Addicted to Color

Inspired by this pillow (Stitch is my new favorite magazine) I made my own. Anyone who knows me knows I am addicted to color (tastefully, no hot pink walls around here) and that I shun beige. Life is too short for beige.

Give Away: Happy Etsy Anniversary to Me!

NOW CLOSED: CONGRATS TO COMMENT #23, 'SMALL GRAPES'.

I bought a new couch cover last week at Ikea. My old one was dark brown and I did like it but there was something defective in the dyes that caused it to bleach out to an orange-like color. Thankfully, Ikea gave me all my dinero back so I bought 2 white covers instead. (That way one can be washed while the other is on.) I’ve always loved white covers and I know they’re a pain to keep clean, hence the two covers. So I quickly made some new pillows to spice it up. I love it!

So……In honor of my 2 year anniversary selling pillows on etsy, I am giving away one 18” pillow cover. Your choice of any of the five pictured here on my couch. Just leave a comment here telling me one thing you like about my shop (stroke my ego) or one thing you wish I would do differently—or both! I’ll pick one lucky commenter using random.org on August 24th (Monday). I’ll notify the winner then and she/he can choose which of these funky designs she’d like. Make sure there is a way for me to contact you—either through your own blog/profile or by leaving your email. Good luck!

Camp Sew Fun

The kids have been out of school just about a week now, but so far so good.  I must admit I was a bit anxious as the school year came to an end. After all, the kids fight like cats and dogs on the weekend so who is to say that the other five days of the week would yield a different result? Most days I believe that my kids would sell each other for a nickel—with or without a coat of many colors. So what’s a mom to do? Structure is the answer my friends.

I decided that every Tuesday this summer would be Camp Sew Fun in our house. So for this week’s projects the kids wanted  to make banners for their rooms. Imagine that, their mom makes and sells banners to everyone else on the planet, and yet my own kids don’t even have one. So I put one of my sewing machines on the lowest possible speed (lest Camp Sew Fun result in a trip to the E.R. for removal of a sewing machine needle) and let the kids sew their own banners. They picked their own fabrics, traced the letters, cut them out, and pieced them together. My oldest son had the hardest time cutting out his letters and my youngest daughter excelled at cutting hers.  Go figure. Now I just need to figure out what we can sew the rest of the summer.

 

Treasure Chests

I have decided that if I want to buy my kids toys then the test should be this: throw the toy down onto the floor in my path of walking, and if it looks good there, then buy the toy. Because that’s the only reason my kids have toys—to make me work harder at cleaning up all the crapola. So being the brilliant person that I am, I have put a moratorium on toys, sort of. For Christmas, this was the test: give the children gifts they’ll love and I will love. Tough order to fill.

I think I've mentioned before that I swap my sewing skills for fabulous furniture with Four Chairs furniture in Orem. In an effort to keep the no-toy-rule this last Christmas (yes, I'm behind on blogging about sewing/decorating) I decided to give the girls blanket chests. I told the girls that these were like treasure chests . So only items they love and treasure should be placed inside—i.e., no crapola. They seemed to like that idea and quickly went around their room grabbing special items to carefully stow inside. And because I love color, they had to be painted cute shades of limey green and turquoise. Mission accomplished.

Pillow Envy?

By now you all know I design pillows right? Well seeing this post on apartmenttherapy.com (my favorite design website…and not just because they’ve featured me twice) made me think the pillows in my own shop were a bit dull. Come on, sushi pillows! And how about the pillow mimicking a pool of blood! Ha!

ApartmentTherapy.Com

A while back I was featured on ApartmentTherapy.Com for my pillows. They liked my designs as well as my low prices. I had never heard of this home decor website before but apparently they have 2 million hits a day. I didn't get two million orders, but I got enough in one weekend that I was waking up at 4 am to cut and sew like a sweat shopper. The hype over this pillow hasn't slowed down--I've sold it 35 times now. So thank you Lily at apartmenttherapy.com for the fab article. I check out your ultra chic and modern website almost daily now. Here's to good design. (*glasses clinking in the air for a toast*)

Put Your Feet Up

I'm a sucker for a good ottoman. They make my feet happy. My family room ottoman (purchased at T.J. Maxx a few years ago) was looking pretty shabby. So I bought these two little ottomans at Ikea last week (only $43 without the cover!) and made them some snazzy covers. You like, no? Me like.

Finding Good Homes For My Goodies

Sometimes I wonder what kind of home my goodies find once I mail them off to customers. So nothing makes me happier than receiving a photo from customers with one

of my items displayed in their home (or elsewhere). So I thought I'd share a few with you all. Doesn't that first photo look like something you'd see in Pottery Barn? And

that pillow in the window of a NYC apartment makes me giddy because I dream of living an urban life.

Meringue Designs Goes Global (Sort Of)

I was interviewed for an article in Utah Valley Magazine called "Work it, Mom". It's about mom business owners, or mompreneurs. Yup, that's me on page 38 of the July/August 2008 issue. You can read both pages about me here and here. Or you can buy a copy, you know, so I can autograph it, or so that you can make a decopauged pencil holder from the glossy pages and see my lovely face everyday.

Sewing Room Makeover

My friends think I am good at decorating, but really, I'm just good at copying others good ideas. I saw this photo online at Heather Bailey's website and decided to model my sewing room after it.

So I painted the walls pink, bought a shelf for my fabrics, covered my cork boards with Heather Bailey designer fabrics, and now I just need to paint my sewing table that gorgeous distressed turquiose color. If it ever gets warm enough to haul it outside and paint it, it will happen. I thought of cleaning my sewing room before I photographed it, but hey, this is how it looks on a daily basis. (Yes, a new house is being built on the *&^% flag lot behind us. Don't ask me how I feel about that.) I need to do something about having a black chair in this very feminine-looking room. I need to figure out if I can take the chair apart and re-upholster it. It's comfy!

This cutting table has saved my life. I can't believe I sewed all those years without it! My little Ikea shelf would look gret if I would keep my fabric organized into colors, but that's too much work.

I bought this chair at Ikea so that Paul can visit me when I am working. He likes to prop himself down there with the latest copy of Fortune Magazine. We're a good team. Need to recover the chair in cute pastel fabric too. Ah, the never ending projects.

I buy my fabric stash wholesale now and avoid the retail prices. I had no idea retail was marked up 100% until I started buying wholesale!

My shelving unit is loaded with Ikea stainless boxes. All my containers are critical to keeping me 'semi-organized'. This unit holds my patterns, baskets of serger thread, zippers and buttons, sewing book references, etc. (The gallon of distilled water on the floor is to refill my iron.)

My iPod is my best friend. I have it loaded with heathen music that I love and LDS General Conference reports. See my Pullitzer-Prize winning Shuffle Me Righteous Blog for more info about my quirkiness with music and conference mixes. I hang Hallie's artwork behind the iPod on the bulletin board.

We complete your 360 degree tour of my sewing room studio with a view of my college diploma on the wall. I've always hung my diploma in my sewing room since the day I got it 12 years ago. It's the most expensive piece of paper I own and it took me another 5 years after college to pay off that piece of paper. Ah, but it was worth it. Look wear I am now? Working in a pink studio with sewing machines worth more than our 1993 Nissan Sentra.