Last night, in our home, free of Christmas decorations, and visiting family, I became magically transformed into Mrs. Crafty! Imagine that!

Always up for an adventure that’s fast and cheap, I used one of my favorite fabrics, painter’s drop cloths, to sew two throw pillows for our living room sofa. Here’s the back side…

I’m not terribly skilled on my Singer, so I made zipper-less pillow covers. I used a 21″ square of fabric for the front of each pillows, allowing for 1/2 inch seams. Then for the back panels, two 13×21″ pieces allowed room for the edges to be finished and overlap sufficiently.

As a new pillow purveyor, at Veranda Antiques, I learned that the insert should always be larger than the cover, to create a nice full pillow. So, in this case, for a 22″ pillow insert, I made a 20″ pillow cover.

My ultimate goal, is to make our living room less formal. Instead of the silk pillow covers I was using, the cotton looks more approachable. I moved my parents’ over-the-top lamps into the dining room and I’m going to sell the carousel horse at Veranda Antiques, so the room looks like less of a museum…

…and I’ll be replacing the beautiful glass and gold leaf coffee table, with something you can rest your feet on.

Instead of having the sofa face the window, I flipped it back around, to back up to good reading lights, because I didn’t plan for electrical outlets in the floor, when we did our remodel. Dang!

It’s still a work-in-progress. I need to find the right coffee table for the room. I’ve thought of all sorts of possibilities, including a slip cover for an upholstered ottoman I have on hand, as well as this unusual table, from Anthropology, I saw on-line at Houzz.com. Of course they no longer show it on the Anthropology site, so it’s probably discontinued.

Any-who, feeding my never ending decorating obsession is what I do, so that’s the way it is!

I’m looking forward to a quiet dinner at home on New Year’s eve, since we’re officially part of the over-the-hill crowd, who’d rather be safe and cozy at home, than out with the crowds and “crazies”! How about you? Whatever you do, I’m sending good wishes your way, for an outstanding 2012! Thank you so much for being a part of my life!