Here’s one solution that didn’t occur to me over the many months that naked wedge of pillow tormented me: DIY. Yes, that’s right. You can sew pillowcases. It’s super simple. I’ll show you how.

These pillowcases are composed of three pieces: the cuff, the trim, and the body.

I used the same fabric for the cuff and the body (Michael Miller Mini Mikes), but feel free to use two different patterns if you’re feeling wild. The trim is a scrap of Sis Boom’s Dance with Me fabric left over from our wedding napkins. 

What you’ll need:

• 1 1/4 yards cotton quilting fabric for the body and cuff
• 1/4 yard (or less) cotton quilting fabric for the trim
• cutting mat
• rotary cutter
• pins
• ruler

** If any of the instructions below seem confusing, I recommend you watch this video for a thorough tutorial.

Step 1: Square  your fabric.

Step 2: Fold the fabric in half so that the selvages match up. Cut a 9″ strip for the cuff. (When you unfold the fabric, you’ll have a piece of fabric 9″ tall and ~44″ wide)

Step 3: Now, with the fabric still folded, cut a piece that is 27″. This is your body, and 27″ will make a standard pillowcase. (I wanted my case a little bigger to fit my odd duck pillows, so I cut my body 30″. But you can make these any size. To calculate the total length  of the pillowcase add 4″ to the body length and subtract 1/2″ for the seam allowance).

Step 4: Take your second fabric and cut a 2″ strip selvage to selvage (across the width of the fabric). Fold this strip in half wrong sides together and iron it (now your strip will be 1″ wide).

Step 5: Fold all your fabrics in half (matching the selvages) if they aren’t already. Then line up the fold lines and trim off the selvages and any overhang. You want all the fabrics to be the same width (~41-42″).

Step 6: You must lay these fabrics down in a very particular order. First, place the 9″ cuff strip down right side up. Next, you’ll lay down your body right side up. Next comes the folded trim. You’ll be matching up the long raw edge of these fabrics.

Step 7: Now that you have your fabric sandwich put together, start rolling the body up from the bottom edge into a tube.

Step 8: Flip the bottom of the cuff over and match the bottom raw edge with the other raw edges. 

Step 9: You’ll end up with a fabric tube that looks like this from the side. Pin all the raw edges together and sew them up with a 1/4 inch seam.

Step 10: Now comes the magic, and the part where I stopped taking photos (doh!). Pull the tube inside out, and iron everything flat. You’ll see that you’ve already attached the cuff and the trim. All you have left to sew are two sides.

Step 11: Fold your pillowcase right sides together so that the raw edges of the cuff line up. Now sew the two raw edges with a 1/4 inch seam and finish them off with a zig-zag or overcast stitch. Turn your pillowcase right side out and give it a good press. Voila! You, good sir, just made a pillowcase. I am proud of you.

*You can also get fancy and sew french seams. Check out this tutorial. And here’s another great pillowcase tutorial.

Day 9: Create a Landing Strip

First, can I just say that “landing strip” is not the *best* term to describe the place you hang coats and drop your keys. That’s because landing strip already has a definition. And it has nothing to do with home decor. Apartment Therapy, did you Google “landing strip” before you asked us to create one? Did you see the listings for gentlemen’s clubs? Did you see the photos?

Ok, I’m off my soapbox. Here’s the front door. You’re looking at the inner door. We have two. You can see we already have some basics like a coat rack (and a homemade door snake to keep out drafts).

Straight ahead you’ll find a bookshelf with a key bowl. And a very ugly (but necessary) shoe rack. PS. I have a shoe problem.

What I was missing was a place to hang my purse. I don’t like hanging it on the coat rack because a purse buried under 4 or 5 coats can be hard to find. So I picked up this hook from Anthropologie and put it on the closet door.

FYI – that homemade curtain hides a strange little space where we hang our bikes and store the cat box. I’m a huge fan of using curtains to hide things (more on that to come).

The landing stip (do we really have to call it that?) isn’t perfect yet. I’d love to find a place to store my excess shoes. (I already have some under the bed. And some more in that coat closet. Hangs head in shame.) And I’m hoping to get a tiny stool or storage ottoman to put in front of the mirror. One upholstered with Les Touches or a knockoff would be killer. That would give me a place to put my boots on and perhaps even to store hats and mittens. I’d also love to refinish that bookshelf. It’s a family heirloom, but pretty beat up. Actually, if I could start from scratch, I’d swap that bookshelf for shoe storage, like this. Then the shoe tree could go away. And I’d replace the key bowl with a wall hook. Or maybe I’d find an antique half-moon table to go in front of the mirror. Would that look weird?

