Saturday, August 15, 2009

Have I gone too far?

Very soon, I am going to show you the completed pool house! FINALLY, right? I had a great time finishing it and love it!


While completing the details, I ran into an expense that I wasn't amused with. I custom made a bed skirt for the queen size bed in this space. Instead of sewing it onto a big square of white fabric which is the norm, I decided to just attach it around the edge with velco! Easy and simple right? Well, that velco was going to cost like $40! I needed many yards for this, of course. I have no problem spending money on something that I love or that adds value to a space or is needed. But $40 on velcro? That you will never see or ever use? What a waste!

I am all about finding a shortcut if it's available. I am just fine with my solution and it worked great. But some of you may think I have gone too far. The Nester, I am pretty sure, would be proud as this is certainly a spin on her 'mistreatment' mentality! But a few may think that this combination of frugality and craft skills is a bit much. Here's what I did.
I HOT GLUED the bed skirt on. Yup, I did. Rough edges and all. Will this ever be seen by human eyes ever again? Nope. When you sleep in a guest room, do your lift the mattress? If you do, don't visit me!!! I think it's pretty brilliant and it was FREE! Yes, I have some glue sticks lying around . . . that was no issue! Here is a shot of me hot gluing!





If you wonder how I will wash this, well how often does one wash a bed skirt anyway? But I have already prewashed all the fabric (yes, it said dryclean only but I am wild and risky and dangerous like that) and can easily just pull it off, and wash and dry on low settings and then glue again! If I do this once a year I will be impressed. Tell me if you wash your bed skirts more often (this is the only skirt I own so I'm not up on this perhaps?) and if I'm crazy but I think it will be just fine!
If you wonder how I did this, it was pretty simple. I used pins to space the fabric where it was needed and then stuck pins straight through the fabric into the box spring to get the edge hitting the floor correctly. Once it was all in place, I just started at one end with the glue gun and moved around the bed, taking out the pins as I went. I went through perhaps 6-8 glue sticks? I just sat in the middle of the box spring--easy!
Here is a peek at the pillow shams that I made. I think you have to get your main fabrics as perfect as you can and that can't often be done with store bought items. I am a firm believer in spending money on the inspiration fabrics and then blending it with affordable and simple complimenting items. I'll show you the entire bed the next time but you will see these pillows mixed with simple items from Ikea! I think it's all about balance when you want to create something that looks fabulous but don't want to spend a fortune. So yes, this complete room will show you pillow shams custom made from $40/yard fabric and a huge queen size comforter from Ikea for far less than that! It's all about balance! The adorable Sea Horse pillow is from Stein Mart!

I will show you the rest soon!

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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Fall Hospitality Luncheon

Here are two pages I made to pass on to the new committee chairs for PTA hospitality. This event was done right before Thanksgiving. We normally do a Christmas themed luncheon but things get so hectic in December, we decided to do this instead and it went very well! Ham, Mashed Potatoes, fall inspired salad, vegetable, rolls, apple cider and other drinks and a great fall dessert buffet!



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Saturday, August 1, 2009

PTA Events

I am no longer doing hospitality for PTA and thought I should post what I did do over the past 2 years! It was a LOT of work but so much fun and I really enjoyed it. We are weeks away from the new school year so it may seem like I'm in a sharing mood but no, I have to get these pictures to the new committee chair(s) and am in scramble mode! We pass on notebooks to help the new chairs understand the position and I certainly have LOTS of information but have I printed these pictures, NO! So I finally pulled together pages for each event and now just need to print! But why not blog first? That doesn't require me to leave the couch and it is midnight and I am watching Sex and the City. So a blogging we will go . . .
This is the Welcome Back Teachers Breakfast that we did 2 years ago. The school theme was "Reading for Treasure" and I had fun running with that! This last year's theme was Wild about Reading. We are in a rural area so the school focused on camo for 'wild' and again, I had fun! I made that truck that is holding muffins and all the leaves my co-chair and I cut out and then twisted grocery bags into the branches to hang from the ceiling. That was a bit of work but looked great, don't you think?!

The new chairs (big job so we co-chair!) are working hard now to prepare for this years event and I'm sure it will be wonderful. We LOVE our school and our teachers so this job really is an honor as it's all about rewarding our amazing staff!


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