Almost NO SEW Quick Holiday Pillows!

Festive Holiday Pillows are a quick and easy way to add a bit of glam to your decor.
These pillows also make great last minute gifts!

I spent a few minutes looking at some great ideas that other folks have made.....here are some of my favorites!

Design Dining Diapers created these lovely burlap pillows using acrylic paints...simple but fun!

Source

This stunner was created by Craft Box DYI To Go

The Deer Outline is on the post....ready for you to print on heat transfer and iron on!

Source

Everyone has solid color pillows....

how about dressing them up with some ribbon and a shiny ornament like the ones over at

Quad City Mom's Blog?

Source

Here is a tutorial for this Pottery Barn Knockoff.....over at Sewing in No Man's Land!

SOurce

Talk about inspiring....I am getting out the ribbon to tie on my red pillows in the living room...

Here are a couple of pillows that I have created in just a few minutes....with almost NO Sewing!

Here is a tutorial for MY Pottery Barn Knock-off!

What would we do without BURLAP?

The poinsettia flower is made with fabric from a Goodwill Boiled wool jacket, but you could certainly use felt!

I had some of the scraps from the jacket in my fabric stash....

I used them to make the birch branches to applique onto a pillow made from a Goodwill sweater!

The branches are just hand stitched onto the pillow....I used a permanent marker to add the birch shading and a tiny bit of red wool for the cardinal....

It is a bit rough....but I am just calling it "rustic"!  

Remember.... the philosophy here at Sweetwater is:

 "DON"T WAIT FOR PERFECT"

and

"USE WHAT YOU HAVE"

I hope this has inspired you to find a couple of minutes to make your own pillows...

I would love to see your creations!

Have A Great Day....and don't stress because there are only 10 days 'til Christmas....

Somehow....it will all get done!

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Make it Pretty Monday    Lines across My Face Funky Polka Dot Giraffe   
Crafty Blog Stalker   TIme to Sparkle  

DYI Dreamer  Fluster Buster 

Fa La La La La!

Whew!  

What a busy week! 

Monday!

We had the fun Make and Take Workshop at School!

Amazing how the scent of pine....seemed to revive us all after a long teaching day!

A flurry of ribbons, pine cones, greens and glue guns....

A great event....the 2nd annual....so I guess it has become a school tradition!

Tuesday

I finished decorating the dining room....

Wednesday!

Date night with Mr. S.....the theater to see a great comedy....

it is a good thing that the play was entertaining or I probably would have nodded off in the darkness!

Thursday!

 The "adopt-a-family" drop off was Friday....so the packages needed to be wrapped, beribboned, labeled and bagged to be ready for Mr. S to take....

Friday!

I have to admit it....by last night about all I could find energy for was a good dinner, a glass of wine and the comfy couch!   I needed to store up some energy for the weekend!

Would you believe....I have almost ALL my shopping left to do....AND we still don't have a Christmas tree....

Ahhh....  "tis the season.....so I'd better not Pout!

 

Have A Great Day!

 

Have A Make And Take Holiday Party!

Ghost of Christmas Past!

20 years ago....A Birthday Party for the Sweetwater Daughter!

8 Little Friends making Christmas Crafts and staying for a Sleepover!

What was I thinking!!!

It was fun....and certainly memorable

All I remember is that when the girls were finally snug in their beds....

I needed a glass of wine!

Ghost of Christmas Present!

A Birthday Party for the Sweetwater Daughter !

7 best friends making Christmas Crafts....and driving themselves home!

All I know is that this party was a lot less work....

The guests all brought contributions for snacking, dining and drinking....!

I have to admit.....there were a few tears....but they were from laughter...

 and the darling 6 week old baby who came with her mom!

You would not believe what these determined young women were able to put together in a little over an hour!

These are the stacked birch front step decorations.....

Just 3 birch logs tied together with some wire and ribbon....
Add some greens a few pine cones and a big red bow...

A definite statement piece!

Talk about statement pieces....this oversized planter weighs a ton....but it was worth bringing!


Greens, long birch logs, red dogwood and another bright bow!


It went together in about 10 minutes....and looks like something that you would pay bunches of money for a pro to put together...











 This is one of the swags made with the chicken wire form I wrote about earlier in the week.


