Fabric Shopping

Yesterday evening, I decided to go fabric shopping for outdoor fabric shopping. I wanted to look local before I pulled the trigger and ordered 13 yards of outdoor fabric I found online (for our vintage sofa we are going to sue outdoors). My fabric sample arrived last Friday, I'm in LOVE with it! Hasani and I both like the color and think it will look amazing once turned into a sofa. I just wanted to be sure before I place my order there wasn't a better deal to be found. I recently discovered the best place to shop for fabric locally is Home Fabrics. They have amazing deals on fabrics, remember my floral drapes I made for my dining room? And remember I only paid $5.99 a yard and purchased 5.5 yards of fabric { I later discovered the same fabric sold elsewhere is 24 bucks and up! You can read more about that here}


Back to my shopping trip, I was on the look out for fabric that would make excellent outdoor pillows and possibly a cute table runner for our outdoor dining set. We have a pretty good size patio, so I really want to layer in many shades of color to make the space feel inviting and us. 
I came home with three yards of fabric. I've always loved the classic look of Pottery Barn's classic stripe fabric. The thought of spending $29 bucks for one outdoor pillow, is something that I could never do! 

Instead I bought a yard of striped green fabric for only $ 9.99 a yard. I can easily make two pillows with a yard of fabric. The fabric I bought it from Premier Prints, you can buy it online at fabric.com for a dollar less a yard. I was OK with spending a buck more, since the fabric came home with me that day. I didn't see any other fabric I just had to have for pillows, so I popped into the clearance section. 

They had a huge selection of clearance fabric crammed into a room all starting at $4 bucks and below. I was going to take a picture, but the space was very badly lit! I was able to unearth some pretty fabric with an interesting print. I knew instantly it would make the perfect table runner since it a color scheme of browns, blues and greens. I only paid $ 3.99 per yard! The fabric is also from Premier Prints and is called Elizabeth you can buy it here online for $ 11.99 a yard. The fabric is super heavy duty, I'm shocked its not outdoor fabric. I really like the colors and the print!

Now that I shared what I bought, its time to share all the other pretty fabric I saw. I loved all this pretty floral fabrics! 

I love all the pink fabric! Do you recognize the pretty modern pink on pink floral print? If memory serves me correctly, its Thomas Paul / Duralee Fabric. Its pretty pricey and was a bargain at Home Fabrics. I think they were selling it for $ 6.99 per yard. 

Lastly, my heart skipped a beat, when I saw Serena & Lily fabric!! I was speechless they had a whole bolt of fabric. The fabric is called Coral Diamond and its so pretty. Guess how much S&L sells this fabric? $ 50 bucks yard! Home Fabrics was selling the fabric for only $ 6.99 a yard, unbelievable! 

Here's a link for the Serena & Lily fabric. Pretty huh! 

I'm still trying to figure a way to incorporate some pink in my home, which three boys at home four if you count Mojo it can be hard to add a little pink, lol :) 


I'm going to head back to the fabric store this weekend and look around some more. I got there late and only had a 20 mins to look around. Maybe I'll discover some more Serena and Lily fabric.....insert evil laugh!

This Little Piggy

Ever since I saw the Martha Stewart Pig cutting board, I wanted one bad. I loved how the little piggy looked, sadly I never got around to buying one and now they are discontinued at Macy's. I'm sure the $ 24.99 price tag gave me second thoughts of buying one, since I'm a thrifty girl :) Isn't he a cutie!

Williams Sonoma also sells a Pig Cutting Board, their piggy is little is on the hefty side. They sell the cutting board for $ 34.95. The shape reminds me of Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. 

{via here}

Well, on Saturday morning my mom and I went shopping and stopped in Ross. I love looking at their dishes and cookware, because you never know what you'll find. Imagine my surprise when I saw a cute pig cutting board for a whopping $ 5.99!! The price sounded good to me and this little piggy came home with me :) my new cutting board which I'll use as a crackers and cheese board is made from Bamboo. I love how it looks, it looks almost exactly like the Martha Stewart Version. 

If you wanting to add a Pig Cutting Board to your home, make sure you stop in your local Ross store. Or look on Esty click here for one that sales for $90 bucks! 

This is my favorite picture for a cutting board, laying in grass Ahh! 

