Gone to the birds

I've slowly been working at sprucing up my family room. Key word here is SLOW. I mentioned a while ago that I got some new curtains. I have always been drawn to white curtains, perhaps because they are light and airy.

And lots of birds have taken up residence in my home as of late. It was not intentional--it just sort of happened!

Bird #1 landed on my piano.

I found the silly bird at one of my favorite antique stores. I wasn't sure if it was ugly or charming, but bought it anyway. Back at home, I fell in love with it. I love how it goes with my favorite green candle sticks{awesome gift from my sister Lindsay}.

I'm still not sure if the bird is ugly or cute, but love it regardless.

I was also haphazardously throwing around ideas for pillows, and started off in this direction:

Had lots of fun learning to make rolled roses. But the overall look of this pillow was too fussy for my home.

So I took a minor U-turn and started another pillow. Enters bird #2.

The blue button seen in the yellow rose is actually a vintage earring that I found at my antique store. I think it adds a little *bling*.

Then my dear friend Becca inspired me with her doily pillows...and I think Lorie was making a pillow with some sort of crochet overlay{not sure what you used Lor, or how it turned out!}. Thanks for the inspiration girls! Hope you don't mind sharing your brilliance!

Enters bird #3 on another pillow.

I spied the above yellow/gold doily at my favorite antique store and my heart skipped a beat...but when I saw the hefty price tag(a whopping $6.75), I initially put it back thinking I could find it cheaper elsewhere.

Um no.

So I slunk back and {happily} forked over the bucks. I think it was worth it.

I also purchased a bunch of vintage buttons, some of which are seen at the end of this branch.

The green pillow has the other vintage earring and a funky blue pin I got for $1.

And then I was minding my own business, somehow meandering through Anthropologie, some 100+ miles from home... you know...just in the neighborhood...

and BAM! Enters birds #4, #5 and #6 galore, in some dishtowels.

My first thought was to turn these dish towels into pillows:

But, back at home they perched so happily in my kitchen, I did not have the heart to dismantle them. Plus, all the embroidered teacups scream KITCHEN! Yup, they belong in the kitchen.

Then, once again, minding my own business (in Joanns), when some aqua fabric jumped out at me. It reminded me of the aqua dish towel above.

After hemming and hawing for half and hour(the last thing I needed was more fabric), I decided to buy it. Came to $2.45, LOL.

I scanned the anthro birds from my dishtowel to my computer and embroidered me some birds.

Totally knocked off the birds, down to the colors. Shameful I tell you.

And for the first time in a while, pink was allowed in my house. It's on the middle birdie. Pink floss #3328, to be precise.

And this mustard yellow pillow was constructed using a fun thick crochet doily.

One of my favorite buttons is the sparkly yellow one on the blue dotted rose.

I could not find a grey throw anywhere, so I made this one from some reversible wool fabric. I made my own bias tape using the same fabric, which was exciting, but did a cruddy job matching the corners. Got a little lazy.

I'm currently working on another little project involving picture frames--almost done, but not quite. I am painfully slow these days. Everything is taking me waaaay too long to complete, including this blog post, so I shall sign off for now!

Toodles, and happy decorating! Or sunning--whatever you are doing these beautiful first days of summer!