That bow is really gorgeous....

Last year....the Sweetwater Daughter made her friend some light sconce swags for a gift....


This year that friend brought the ornaments and ribbon to the party and made her own!!!

This rustic container was a centerpiece at this friends wedding this fall...


She transformed 2 into some lovely table accents for her holiday home!

More front step planters on a smaller scale but still lovely....

This is a giant swag that will go over an arched doorway....



The chicken wire form trick went "giganto" to creat this look!


I do have to say I am glad I don't have to figure out how to hang it up!

This little gem just might be the star of the show!

The little Santa bowl and miniature birch logs are super cute....

Instead of ribbon....the piece of rope twine is just the right touch!

I do have to say that the quality of the "Crafts" has made some dramatic improvements from 20 years ago.....here is one of those ornaments from Christmas Past....cute....and a fun memory!


















We even FACETIMED a distant friend in New Orleans so she could read a favorite story in her excellent "Cajun Accent" ! 

All in all....a more than successful evening.....and certainly productive!

When the guests all left with their creations....I did have a glass of wine....but this time SO DID the birthday girl!!!

Now....tomorrow I am doing this same party (minus the wine) at school with some work friend....stay tuned for those photos!!!!

Have a Wonderful Day!

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I am only One Woman

Porch Light Decor on the Cheap!

Finding an inexpensive but elegant way to decorate the five light fixtures on the front of the house is always a challenge!


Last year I saw a great tutorial over at one of my favorite blogs: In My Own Style.  Diane uses the nifty trick to create full looking swags for the lights and hanging them with coat hangers.  Check out her tutorial here.


The only problem was.....she uses a whole brick of floral foam....and the $3 + times 5 still seemed like a bit spendy for me....


I got the idea to use chicken wire for the form instead of the floral foam....


And....for some reason the shape of our fixtures won't allow for the hanger to work....


 I enlisted the help....and errand running skills of Mr. S to get this project done!

Off he went to the hardware store to get me my supplies...and to the basement to get me the "proper" cutting tool....what a guy!



This roll of chicken wire was less than $6 for a 25 foot roll that is 2 feet wide....
The tool is a WISS All Purpose Metal Snip Pliers (who knew we had one....but.....it WAS the perfect tool)
I also needed some heavy duty leather gloves to protect my hands!

I cut a piece of chicken wire about 18 inches wide and bent the edges on each side in.  Then I rolled it into a column....this gave lots of places to tuck in the greenery!

About that greenery!

Look at the big pile of greens that came from the woods during deer hunting!

And....the free stuff scored from the leftover bins at Home Depot...

REALLY they just let you take home whole carts for FREE! 

So....I had lots of pretty greens to make my swags!

 I scrunched up the chicken wire (the gloves came in handy)

....and stuck the branches in every which way!

I left some chicken wire exposed at the top.....so that after I put the bow on, I could add some greens around it to finish off the look!

I used some really bright red ribbon and made really big full bows...

I used more ribbon on the back to use as ties to go around the sconces....

Looking pretty festive don't you think!!!

And....considering that I have lots of chicken wire left over....

And....most of the roll of red ribbon.....

Each swag probably only cost a dollar!!!

Now....what can I do with that leftover chicken wire?  Any ideas?

Have a Great Day!

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Funky Polka Dot Giraffe Serenity You 










  

Free Photo Editing Software iPiccy

I am in full on decorating mode here at Sweetwater!

The house is a disaster.....boxes.....ribbons....greens....

I will share some of the decor in the next posts....

BUT....

I discovered the coolest on line Photo Editing Site and just had to share with you!

The site is called iPiccy and here is the LINK

 These are a couple of collages that I made!

Super simple and intuitive to use!

 The images above are snaps of the decor in the kitchen!

I am especially loving the Goodwill copper bowl filled with the stuff I took out of the cornucopia and the gorgeous Goodwill pears!

The wreath was a bit tricky to hang....good that the Sweetwater daughter stopped by to be my spotter!

I always lean a seasonal image in the back of the stovetop!

The little bells hung on the back of the chairs are sure to bring Marvin fun times!

I found the cutest Christmas card with Santa scratching the kitty....

hey...every cat needs art when they eat!