{ via here }

I can't wait to use mine very soon! I'll be sure to snap a picture with mine all dressed up! I love getting good deals. 

What do you think of my new cutting board? Or do you prefer square cutting boards? Any thrift finds lately, on things you've wanted for a long time?

Over-seeding our Lawn

One of my musts being a homeowner is having a well kept lawn, its in my genes. My father always kept our lawn perfect, when we where kids we joked that he secretly spray painted the grass. Thanks to my Dad, I'm a little OCD when it comes to our front lawn. To say I was giddy when we replaced our old front lawn with sod almost three years ago is an understatement! Oh how I love the ease and prettiness of sod grass! I seriously love grass when its green and thick! When it came to deciding what to do with our backyard (it was a hot mess) of course I wanted sod, but since we are budget minded duo, we deiced to re-seed our entire lawn. The grass grew in, not as thick as our front lawn, but we were able to host our friends and family in our backyard for our wedding reception so we where very happy. 


Fast forward last Summer, we did our best to maintain our backyard, but weeds grew in and we where much to focused on loving our little addition to worry about pulling / fertilizing weeds. This Summer its really important to us to create a functional backyard both our our boys can enjoy playing in. We knew if we wanted to have thick green grass in our backyard we had to start early and whip the grass into shape. Hasani and I both had different ideas about how to get grass we'd love. 


Hasani: Thought we should rototilling the entire backyard and start from scratch (again)
Katrina: I thought we've been there done that, I wanted sod. 


We asked my Dad for his input on our situation, he reminded me sod can be pricey for the amount we need, and that rototilling that backyard again would be a lot of work. He said we could easy salvage most the existing yard and over seed our lawn in early Spring to get the results we want.  


I did a little more research on the Internet to make sure we were off to a good start, I found that lawncare.net had the most helpful information about the entire process. 

Here's what we did. Hasani dug up and pulled up most of the weeds on our backyard (the big funky ones, the little ones that blend in with our grass with left alone, we will deal with them when we 'weed & feed' the lawn) Next he mowed the lawn very very short, and then we raked our entire backyard really good. This process is called Thatching, removing the grass clippings and branches that are overcrowding the grass roots. Next we Aerated our entire backyard using a power Aerator we rented from HD Home Supply. The Aerator is huge and super powerful! It pulls plugs of dirt out of the ground to help loosen up the soil and making it easier to reseed a yard. 

Hasani made several passes in our yard zig zaging back and forth. When he was all done, he told me to take a spin with it. 

See all the little round plugs of dirt? That's the dirt plugs pulled out of the ground from the Aerator. In the area below & above you can see how sparse the grass has become. 

In this area of our lawn the grass looks is thicker. 

I was nervous, but it looked like fun! The machine pulled me around the yard like a rag doll. Tabari also gave it shot, it was so funny to see how fast it drug him ( Hasani stayed close by his side the entire time, so I wouldn't freak out!) After a few passes around our backyard, the dirt was loose and soft (perfect for planting grass seed) Here's how our lawn looked after, its hard to tell in this picture but the ground was now in the perfect condition to re-seed.

The next day, we used our large lawn spreader. Our neighbor actually gave us ours, before we just used a hand spreader. We spreader the grass seed all over the lawn (we used Scots) a mix that is designed for the area we live in (hot Summers) 

As I mentioned last Friday, we took a little trip to the Local Feed store and bought weed free hay. We decided one bale of hay would be perfect, since we are not covering our entire backyard with grass seed. We spread the hay over our yard and watered really good. It's important to keep the ground most while growing grass seed. as luck would have it, are got rain for a four days in a row. 

Now we are waiting patiently for our new grass to grow in with our existing grass. I really hope with have pretty grass to share with you all in a few weeks!! The weather is finally warming up in  Northern California, which means we'll have to make sure our backyard stays nice and moist for our grass :) 


Besides over-seeding our lawn we have lots of projects to tackle before June rolls around. Here's our list, and some are done (just need to 'blog about them' :)


Over-seed Lawn
Hang Chalk Board 
Plant Garden
Cut back bushes & Remove Some
Plant new bushes and flowers
Lay mulch and weed barrier
Clean old cement patio
Re-Paint Large Terra pots & add flowers
Move excising side fence up
Build a New Gate Door
Replace Garage Door Light (outside) 


Do you have any backyard or outdoor projects your working on?

