A little union jack pillow

*In honor of the Royal wedding today here is a repost of my repurposed union jack pillow *

I spent the weekend sewing this little pillow.


These union jack pillows seem to be rising in popularity.

I added mine to the chair in the sewing nook of my bedroom.




This is what it looked like before. I bought this shirt from the mall store "Charlotte Russe," a couple of months ago, and knew it would make a great pillow. It was too long for me to wear and had a small whole in the shoulder area. Luckily it was on the clearance rack for about $6.
I cut right through the front and back of the shirt to make the pillow shape. Then sewed around the edges and inserted a pillow form I had in the closet.




You could even make your own with scraps of fabric and lace.

I love this cute tote found at

The Beautiful Life.

And here is one done in true Rachel Ashwell style, with pretty pastels.

Maybe I'll have to pull out my fabric scraps to make a pastel design for the spring.

flea.o.logy

You can find me at This outdoor flea market on Saturday. I've been waiting for months for it to return. I snagged some good finds last year, and hope to again this time around.

There's something about walking about vintage items with the sun pouring down on you--let's hope the weather will cooperate. I love the name too, flea.o.logy--wish I would have thought of it. It reminds me of a favorite store that starts with an a, and ends in a gie. If you live in Utah, come check it out.

a sunny reading spot

I found this beautifully distressed and chippy white adirondack chair from my local online classifieds. I added it to the metal lounge chair that my neighbor was throwing away. My husband had gone to help some neighbors move and it was in the trash pile, so he brought it home to me, thinking I would probably want it--he was right.

This old headboard used to be in my daughter's room. With a little chalkboard paint I can add notes or inspirational messages.

I bought this cute table recently at TJMaxx-I loved that it matches the adirondack chairs' style with the wood slats. When the sun comes out, which lately is not nearly enough, I can be found here with my favorite decorating reads.
There's nothing like sitting out in the sun with a good book to boost your mood,especially after a long winter. So take some time to ... sit, relax and read.

Great Adirondack chairs under $100 at AdirondackChairs.com!

chicks

A few weeks ago, I walked into our local Cal Ranch store for a can of spray paint, but ended up walking out with 3 of these ... I had "my" four chicks with me and so was talked into buying them. Actually, I thought they were pretty darn cute too! Here's one of my cute chicks holding a cute chick. They were cute for about 2.3 days until we realized how stinky and messy they were. Our intention from the beginning was to keep them for a month or so and then take them to our cousins farm where they could roam freely. The kids played with them nonstop for the first couple of days, so soft and adorable. We enjoyed our time with them, however, after about 2 weeks we decided they needed to go to the farm--they were getting big fast! Goodbye, Maddie, Pecky, and Tweety, have fun on the farm!

Well, it has been about a month since we've seen them. We will be visiting them Sunday when we have a family get-together for Easter. I'm sure we'll be surprised how much they've grown.

I hope you all have a very happy and chick-filled Easter!

Easter bunnies

It seems like it took forever for spring to arrive, and now Easter is right around the corner and I'm not ready for it. My home needed a little Easter primping so ...

I pulled out my bunny collection,

and tucked them in the drawers of this cute table.

I found these pink peeps at the thrift store--they look like the real thing but are actually made of ceramic so they'll last forever. I'm also on the hunt for more of these 'chocolate bunnies' (also found at the thrift store).
It's starting to look a little more like Easter around here, and we can't wait!

{primp}ing a dresser

I just finished this dresser: I love the details in the second drawer. Originally a boring brown, I painted it white and distressed the edges. I kept all the original pulls except for the top drawer--and added 2 gorgeous glass knobs from anthropologie. My daughters' room is slowly evolving into more of a shabby chic style, which I am really loving now. I've been primping with beautiful finds from the thrift store: a white shabby photo holder, rose adorned box, and painted floral caddy. I'm still working on the bed that's opposite this dresser (you can partially see in the full mirror--also found at the thrift store.) Now go and primp!

Also, I am fascinated by this live video showing an eagle's nest in Iowa. I found this via a fellow blogger (not sure who now) and can't stop watching it. The mama eagle is sitting on 2 just barely hatched baby eaglets and 1 soon-to-hatch egg. It's been so fun to watch, one moment she was there alone, the next the daddy eagle had brought some food (maybe a mole or something) so she could feed her babies. So cool--you have to check it out.

Gettin' crafty

Because every once in a while we like to get crafty around here, and because who can resist a bird's nest made out of shredded paper, we made this: I got this idea from the newest Country Living magazine. Just cover an upside-down bowl with clear wrap and start layering shredded anything (newspaper, sheet music, book pages) dipped in a solution of equal parts white glue & water. Let dry, flip over and fill with your favorite easter candy. These mini eggs are so dangerous and are probably the #1 thing I love about this time of year. I would recommend doing this a little closer to Easter so you don't have to go through ten bags of these before Easter actually comes. Trust me, these are addicting. Ahhh, a combination of two of my most favorite things, shredded sheet music & mini cadbury eggs.

And because once you started crafting, it's hard to stop, my three youngest wanted to make a cute bunny out of something. So, we pulled out some discarded toilet paper rolls and got busy making these: Also, I took my handy-man son to Home Depot Saturday morning for the kids workshop. Lately he's been making worm fort's out of plywood and duct tape so I thought he might like to try it. It was our first time going and it was really cool. He got his own apron and got to make this cute flower planter with a hammer and nails, he loved it. Then when you're done you get a cute pin to put on your apron. Best of all, it's free. We'll definitely be back next month.

Happy crafting!