Day 10: Work on your goal project

I chose to paint the hallway. Already finished it. Bam!

Day 11: Try a Media Fast

Umm . . . we had plans to see Lincoln. And we did. So no media fast for me. But I consumed only historical, Golden Globe-winning, based-on-real-life-events media. So maybe that counts as a media diet? (Go see Lincoln, by the way).

Day 12: Declutter Books and Media

Magazines come into our apartment faster than I can read them, especially those text-filled weekly New Yorkers. And god forbid I should recycle a magazine I haven’t read cover to cover. (I paid good money for those words!) So I save them. And the ones I have read? Well, maybe I’ll want to re-read that particularly insightful article or try that recipe for chicken lasagna. Perhaps I’ll need to revisit that 2010 trick for applying black eyeliner. YOU NEVER KNOW! This kind of thinking (it’s an illness, really) explains why, over the past couple of years, the magazine piles have becomes stacks, and the stacks have become towers. It’s embarrassing. In fact, I recently unearthed an issue of Weddings. I’ve been married for a year and a half.

The Cure convinced me to purge. And oh how I purged!

I’m not going to lie, it was difficult. Even as I was bundling these beauties in preparation for recycling, I thought to myself: Maybe I could make some kind of magazine furniture out of them. Like this or this. But then I came to my senses.

The cat approved. Or maybe she didn’t. Her face is inscrutable.

But people can change, right? (Shhhhhh — they can). As a first step toward change, I decided to join Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. The goal is to get a little more organized. Each day we get a new task. Some are easy (making lists). Some are kind of awful (mopping the floors, organizing files). I haven’t been religious about every single task, but I’ve mostly stuck with the program. Here’s an update on a few of the tasks. (To see the full task list, go here.)

Day 5: Select one project to complete

I got a head start on this. I not only selected a project, I completed it. I painted the hallway. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile. When we moved into our apartment, most of it was painted a color I like to call “chainsmoker yellow.” I grew to loathe it. As of a couple of weeks ago, only the kitchen and hallway remained that color. I wanted them to be crisp, clean white. So I decided to paint both White Dove by Benjamin Moore. So far I’ve completed the hallway, which used to look like this.

I cleared everything out, painted it, and put things back. 

(Hmmm. Both photos look kind of awful. So you’ll have to trust me that the after looks better. Hallways are really tough to photograph.)

That back door is locked and unusable, so we created some additional storage by hanging a curtain. The dresser from the first photo partially blocked my office doorway, so it found a new home. And I gave away the original curtains, which were sun-bleached and ugly. The hallway is actually much darker than the photos suggest. There’s no overhead light (although it looks like there used to be one — see the medallion?). I used a flash to give you a sense of the color, but it actually looks more like this.

Off to the left is the bathroom. Off to the right is my office. And at the way back, on the left, there’s a closet with a sliding door. The curtain covers the back half of this closet, but we hardly ever need to get in there.

I think a bright runner, like maybe this kilim, would be lovely here. Unfortunately it’s not in the budget right now. Perhaps I could spring for some cheerier curtains instead.

Day 6: Frame some Artwork

The framing task came at the perfect time. I had just ordered this jellyfish photo from Mammoth & Company. The actual image is 7″ square, but all Mammoth & Company art comes on standard size paper, in this case 8″ x 10″. That left me with some not-so-great framing options: 1. Put the image in an 8×10 frame and have uneven borders. Or 2. have it professionally framed.  

Professional framing looks amazing, but it’s undeniably expensive. (If you’re in New York City, I recommend 567 Framing. They do good work for a reasonable price.) Uneven borders, on the other hand, can look kind of amateur. However, when I stumbled across this 13″ square frame at West Elm, I realized I had a third option: a ready-made frame plus a custom mat. 567 cut me one for just $10. Add that to the cost of the frame ($20), and you’ve got yourself a bargain. But it still looks professional — win win! Here it is in its new home on my office wall.

7: Plan a Get Together

I had already planned a dinner party! So take that, Cure.

Instead of sending paper invites via snail mail, I sent electronic invites via Paperless Post. So much classier than Evite. Some cards are free, others cost money. This design cost 3 “coins” per invitee, but I received 25 free coins in exchange for joining (25 coins = $5). So I didn’t have to pay anything this time. (Like Evite, your guests can RSVP online).

