Hand-Painted Pillows and.. No Internet?!?!

I know...it's been a while!

My husband and I decided to try getting rid of TV/internet for a while. Our apartment complex has a business center (that has FREE lattes), and so we've been using their internet for the time being.

It may sound archaic, and it's definitely a little inconvenient, but the benefits we've seen make a case for not getting it back again anytime soon.

We may change our mind during football season, but for now it's looking good. We don't waste as much time on facebook, email, hulu, and watching pointless TV. We spend more time together, and we have to walk whenever we want to check our email, blog, or other things. Now, my husband does have a smart phone, so important weather or news updates we get that way (and he has access to his work emails). That may be what makes this a little more do-able. But in any case, I do like not having internet and TV at home. Being a housewife there is always huge temptation to spend time watching TV or wasting hours on the internet. Now I have to plan my internet time and that makes my work more efficient!

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Okay, now onto the fun, crafty stuff:

Recently I made some pillows for our living room! We were so blessed to be given furniture when we got married! Though it didn't all match, and wasn't necessarily our style. So I thought I'd paint some pillows to help tie things together. I really loved this process and so I captured a few moments of the creating!

These are the fronts to the big blue ones:

And this is mid-painting of the monogram pillow:

Here are the fronts laid on the couch (to make sure I liked the size):

In this photo you can see the reason for the big blue pillows! -- A big blue futon! :)

And now for the stuffing and sewing!:

I don't like limp pillows, so I stuffed them REALLY full!

I used a sewing machine for 3 sides, and the corners of the 4th side.

Used safety pins to hold the opening closed while I hand sewed the last bit.

And Viola!

An this is the monogrammed pillow.

And one of them all together!

I absolutely loved making pillows! I have them for sale right now on my shop, if you're interested in something like this.

Okay, that's all for now! Soon I'll have a fantastic bagel recipe for you, and pics. from our anniversary road trip! (Yep, this time we managed to bring out the camera every once in a while!)

Have a great Wenesday!

DIY Farmhouse Vase...

This is a cute vase you can make very easily from left over beer/glass soda bottles and yarn. They would make really awesome (& cheap) centerpieces at a wedding or shower! The wildflowers help it look even better! (c/o my mother-in-law).

I used rolled-up tissue paper as a spacer to keep the bottles the same distance from each other. This is only needed if you're going to wrap multiple bottles together, and you may be able to get away without any kind of spacer, it just helped me.

Start with the bottles sitting on a table in the configuration you want them to be in. 

Tightly twist the tissue paper until it is a dense shape that will fit the space between the bottles. You may want to use scotch tape to hold the tissue together.

Make a loop around one bottle with the yarn, and make a knot to hold it in place.

Begin wrapping the yarn around each bottle in a way that creates a triangle around the tissue in the middle (this creates the cool weave-like pattern on the sides of each bottle.)

If you want, you can do the same to the neck of the bottle.

I apologize for the short, non-detailed instructions! I hurt my thumb this week, so typing has been a little troublesome, but if you want more detailed instructions, leave a comment below, and I'll put them up once my thumb is better.