My first and last quilt experience.

Wayyyy back in August for our second, cotton, anniversary David took me to Hobby Lobby and bought me so fabric to make my own quilt. It was one of those things you see on Pinterest and think "I can do that!" or "I have to have that." Now it wasn't quite one of those "pinterest fails" that you see and are ever so hilarious.

The Materials you need for this quilt are:

1/2 yard each of 6 different  cotton fabrics

1 1/2 yards fabric for back

1 1/2 yards batting

binging tape

Triangle Quilt Template I drew mine out the top is 5 3/4 and the two sides are 8"

Extra helpful tidbits:

~use 1/4 seam allowances

~finished quilt is approx. 42"x48"

~ I used black, teal, a multicolored triangle pattern, that I based all the other colors off of, a very pale pink, white, and a small black and white polka dot pattern, just because I have a soft spot for polka dots. 

You can replace any colors you want and pink whatever patterns you want as well, thats what makes it fun and let me tell you picking out the fabric was the most fun I had during the whole process.

6 prints/colors and my backing which I used as the polka dot pattern as well.

After cutting out 19 triangles in each color/pattern and cutting one of each color down the middle for the ends I arranged them on the floor like so.

The pattern I used was:

1. Black

2. Teal

3. Triangles

4. Pink

5. White

6. Polka dots

template

I couldn't leave them like this for long because as you will see my dogs love blankets and even though it wasn't a blanket yet, they still just know.

Once I sewed the strips of triangles together in strips left to right I pressed all the seam allowances open to lay flat.

I then sewed the rows together and again pressed the seam allowances to look like so, starting to look like a quilt.

After I played my polka dot back down and then my batting, and then placed my quilt squares on the top. Using a rotary cutter it helps if you trim the edges. Once you do this you are ready to bind!

My Ronin also made this process very difficult as well.

Once it was all said and done, I had a decent quilt, but the  process was very tiresome and lengthy that is why it is now three months since I started this process, but granted I didn't work on it every day and sometimes weeks went by because I just needed a break from the darn sewing machine.

Someone said to me once it was all said and done. "That's great, I've never made a quilt." My response was "trust me, it's not worth the aggravation."

Maybe in 100 years when I forget what the process was like and they come out with some cool, fancy, high tech sewing machine that I can actually afford I will try my hand at another quilt until then, NOBODY touches this one!

Marvel Man Room

Sometimes you just need to brag on your husband and this is one of those times. Last winter he set out to totally redo our basement. He told me I decorate everything else and that he wanted to decorate the basement-fair enough since I only go down there to do laundry. Last summer while we were at the beach in August, there was a small flood in our town and our basement didn't flood but it got wet and we couldn't get the smell out of the carpet so we set out to rip that up first. I say we but it was really HIM. I honestly could count on one hand that amount of things I did in this room.

Let me start with a before picture...

Yucky carpet and terrible walls. If your reading this post and you by chance were the one that decorated this room-forgive me!

Now on to the coolness of this Marvel/Music Room and everything that makes my husband happy-Reminds me that I must add a picture of myself. ;)

Yoda Floor Mat

Notice we ripped up the yucky brown carpet and painted the concrete BROWN.

Where else do super hero keep their clothes?

Still trying to convince him to put my American Girl dolls on the bottom shelves.

The first edition of all of his favorite comic books.

Here Definition

PEZ people

Bat Light and Batmobile

His craft self even made this.

Comic Book Rack, made by David too

Thor's Hammer

Can'f forget a spot for his sidekicks, Ronin and Fitz

On to the music corner of the room...

So happy that he created a space all of his own and all on his own! Now to turn it into a playroom/family room in a few years may result in a few shed tears, but we are enjoying it for now!

DIY Drink Station

You may have seen the pallet drink station that has been floating around Facebook and Pinterest, I know I have seen it shared and pinned a few times. There are a million things to do with pallets, I haven't counted but if you search it out you can find that you can do just about anything imaginable with a pallet. I have become a tad bit obsessed. I have found myself wanting to buy odd things thinking "A pallet would look cute painting and hanging on that!!" Am I crazy? More than likely! The backyard has been my little project (by the way my husband wouldn't call it little) this summer, we added a back porch and most people wouldn't decorate and add a theme to it but of course I just had too! So I chose a nautical theme for the backyard and thought I would try my hand at the pallet drink station. I have made my dad my personal pallet scouter, he has become really good! I even got him into the whole pallet obsession! So my dad was able to find me two pallets that sized up fairly well. I was able to lay the pallets out in our garage and get to painting. As you can see I didn't paint them perfectly on purpose, I wanted them to have that shabby, rustic feel. So I used just one coat of white paint and just brushed it on not minding if the paint didn't cover some parts. We then laid the pallets on top of each other and drilled them together to make one piece. I then stood them both up next to our house, debating several times as to were to put them. Luckily we had some gravel already along the part of the house I chose and that made them stand up well. Now the pictures online show only three paving stones laid on top so naturally I only grabbed three, but as you can see I used four 12x12 stones. I turned my pallets the other way to see if I could get away with three stones that way and I was still short, so I will say that it depends on the size of your pallets and which way you want your pallet standing. Oh and measure before you head out to the Home Depot, that would have saved me an extra trip. Adding to the drink station was some nautical themed bunting because who can resist a little burlap bunting?!?

Share with me your drink station ideas!