The June 2011 issue of Better Homes and Gardens features the lovely home of designer DD Allen. It’s a casual, comfortable Cape Cod full of lots of character. We think she has exceptional taste, because some of the items just happen to be Paper Cloud napkins and pillows.
Looking at our designs, you’ll see that a lot of our inspiration comes from nature. So this year, we finally got around to creating a place for a small garden, so we can start growing our own inspiration. We planted the garden the first week of May, and the little guys are just starting to pop their heads up. On the menu this year: cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and two kinds of lettuce (romaine and spinach).
How do we keep this all straight– garden signs! But seriously… our garden is only 4′x8′… the garden signs are just for fun. All you need are some markers, popsicle sticks, clear tape (for waterproofing) and decent penmanship.
This mobile pattern from Spool set our hearts aflutter, as we began putting together the nursery for our new addition in March. We loved this pattern and idea because:
This was a pretty easy thing for us to come across, since we print and collect fabric like it’s our business. You need two 10″x10″ pieces of fabric, one for the bird back and one for the belly. We made 8 birds in total. Ariana did all the sewing and stuffing. All in all, eight birds it took a couple of hours to make.
Tip: Lightweight fabric works better. Some of our fabric was a heavyweight cotton because we liked the pattern, but it made the bird heads look chunky and geometric.
I found some twigs out back (free) and started picking, choosing, and snapping them until I got some interesting crooks that were about the right size for our birds. Our twigs were about the thickness of a pen.
Tip: Choose a tree that has smooth bark. Rough or ashy bark will just flake off and end up everywhere.
This project took a little jimmying to get everything to look right. Most of the problems we ran in to centered around balance.
Problem 1: The twigs didn’t hang straight.
Since the eye hooks are screwed into the twigs and cannot move, one misplaced bird and the whole thing is out of whack. So instead of using thread to attach the birds like the pattern suggests, I used the wire from a twist-tie. With a wire, you can twist and untwist to move the birds up and down the branch to get the correct balance. With thread, they are attached permanently (unless you want to cut the thread and start over)
Problem 2: The birds don’t sit on top of the branch.
This was probably the hardest part of the balance. Since most of the weight for the birds is in the breast, they had a tendency to flip over and hang on the underside of the branch like bats. I’ll leave the bat mobiles to Bruce Wayne. To fix this, instead of the fishing line going from twig to twig, we attached the end of the line to one of the bird’s heads. This was our anchor bird. The anchor bird would then hold onto the twig with the twist-tie wire. With the anchor bird holding onto the twig, the other birds could rest on top of it without spinning underneath.
All told, the balance portion of the project took me a frustrating 3-4 hours.
I think the finished product was worth it, although during the process I wasn’t so sure. But we ended up with something we love, that didn’t cost a lot, and has a little bit of our personality in it for our new baby to enjoy.
Just ask Better Homes and Gardens. Their Storage Magazine has all the right moves when it comes to making your shelves, cupboards, and closets as beautiful as the rest of your home. Having two Paper Cloud pillows on your windowsill is just the start of it.
Stumped for gift ideas and running out of time? In the December issue of Women’s Health there is an article titled “Presents in a Pinch” which features some of our new organic cotton placemats and napkins.