We invited three other couples for a total of 8 people (including us). It’s the first time we’ve ever needed two leaves in the table!

I mostly worked with what I had for the table, but I did buy a longer tablecloth, new napkins, and new vases. I love the vases, but I wouldn’t recommend the napkins — even for the sale price of $11.99 for a set. They’re cheaply made with wonky corners, and they come out of the dryer so wrinkly they need to be ironed before every use. Shame on you, West Elm and Allegra Hicks. I expected better.

Enough chastising. Back to the dinner party!

The Menu

Are you participating in the January Cure? What projects have you checked off your to-do list?

Can you read the type at the bottom? “Trust me,” Cassie said. “North Dakota has great skiing, and my parents have all the gear we need!” That’s a joke, of course. North Dakota, my home state, is flat as a pancake, and you can see that my parents only have one set of skis. Those factors make skiing rather difficult. Which is fine by me. I may look like a snow bunny in this photo, but my only attempt at the sport ended in disaster. I broke my face and one ski. And I didn’t look cute doing it either.

These spectacular day-glo suits aren’t just any old ski suits. They’re special. My mom and stepdad wore them when they tied the knot in 1989 on Christmas Eve. No joke. They decided to have a ski wedding in Tahoe — just the two of them, a minister, and a photographer. Aren’t they precious?

I wish we’d thought to pose like this. And I wish my hair looked like my mom’s instead of smashed flat by that headband that Soren forced me to wear because he said it would make the outfit more “authentic.” Curse him! And curse my tiny head!

(Thanks, mom, for taking these photos!)

(Um, I realize that no one has any silverware in this photo. But I did put it on the table before we ate. Honest.)

So ever since I turned my dining room green, I’ve been crushing on the color hard. I can’t get enough. I wanted to work green into my table setting, but I also wanted to work with what I already had.

Originally I planned to DIY a tablecloth. I had a tan floral tablecloth that I never liked. So I decided to dye it using Rit’s Kelly Green. The first time I didn’t leave it in the dye bath long enough. Not surprisingly, it turned out barely green. So I dyed it again. BIG MISTAKE. Now it’s too green. Awful green. Nothing-like-the-color-on-the-bottle green. Hurts-the-eyes green. And patchy. DIY Fail. Rit Dye, I want to love you, but you make it so difficult.

So I went with a white tablecloth from Ikea instead ($20!). Much better. The green candle holders are thrift store finds. My mom gave me the runner and napkins a few years ago. The white china belonged to my grandma. And the little green salt cellars are new from Fishs Eddy. Aren’t they adorable?

And of course the cookies had to match! They’re rosemary shortbread and just barely sweet. Maybe that’s why my father-in-law calls them dinner cookies.

We decided to spatchcock the turkey this year. It sounds dirty, but it’s just a fancy synonym for butterfly. You cut out the backbone and lay the bird flat. The meat cooks more evenly this way. I cobbled together a few recipes/tutorials from Martha Stewart, the Denver Post, and Serious Eats. We also dry salted the raw bird a day ahead of time per these instructions. It worked! The turkey was totally delicious.

We hosted New Year’s Eve dinner too. I basically recreated the same table setting, but this time I made pork and added flowers. It still looks a little bare.

I hope your holiday was filled with good food and family too.

What makes this soup awesome is the topping — a salty, crunchy, tangy mix of breadcrumbs, lemon zest, pancetta, and parsley. Recipe below the jump.

Cauliflower Soup

Adapted from Williams and Sonoma

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs (roughly 2-3 slices bread)
• 4 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 Tbs. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
• 1 1/2 tsp. lemon zest
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 6 oz. pancetta, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 4 shallots, sliced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 2 leeks, sliced (discard the green end and rinse them well)
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• 5 cups chicken stock or broth, plus more as needed (vegetarians can sub veggie stock)
• 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup half & half, or heavy cream (optional)

Directions:

I like Christmas too. But when Christmas decor succumbs to design trends, I want to vomit — just a little bit. Pink Christmas trees? Ombre decorations? Random bowls of matching ornaments? Not my style.

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite childhood memories. Unwrapping all the old ornaments after their year-long exile in the closet was like a having family reunion (the good kind with no drunk uncles and no fistfights). I picked out a special place for my favorites, pointy orbs with worn glitter and geometric designs. My mom didn’t worry about me breaking anything. She didn’t instruct me on a color scheme. And she didn’t cringe when I applied the tinsel with a very heavy hand.

