Burlap Harvest Pillow tutorial

It still doesn't feel like fall here in Houston, but I'm starting to decorate inside my home to help me get into the autumn mood. I've been meaning to make a pillow like this for a couple years now and finally whipped one up this past week. I'm not sure why it took so long because it was a really quick project. The total sewing time was less than 20 minutes. I'm in love with how cute it turned out. I ended up making two, and gave one away as a birthday present.

Burlap Harvest Pillow Tutorial

Materials:

Burlap, amount depends on how big your pillow is. My burlap was thin so I bought a yard, and doubled it up so it wasn't see through.

White thread

Black fabric paint

Paint brush

Freezer paper (optional)

Pillow insert

1. Fold your material in half hot dog style. (If your material was thin and you wanted to double layer it like I did, then your material will be folded in half twice now.) Place your pillow on the fabric with the longest side on the fold. Trace around it, adding a 1/2" seam allowance. Cut.

2. With right sides together, sew along one short side and the long side. I suggest you either surge or zig zag stitch the raw edges of the sides you've sewn, burlap frays badly.

3. Flip your pillow cover to have the right sides out. Find a font you like (I used Nella Sue from dafont.com) and print out the word you would like to paint on to your pillow. I just free handed the lettering, but you could also use freezer paper and make a stencil if you like crisper lines. If you want to free hand just skip to step 5.

4. Trace your word that you printed onto freezer paper and cut out the letters to make a stencil.  An x acto knife would probably work best for this. Make sure to trace your word onto the non-plastic coated side. Once you have your stencil, iron it on to the burlap.

5. If you are freehand painting use a little bit of paint and make a light tracing of where and how you want your letters. Afterwards go back and slowly dab/paint more paint on to darken the letters. If you are using a stencil just paint over it. Try not to use too much paint on your brush or it could seep under the stencil.

6. Follow the drying time on paint packaging.

7. Once your paint is dry, turn the pillow case inside out again. Sew the remaining edge closed, leaving a hole big enough to push a pillow through. Bring it right side out again and push the pillow inside. Finish the open side with a hidden stitch and voila! Fun new holiday pillow.

Weekend Casual

 

Target striped top (similar here)

Gap black skinnies (similar here)

Target hat (out of stock but I love this one)

Nike runners (similar here)

Sassy Steals Bag (similar here)

Logan has started soccer this fall. Besides being my favorite weekend casual outfit, (I wear some version of this outfit most Saturdays) it's also perfect for sitting on the sidelines for Logan's Saturday morning soccer games. This hat and cross body bag totally make me feel like a soccer mom, and I love it! Now all I need is a van.

P.S. 4 year old soccer games are the CUTEST ever. Favorite part of my weekend.

Modern Tie Dye

Gap Chambray Top (similar)

Dress made by Me

Target bag (similar)

Clarks wedges

I texted a picture of this dress to my Mum when I finished it. My Dad saw the picture and said "Oh no, Mindy washed her dress with dark colors and the colors ran." 

I love the updated tie dye print on this dress and had to have the fabric when I saw it. It's great on it's own, but pairing it with a tied chambray top gives its a different feel and some more interest to the outfit. Once it finally cools down here in Texas it will be fun to try it with tights and booties and maybe a blazer or leather jacket. 

Eyelet and Camo

Banana Republic top (out of stock but I love this one)

Gap Camo skinnies

Old Navy flats

Sassy Steals bag (similar)

I was a little scared to pair these two together, but I honestly loved how it came together. Pairing the feminine top with the edgy camo bottoms just gave this outfit a nice little twist. I went with the feminine shoes on bottom to mirror the top and bring everything together. These camo pants are one of my favorite things, so finding new ways to use them always gets me excited! 

Quarterly Reading

I've been meaning to get back into the blogging game for the past couple of months and thought there would be no perfect time than now, with a quarterly reading update and link up. Here we go, a list of all the books I've read in July, August, and September

• Days of Blood and Starlight/Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor: I listened to the audio version of all the books in this series. The narrator is extremely good. Not to mention the series is great as well. I like to listen to audiobooks while I am cleaning and I would make up things to clean while listening to these. My house has never been cleaner!

•  I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella: Another fun book from Sophie Kinsella. A book about a lovable but hopeless woman who falls in love and tries to sort out her life.

• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare: The narrator for this audio book is absolutely terrible. The voices for her characters are extremely annoying, especially for the males. The story itself is fun, and it had to have been to get me through such an awful audio book. If you want to read this, do yourself a favor and READ it. No audio for this one.

• The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot: If you’ve watched the movie then you know what to expect with this book. They changed the story a little bit for the silver screen, but I enjoyed reading it.

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: I loved this book. It had me balling at the end. I even recommended it to my husband, which is the true test for any book. He liked it as well.

• The Midnight Witch by Paula Brackston: I read this book while I was visiting my family up in Canada. I had run out of reading material and my Mum had this on her kindle. It was a good summer read, but nothing I would recommend.

• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton: I really liked the jumping from present day to WWII England. The story was interesting and kept me wondering how it was going to end. I highly recommend this book.

• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede: Great book for younger girls. The heroine is not your typical girl and I would love Summer to read this book (and series) one day.

• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Von Trapp: I loved all the little stories about her learning English. I even laughed out loud at a few of them. The family’s faith and continual trust in God was really inspiring. Really great read.

• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale: Another great read for any age. I love books with a heroine without the love story being the only story.

