A few little updates

HI friends,
Boy, do I feel blessed this week! I've had the last two weeks off of work and it's been so lovely to be at home getting some of those 'to do' things off of my list. Somehow, I haven't crossed off everything from my 'to do' list. On some of these beautiful days, I'd rather sit on the deck in an Adirondack chair with the sun on my face and the breeze across my legs listening to the birds reading rather than tackle some of those jobs. I have not cleaned the baseboards and the hardwood floors yet- somehow those less glamorous jobs don't seem as exciting. I have gathered up items from the attic for Goodwill and done some good cleaning.

I wanted to share two fun creative projects that I had a great time working on last week. I dusted off my middle school sewing skills and designed a pillow. I also spiced up our eat in kitchen and added a few new items.

First, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, last week I used some of my very basic sewing skills- thank you Home Economics Middle School teachers for teaching me to sew. I had some plain white pillows that came with our two Crate and Barrell slipcovered sofas that we bought on sale two years ago when we moved from Virginia to North Carolina. I decided it would be fun to add some decorative elements to the plain white sofa pillows. I checked out the Pottery Barn website and found my inspiration (I kinda have a thing for starfish and pillows):



I used the left over tan duck fabric from the ugly bench in our bedroom that I covered recently to try to improve it's appearance. You can read about the bench project here:
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2013/05/newest-project-redo-ugly-bench.html

First, I made a template on paper of the starfish cutout and traced it with pencil on the tan duck fabric. Then I sewed it on the pillows. I kept one starfish pillow plain and added buttons and beads to the other one. Which one do you like best (plain one on the left, snazzy one on the right):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanted to share with you how I spiced up our eat-in kitchen. I added two green slipcovers to our chairs (found on sale at Pier One) and a new green pottery lamp found in my favorite home décor store in downtown Columbia, South Carolina (I also found the driftwood bowl at this new favorite store of mine that is on the buffet). By the way, sorry that these pictures are so dark. The paint color on the walls/ceiling is not conducive for picture taking. We hope to change it to a soft cool gray/blue sometime in the near future and a white ceiling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's where I have been spending quite a bit of time lately outside reading:

 

 

 

 

 





Friends, another reason that I am feeling so blessed is that this weekend my parents came to visit to celebrate Mother's Day. My mom has been battling cancer for the past year and she now has six months off of chemo because her cancer is shrinking- Praise God! Here are some pictures from the weekend. By the way, we were also celebrating my husband and daughter's joint birthday a week early. I treated my mom to a night out- we went out to eat and saw a musical together. She and my dad look great, don't they? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are before church on Mother's Day:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for joining me today friends! I had fun sharing Brew Crew updates with you. I hope you are feeling blessed this week. I think I'm feeling especially full of gratitude because I have been reading a book on gratitude which is helping me to focus on all of life's blessings.

 

Take care.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

Newest project: Redo ugly bench

Hi friends,
How are you? How have you been? I did a lot of traveling with work in April which was all good and it definitely filled my professional bucket but I am now happy as a clam to be home for the next few weeks! I have a long list (literally!) of spring cleaning (wash baseboards, wash white slipcovers from sofas, and a lot more), spring organizing (put away winter clothes and take piles of things in attic to local Goodwill), and some family fun (the beach in SC and Asheville, NC). I've been wanting to tackle some of these items for the last couple of weeks but needed a good amount of time at home to get started.
 
I just tackled a decorating project this afternoon in about thirty minutes that I wanted to share with you.
 
My husband and I have been wanting a pretty bench for the end of our bed for a long time. I love this style of bench from Ballard Designs but the price tag is entirely not feasible for an item like a bench that is really just for fun:
 

We have looked and looked and looked for a bedroom bench for well over a year in magazines, catalogues, and stores. Nothing that we liked that was affordable and reasonable.
 
We had an old World Market bench from our former dinning room table that our kids used to sit at when eating meals when they were toddlers (love benches for toddlers!) and then we left it outside on our deck for a while with the table and it got ruined on top (super warped!). Here is the old warped bench in our bedroom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided that if we couldn't afford the kind of bench we wanted, I'd just take what we had and improve it as best I could. So off to the local fabric store I headed. I bought 3 yards of beige duck fabric at just $10.99 a yard and some foam.  My husband loaded up his staple gun for me and showed me how to use it and off I went. First I covered the old warpy bench with the foam:

 

 

 

 



Then, I covered it with the burlap colored duck fabric and stapled away. Here's the finished project:

 

 

 

 

 

Since our bedroom is also our cat Millie's domain, she had to check it out too. I wonder if she approves?:

 

I'm definitely not in love with it as much as how awesome the expensive Ballard Designs bench is. But, I think I improved it's appearance. I am considering painting the wood on the legs of the bench to give it a more rustic antique appearance (like the Ballard Designs bench) but I am not sure yet. What do you think?

Here are some other shots of our bedroom (still in progress as always):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It felt really good to have a little time to work on a decorating project today! I will definitely need to carve out a little more time to spice up the Brewer household and share it with you before I head back on the road for work.

Thanks so much for joining me today-
Happy decorating to you-
Megan