Christmas shouldn’t be all matchy matchy. And in my house it can’t be. The ornaments have been collected over the course of many years. Most were gifts. Many are really weird. Case in point: Here’s Santa riding a frog. And below that, Santa re-imagined as a cupcake.

We don’t own a tree topper, so I improvised. That’s another bizarro Santa ornament. This time he’s wearing angel wings and holding a bouquet of miniature Christmas trees – incontrovertible proof that ornament designers do drugs, lots of them.

There’s a Santa theme happening here, but in real life my ornaments don’t really match. If I wanted to make my tree, say, silver, I’d have to go to Target and buy a boatload of silver ornaments. And then, after Christmas, I’d have to find a place in this tiny apartment to squirrel them away. Where is the goddamn joy in that?

So this Christmas, let’s all relax. Put up some decorations from your childhood. Even if they clash. Embrace the kitsch.

]]> http://urbancholita.com/2012/12/19/a-very-kitschy-christmas/feed/ 4 urbancholita Urban Cholita: Christmas DSC_0025 DSC_0022 DSC_0036 http://urbancholita.com/2012/12/13/all-i-want-for-christmas/ http://urbancholita.com/2012/12/13/all-i-want-for-christmas/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:25:14 +0000 Urban Cholita http://urbancholita.com/?p=1105 Continue reading →]]> Every year my parents ask me for a Christmas list. That’s right. I’m in my mid-thirties and I still make a Christmas list. Sometimes it feels like cheating. I mean, if they really knew me, would they even need a list?? But then I remember that I am very picky. And that lists are helpful. And that my parents are busy, and worried about disappointing me. And I relent.

Here are a few things from this year’s wish list:

1. Southwest Brass Earrings ($60) 2. Feathers of Fancy Earrings ($17.99) 3. Sky Earrings in Green Agate ($55)  4. Brass Tubes with Black Leather ($35) 5. Neon Dagger Studs ($16) 6. Point Me Toward the Shore Earrings ($17.99) 7. Gold Arrow Hoops ($28)

1. Floral and Insects ($60-$1200) 2. Cyanea Capillata ($20-$800) 3. Married to the Sea ($45) 4. The Other Field I ($50) 5. Six Whales Stacked ($40) 6. FOOD ($75)

1. Avocado Tea Towel ($12) 2. Evergeen Trivet ($20) 3. Party Green Diamond Dishtowel ($12.95) 4. Celestial Coaster Set ($32) 5. Three-piece Potluck Baker Set ($19.95) 6. Measuring Spoons ($12.95) 7. Jadeite Mixing Bowl ($29.95) 8. Slate Cheese Plate ($29) 9. Cherry Thumbprint Green Opal Pitcher ($79.95)Left:  Nikon Speedlight Flash ($327) Right: Nikon 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor Lens ($329)

The Livescribe pen records everything it hears and links the audio to your notes. So you just tap the notebook with your pen and it PLAYS BACK WHAT YOU HEARD AT THE EXACT MOMENT YOU SCRIBBLED THE NOTE!!! Dudes, I’m a journalist. This could change lives. (Well, maybe just my life — $178.99)

1. Chocolate-dipped Coconut Luna Bar (my VERY favorite kind – $1.50) 2. Running Tights ($59.99) 3. Compression Socks ($59.99)  4. Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch (to easily track the distance of my runs! – $129.99)

After I’ve made my long, long list (let’s face it, I’m a girl of many frivolous wants), I feel guilty. And I get all riled up about how Christmas has become an excuse for rampant consumerism. “Why are we so focused on amassing more and more THINGS?” I fume!

So, Mom and Dad, if you’re reading this, feel free to ignore my list. Don’t get me anything at all! Just make a small donation to Doctors Without Borders  . . . or how about a small donation and maybe one thing off my list? Or maybe just a couple of very small items plus a pig for a needy family in Bolivia?

Sigh.

This pillow and many other gorgeous home decor items are the offspring of a collaboration between Fox, an artist and designer in Austin, TX, and West Elm. Check out the rest of the collection here!

This post isn’t sponsored. None of my posts are. I just happen to really love these pillows. 

Soren eventually inherited the globe. But by the time I met him it was mysteriously broken. Too many tobacco-stained fingers yanking at the orb’s northern hemisphere had finally taken a toll. Soren tried to show me how it had once worked, but it just wasn’t the same. The explanation ruined it.

I generally don’t approve of hooliganism or smoking, but Soren loved that globe. So I found a shiny functional one on ebay, and I bought it. He was ecstatic. And we both agree it’s the coolest thing we own.