Fun outdoor pillows

It's that time again... the time to be thinking of the outdoors. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to finally make a cushion for the couch on my porch and began my search for pillows to go with it. I found some pretty ones on Etsy of course. Outdoor fabric has come a long way and now you can find all sorts of fabric designs for outdoor cushions and pillows. Oh now what to choose? Secretly my favourite are the Tropical outdoor pillows from Anita's Casa.  I love that pink cording! I'm eyeing the Tonga Weave in Grass or the Eaton, Deep Charcoal from Tonic Living for the main cushion. I'll have to see what works.

1 || Navy and Turquoise Outdoor Pillow from Cathy's Custom Pillows
2 || Gray Outdoor Pillow from Cathy's Custom Pillows
3 || Evil Eye Outdoor Cushion from GorgeousGD
4 || Blue Outdoor Pillow from The Pillow Toss
5 || Orange Lumbar Pillow Cover by Anita's Casa
6 || Tropical Outdoor Pillow from Anita's Casa
7 || Banana Leaf Pillow from Tonic Living

Friday Find: Swing Bed

I don't know how I found this swing bed from Low Country Swing Beds. I started looking at lavender things because I was inspired by my new lavender plant and somehow I found this beautiful swing bed. There's nothing I like to do more in the summer than sit on the porch and wouldn't it be amazing to sit on the front porch on this bed. Yes please.

Happy weekend.

porch props

Happy Monday! (I figure if you say Happy along with Monday it will make me feel better that it's Monday...).

This weekend when I was doing groceries at Loblaws I found some cute lanterns in the I want everything here section. I picked one up for the front porch (only $9!) to put on my little side table. The table is pretty scratched up and doesn't really match out here so my plan is to paint it a light grey to match the grey in the pillows.

what a cutie!

And just in case you care, here's a view of one end of the porch - we moved the couch that was in the back. Now I can take little naps out here and I've worked out here from time-to-time too.

Here's the other end by the front door. Starting to take shape!

Hope you have a great week!

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PS - Have you entered the giveaway yet?Contest ends this Wednesday!

porch pillows part deux

Last night while the hubs was out for a bike ride, I set up my sewing machine on the dining room table, flipped on the computer to watch a few episodes of Glee and got started on my new porch pillows. 

A couple years ago I made pillows using some Ikea fabric I found for $4.99 a yard (so cheap!), but I left them out at night and some rascals got their nails into them. Plus they faded (the pillows, not the rascals).

I ordered the fabric from Tonic Living on Tuesday and got it in the mail yesterday - amazing. I love ordering from local companies!

Just realized this pic is a bit wacky - I feel like I'm a bit lopsided when looking at it!

I wanted something a bit brighter for summer so I thought I'd have some fun with the porch. I'm really craving colour around this house since everything is grey! The fabric is rated for the outdoors so they shouldn't fade and hopefully the little rascals will stay away. 

I've been keeping my eyes open for a little table to fit between the chairs for awhile now but haven't seen one I quite like yet.

Speaking of rascals... this is what I found in the kitchen when I came in from taking my photos. 

The little bum.

mini-makeover phase 1 - cafe chairs cushion recover

I'm not going to sugar-coat it: it's hot here people. Yesterday was apparently a July record of 35 degrees (feels like 41 - or 104 f or something like that for my Fahrenheit friends). Oh and did I mention that I don't have AC? Luckily I live by the lake and there is a bit of a breeze, but really AC would be nice.

Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been spending most of my time on the porch reading. I see the same people walking by at the same times. It's a bit groundhog day-ish. Today I finished yet another book and I thought I had better do something else with my time before I start the next one.

I decided to start small. Really small.

This is the little cafe nook we have on our front porch. We eat most of our weekend breakfasts here and some occasional dinners. The cushions leave little to be desired - they're pretty faded and the orange colour just isn't working for me anymore - so I added cushion make-over to my long list of things to do.



I put the babes to bed for his afternoon nap (or chatter-time since he's been up there for an hour now and is saying Dada over and over again) and got to work.

I had some leftover material from my nursery glider re-do so I used it to make a simple cover for the cushions. No binding (because I'm afraid of it) and no quilting stitches (because I didn't feel like it). They took me about 20 mins to do, which is the perfect amount of time to spend inside with no AC, on a sticky chair and near a hot iron.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!




The next phase will be some little pillows and then next summer I'd like to refinish the table and chairs.

Happy Monday!

porch pillow

I finally finished a big-ish sewing project recently -- well not really THAT big. I've just been procrastinating because the weather has been so unbelievably amazing here that all I wanted to do was sit on my back deck and veg. But alas I got my project done and will share pics later!

This morning I was able to pop out a punchy pillow for the front porch. I still have to do another one for the other chair, but I love this fabric so much that I wanted to share. I got it at Ikea for $4.99! Insanity. (I just realized the pillow looks like it has a little person on it :)).

We've been doing a lot of work on the front and back yards so I should have some befores and afters for you soon!

Have a great Thursday!