So, a bunch of cool blogs that I follow — What the Graham, Mrs. Priss, Stucco Bungalow (among others) — are hosting a Pinterest Partayy today and I thought I’d join in the fun.

Basically, we’re all taking something we’ve “pinned” on Pinterest and instead of just leaving it there on our virtual board of DIY dreams… we’re making these projects reality.

Here’s my Pinspiration:

ORIGINAL SOURCES

1 – West Elm

2 – Tulip and Turnip

3 – Kara Paslay Designs

4 – Pepper Design Blog

And here is our finished product:

Disclaimer: For some reason, the photos do the fabric no justice.  It’s not as gold/red as it appears.  It actually has some silver and gray tones to it and blends really well with the color palette in this room.  I tried tweaking the colors in PhotoShop, but it still didn’t come out just right.  

We’ve been discussing making our own coffee table/ottoman for over a year.  Sad, but true.  I looked high and low for a used coffee table we could upholster, but never found one.  So, this entire piece is DIY by the Dreamers – the Mr did the construction and I did the upholstery – we tufted together.  (Sounds sexy, right?  Not really.)

I plan to do a more detailed Dream It Yourself (DIY) tutorial, but for the sake of getting this post up in time for the PARTAYY – here’s the shortened how-to version.

You start by enlisting your husband to build the frame:

We actually used fence post caps for the feet and they turned out perfect – and cheap!

Then, comes the upholstering…

Prequel… I didn’t get a photo, sorry!  We put furniture cushion foam (you know, the green kind) cut to measure – atop the wood frame.

1. Cover everything with batting.  I did two layers on the sides and one on top.  I secured it all with liquid spray adhesive.

2. Sew corners. (Sewing assistant in background is optional.) Sorry, no detail pics of this either.  It was a little frustrating.  In the end, I turned the fabric right-side down on top of the ottoman and pinned the corners.  I wanted it really taught, so I made sure I pinned it very snug.  Then, I sewed one line, about an inch below the corner of the foam down to the corner of the wood.  I cut out the access fabric, angling my cut to leave room for the corner to be covered.  They turned out really nice!  One corner was a little too snug, and I just sewed a new hem about a quarter-inch outside the original one, then ripped out the first one.  It fits perfectly!

3. Cut the bottom of the fabric, leaving enough extra to pull under the wood frame far enough that you won’t see the staples.

4. Staple away!

5. Be careful on the corners.

Here’s what it looked like when we were done with these steps…

(Again, it looks really red-orange here… not true to life, promise!)

So… now it’s time to TUFT.  That’s a term I, admittedly, had never heard of before starting this project.  I knew that tufting – or, adding buttons – would really take this piece up a notch… so… here we go…

Yes, we’re going a bit out of order here.  The tufting process actually begins before the fabric is upholstered.

1. We marked out the frame – penciling in where we knew the buttons would go.

2. Drill holes for the button threads.

3. Make buttons out of extra fabric using a kit sold at most craft stores.

3.5 (not pictured) – using upholstery needles, pull wax thread through the holes underneath, through the foam, batting and fabric.  It seems like it would be easy to loop the button and then draw the needle back through – but, for us, it was IMPOSSIBLE.  We drilled the holes bigger, tried every thing we could think of – but we could not get the needle back down through the hole.  So, unfortunately, we only had one piece of thread to work with. We tied it to the back of the button – then tied the two back-end threads next to each other together.  This is definitely a two person job – so you get the buttons really snug and TUFTED.  The word is making more sense now, isn’t it?  (Still not sexy though!)

4. It may be hard to tell what this is – but it is the underside of the buttons… the threads tied together.

And here, once again, is the finished project:

And some more looks… I am pretty damn proud of myself about those corners!  That’s the part I was most worried about…

So, what do you think?  Give me a comment below and let me know.  Meanwhile, check out the other Pinterest Partayy participants and their projects:

• Stucco Bungalow
• What the Graham
• Mrs. Priss
• Baby Gators Den
• Design Build Love
• Hernando House
• Merrypad
• Her View From Home - Leslie did a project I suggested and it turned out FANTASTIC!!!

This is my kind of party!

If you did a Pinterest Partayy project, please link to it in your comment.   I can’t wait to see what everyone did.

Psst…. This ain’t my first rodeo.  A while back, I did another Pinterest-inspired project for the nursery – a “You are my Sunshine” wood canvas quote.  You can see that project here.  

