More French Country/Shabby Chic sewing

Here is my new kitchen window valance. I stuck it up between the two cupboards using a tension rod. I've never had a window treatment on this window before and I really like it. I used a smaller red print than on the dining room drapes I showed yesterday. As you are standing facing the kitchen window shown below, the dining room windows with the new drapes are to the right about 6 feet. To tie the two window treatments together I used the same navy houndstooth check on top of the valance that I used on the dining room drapes. I sassed the valance up with some fun fringy trim.








Isn't this fringe great? 40% off at Hancock Fabrics this week. I used it on a pillow that you'll see below. It add such a classy vibe to fabric creations.

Last night after the boys were in bed I sewed 4 new throw pillows. I forgot to take a picture of the ones we've had on the blue couch for about the last 8 years. I am really happy with how my pillows turned out. This morning my youngest son came out and noticed them. He spontaneously said, "Mom, these pillows are awesome!" My older son noticed them and said, "Did you MAKE these, Mom?" So I think they've been given a thumbs-up by the rest of the family. I went garage-saleing with my mom this morning and found 2 more throw pillows with fringe that exactly match my color scheme. They were $2 each and live at my house now!! :0)

The pillow on the left is the first one I sewed last night (recognize the fringe?). I had seen something similiar at a home dec store this week. Prior to that I hadn't thought about putting two fabrics together on the front of a pillow and trimming the seam. Love to steal those great ideas!! The solid red pillow is one of my garage sale finds.

I sewed each of the two pillows shown below. The red floral fabric is the same I used for the new dining room drapes. All the pillows I sewed have a different coordinating fabric on the back so they can be very versatile.

Oh.......my other piece of upholstered furniture in the living room is the blue rocking chair shown below. I made the pillow on the left and the gold one was from today's garage sale booty. The red floral fabric on this pillow is the same as the kitchen valance.

This photo shows the blue couch, freshly painted Honey Butter walls and red drapes that I couldn't sell on Craigslist that I'm now keeping. I really need a rug in front of the couch. We used to have one but it had some (ahem) soiled areas that we never could get clean so it has since been removed and now we just have the plain wood floors. DH really likes it without the rug, but I am going to try to convince him that a nice rug would really add to the ambiance of the space. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll just bring home a rug and see what he thinks.

I have a HUGE to-do list of projects for my home. Hopefully I'll tackle some of those and get them posted this week. I also have some fun things planned to do with the boys this summer. So........plenty of fodder for the good ol' blog.