Kinda like a giveaway...but not

Freebie alert! Niiiiiiice....

Nail Polish stickers! Any paint job on my fingers last all of about... 3 seconds. These are supposed to last WEEKS! Niiiice. They are $6 with free shipping but you receive a $10 credit for signing up with your email address. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Go here to get yourself all gussied up! 

Napkins-Are-For-Fancy-People Pillows

Disclaimer: this tutorial is for those with some (albeit minimal) sewing experience. Mainly because, I am redonkulous when it comes to teaching things. If you want some great tutorials on sewing, check out Make it and Love it. They always have great tips and awesome projects going on over there!

Ever see a bunch of clearanced napkins at your local bazzar style store and think, "Love the fabric, but fabric napkins are too shnazzy for my people." No? Me neither. 

But I did love the fabric on these World Market napkins [same fabric as my table runner curtain.] They were a buck. Sounds cheaper than a dollar, doesn't it?

And yes, fabric napkins are too shnazzy for my people. We use like 3 napkins each when we eat. 

Either we're really messy eaters, or strive for really tidy faces. Jurys still out.

Well I'm gonna show you another use for those napkins. A higher level of class mind you!

3 napkins per pillow is what you'll need (sounds like the first line in a terrible square dancing song)

Doing it this way gives you an envelope closure so you can actually take off the pillow cases and wash them. 

Lets hear it for cleanliness.

This photo below only shows how you need to overlap your napkins. You don't actually sew it like this 

because....1. right sides are not together
2. its crooked, yo!

There much better.  Then pin and sew around the edges. Sew just on in the inside of the hemmed edge.

Then trim off your excess like so....

(I've always wanted to use "like so..." in a legit sentence.)

Turn right side out and stuff (we already had 20" square pillow inserts). Make sure to karate chop the pillow before you photograph it. 

It will make you happy, I promise.

[The middle pillow is made from a place mat. Also for fancy people.]

  

The blue pillows are also made out of napkins, but no envelope covers. They are just straight up square pillows. 

One helpful tip though is when you trim the excess after sewing (and you have remembered to leave a hole to stuff the fluff into) leave some of the hemmed edge of the napkin. It makes it easier to turn inside and stitch the hole closed.

Ahh....perdy cheap pillows.

Sharing at the Weekend Wrap Up

Lamp Shade via My Super Powers

So I've discovered something great recently. The best place to buy junk is at antique stores and the best place to buy antiques are at junk stores.

Its brilliant really. The junkin stores don't know an antique when they have them, and the antiques just want to get rid of the junk because its taking up precious antique space.

So where'd I get this fine piece o' junk? At an antique store of course!

2 dolla....holla!

I wasn't really diggin' the vinyl wrapped shade though.

No problems. Just started ripping. See the fine craftmanship below? You can tell how long it took me to deconstruct this. Like .04 seconds!

I toyed with the idea of just leaving the metal frame as is on my lamp. But then I got all motherly and concerned about little fingers touching heated metal. I know....touching.

So I took a piece of burlap from my stash and traced out (with sidewalk chalk) the "rolling pattern" that my shade made.

Yep, sidewalk chalk. I've also been known to write a grocery list with crayon a time or two.

Cut and glue. If you have a finished edge (see the left side of the photo above) use that to your advantage. I used that as the top overlapping layer because it looked better.

Just work quickly gluing the burlap with your hot glue. 

The burns were worth it. Actually, its like a guitar player...the more you do it, the less it hurts.

Touching hot glue with bare hands is like my super power now.

Frugal Finds

A couple weeks ago I headed 3 hours north to hang out with my in laws for the weekend. My sister in law is new to the world of the yummy goodness that is vintage, shabby, and antique. Wait, aren't vintage and antique the same? Or no? Anywho, we drove over the river (Mississippi that is) to Clarksville Missouri. We visited the most amazing antique mall. Ever.

(Those two are not vintage or antique, I can vouch for that)

Probably my most favorite part was their porch. It was packed with so many wonderful things. There is an old shabby bench that I looked at, walked away from, went back and looked at again. Now I'm wishing I had just gone for it! If you're ever shopping and you repeatedly hear your name from inanimate objects, you should probably just go ahead and buy them.

Inside was row after row of different shops. The thing I love about antique malls like this is if you think one is overpriced, just wander over the next partition til you find a shop that is more your price range. One thing that I don't like about antique shopping is that sometimes people thing their goods are hott stuff. So they ask an arm and a leg for them. Where as garage sales and craigslist, people are just wanting to get rid of the "junk". But Clarksville had many reasonable vendors.

We had just about lost all our steam by the time we stumbled on this part. Behind those windows are racks and racks of vintage dresses. When I say this place was huge, I kid you not!

We ended up with some really great deals. My sister in law actually out bought me this time! She's planning on sitting that galvanized tub into the chair and plant it full of succulents. My favorite find was my scale. If you actually look back a post, you can see it sitting proudly in my freshly painted kitchen.

I did some rearranging in the master bedroom yesterday and have some plans of decorating floating around in my head. But thats always the case. I'm hoping my husband suggests a trip to see his family again soon because I think I need another trip to Clarksville!