I told Mr. Dreamer that I was going to wait and blog about our latest DIY project on Sunday so I could join the “Pinterest Partay.”  He wanted to know where I’d be going on Sunday for this party.  Cute, huh?  I’ll be home, with a glass of wine, ooh’ing and ahh’ing over a bunch of great projects and hopefully getting some fun feedback from you all about my project.

It is done.  I CAN’T WAIT to show you!

Here’s the Pinspiration:

Original source here.

And here’s a poorly-lit, not color-balanced-correctly tease:

Yes, I tufted.  No, I’d never heard of that term until a week ago.

Anyone else joining the Partay?!  See you Sunday!

Follow me on Pinterest here.

Get more info on the Pinterest Partay here.

In case you’re wondering what’s drawing some of you to our corner of the internet…. here is a recap of the attention this here blog’s been getting in recent months.

(Here’s a hint – most of you like baby nurseries and silver curtains.)

The fine folks over at Project Nursery loved the nursery polka-dots so much, they asked me to write an article telling other mommas-to-be how they can DIY dots themselves.

How FUN is that?!  Every once in a while, they put the article in rotation on their home page, which is SO FUN to see!

We also have a nursery gallery on Project Nursery, which you can see here:

Chic Cheap Nursery did a fun write up about the nursery too.  You can view that here:

And… this one was a HUGE surprise… Oh-Dee-Doh also loves the nursery dots and posted about them here:

WOW!  Thanks for all the nursery polka-dot lovin’!  We’re also all over Pinterest now and getting lots of blog hits from that fun site:

If you’re visiting from any of these fantastic sites, WELCOME! We’re glad you’re here.

christmas eve candlelight

Funny story about that there tux…

I spotted that dapper number on a sneak preview slide show of Gwen Stefani’s new mini-person collection at Target, Harajuku Mini.  I made a mental note to be in line early at my local Target the morning the line debuted… I didn’t want any Missoni-type disappointing moments.  I mean how SWEET is that plaid bow-tie?

About five days after the line debuted, I remembered that the line had debuted.

DUMB!  Total mommy-brain moment.

I ran around to a few Targets, only to find one rack of the coveted Harajuku Mini line – woefully picked over with no tux onesie in sight.

It was particularly heartbreaking that a Christmas party was fast approaching – one that I had envisioned Kenton in said tux for – and once momma has the vision, only the vision will do. KnowwhatIwhatmean?

Cue: eBay to the rescue.

Other, smarter mommas had made it to their local Target in time to snag these onesies and I was in no position to be jealous.  Instead, I put in a bid on eBay one night – and went to bed fretting that I had not bid enough for this MUST HAVE AVAILABLE NOWHERE ELSE item.

I woke up – WINNER!  For only $15 above retail, it was mine all MINE.  (They retail for $20, my eBay bid for $35 won… which I thought wasn’t that bad.)  Kenton wore the tux to the Christmas party (sorry, no photos!) and all was well.

Then… a couple of days after the party, I swung into Target and what to my wandering eye should appear?

Harajuku mini tux’s in EVERY SIZE.  So, I did what any woman in that situation would do.  I bought all of them. Then I listed them on eBay.

We wound up selling two for a $20 profit and returning the rest.  In the end, we made enough that the mini tux I HAD TO HAVE for Christmas eve and parties cost us less than retail.  Not the CRAZY deal I was hoping for, but it still all worked out in the end.

Lesson learned.  The calendar on my phone is not just for meetings at work and birthday reminders… it will now include shopping trip alerts.

Baby’s first Christmas was perfect.  He got way too many gifts, was totally overwhelmed and single-handedly entertained seven adults.  Here are the highlights…

We kicked off the celebration of Jesus’ birthday with a candlelight service at our home church on Christmas Eve:

That was followed by dinner at our house.  On the menu, Mr. Dreamer’s mom’s famous lasagna and pureed sweet potatoes.  (Not together, hopefully that was obvious.)  Around our table – the three Dream Dwellers (the Dream Bulldog was under-highchair), both sets of grandparents and my grandfather – four generations around one table.  Bliss.

In my family (Mrs. Dreamer), we traditionally open one present on Christmas Eve.  It’s always Christmas PJ’s.  My mom sweetly asked if she could carry on the tradition, so Kenton got to “open” one present on Christmas Eve:

Candy-striped PJ’s with a reindeer on the baby-booty.  PERFECTION.

