone asks "is it lumpy" and quite honestly that was my only "concern" with this project (although I didn't really care cause in the end I liked the idea more than worrying about it being lumpy). And the answer is...kind of. But we all sat on it and it's surprisingly comfortable and you don't really even notice the lumps.

I'm thinking of making a smaller one for extra throw blankets. We always seem to have a ton of those (for sitting outside on summer nights, baseball games, soccer games, etc) but when we're not using them they just take up valuable storage space in closets.

Tomorrow I'll share how I refinished that buffet (shown in the photo above) into our new entertainment center :)

getting ready

My husband hates this...cause it's my kitchen table.

I've had lots to finish up before this weekend and when you have a toddler you have to work where she can play. So working downstairs in my craft area is out of the question...way too much for her to get into down there!

Ok, and my craft table is a mess right now :)

Pretty bags all lined up in a row. Playing with fun fabrics always make sme smile!

How cute is that camping fabric??! Fun stuff.

I shared this cute granny cart redo on facebook last week...

Ignore the yucky indoor pics...and the wheels that still needed to be cleaned.

Don't you love that printed burlap?? I really need to redo my own cart.

And in between the cold, rainy weather I've been trying to get some painting projects finished up.

Chalkboard spray paint...one of these days I'll wear gloves! At least I remember to take my rings off...that would be bad.

This old suitcase redo is going to be used for a display in my booth. I'm loving the blue paint on it!

You can't leave a toddler for 2 seconds...

Even if it's just to throw something away! Thankfully - THANKFULLY - she had only grabbed the paint & put one hand in it. Nothing dumped on her head or on her clothes. Whew...

I guess she was a bit bored since her doggy was a bad pup...

hehe :)

The dog lives to fetch...it's in his blood! Those cheap rubber balls are no match for his big mouth!

Another project I finished up...

I made 3 burlap pocket which can hold all kinds of papers, photos, momentos, etc. I'm working on another one with a yellow frame.

I think I need one of these for myself :) Of course, I say that about a lot of stuff I redo!

Ok, back to 'work'...

long overdue project...

I've had this project on the back burner for a while...oh, for nearly 2 years :) It's just never been a priority. But yesterday I took a break from getting stuff ready for Junk Drunk to knock this one out.

We have a big sectional in our family room...perfect for all of us to sit & watch tv in the evenings. It doesn't have any throw pillows so we have several standard size pillows for everyone to lean/lay on and up until yesterday they were very neglected.

So I pulled out some pretty fabrics & set to making some fun pillow covers :)

I made an envelope closure instead of a standard pillow case cover because, like I said, these are on my couch every single day. And even though our family room is very casual I still didn't want it to look like a 24/7 slumber party!

I made the covers slightly oversized because I didn't prewash the fabric and when they get washed they will inevitably shrink a bit. Plus, our pillows are pretty smooshed so when I wash those (or buy new ones) they will be bigger & need the extra room.

As expected, the older 2 kids both wanted the rainbow zig zag pillow...and they both want custom pillows for their beds :)

I also didn't put any cute fringe/pompoms on the edges like on my little decorative pillows because these pillows get a lot of abuse use...they're layed on, thrown on the floor, smooshed, you name it.

See what I mean! Not a day later and Addie's already pulled a couple on the floor to lay on :)

And with that I have one more project crossed of the very long list!

By the way, check out some new fabrics I picked up this week...

I'm in love with that typewriter fabric!!

Easter weekend

A beautiful, beautiful day for Easter Sunday. This was Addie's first Easter and she loved her Easter basket :)

A few toys & a stuffed animal. Oh how she loves those Baby Einstein balls!

Don't you hate when you have a bad hair day on a holiday when you know you'll be taking pics??!! And despite the fact that I still have 30lbs to lose I'm trying not to stay out of photos. I would hate to look back on Addie's first year & see that I'm nowhere to be found.

But I was wearing my new cute shoes so that always makes a girl feel better :)

A few quick pics of the kiddos before church...

I made the girls matching outfits. The 'girls'...hehe...still makes me giggle ;)

For Addie's dress I took a cute ruffle shirt that I found at Target & added the skirt part.

