79 cent Pillows!

When Mike and I found out that I was expecting, it almost didn't seem real. My belly was about the same size as before, I had no immediate cravings for ice cream and pickles, and I didn't even feel nauseous...

...and then it hit me.

My first sign of pregnancy.

I began to hate the color red.

This was pretty tragic considering I had red accents throughout my whole house... like the red curtains in the living room, and a red throw on the sofa, and a red printed rug on the floor, and the red Coke tray on the coffee table...you get the idea, it was pretty sad.

Instead of overreacting and removing every single red item from my home, I took out all my aggression on a single item...my red shaggy carpet from college:)

 It was promptly rolled up and carted off to goodwill before I could even give it a second thought.

Feeling much better about things, I began to think more realistically about my dilemma, and although I still had a strong desire to bathe my home in cool colors (blues, whites, and greens), I decided to let that transition take its own sweet time:)

SO...in the meantime I have been trying to work with my current color palette, starting with the sofa in the living room, which until today has been sporting pillows from October!

Here is the before:

See what I mean?!? Definitely not ready for summer.

While I was at Ikea this past weekend with my girlfriend Jess, I found these great little dishtowels for only 79 CENTS EACH!!!

I knew right then and there that they were the solution to my out of season pillows. So I bought three of them, hung one on my oven door, and did this with the remaining two:

First, I ironed them, to remove the creases. Then I ironed them in half, so that the edges matched up perfectly, and the seams faced outward.

Then I pinned the side and bottom of the perimeter, making sure to line up the top and bottom layers perfectly.

Next I sewed the side, bottom, and about 3 inches of the other side.

After turning the pillowcase back to right-side out, poking out the corners, and stuffing it with polyfill, I pinned the remaining few inches, and sewed the opening closed:)

It took less than an hour, and the result is this: aren't they cute!?!

Here is the before and after again:

They are still a little lumpy since I opted out of making a pillow form and stuffed them directly, but I kinda like the homemade look they have, and I figure the lumps will work themselves out as we use them!

Also, since they are so little, I am toying with the idea of making a nice big pillow for the middle of the sofa out of some leftover dropcloth canvas that I have, and then experimenting with fabric painting some nautical stripes on them...

we'll see:)

For now I am happy with my summery pillows replacing the out of season"fall motif" pillows, and I have satisfied my need for crisp cool colors in my living room...for today anyway:)

Apparently Sadie liked them too, because after about two minutes of watching me snap pictures of the sofa, she decided to try them out!

:)

Sweet Summertime!

Layla over at theletteredcottage.net (one of my absolute favorite blogs:) hosted a link party yesterday so that we can all swap ideas for how to decorate our homes for summer. So this morning I quick got my act together and started snapping pictures around my living room of my summer decor.

Since I am still so new to this "blogging" thing...I thought it would be a perfect time to get my feet wet in linking up with other blogs:)

 Some of my favorite things to decorate with are old soda trays like this one, which I found at a yard sale for about $5 a few summers back. I love the look of them so much that I have 3 or 4 more scattered around the house that I could not resist buying from other flea markets/yard sales over the years.

For summer I wanted something laid back and beachy, so I filled some jar with a little sand and tealights and mixed them with some pillar candles. My faux foliage is from Ikea, which is one of my favorite places for little faux plants because they truly do look pretty real. 

Since the weather has been so beautiful lately, we have not spent many evenings indoors, so I have yet to light the candles. Which means at least for now my little faux guy is safe nestled in between them all:)

Here is another little project I worked on sometime this winter in anticipation of warmer weather and the opportunity to sit outside with a cold glass of lemonade and play tic-tac-toe.

It was super easy to make...I just snagged a little piece of slate from my mom's backyard (It wasn't being used for anything;) as well as some little stones from her garden walkway. Then I simply painted on the X's, O's and stripes with some old stencil paint I had on hand...and voilà! Tic-tac-toe!

Since I don't have a fireplace with a mantle, but I do have an entertainment center, I decorate it seasonally as though it is my mantle:))

 

The best part about this whole spread is that the little woven balls have twinkle lights inside, so at night I can just push a button and the whole "mantle" lights up! 

I found them at the Christmas Tree Shops in December for around $6 a strand and have used them to decorate for every season since:)

Here in Pennsylvania, we have had a very rainy spring, so my rainboots became a permanent fixture by my front door for a few months. Since they were doing a good job of propping open the front door to let the sunshine in on the non-rainy days, I decided to just make them a part of my decor:)

What do you think?

So there you have it, my summer decor ideas in a nutshell! Check out theletteredcottage.net for more ideas on how to decorate for summer!

P.S. Sorry for the over-exposure on some of these shots, I have been using my phone to take these pics, because it is better than my camera,but I still haven't mastered the different settings:)

Goodwill Makeover!

Since I don't have all the pictures together that I would love to post about first, I thought I would start with a little project Mike and I worked on last week. 

I purchased this old 70's style sideboard from goodwill for a mere $29.99!!! My husband thought I had gone insane when I asked him to help me load it into our car...he obviously couldn't see the hidden potential:)

Here it is before we transformed it...I had already removed the ugly old brass pulls on the front, which were all broken...

Mike helped me sand and wipe it down, and then sprayed on the first coat of paint. In retrospect I probably should have spray primed the whole piece first, but I was a little over eager. Fortunately, it worked out in my favor, because there is a little bit of dark wood grain showing through which makes for a great shabby chic look, which I love:)

After about three coats of spray paint, this is the gorgeous result!! What do you think?!?

Here it is in my craft room, which is in total transition right now...so please overlook the color on the wall, it will be changing soon!

 

Mike admitted that it turned out to be pretty stunning and it adds so much functionality to  the room...

I can't wait to complete the craft room makeover and show you all the transformation!

Has anyone else completed any goodwill makeovers lately? 

I'd love to see!

So Happy To Be Here!

Hello there!

I'm Adriane and the handsome guy in my profile picture is my amazing husband Mike. We are approaching our one year anniversary as a married couple and thought it would be a good time to begin documenting some of the projects that we have been working on!

Until recently, I had no idea how big the "blog" world was, and or how to become a part of it... but after spending quite a few hours online looking at the inspiring projects, post, and discussions on so many blogs, I thought it looked like to much fun to not be a part of!

Since I am still entirely new to this and am just learning how to blog as I go...please feel free to comment or constructively criticize any time!

As for the name of my blog...

There are so many wonderful names already out there in "blog" world, which made it hard to decide what to call mine...

But alas, I think I have found that "Fruitful Home Journal" suits my blog well.

Why a "Fruitful" Home Journal?

I chose the word fruitful because I believe it embodies what I really desire our home to be. Mike and I have always said that we want our home to be a welcoming place where friends and family can gather and the door is always open. We want it to be a place where others come in and feel blessed, loved, and at peace... a home where everyone who enters is encouraged and uplifted.

My idea to use the word fruitful to describe our home also came from a verse in the book of Psalms in the Bible that says... (paraphrasing:) that whoever meditates on the law of the Lord and abides in the life that He gives, will be "like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither..."

It is our desire to have a home that is like a firmly planted tree, always full of lifegiving peace and comfort...

The reason I decided to call it a "journal" is because that is what I hope it will be...a chronological memoir of what we are working on, and the things that we learn along the way!

I hope you all enjoy reading this, and I hope that our journey to a fruitful home will inspire you as well!