The next morning, everyone came back to The Dream.  While the main attraction was taking his morning nap, we indulged in some of this loveliness:

Homemade cinnamon rolls by yours truly.  Recipe from my pal Leslie over at Her View From Home.  They require instant mashed potatoes.  True story.  Random, but they are SO GOOD.  We just found a new Christmas AM tradition for The Dream.  Alongside mimosas.  YUMMY.

After the young sir decided to awaken, he donned a Santa suit… much to the delight of the grandparents and great-grandparent.

Then he tried his hand at this fascinating concept called “presents:”

The Melissa & Doug train from Santa was a hit, but so was the paper. Whatever.

The adults in the room also had a lot of presents to open.

Too many.

Everyone was far too generous.  Including Mr. Dreamer.

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

MacBook Pro. Completely loaded with PhotoShop, Final Cut Pro, DreamWeaver… I could go on.  It is AWE.SOME.AAWWWE.SOMMME. Happy wife.

I got him spandex.  True story.

He’s a cyclist.  A sexy cyclist.

Those are the highlights.  There were many other gifts.  Too many.  I think I already said that.  There was also a Dirt Devil, which has made me so happy and would have been Gift #1 if not for the Mac, but the MacMacMac will be Gift #1 for a long time.

After the Christmas-morning-face-stuffing-present-unwrapping-fun, we headed up to my parent’s house for more gifts (seriously?!) and more food (shoot me now) and more baby-gazing (okay):

The K-man’s stocking also made it’s debut:

The stockings are a tradition from Mr. Dreamer’s side.  We all have the same one.  We got Kenton’s as a gift last Christmas, but the name was blank since he was still baking and we didn’t know if he was a he or maybe a she – and either way what he/she’s name would be.  So, it was super special to have the stocking hung this year with his name boldly displayed.

It was a FANTASTIC Christmas.  One for the record books.  And, in our family, it already is – Baby’s First Christmas.  They’ll never be another.

I cannot believe my little man is now seven months old!  This month, in his monthly photo project, he earned some suspenders…

7 months

The shot was NOT EASY to get this month because we have a certified mover on our hands.  He’s not officially crawling yet, but he is army crawling and is constantly on the move.  See:

Good. Times.

Here is how he’s progressed since month one:

If you’d like to keep tabs on this monthly photo project, just keep an eye on the Kenton tab!

Here’s what we scored this year:

bonus points if you can spot some Bulldog wrinkles sneaking into the shot

We snagged these Alegra Hicks chairs from West Elm for 70% off.  SWEET!  Retail price = $499 each.  We got these puppies (brand new, still in the box) for $125 each!  They’re going to go in the living room with our brown leather couch once we get our couch swapping finalized.   Here’s another look:

Also at West Elm, we scored these sweet little handmade initial ornaments:

Jason, Michelle, Kenton, Bowdoin

At just $.90 each, we also picked up a couple of initials for possible future bebe’s names.  No, we’re not sharing what those are.  (We’ve got to hide these, I know a few people -ehem-cough-grandma-cough- will try to find them.)

At good ol’ Tarjhey, we found some cool vintage-y Christmas decorations for next year.  We brought home all of this for less than $10:

And, finally, we hit up Crate & Barrel for a whole pile of next-Christmas goodies:

We spent about $50 on this loot, which includes garland, candles, mini-cupcake papers, tea light holders, and the one thing I really wanted – Christmas pillows!  I snuck past two ladies who thought they were fighting over the last Christmas tree pillow and found a whole box full of them.  So, I snagged two!

Baby Gap also got some of our business for a few baby closet essentials…

Anyone else score some great deals this week?

paint this wall

replace this couch

finish an ottoman/coffee table for the family room (progress!)

clean out crap and get organized (that Christmas present on the left should certainly help in the garage!)

laundry... just keepin' it real

replace one (or maybe all 3?) of these

begin the process of transforming our guest bedroom into a playroom (it's already being taken over)

And, of course, spending some quality time with this munchkin:

who? me?! But after I'm done playing with my buddy, Padraig, right?!

So, yeah.  We’ll be kinda busy this week – but hopefully, we’ll produce lots of things to tell you about!

Kenton was surrounded by all of his grandparents and his great grandpa… lots of love for this little dude.

Sorry.  That picture is a bit “hot” – but that’s what you get celebrating Christmas in Arizona!  (We don’t miss the snow. AT. ALL.)

From our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PS: This post is coming to you from my new MacBook Pro – my Christmas gift from the best husband IN THE WORLD.  Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!  :)