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: I honestly don’t know how I feel about this book. It was just okay. But it was also a quick read, so read it for yourself and decide how you feel!

• Enna Burning by Shannon Hale: This was the sequel to The Goose Girl. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Goose Girl but it was still good.

• Austenland by Shannon Hale: This book was kind of silly, but I’ll admit I liked it. It also made me want to go on a vacation to Austenland. Is it a real place?

• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare: In my opinion, City of Ashes is the best book in the Mortal Instruments series. I give this book a solid 4 stars for anyone interested in the YA Urban Fantasy genre.

• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: The premise of this book (boy falls in love with girl who's email he reads as his job) was interesting and funny. Although it could be considered creepy, it was actually sweet.  

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: I know it’s hard to believe, but this was my first Mark Twain. I totally understand now why this is a classic and Mark Twain is considered such a great writer.

• Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson: Probably my favorite read from the last 3 months. I love it when someone comes up with a totally new idea for fantasy. I’m excited to read the rest in this series.

• The rest of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare: After the third book I didn’t really want to go on with this series, but I did and I’ll admit I enjoyed most of the books. Although it did feel a little young for me. I think a 16 year old Mindy would have devoured these books.

• The Faceless Ones (Skulduggery Pleasant #3) by Derek Landy: Another great audio book series. I listened to the first two earlier this summer, but I think #3 is the best one. Rupert Degas is a great narrator. I know a series about a Skeleton Detective sounds a bit weird, but I really love these books. A great read for the entire family.

• The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes: This is my second JoJo Moyes book and I think I’m converted.

• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: This book just had too many characters and stories without enough time to develop any of them properly. Not a bad book, but it could have been better.

Regency Romance

When I find a genre of book that I like I always seem to go overboard and read the genre to death. Literally. And usually it's for random topics like English monarchs, or Ancient Egypt, or English monarchs again (seriously, I have read the crap out of the English monarchy, if you have any recommendations send them my way!) Lately it's been for Regency Romances. I've read Pride and Prejudice a few times, and I even found a trilogy written from the perspective of Mr. Darcy that I really enjoyed a few year ago. But recently I have been on a regency romance kick. I'll admit a few of them have been extremely sappy and almost embarrassing to read, but the majority have been excellent. I love a good clean romance, where just reading about them holding hands or looking at each other gets your heart racing. No raunchiness, something you can recommend to your mom.

I've mixed them up with some good old fashioned Jane Austen along with more recent novels. Here's what I've been reading lately along with my thoughts.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen: Let's start off with Jane Austen. And this is the book that started my recent romance kick. I wouldn't have read this if it wasn't my book club's pick for October. Sometimes I find Jane Austen books hard to get into at first. She's kind of wordy and takes a bit to set up the romance. Not perfect for the impatient reader (me). But I always enjoy her books once I get into the thick of it.

Persuasion - Jane Austen: Another Jane Austen. If you haven't read any Jane Austen books and you like a good romance you should. Persuasion is about Anne Elliot. Years ago she walked away from the love of her life when she was persuaded that he wasn't a good match for her. Years later they meet again and it seems she is given a second chance at love.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte: I became interested in this book because I read that it was autobiographical. And honestly, if even only a small part of this book is fact then Charlotte Bronte led a crazy life. I honestly can't imagine going through half the things she did.  It's a bit wordy, like books from this time seem to be, but there is definitely enough drama going on to keep you reading.

Edenbrooke - Julianne Donaldson: If you only read one of the books on this list, read this one! I read it in one day and totally ignored my kids. After her mother's death and her father's abandonment Marianne Daventry leads a sad, boring life in Bath with her grandmother. An invitation from her twin sister to join her at Edenbrooke offers Marianne an escape from Bath. A run in with a dangerous highway man, and a flirtatious handsome stranger soon proves to Marianne that it's not going to be the summer that she was expecting.

Blackmoore - Julianne Donaldson: Not as good as Edenbrooke, but still a good read. Kate Worthington is obviously in love with her best friend, Henry Delafield, but has made the decision to never marry. She's invited to visit his family's estate, Blackmoore, for the summer and it's there that we find out why.

The Kiss of a Stranger - Sarah M. Eden: This was one of the embarrassingly sappy books, but I still enjoyed it. Just a disclaimer, expect a whole lot of mushy sentimental moments. Crispin spontaneously kisses a servant while trying to convince a determined woman of her unwanted advances. He soon finds out that Catherine was in fact not a servant and is forced by her large uncle to marry her. He brings her back to London with him and tries to pass her off as his wife with as little scandal as possible, all the while pursuing a secret annulment. But an annulment would ruin Catherine's reputation and while delaying Crispin finds that he has grown fond of his unexpected wife.

Friends and Foes - Sarah M. Eden: The last on my list, and probably the least as well. It was just a little too sentimental for my tastes, and a bit far fetched in it's story line in some places. I didn't mind it, and finished it rather quickly, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Andes Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I seriously love these. Ever since Halloween ended I've been scouring the stores waiting for the Andes Peppermint Crunch thins (apparently you can buy them in baking chips too) to show up. I finally hit the jackpot at Target and loaded up. I think I'll have to buy some more before the Christmas season ends. I seriously crave these cookies all year round.

Andes Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips (or the mints diced up)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the butter and brown sugar in a bowl and cream together with a mixer. Then add the egg and vanilla.

In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix together then slowly add to the wet mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips and Andes peppermints.

Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes (or until the edges are brown).