{create} low maintenace succulent containers

Friends, it appears that I'm on a succulent kick. It started after Christmas. I always plant paperwhites around Christmas in a large serving bowl and after they die, I save the bowl (dirt and all) for next year. But this year I'm trying to keep more plants in the house, so that bowl was replanted with succulents. 

It moves around the house as needed :). One of the - pretty obvious - things that I LOVE about succulents is how low maintenance they are. I planted these guys in March and have watered them once since. Easy! I am terribly neglectful of potted plants, but I absolutely adore having them in the house, so I've been trying to incorporate more plants that don't need a lot of t.l.c from me. 

For this little succulent garden, I added some river rocks and mossy rocks (both from Target), to add a little texture and make the dirt look not so ... dirty ;).

And speaking of low-maintenance. Each summer, I plant flowers in cute little white pots on our front steps (you can see past containers here and here). Last summer was no different, except that I was even more neglectful than usual (KITCHEN!). I let the flowers die and the weeds grow and a few weeks ago, our steps looked like this.

Yikes. Those are some huge weeds. But do you notice something about these containers? 

Look closely - the couple succulents that I'd added to the containers not only survived ...

But some even thrived! Our front steps get huge amounts of afternoon sun, which is pretty hard on certain flowers, but apparently succulents love it. I can take a hint. 

Now, our front step containers are all neat and tidy. And, planted full of lovely succulents.

I'm not sure how much each of these succulent varieties will fill in, so I might need to plant more, but I'm excited to see how these look by the end of summer. And, I'm even more excited that they'll (hopefully) flourish without much babysitting from me! 

Friends, do you plant succulents? Do you love to take care of plants, or do you take the more hands-off approach to gardening and house plants?

{create} an envelope pillow cover

Friends, thank you all for your incredibly helpful suggestions about my living room furniture situation. The majority of your opinions really confirmed my thinking - the slipcovered couch doesn't work! I was kind of prepared for that, but I always like to try and work with what I have first. My current plan is to begin looking for a couple chairs to replace that couch. I also like the idea of putting the chesterfield in front of the bigger window and having the chairs with their back to the kitchen (reorienting the room). We had the living arranged similar to this a LONG time ago, but the wall was always in the way. Now that there isn't a wall (!) I think it's time to revisit that idea. A few of you also suggested putting the slip covered couch against the window perpendicular to the leather couch. This idea had never crossed my mind, and I was looking at the space this morning and I think there might be room. I'll give it a shot.  So anyway, now I have options and I thank you! :)

In other breaking news, I made a pillow.

Okay, so maybe not such breaking news, but you might have noticed that I've been making a LOT of pillows lately (hello, church basement), so I thought I'd share my method. Because it's really easy.

On a side note, isn't this fabric fantastic? I 'found' it in my fabric stash a couple weeks ago. I don't even remember buying it (you know you have a fabric problem when ....), but I LOVE it. And, I had just enough to make a pillow. 

When was making the pillows for the church, we raided good will and thrift stores for the pillow forms. I was busy removing all the covers one night when I realized that a lot of them were pillows stuffed with fluff and then sewn shut. Do people still do this, really? I remember that's how I was taught in 7th grade home ec. But, I always had a problem getting the finishing stitching to look right!  Oh, and the fluffy stuff gets lumpy quick!

If you're going to pull out your sewing machine anyway, the envelope method is fantastic! I'm irrationally terrified of zippers, so I use this method for all pillows. It's quick and easy, clean-looking and really easy to then switch out new pillow covers. I actually don't ever buy new pillow forms - I have a certain number that works our house and I just switch out the covers - which take up WAY less room when storing. 

I actually posted a complete tutorial for making envelope pillows way back when I first started blogging and no one read here. Instead of rewriting, I'll point you in that direction - it's a good tutorial. And, as a bonus, you can catch a glimpse of our horrible old blue carpet. Oh, the good ole days! :) Click here for an envelope pillow cover tutorial.

I hope you all have a great weekend! :)

{renovate} new living room furniture

I would be remiss to not mention what happened in Boston this week. Having lived there - and worked just a couple blocks from the explosions - I know that Bostonians strong and amazing people. But that doesn't stop my heart from hurting for them and wondering how anyone could do this on such a fun and happy day/event. My thoughts and prayers are in Boston this week. 

With that said --
Our living room got a bit of a new look last weekend. If you remember, Chris bought me a beautiful leather chesterfield sofa for Christmas. We've been storing it in the garage for the last few months while we finished the kitchen and the church basement. Right around the same time, my parents were getting rid of a HUGE ottoman, so I snagged it. It's been living in our basement. But, we finally moved both into the living room this weekend!

Last week our living room looked like this.

Today, it looks like this.

The good news is that I LOVE the couch. So gorgeous. And, so comfortable.

The bad news is that ... I have no idea how to layout the living room now! I think I may need to rethink furniture.

In case there is any doubt, if we keep the ottoman, it'll get recovered. :)

I love it too, but I'm worried that the problem with the whole set up is the size of the ottoman - it's pretty huge! We moved both in on Saturday and had friends over that night. We all agreed the space it tight, but as we were sitting there after dinner, we all agreed that the ottoman is awesome because it's nice to have some place to kick back and put your feet up.

Let's look from a different angle.

I added the bookcase because looking at the back of the couch was just awkward.

And this angle is taken from the door. So when you walk in, this is what you see. Is it bad luck/bad feng shui to walk into the back of the couch? I feel like it might not be very welcoming! Of course the bookcase would be styled (and it's already dusted - ew! It's been in the basement for over a year!) and it sort of creates a little entryway.

I feel like there are a few options:

1. My original thought - keep it as is and get a new slipcover for the old couch (too much brown!) and recover the ottoman with a fun graphic pattern.

2. Keep the ottoman and find a couple of chairs to go where the old couch is currently. Maybe the ottoman wouldn't seem as big if there were chairs, which allow for more walking space?

3. Get rid of the couch and the ottoman and find something smaller.

What do you guys think? I wish you could all come over and try out the space for yourself! :)