Project: Entry Bench

So with Olive's baby blessing coming up... Tomorrow... Micah and I decided to add about 18 million little things to our lives.. Ugh. Kill the crafty side of me please, she creates so much stress!

Our entryway is pretty open, about 12'X6', and boooooring! We don't have any furniture so the wide open hallway is awesome but blah. 

So we are repurposing our old entertainment center from Ikea. I forgot to take a before picture... :(  the color was similar to this.

Ours is 17"D, 75"L, & 24"H. We wanted to get a cushion for the top so it was a bit cozier. Also, our pet bunnies scratched the top horribly (from jumping up and off of it) and we wanted to hide those marks.

My initial thought regarding this idea was to buy a cushion or 2 to go on top. Save myself a massive headache at attempting sewing... since I don't do crap like that... or didn't do crap like this til now. Ugh. Crafty-self needs to stop!

Anyway, after calling around and driving to several stores (Wal-Mart, Pier 1 Imports, World Market...) We quickly realized how expensive and hard to come by these cushions would be! the biggest size we found was 46' and it was $80. Uhhh no thank you! Unless we wanted to get a sweet hawaiian print one from Wal-Mart which was $19.99, I was going to have to make them.
*cringe*

Mentally I panicked a little, but then got to work. We went to Joann's to use their ever-frequent 40%off coupons, found the fabric & supplies we needed, then set to work.

So we used the measurement of 17"x37", making 2 cushions. 

I had Micah (my painter, carpenter, anything-I-can't-do-er...) paint for me. 

While he painted, I pulled my sewing machine out. 

Now, warning, I've never sewn anything before, never taken any classes... So this is a "how to" if you have no idea "how to."

Supplies:
-3" foam, 37"x24. We had to cut the 24" down to 17". 
-Home decor fabric. We needed 37" long plus 3 inches for each side of the foam, then for myself an added 1 inch per seam, so I could sew the lines without dying for fabric. So total 45" long. Then the same logic for the width, of 17" foam, another 3 for then sides and 2 more for both sewing lines, for 25". So we had Joann's cut 50" of the fabric, which was 54" wide.
-cushion grip fabric. It has little rubber bumps on it so the cushions don't slide. Micah's genius idea! We only got enough to cover the base, 17"x37". That fabric was also 54" wide, so we only needed 37" long. 
-batting, to wrap the square-edged foam to give it a cozier feel. We bought enough to wrap around the entire cushions, so about 70 inches for each.

To begin, I just laid out the fabric, inside out.

I then pinned it along the top edge, centering it.

I then laid a foam cushion out, wrapping the fabric over it to see where the sides should start being sewn together, and how the ends would meet up. Since the top fabric was so much longer than the bottom bumpy fabric, it got a little confusing.

Pinned the sides next, making sure it was aligned at the bottom, I sewed those sides no problem.

Then the corners. Ah corners! It wasn't just a straight line anymore! :( no lie, I had major issues figuring out how to sew them.. Especially at 12am when I started on this project... So it was honesty just a pin and guessing game... It turned out pretty good actually! 

I then enlisted Micah's help. Who was busy doing this:

It was taken at night so the color is a little off... And it's super blurry. But it's a bright turquoise. 

I had Micah wrap the foam cushion with batting & we safety pinned it, leaving the pins in even when we stuffed it into the fabric cover. We put the rubber bumps side on the same side as the safety pins. 

So I then passed out at 2am, exhausted and left them for the morning.

I pinned the  outside, opting to hand sew the ends closed. 

I found out that I used about 2 times the length in string. The way I sewed it was starting out going down into the fabric, then pulling the needle up & out, keeping the string taut.

the finished product!

Now I just need an entry table and some art hanging on the wall!

Our Busy Little Life

Hello! I've always said I'd never cave in and start a blog... but here I am. 

So this is might be a long one, be patient! 

My intro...
I am the youngest of five kids in my family, and was born and raised in Seattle, WA. I lived there all my life, until my parents moved my whole family to Utah in June of 2002. Now, if you're not familiar with the climate in Washington, let me just tell you it's perfect: mid 80's in the summer, occasionally you'd get snow in the winter, and lots of rain and grey clouds throughout the year.  My first impression of Utah was the heat! I couldn't understand how anyone ever stayed outside in the summer for more than 30 seconds without melting! It was such a stark contrast to what I had grown up with... Thankfully, I've since adapted and have come to LOVE Utah weather. Micah and I are very active, and we love to camp, wakeboard, hike, and go to Moab to off-road in our jeep/RZR.

Micah and I met about 4 years ago through some mutual friends as well as in our singles ward. We dated for about a year before we got married in the Salt Lake Temple. I loved dating Micah, there was always an element of excitement and just easy going fun that he infused into each date and every vacation we went on together. When he first said "I love you," I told him later, I could've easily said "I do" right then and there. I knew 3 months into dating him that I was a goner. I fell for him. Hard. I knew that he was my forever. My everything. I'm so lucky to have found him.

Since then, we've lived in the Sandy/Draper area, had several pet bunnies,

and got our first dog, Zoey. She was a Christmas gift to me from Micah and I just about died when I saw him carrying that box towards me, little claws desperately trying to hold on inside as her tiny black nose peeked out. Zo is half boxer, half lab, and 100% crazy. She has endless energy, can run and play all day and still be up for a hike or tug of war.

We just built our first house in Herriman.

It was an extremely fun process, building a house. Getting to customize everything from the carpet to the cabinetry, to the paint, or even the light fixtures... however, I will never do it again while pregnant. I wasn't too hormone-crazy, but I would just get soooo bugged if something wasn't how I expected it to be... and nothing goes as expected when you are building a house. sigh. That being said, I didn't murder anyone during the process, and now that my hormones are normal and non-crazed, I am very glad the way things panned out. :)

We also just had our first baby, a girl, that we named Olive Lynn Russell. 

Olive was born on June 15, 2013. She was a big chunk, 9lbs 2oz and 21inches! She took a lot to get here though... A night in the hospital taking cytotec (med that thins out your cervix) every 4 hours, a few IV bags of pitocin (med that dilated or opens your cervix), and about an hour an a half of pushing and she was here. She did not want to come out! I'm not going to lie, having a baby was the most painful experience of my life (my epidural had worn off) but she was totally worth it! Olive was so calm, very observant and didn't even cry. Well, when the nurse did her checks on Olive then the tiny cries started. She stopped crying when they placed her on my chest and I got to hold my baby girl for the first time. She was beautiful, lots of dark brown hair, rolly pink skin and curious grey eyes.

I always thought that every newborn had blue eyes, but I had never seen an immediately born baby... They were usually 1 or 2 months old (and Olive's turned blue around the 1 month stage). It was such an incredible experience having her and getting to hold her right after. Micah was there by my side, cheering me on the whole time. He was amazing, absolutely could not have done it without him. I think he cried more than I did. A few hours after she was born I painted her tiny nails... I couldn't resist!

And since then she has had nail polish on her nails every day of her little 2 month life. She has been the best baby ever so far. Olive's temperament is very mellow, she's content to play on her own or sit on my lap and hang out. She's already sleeping through the night, from 9pm-7am and is all smiles and tiny gurgles of laughs.

Love love love her. 

Before becoming a mommy, I worked as a medical assistant and had been working in the medical field since I graduated high school. My days are now primarily filled with loving on miss Olive, with playing with Zoey, cleaning, cooking, reading, writing, playing video games, and craftiness-ing when I have downtime.