My amazing mother-in-law and sister-in-law gave me a sewing machine for a bridal present. (I am so grateful!!).  I had never even touched one before. I had to have Brandon teach me how to use it! That is right. Brandon can sew. And he is really good at it!  I have used it here and there, but this was my biggest challenge for sure.  The first pillow took me probably 6 hours. Pathetic.  I had to figure out all the measurements and figure out exactly how to make it work.  Since it took me so long, I decided to track it and include a tutorial in this post for those that would like to try it for themselves!

My inspiration was this pillow I saw at a boutique store in Lindon. (on the right).

I fell in love with the pillow, but was completely turned off by the price (over $100 each!!!!!). So I took a picture, searched for fabric, and decided to make my own. With my own twist.

First: Here is my final product.

I knew I wanted 3/4 of the pillow to be damask, and 1/4 of the pillow a different fabric. I couldn't find one that went well with the damask, so I stuck with plain black. It has a zipper at the top of the pillow so I can wash the pillow anytime.

This pillow completed is 17 inches x 17 inches.  

Step 1. Cut 2 pieces of the damask (patterned) fabric. Width: 12 1/2 in. Length 18 in.  (This will leave room for sewing edges together).

*Watch what way your damask fabric(or other patterned fabric) goes. I specifically wanted the damask fabric on the right side of the pillow when finished, so I made sure the damask was running up and down before I started cutting.

Step 2. Cut 2 pieces of black fabric. Width: 6 1/2 in. Length: 18 in. 

Step 3. Sew black and damask (patterned) fabrics together with a 1/2 inch seem.

*It is really important here that you make these two pieces opposite.  By opposite I mean having the damask fabric, with pattern running up and down, on the right for one piece, and the second piece having the damask pattern on the left. When the pillow is completed, the black parts will be aligned and the damask parts will be aligned. 

(One piece with damask on the left)

 

 (One piece with damask on the right)

  

 *I ironed these after I sewed them together to make sure the seem was sitting flat.

 Step 4. Line up the two completed sides with the front of the fabric facing in towards each other. At the top, in each corner, mark 2 inches in from each edge. Also mark 1/2 of an inch down from the top. Sew these together, stopping at the edge of the 2 inches. This will leave a gap in the middle at the top where the zipper will go.

  

 Step 5. Pin down (or you can use basting tape) the 1/2 inch seem at the top for each side. Sew each edge down from end to end.

  

Step 6. Sew the zipper to the newly sewn 1/2 inch seem. Pin the zipper to each edge and sew the zipper to the seem. Sew as close to the zipper as possible.

*I got a 14 inch "separating sport zipper."  This seemed to work perfectly for me.

Step 7. Sew a 1/2 inch seem all the way around the rest of the pillow (3 sides).

 

Step 8. Flip the pillow to be right side out. Push the corners out to give it the square shape. And stuff with your favorite type of  stuffing!

*I used stuffing from two other pillows that we had. The cats used them as their scratching posts when we had our old couches, so they were ruined.  We were going to throw them away, but I decided to keep the stuffing!

Here are the final products! 2 pillows for our couch, to match our new rug, and the curtains and curtain holders I have made previously.  Can you tell I LOVE damask?!

 

I hope you enjoy! And I hope these instructions make sense. Let me know if you have questions!

Since I never post, I thought I would share with you all what we have been up to lately.

As discussed in an earlier post, I am no longer working. At first I was very upset and heart broken about it. But now I am feeling like it was meant to be. I think I needed to get used to the feeling of being home all the time before the baby came. I am not going to lie, I became very sad being at home and not having anything to do. I am SO used to working, that I didn't know what to do with myself! If I went through this when the baby came, it could have been a very depressing first few weeks. So I think this was meant to be. I have more time to prepare for the baby, and get things ready. I have more time to spend with Brandon, more time to take care of the house, and more time to take care of myself. I have more time to spend with friends and family, and time to catch up on projects that have been sitting on my to-do list since August.

Since I am not working, I have also been able to do more things that would have required me to take time off of work.. which I am not certain would have been allowed. But anyways, we have been busy lately!

We went to Boise to check out the city. I have never been there so we decided to go see it to see how we liked it. We wanted to look for jobs here for Brandon.

