The Life of an Ottoman, Textures, and The Winner of the Je T'aime Pillow

Earlier this week Lillie and I made a slipcover for our ottoman which we stole back from my sister Dana. (Lillie mostly just enjoyed poking pins into the ottoman). We play musical furniture quite a bit in our family. You can look in my home and either Dana or Jamie's places and find pieces that we have traded back and forth or stolen from our parents basement or barn (and occasionally straight out of one of their rooms, although that is generally frowned upon and I am not the worst offender when it comes to that - haha!) It's even worse with clothes. My mom, Dana, Jamie and I all can wear the same shirt size even though we have different builds so often one of us will be wearing something that has passed through at least two of us and we always get a laugh. Anyway, back when we bought our first home in South Carolina we had a den that Jon used as his kind of "man's room". We had big flat screen TV in there and some couches and a leather chair and the walls had framed movie posters ("Hoosiers" and "Rudy") as well as some black and white framed photographs of Pistol Pete Maravich, Jon's favorite basketball player. We had the players over quite a bit and they all lived in that room. It was not exactly my favorite room, but seeing how I got to decorate the rest of the house however I liked I didn't mind it too much. We got this leather ottoman at Target and it worked nicely in that room. When we moved here to Virginia we really didn't have a space like that so a lot of those items went out on the garage. We used the ottoman temporarily in our family room after Lillie arrived because it made for a GREAT spot to change her. Once she got a little bigger though we moved it out to the garage and put our coffee table back in it's spot. I had planned on recovering the ottoman and moving it to our front living room to replace the trunk I had there but never got around to it. When my sister, Dana moved to Williamsburg last summer she ended up taking it and recovering it so it has been at her place for the last year and a half. Well, now that I am in major nesting mode I decided to steal it back and finally recover it. Dana didn't mind, and found something gorgeous to replace it which I will show in a post hopefully in the next week or two. At first I planned on just recovering it but then decided it would be smarter to make a slipcover that could easily be removed for washing since I plan on changing our new baby on it like it did with Lillie. I had three different fabrics I was trying to decide between and finally picked one. Well when I went to get two yards of it of course they only had a yard and a half left - arghhh! And the same went for my number two and three options as well. It was NOT my lucky day. I ended up quickly just grabbing something else even though it was lighter than I really wanted and a completely different texture, but oh well. I ended up changing the design as I went too because this fabric wouldn't work for my original idea. I am hoping they will get more of the first fabric I wanted and I will make a second back up slipcover option for when this one in is in the wash. Anyway, it is so nice finally having it done!  This poor ottoman has now had three different looks in the last three years and probably has many more slipcovers in it's future!

Here it is BEFORE:

 And here it is AFTER:

I got the basket with a gift card I had gotten for my birthday last year. I am so excited about it because it has a cover (which is shown in a photo below) which will be great for storing things when the new baby arrives. In the meantime though Lillie and I went to Trader Joe's and got some fresh eucalyptus and ranunculus and then stopped by the thrift store and got three different vases. The white one shown below for $1.98, a cool milk bottle looking one for 98 cents which I will show you in another post, and a silver plated one for $6.98 (shown  a few photos below). I love those kinds of finds! I started playing around with the top of the ottoman and this was what I first did.

Well, then I went to move the pitcher a bit and the handle fell off! Haha! No, it wasn't why it was $1.98. It was in perfect condition when we bought it but I carried the other two to the car and Lillie carried this one. She's so short that the bag kept clunking on the ground and when we got to the car I saw it had a tiny little crack on the handle but figured it was still good to use. Which it was - until it was full of water and I went to move it and the whole handle came off! 

So then I switched the flowers to this silver vase we got and moved the eucalyptus because it seemed a bit too much with the larger vase. I can't wait to have the basket filled with teeny tiny diapers and to be able to just pop the cover on and hide them.

Well after watching Lillie run through the room several times I realized it wasn't the safest place for a vase. She knows enough not to touch the flowers or vase but the because it is an ottoman and not a coffee table it isn't a completely flat surface and I was afraid it might tip over if the ottoman even got the tiniest bump, and with a two year old that could definitely happen. So, we changed it out a THIRD time and this is what is there for now (well, at least until I change my mind again!)

On another note, I used to play with textures in Photoshop all of the time but hadn't in quite a while. I saw this post by Kat over at Low Tide High Style and got inspired to play around a little. I haven't had time to finish them. I want to bring them into Illustrator now and do a few more things to them but who knows if that will ever happen at the rate I am going. However, if I do I am thinking about selling some prints in our Etsy shop (not necessarily any of these but of some other projects). I am torn whether or not to sell the actual prints and mail them or just sell the files (which I would sell really cheap - probably anywhere from $.99 - $4.99 depending on the work) so people can print them on their own. Do you find it easier to just have it arrive in the mail all ready to go or do you like having the option of being able to print it anywhere in any size on any type of medium that you would like? We sold some Christmas PDF files and I liked how nice and easy that was so I am leaning towards that.

Also, thank you all for your wonderful opinions on the Valentine's shirts! I went ahead and am printing the first design on long sleeve onesies size 3/6 months - 18/24 months and long sleeve baby ribbed tees in sizes 2 - 6. Then I am printing the first Je T'aime (the one I wrote) on white long sleeve onesies size 3/6 months - 18/24 months,  girls white thermals sizes 2 - 12, and women's white thermals sizes  S - XXL. Even though I will be printing a ton of shirts, I will only have a couple in each size (and in a few sizes only one). I am hoping to have them listed in our shop early next week (hopefully by either the 24th or 25th!) Also I am working on the Je T'aime pillow covers now and hope to have them available by Tuesday.  I am going to have them four or five in black but think I may offer one or two in a deep red print and one or two in a dark olive print as well. 

Okay, and now onto the winner of the pillow:

Jillian!

Congratulations! Please contact us within 48 hours to give us your info!

Thanks again to everyone that entered. We will be hosting another giveaway soon so check back! Also, I want to thank Kim at Seven Thirty Three for numbering our comments for us (that made it sooooo much easier for this giveaway than having to count out each one!)

I hope you all have a most wonderful weekend!

PS - I am linked up to Miss Mustard Seed's Copy Me Challenge!