Puppies and Pillows

Two of my favorite things are puppies and pillows.  Put them together and oh, be still my heart.  If you are a fan of either puppies or pillows I think you'll enjoy this post. 

Our puppies, Lilly Bean and Oliver Von Gustoph are our furkids.  They are not just our pets.  They sleep with us and have their own dresser for their clothes, leashes, etc.  It's a sickness. 

First I'll show you our babies then the pillows.

My beautiful little girl, Lilly Bean.

Don't let the sweet face fool you.  She can have your nostrils lubed before you realize what happened. Seriously though, she is the sweetest, kindest dog you'll ever meet.  Yeah, she'll pee on your shoes when she's excited but she's happy to slurp you until you forget all about it.

Ollie G, my little man.  Small but mighty in heart.  We rescued him because "no one wanted him."  Can you believe it??

He's not feeling great right now.  It was time for shots this week and he had a bad reaction to them.  The drive home from the vet was awful, he was so uncomfortable from the reaction he whined and cried unless he was on my lap and I was singing (poorly) to him.  Makes my heart hurt to think about how sad he looked. I'm pathetic.  I know.

The look of love.

Let me taste your brain sister.

Bean LOVES to have Ollie clean her ears, I do worry he'll reach grey matter one day though.

Enough of that.  On to the pillows.

I once thought I knew how to make grain sack pillows.  OH was I wrong.

What was the tipping point?  On a recent trip to The Olde Shoe Factory I found a great grain sack in Polly's booth and had to make it mine.  I got really lucky and the sack was the exact same size as a king sized pillow! I won't even go into how soft and amazing it is, it's tempting to use it as a bed pillow it's so luxe. 

Best part, no sewing required, just slip the pillow in and ta------da--------- you gots yourself a pillow.  You'd like to see a picture of that wouldn't you? Yeah, I forgot to take one of it and I'm too lazy (and have a lap full of puppy) to go upstairs and take a picture, you'll see it in a minute though.

I do have a close up of the stripe and the great lettering.

Luscious I tell you!

Once I had seen the beauty of that grain sack I knew I had no idea what I was really doing during my first attempt. It was so bad I can't even bring myself to show you pictures. I also found tons of inspiration over at Mustard Seed Creations.  Miss Mustard Seed makes AHHHHHH-MAZING stuff out of canvas painters drop cloths. Including great grain sack "stuff" from pillows, to slipcovers!  Check her out, you won't be disappointed. 

With Miss Mustard Seed as my inspiration I picked up some drop cloths at Lowes and set to work.  Using her tutorial of a dry brush, craft paint and leaving your OCD at the door I got started.  Remember how the real grain sack's stripes show some fo the creaminess of the fabric through.  You forgot already? Sheesh, just scroll up and look at the last picture.  Got it now?  Good. 

Here's what I got when I GENTLY applied some dark red craft paint after using painters tape to make the stripes.

Not bad eh? Yeah, I thought it looked pretty good.  Wanna see the whole thing? Thought so...
One for me.

One for Eric.

Once I had the stripes I thought I'd add some lettering.  Now, Miss Mustard Seed is a rawking painter and can freehand some amazing letters.  I also free handed them but eh, not bad, but NO way as good as hers. 

See.

photo credit: Mustard Seed Creations

Amazing huh?

I also like the numbers on vintage grain sacks, so I decided to add our birthday's to them.

                            

I just winged it, little dots, lines, etc.  I also made the pillow inserts as I couldn't find pre-made ones to fit them once they were done.  I entertained putting a zipper in them but felt that took away from the vintage-ness of it and did an envelope closure so if a puppy horks on it I can easily wash it.

Here they are on the love seat which I also made a slipcover for out of the canvas drop cloth with the vintage grain sack I got from Polly.

The slipcover turned out really well, I even impressed myself!  More to come on that though.

                          

Of course the puppies had to be included, they oh so love that window!

The snot stains on the window sort of proves that.