I have family in Boise, so they helped us tour the city.

View of downtown Boise. Beautiful!

We got our hair done by my cousins!

Family photo.  Jeff and Linda and 5 of 6 kids.

Noah loves Brandon.  He wanted a picture of him standing on Brandon.

Noah also wanted a picture of Brandon standing on him!

Our adorable niece Greta turned 1!!! The past year has for sure flown by!  She is now 14 months old!

We then went to San Diego. We met my parents, little sister, Grandma and Grandpa, aunt and uncle and their 3 boys, and aunt and cousins.

We hung out on the beach... went for daily walks.

 

 

 

We ate a lot.

Fish House on the Pier.

Casa De Pico Mexican... yum.

And we were really full. Whose stomach is bigger?!

 

We went and saw the seals on the beach.

And enjoyed the sunset.

Everyone loves to touch the belly.

Because it's "Clearly Not A Secret!"

I have gotten together with some girlfriends.  My friend Heather treated us to the Melting Pot!

 We have gone out to eat a few times. We decided to try out the Purple Turtle... a famous burger joint here in Pleasant Grove.

 I got the thinnest burger known to man and it was super expensive!  I vote "nay" on the purple turtle.

 I have been doing some projects.. I made some burp cloths!  These are super easy and make the cloth diaper burp cloth look so much better!

I also made some pillows. Pictures and a tutorial are on its way.

I have been washing all of the baby clothes. First load!

My parents and little sister came in town for Spring Break.  We went to conference!  I had to sit in the hall on a couch for a while, but I made it through!

We ate at the Spaghetti Factory.  And ate spumoni ice cream. Yum.

Spaghetti Factory.

We ate at JCW's and had a COMPLETELY raw hamburger. After waiting for 20 minutes in the drive thru... we didn't want to go back.

We had Spoon It Up Yogurt. My Dad loved it!

Spoon It Up.

Spoon It Up.

We ate at the Olive Garden to celebrate Brian's 23rd birthday.

We set off balloons for Brian's birthday with my Mom's parents and Nettie and family.

Then we set off balloons with my dad's parents.

We got together with friends at the Barkers for dinner and games.  We played Just Dance and it was amazing!

This is extremely embarrassing, but hilarious. Good thing it is blurry!

The boys gettin' it done.

 More updates to come... so stay tuned!!

To all of you bloggers out there... I need advice. Please help!

I never post on our blog anymore because it takes so LONG! It takes me forever to upload pictures. I can only upload 3 at a time or it says the upload was a "bad request." But pictures are the whole point of the blog! So I want to include the pictures. I made the Colorado post and it took me 2 days. That is WAY too long! I have heard about updating my blog but don't know how. I also have heard about creating a new blog and the new system is a lot easier and faster. But I don't want to have to get a new domain name or anything. So I think that option is out. I have also heard about doing it through your email or through another site, but I don't know how!

Any suggestions? Thank you bloggers!

We have made some purchases lately that have been very good ideas. So I wanted to share them:)

First we purchased a rug that was on sale. We got it for a steal! We have been wanting a big rug since we got married but couldn't find one for a decent price that we liked. This one is perfect. Except for the fact that the cats love it and it collects hair very quickly. So I have vacuumed it every day since we got it. Oh well.


And next are the cat beds. We had a laptop shelf thingy that I would use to study with while on the couch or bed. We decided to put a blanket over this for the cats to lie on. Well Sniper would lie on it but Gunner wouldn't get close. We recently got a new couch and don't allow the cats up on the couch. Well since Gunner had no where to sleep at night, every night after we would go to bed and close our bedroom door, he would jump up on the couch and sleep there! So I decided to try out a cat bed and see how he liked it. Our cats love the feeling of "hiding" and go under anything. So I got this bed.

Well not only did Gunner love it, but Sniper loved it too. They would fight over it. The second one of the cats got out of it, the other cat would sneak in right away. When Sniper would sleep in there, Gunner still didn't have anywhere to sleep, so he would continue to get on the couch. So we purchased a second one. Now they are in heaven. They haven't picked beds yet, but tend to just go in the one that the other isn't in. But I seriously think this is the best purchase we have made in a very long time. No more cat hair on the couch and they LOVE them! I suggest these beds to any cat owners out there.