Next Project at the Paisley Cottage

Up next at the Paisley Cottage is new beds! Yep - plural. More than one. Years ago I fell in love with the Stratton beds from Pottery Barn.

Stratton Bed with Drawers 

Now this bed is not really new - it's basically a Captain's Bed. For whatever reason Captain's Beds come in twin and full. At least in the US. I guess if you live in the US you should have no need for under bed storage. Well - here at the Paisley Cottage we have bed risers to have MORE room to shove crap stuff we can't live without under the bed. We are also not willing to downsize to a full size bed. BTDT. Maybe it's been the downturn in the economy, maybe Americans are reassessing priorities, maybe it's just because of the most recent generation of adults - whatever the reason - Queen size storage beds are not really difficult to find now. While I am a huge fan of Pottery Barn stuff, i'm totally not a fan of Pottery Barn prices even though I can afford them. I'm working on my retirement plan baby! Save save save!

Thank you Ana White for the plans to build the Stratton bed. I had it figured out from the furniture specs in the PB catalog, but having ACTUAL plans makes things much easier. 

Mr. Paisley will begin building two of these in the very near future. One for the master bedroom and one for the guest room. We really need a new mattress and I refuse to buy one to throw it on a crummy bed frame that won't be doing it any favors. So once one is built, I will be mattress shopping! 

So with this new bed - I don't really want a comforter. I feel like the bedding should be tucked in around the edges - clearly PB has a comforter on theirs - it just seems like it would be in the way of the drawers. I thought I might switch to a coverlet or a quilt. Something less...fluffy. I found this number at The Country Door  (and at Orvis back when it was in stock in all sizes).

They call it September Dance. I call it...perfect. Funny thing...see that leaf canvas next the lamp? There's another behind the vase that you can barely see. I have that set of canvases. They're in the family room above the shelf over the TV. I bought them from Seventh Avenue (a sister catalog to The Country Door) a number of years ago. It's a sign right? Anywho...while I love the quit (it's olive green on the reverse) it is $129.99. Shams sold separately...except they had no shams in stock (they do now). Who is buying shams without the quilt?  They are $29.99 each. So for a Queen set that's $190 + shipping. I skipped it - since the shams weren't available.  Ok and because i'm cheap frugal.

I was looking at Lakeside Collection's website because there were a few things I wanted to pick up from a recent catalog. So I found those things and was ready to check out and decided I should check out the SALE section. O.M.G. I did a double take. And then I went to Pinterest to look it up in my BEDDING BOARD just to make sure I was right. It's not identical, but it is really, really close. Same fabric prints, same over all design - if you zoom in on the photos on the Orvis or Country Living sites you will see that the leaves in the large cream center square are done in multiple sizes - which I do like a little better, but i'm not sure if it's enough to pay twice the price. Also the reverse is a plain quilted ivory, rather than olive with a small leaf print.

Lakeside Collection "Fall Quilt Collection"

Their stock photo isn't doing it any favors with those purple walls...

There is my bedding...and CHEAP. Like half price cheap. $39.95 for the Queen quilt and $7.95 each for the IN STOCK shams. Are you kidding?! And I get 1% back (hey...every little bit counts right?) from Mr. Rebates.  That's a whopping $55.85+ shipping (which was $19.95 but I bought nearly $100 worth of other stuff (I just put another set in my cart and it would have been $11.95 for just the quilt and shams to be shipped).  Woo hoo! 

Here it is on my current bed...

My cell phone and the overhead light in the bedroom are also not doing it any favors LOL It's not mauve. I promise :-)

DIY Gift Bags

This morning I needed to wrap a few gifts for Miss Georgia's 3rd birthday. I bought her a light pink hair bow with a G monogrammed in chocolate brown on one of the ribbon tails - I wanted to clip it onto one of the packages as the bow for that gift. So of course I *HAD* to have pink and brown paper. I was sure I had a light pink gift bag...apparently not. I did have pink and brown paper though! Off to Pinterest...where I found THIS tutorial on making your own gift bags. I used it as my jumping off point.

This is the pink and brown paper I had on hand - I picked up a few rolls at Dollar Tree quite some time ago because I loved it the minute I saw it. Plus it's craft paper so it's heavy duty (and word to the wise, it requires GOOD tape).

From there I just sort of guessed as to how much to cut off.  Of course this morning I was rushing to do it last minute and didn't think to take photos. So...because I want to SHOW you how I altered the above directions, i'm making another bag...only it's going to be a small one. It all works the same.

Supplies:

• Paper - wrapping paper, newspaper, butcher paper....whatever, as long as it's large enough for the bag you want to make
• Scissors
• Tape (type will depend on the paper you're using, but I used a combo of packing tape, colored duct tape and double sided sticky tape)
• Hole punch
• Ribbon (string, tulle, rope, twine, yarn, left over fabric strips, shoe laces...)
• Paperboard (cereal box, cracker box, frozen meal box, that one random top/bottom of a box in your Christmas wrapping supplies)
• Bone folder (or if you're like me and didn't have it handy, just use a Sharpie on it's side)

Step 1 - Cut the piece of paper to the size you want - I would suggest adding at least two inches for folding. Try to keep it straight.


Step 2 -  Fold over the edge that will be your top - about an inch. Now fold it over again. Make your creases nice and sharp with that bone folder.  

  Step 3 - Now unfold it.

Step 4 - Cut two strips from your paperboard box - they should be a smidge smaller than the height of your fold. The length will need to be an inch or so longer than however far apart the handles will be - this will vary depending on the size of the bag you're making.

Step 5 - Put the strips on your fold and fold them in (feel free to secure with tape, glue, glue dots, etc.) - then tape the edge. If you have plenty of time, you can certainly use regular or hot glue or something like scrapbook adhesive. 

Step 6 - Bring your sides together, overlap and tape on the inside. I like my edges sharp and neat, so I folded the edge that would be on the outside...creased with the bone folder. 

 overlap and tape

 creasing my outside edge (prior to above)

 When working with a long piece of tape for the "overlap and tape" step, I found it easiest to do it this way - while the paper is flat, put the tape on the edge that will be the inside and secure it, peel the sticky part off your work surface, loop the paper over, then tuck under the tape (try not to let it get stuck), line it up then press the tape down from the inside.  *this is a lot easier if you make your side creases so you know where you can sort of 'flatten' the bag, then use hot glue or an adhesive runner from the OUTSIDE where you can see what you're doing...live and learn.

Step 7 - Make the bottom of the bag!  This is a lot like the process of gift wrapping the ends of a box. Fold 2-3" of paper up. Pull the bottom piece down and then fold the ends in to make triangles. Now overlap the top and bottom and tape it up.  You now have a bag that will stand up by itself.

Step 8 - Punch 2 holes in each of the long sides at the top for your bag handles. 

  Step 9 - Cut bag handles to length, thread thru the holes and either tie together or knot the ends.

Voila! Gift bags that match your wrapping paper.

Come back for round two - because I just made this whole process a WHOLE LOT easier in my head.