Then I made a matching skirt for Olivia & bought a shirt & sweater for her to wear with it. Since there's such a big age gap with them I had to make sure to pick fabric that wasn't babyish but still looked cute for Easter. I was so happy with them & a nice lady at church complimented their outfits :)

After church we took our new bikes out for a spin. Addie got a new ride, too ;)

After bike riding...our tradition of having an Easter egg hunt in the yard. You're never too old for an egg hunt!

And then, collapse...cause I was pooped!

Oh, and this little one is 10 mos old.

Pretty soon she will be turning 1.  

ONE!

 

more Easter towels...

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my Easter towels! I've been meaning to come back & post a winner but we've had spring break this week so I'm trying to keep the 2 older kids busy. You know how that goes!

I had fun making them and thought I'd make a few more. Someone had mentioned that all they could find were the yellow chick towels so when I was at Target the other day they had just a couple sets left, one of them being the chick towels, so I scooped them up.

I'll be honest, when I bought the towels the first time I skipped those because I thought they'd be too hard to match up with fabric. But I have to say, I was really happy with how these turned out!

I had an Amy Butler fat quarter that I used for these. By the way, fat quarters are great for projects like this. You don't have to cut up a big piece of fabric.

I wanted to use white ribbon but didn't have any (huh??) so I grabbed the green. Then I found this cute white trim that I added which I think made it extra cute :)

I'm thinking these are going to stay up past Easter since they're very spring-y.

You also might notice that the fabric piece is sometimes bigger on one towel than the other. I didn't measure. I eyeballed everything. Like I said, quick project!

Since I was on a roll (and Addie was napping) I made a few more...

Again, I pulled out some fat quaters I had on hand...aka, the fat quarters I've grabbed at fabric stores & shows because they were just too dang cute not to snatch up! If you sew you know exactly what I'm talking about ;)

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And since I was able to make more of them I thought it'd be fun to give away 2 sets :)

So here's the winners...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7	5	

Timestamp: 2012-04-06 01:41:26 UTC

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So that means Shannon & Dawn! So email your addy at 24olivestreet {at} gmail.com so I can get those out to you!

Someone else also asked if these are washable and the answer is yes! I can't have anything around this house unless it's washable.  

Point in case - I only had my new towels up for a day when someone wiped their dirty hands on them. Of course, when questioned the 2 suspects both denied having any knowledge of such events.

Mmm hmmm... Maybe I should've let the hubby 'interview' them... hehe

I will tell you that towels like these are stretchy and the edges are never quite straight. Just the nature of the fabric. I wash mine in cold water, low dryer or sometimes even hang them to dry. And they sometimes need a quick ironing to make them look pretty again :)

Easter towel makeover...and a giveaway

I love that Target has a dollar spot. And even though everything isn't technically a dollar, they're still pretty cheap. Like these cute little bunny towels that were $2.50 for a 2 pack.

I thought they were cute...but a bit plain. And, of course, my first thought was "I can fix that!" So I bought a couple sets, came home & raided my ribbon & scrap fabric. And this is what I came up with...

Much better I think :) Just a bit of fabric on the bottom with some ribbon to finish it off! And I whipped them up in no time flat. My kind of project!

Now I could have made the bottom fabric into a ruffle...but I didn't have that kind of time. Addie was napping and I had to take full advantage of my limited time.

And since these towels are pretty generic I thought they'd look cute not only in the kitchen but also in my spare bathroom downstairs.

I'm hoping I'll see more of these kind of towels...maybe in a summer print or something. I'd love to make more. I love lightweight towels like these.

**Giveaway**

And since I picked up a couple sets of these I thought I'd give away a set to my blog readers! So if you want to be entered in the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a random winner on Monday!

creative weekend

Last weekend I headed up for another quilting weekend with my friend Theresa. Hard to believe it's been 6 mos since the last time we went. We headed up a day later than last year which gave me a chance to finish up some stuff for a local consignment sale. My family room looked like a children's store exploded!

