Big problems, small problems, some problems that take time to figure out and some problems that feel like they take forever to solve.
Having problems can be stressful. I don’t think anyone will debate that.
If ever in the history of ever there could be such a thing as a good stressful problem, this is my week to have one.
Let me explain.
I have been working with a customer on a wholesale pillow cover order. She is a dream to work with. She knew what she wanted and never hesitated to ask questions.
Sidenote: I myself am a question asker and also love it when other people ask questions.
Anyway, the wholesale order came through the same weekend that Karianne of Thistlewood Farms fame gave me a shout out about the large metal signs I have available in my shop. Everything Karianne touches, turns to gold. The metal signs flew out of my shop! In fact last I checked I only have one left in inventory.
On top of the wholesale order and shout out, I was visiting my parents in Texas AND my Etsy shop had become extremely busy.
The point I am trying to make is that, THESE ARE THE BEST STRESSFUL PROBLEMS EVER!
Seriously, how can I possibly complain about being insanely busy making pillows and signs and home décor items for people who want to buy them for their homes.
Every sale I receive, I am so excited to think that this item will be enjoyed by someone, maybe comfort them and possibly start a conversation when the new owner shares the story about why they purchased something from my little store.
So Thank You to everyone that has purchased an item from either one of my shops or any small business owner.
Now let’s go back to the wholesale order.
Julie from Julie Kay Design Studio was the customer who contacted me thru Etsy concerning a wholesale pillow cover order. A week or so later she shipped me the fabric and zippers she wanted me to work with.
Two huge heavy rolls of fabric made with 10oz. certified organic cotton duck canvas was her fabric of choice.
From here I cut matching pairs of 18 and 20 inch squares.
800 cuts making 200 squares created a nice and neat pile of fabric to finish step one.
Each piece then had one edge stitched with a serger allowing a clean edge.
Two serged edge pieces are then sewn together adding a zipper for the bottom of the cover. From there it is a matter of sewing up the remaining three sides and again serging the inside edges for a finished look.
The covers will now be boxed and shipped to Julie.
She then does her magic and creates these beautiful watercolor covers.
Each one of her pillow covers is a hand painted unique item. No two cover are exactly alike.
Stunning, don’t you think?
Read all about her shop and other products she has available.
These pillows would make great conversation starters. 🙂
I hope everyone has a fun weekend. Stop by tomorrow for a Sidenote Saturday chat.
Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? I titled this post both ways and after too many back and forths, I decided that today, life imitates art.
For a little back story, my husband loves to feed birds. He had about seven or eight bird feeders placed in the back yard of our previous house. That made for a lot of bird seed on the ground, bird droppings and birds in general. Last summer he gave all of those bird feeders away when we moved because we didn’t want to have all of that business on our little sand beach. I think he was sad. 🙂
But the other day when he was outside doing whatever it is that he does outside, I noticed that this was placed by the window. I guess he didn’t giveaway ALL of the bird feeders. So today as I am typing from the living room couch, this catches my eye.
And it reminded me of this pillow cover that I made recently. Beautiful in real life and beautifully captured on a pillow.
Along our little beach, there is an enormous bush with these huge red flowers. I am going to call them hibiscus, because in all honesty I have no idea and I am hoping someone more versed in the world of flora will pipe in and correct me. Mom???? 🙂
Have you ever done something that you instantly regret?
Me too.
Years ago I had a to have a root canal, followed by a crown. I let the dentist talk me into a gold crown. He said that it was a stronger material and would last forever. Seemed logical to me. Well, when I find something funny, I have a big loud head throwing back mouth wide open laugh that comes deep from the belly. When this happens some one always comments about my big ole gold tooth. Honestly, this use to bug me, but looking on the bright side… gold is hot and trendy this year!
It seems like metallic gold is everywhere. And Old Lake George is no exception.
What’s it called when you put a room together on paper? You know, you cut, copy and paste pictures of the bed, the duvet, the rug, the lamp and all of the things you would choose to make the perfect bedroom. I can’t remember what it is called, a mood board? Hold on, I’ll Google it.
“A mood board is a type of collage consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition. They may be physical or digital, and can be “extremely effective” presentation tools.” Thank you Wikipedia.
So now you are thinking I will insert my mood board for my daughter’s first apartment bedroom. Not gonna happen. I usually make the mood board in my head, starting with one piece. That piece is this rug, purchased from RUGSUSA.com
Next up, a dresser. Oh how I love how this dresser turned out. It is an IKEA dresser. The RAST.
We have all seen hacks of the RAST dresser from IKEA. (A hack is when you modify or repurpose an item.)
I present the RAST as seen in IKEA.
And the RAST all assembled. I love directions from IKEA. I am a visual learner so this was right up my alley. From beginning to end it took me about an hour to put this together.
Moving on, I painted the dresser white. And since Samantha’s sorority symbol is an anchor, she choose this larger sticker from Target to adhere to the dresser after the paint had fully dried.
The final touch was these 6 ceramic nautical blue and white dresser pulls from Hobby Lobby to replace the simple wood knobs that come with the RAST.
Drum roll please….
I’m thinking that these nautical pillows will be a great addition to the room too.
We are working on a couple more pieces for the bedroom. I will post those soon!
So many times people say to me, “Oh, I wish I could sew.” or “Putting in a zipper is so hard, I could never do that.” or even “I have so many ideas for pillow covers, but I don’t know how to make them.”
Well there are hundreds of YouTube videos about learning to sew or putting in a zipper. But if you want to take it one step further and save yourself some time and create all of those amazing pillows for friends, relatives, co-workers or a hard to buy for person, you’ve come to the right place.
As we all know, the acronym DIY stands for Do It Yourself. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to do it all by yourself from beginning to end. So, I am here to help.
I have available in my shop pre-made pillow covers that you can then DIY. They can be used to stencil, screen print, embroider, hand paint or appliqué.
But the best part, they are available at wholesale pricing. The more you purchase, the less expensive they become.
Unleash those creative juices and don’t let a little zipper or sewing machine hold you back!
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