The other prints are also framed Christmas cards....

The bell swag is a cheerful sound coming and going through the garage!

iPiccy

Now back to iPiccy

At first I thought that it would be pretty basic!

But the professional touch up tools are almost as good as some in Photoshop and so much easier.....

The one draw back is that there is no straightening tool....so I still used iPhoto for that...

Anyway....just had to share and think it is worth your time to take a look!

Now back to the boxes....and greens...and bows OH MY!

Have a Great Day!

Decorate Your Refrigerator in Style!

I have to admit something that might make some of you roll your eyes.....

 I absolutely refuse to clutter up the refrigerator with the collections of family photos, coupons and notes!

I think it is probably my cluttered brain that can't handle MORE clutter in the kitchen....but hey I don't mind looking at this clutter in OTHER PEOPLE'S kitchen....REALLY....

In fact....I often find myself enjoying those same collections of STUFF in OTHER PEOPLE'S  kitchens and thinking....WOW....they have such interesting lives!!!

The other morning I was looking at the bare white side of the refrigerator which abuts the computer desk where I spend "A LOT" of my time!


Now even for me.....this was a bit on the sterile side!!!!

HMMMMM....what to do?

This is the simple and easy solution I came up with!

A framed Christmas Card....of a cityscape in Winter....

6 round (pretty strong) magnets glue gunned (is that a word???) around the perimeter....

I already had some in my "craft stash", but I might just buy some more!!!

And in less than 10 minutes.....and a few trips up and down the basement stairs to see if I had used enough magnets  (until Mr. S suggested that I try out the magnet strength on the BASEMENT REFRIGERATOR...instead of walking up and down the stairs...well duh!)

I now have an uncluttered but less sterile refrigerator to look at!

Oh....by the way.....at Sweetwater we DO have all those pieces of daily life around here...

this is the solution I have come up with that doesn't make me crazy!!!

It looks to me like this could use some organizing too!!!! 

A project for another day!!!

Here is a post with the Tutorial for making this message board!

MESSAGE BOARD TUTORIAL

Back to the framed art on the refrigerator...

I am imagining all kinds of ways that this could work...

Framed pictures of kids.....

Framed pictures of vacations....

Collages.....Scrapbook Pages....

Leave a comment with YOUR ideas.....or slap me down for being such a refrigerator SCROOGE!

Have a GREAT DAY!

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Nifty THrifty Sunday   Share It One More Time  

Christmas Tree Decor Ideas!

Well.....Here it is!

The completed Mitten Tree created for the Festival of Trees Gala!

We had soooo...much fun creating this tree!

The total cost minus the pre-lit tree:

$150!

Now....I still think that is a lot of money....

the big ticket item was the Nordic Throw for the tree skirt and the hardcover copy of the book!

The ornaments were almost free.....

The mittens were made from $30 dollars worth of Goodwill sweaters...

The big bows were $15 worth of ribbon from CostCo....

A little raffia...or I guess a LOT of raffia....

Some scented pine cones from Michaels...

And there you have it.....a pretty darn cute tree!

The Sweetwater Son asked me why I don't have a themed tree like this AT Sweetwater???

HMMMM.....maybe it is because I still think $150 is a lot of money for a tree....!!!

Watching the other tree designers was a lot of fun.....and a learning experience!  

Here are some images of some of the other trees at the festival!

Now....these trees are a bit on the glittery foo foo for me....but they are gorgeous!

What I did Learn:

• BIG is better.....and very effective....some of the ornaments on the trees were full sized snowmen and stockings....
• Wrapping tulle through the branches adds fullness and a big effect for little effort!
• All of those BIG branches of artificial "STUFF" stuck in randomly in sprays is really pretty!
• Some people like GLITTER a LOT more than I do!
• Winding garland of grape leaves and bunches of grapes make a gorgeous "winery" look!
• A Thematic color scheme makes even the simplest tree look pulled together!!!

 What I might of done differently for our tree:

• BIGGER mittens might have been fun!
• BIGGER wooden circles might have been more of a WOW factor!
• You live and learn!

Oh...and the GALA was lots of fun too......check out the cute little chicks that followed me home from the Silent Auction!

Have A Great Day!