I just checked and it looks like all but about 4 or 5 of my items sold. Yey! I had some big items this time...stroller/travel system, diapers that Addie's outgrown, 2 swings, Bumbo. It's sad that she doesn't need this stuff already but at the same time it's nice to get them out of the house & have a bit more room.

We got more snow on Thursday.

Thankfully it's gone but now we've been having a bunch of rain. My tulips are liking it but we've had several baseball practices canceled which is a bummer.

Speaking of snow, up at the retreat there was a lot of snow.

That's the snow from the ground meeting the snow from the roof. It snowed off and on all day on Friday.

Then on Saturday the sun came out.

In the 2 days we were there I managed to get a lot done. I finished the top of a table runner, quilt, some little make up bags, a tote bag and a pennant banner for Addie's room. I'll have more pics to share when the weather gets a little nicer here but I have a few to show. This is a pic of the quilt I worked on using a Reunion jelly roll (one of my fave new fabric lines)...

I hit the local fabric shop yesterday to get fabric for the border & binding so I'm hoping to get this one finished up!

I started and finished something I've been wanting to do for Addie's room for quite a while...make a pennant banner to go on her window.

I just have shears for curtains in her room so I wanted to add a little color.

I used the same fabric that I used in her baby quilt (over on my old blog). Love all that turquoise & red!

I also realized that I've never shared pics of Addie's room (which I love!) so I'll be sure to do that when we have some good sunlight!

I'll have more projects to share this week. Just finishing them up!

well, I liked it anyway...

Lent always forces me to try new things when it comes to Friday dinners...because of 'no meat on Fridays' during Lent tradition. So, I tried a new recipe - Foil Baked Fish with black beans & corn. I served it with some jasmine rice (which I'm kind of addicted to by the way).

I thought it was awesome...I was the only one. I should also say that my kids love seafood. My husband doesn't...and says he doesn't like fish...but he eats tuna fish. I don't get that one. I love seafood but I'm not really a 'fish person'. I used tilapia which I thought would be good because it's not real fishy.

I loved it. The fish cooked perfectly in the foil & browned a little on top with the butter, the spices were great. Although, I only used 1/2 of the chipotle peppers it called for & it was still a bit spicy. Next time I'll probably just use 1/2 tsp on the fish & that's it. You know, the next time I make it for myself :) So if you like fish, give this one a whirl!

And since I had an attitude the next day with everyone poo-pooing on my dinner the previous night, I headed down to my craft room Saturday & worked on a new tote bag/diaper bag.

I had been using the diaper bag that some coworkers of my husband got me when Addie was born (similar to this one). It has worked out great but the bottom seam is ripping out & other parts are starting to fall apart. So I guess it wasn't made very well...shame on you Carters :(

I've been wanting to make a diaper bag since before Addie was born & I actually have a few different patterns. I picked up Amy Butler's Reversible Sunday Sling pattern over at Top Stitch (one of my favorite local fabric stores btw) when I saw one of the examples made up in the store. SO cute. Not meant for a 'diaper bag' but it works so well as one.

I used some Amy Butler fabric that I've had for a quite a while now that I originally bought to make her Birdie Sling (still plan on making that one, too)

I had to adjust the cell phone pocket a bit bigger cause it was too small for my new phone. And I made one of the inside pockets into 3 sections instead of 2 to better hold bottles.

I made the small sling...the pattern actually has a bigger size as well. I love Amy Butler's patterns...her bags are always a good size & the patterns are very easy to follow.

I'm so happy with it :) And it felt good to make something for me. I have some leftover fabric so I'm going to make a matching makeup bag & key strap :)

And yesterday it was soooo beautiful outside so I took the kids & one of the dogs on a walk. Addie got to try out her new jogging stroller & sunglasses :)

The temps were in the mid-50s, the sun was shining, I was in heaven. I also managed to get a few painting projects done that have been sitting on the back burner because of the weather

A few memorabilia frames for the kids rooms, a little bench redo... I'll have more to share on those when they're finished. I can't wait to show you what that bench looked like before!

And Project Life...I'm several weeks behind. I've been jotting things down, throwing little tidbits of stuff in my album that I want to keep. Now I just need to sit down & get those weeks caught up!