Slip covered Ottoman

Remember my old ottoman? I bought it off craigslist and reupholstered it to resemble the Pottery Barn one.


I loved it but after a year or so, it was a little booger-fied by the kiddos. So I ripped off the upholstery and sewed a slip cover for it.


I lined the whole thing in a white cotton. Which turns out is actually like making two entire slip covers. It was a huge pain and didn't make enough of a difference for me to want to line anything. Ever again. Except maybe a see through dress so I don't scare the horses.


I love the concept of decorating ottomans with books and other things but as soon as I finished taking this picture, my one year old ran up and shoved them onto the ground. So up on the shelf they go until my kids move out of the house. Or until shock collars become legal to use on kids. Whichever comes first. I hope no one from CPA reads my blog...


And in case you were wondering, my husband's home. He told me he wasn't going to be back until next week and he snuck into the house with a bouquet of flowers and surprised me yesterday. Little stink had been lying to me all week! I quickly forgave him though. Here's what he was doing during my little photo shoot.


Teaching one of the young men from our church how to clean a gun. And by "teaching" I mean getting the boys to do his dirty work. It's good to have him home though.

Bring on the fall!

I've been feeling the need to fall up my house lately. I'm hoping that if I insert a few touches of cooler weather, cooler weather might come to me. And then I burned my feet walking on the road today so yeah... it's going good.

I had a plan. New pillows, a few flowers, some wheat and old tractor gears. And I had a budget. Cheap. Real cheap. So I went to the only place that never fails me. Goodwill. This time I was intent on finding some cable knit sweaters to make into pillows like these beauts from Pottery Barn...


I don't even know how much these are because they're not available anymore. I'm guessing a lot. Well, I found exactly what I was looking for AND another great find. These two leather arm chairs.


And guess how much they were....


Heck yes! And I found the perfect way to incorporate them into my new fall living room.

The only thing that bugs me is we NEVER use that room. It's basically a glorified hallway from the front door to the great room. In fact, I don't think I've ever even shared pictures of it until my union jack rug post. Here's the room now all fallish.





See that "The Vintage Bus Co." pillow? A while back my sister and I went to a home decor shop in Phoenix called the willows. I saw this pillow and fell in love.


But the price was CR-A-ZY so I vowed to replicate it. I know what you're thinking. "This girl is the cheapest person I know". And you might be right. But price is not the only reason I copy from designers and stores I love. In this case it was because who the heck would buy a $300 throw pillow, but most of the time its a different reason. I'll post more on that later in the week.

Here's my version of the pillow and the pillows I made from cable knit sweaters from Goodwill.


Here's a close up of the bus pillow. The cream part is duck cloth, the grey is vinyl and the words are also vinyl. I used my friends cricut cutter to cut out the letters. I have really got to get me one of those! I have since secured the letters in place with a matte Modge Podge. If anyone knows of a better product for fabric, let me know!


And one of the other sweater pillows...


I also got this amazing bench from the ranch last weekend. It once belonged to Tara and I think my mom won it in a hand of cards or something. So I traded it for a framed picture and now I have it! It's how we roll.


The last thing I did to the room to make it feel more fall was something I saw on pinterest. The first thing I thought was how STUPID and completely impractical it was. But it worked. I turned my books on my bookcase around so the pages are showing instead of the spines. And I like the bookcase so much more now!


Did you even notice? I'm hoping my husband won't either when he gets home. I can't imagine he's going to let me keep it this way for long. I already know what he's going to say "I know they say not to judge a book by it's cover but geeze!"


p.s. Only two more weeks till my lover face comes home to me! Wahoooo!

Rest of the great room

Paysens room

Remember that inspiration room I shared with you a while back of what I was thinking of doing to Paysens room? Here it is again if you missed it...


I set out to achieve the look of this room but the guts of an actual bedroom instead of play room. I loved the colors and the board and batten and that chalk board. I tweaked a few things but I still think it's pretty spot on as far as the over all look. This is what her room looked like when we moved in.


And this is what it looks like now.


Paysen has one puny window in her room and one ceiling fan light. I originally went with the light pink on top like the inspiration picture but with very little natural lighting, I decided the colors were too close and wanted more of a contrast. So I went with a dark gray Behr color called anonymous. The board and batten is painted my go to white color, swiss coffee. Every piece of furniture that is white in my house is painted swiss coffee.


I searched the internet for tutorials on board and batten. I already had the basic plan in my mind. If you don't think you could ever do this yourself, think again. It was the easiest project I've done. I even had the boards cut for me at Lowes (Home Depot said they wouldn't do it) so all I had to do was measure, make sure the boards are level and finish nail them to the wall with an air compressor. If you want a tutorial, go here. The only difference was I ripped out my old baseboards and used more mdf.


For the bedding, I used Paysens old white comforter, her pink sheets, and the dust ruffle (two layered on top of each other) which were all from the Simply Shabby Chic line at Target. I made the gray duvet and pillow using a sheet set from Ikea.


Her dresser is one of my favorite things in her room. I swiped it from my sister Tara and repainted the stripes the same gray color as the top of the room.


It has antique door nobs for pulls. I set her pink chippy windows on top of the dresser because I literally can't put them anywhere else in the room due to the board and batten.


I still need to make the chalk board and find a cute lamp for the dresser but I think that's about it and her room will be done. Thank goodness because I've been dying to finish my master bedroom!

Linking up to


And Jennifer Rizzo here