Pin of the Week

Every Friday, I share my favorite Pin via Pinterest. Here's my 'Pin of the Week.' its a fun way to share what's I've been pinning this week and what I'm thinking about doing. 

Pin of the Week: Large Numbers

{via Pinterest}

I love how much fun you can add to your front door buy adding color and using large door numbers! It makes wanna change out our small house numbers and greet people with large bold ones! I might just do this, over the weekend :) Here's hoping my local big box store sells large numbers :)

This Week

As a reminder some Fridays I'll share a quick week recap of the weeks events, so I don't forget the small special (and not so special) moments that happened during our week. I'm loving all the April showers we've been getting this week, and I'm not a rainy day kind of person. Why am I loving all the rain? Well, we recently re-seeded our lawn so all the rain is perfect for our new grass (I'll share all the deets Monday) This is the pretty view I've been seeing every night as I walk to my train. I love how everything is getting so GREEN and love seeing flowers blooming and tress getting fresh GREEN buds. 

On Monday evening we made quick to a local Feed Store, it was fun to look at all the animals the stores sells. They had baby chicks, ducks and rabbits. Avery really liked the baby rabbits. Fact, when I was teenage I had a rabbit name Bullwinkle, he was a Lop Eared rabbit. I loved him so much, and actually got him potty trained (in a cat liter box)

Another Fact from my childhood, I grew up in the country and when I was really little like 4-5 we had chickens :) 

We left the Feed Store with a bale of weed free hay.

How was your week? Did you have a lot of April Showers? Any guesses what we did with a bale of weed free hay? Any fun animal facts from your childhood you want to share :) ?

Vintage Sofa for the Outdoors

I think this post should come with a warning, you might think I'm a tad crazy after you read this post, regardless I'm going to need your moral support, lol. Heck, I think I went a little bonkers when I got bold and said 'We can do it!' But, first we must backup a bit, before I share with you all me crazy idea. I've always loved the look of pretty sofas outside on patios next to pool. To me the look is elegant, restful and just plain amazing! For what feels like forever I've been on the lookout for a reasonable priced outdoor sofa or sofa sectional, well I couldn't find one. In my research the style of outdoor sofa we like sells the sofa in sections and those are $299 and up. So for a three cushion outdoor sofa, were talking almost $900, um NO. So what's a girl to do? Well keep hope alive and be on the look out for deals :) 


Last Monday night, Hasani and I popped into our local Salvation army, just to look around. I glanced at the furniture section and saw a cool vintage sofa. But didn't think much of it, we don't need a sofa. Then I took a second look at the sofa, the side side arms where a pretty wood lattice style, it had cool feet. The sofa was large and all the cushions where in perfect condition. The sofa looked like it could easily be used in a sun room or outdoors. Then it hit me, this is the perfect sofa for MY outdoor patio. Even, though the current fabric is heavy ugly dated upholstery fabric, I could see its potential! I called Hasani over, showed him the piece, we sat down on the sofa and he too could see the potential! But, because there's always a 'BUT' right :) The price was $ 129.99, more than I wanted to spend, knowing I had to buy a ton of outdoor fabric to reupholster the piece.  


So the next day ( April 3rd ) after we celebrated my birthday having a family dinner, I wanted to drive by the Salvation Army and just see if they were having a sale. Hasani laughed at me and said, 'Only you would want to go to the Thrift Store on your Birthday.' Well, I was my birthday after-all, so I pick what we do :) We drove by the store and they were having a 30% off sale on everything. Within a few mins, we became the the new owners of an ugly dated vintage sofa in perfect condition. I paid $ 90.00 bucks for the Sofa (no tax) Happy Birthday to me! :) lol Here's my new to me sofa, yup its ugly! 

Here's the plan. First we love the look of the wood lattice sofa sides and plan on spraying painting all the wood a crisp clean glossy white white. In the past Hasani and I reupholstered a vintage chair (back before we blogged) The process was fun and it we learned a lot. The plan is to re-upholster the the sofa frame with outdoor fabric. The sofa has six cushions all with piping. I plan sewing new cushions with outdoor fabric with piping. At first I wanted to do contrasting white piping, but just in-case the piping doesn't line up perfectly it will get on my nerves and white piping will get dirty much faster. 

Right now, I'm terrified of sewing six perfect sofa cushions with piping and zippers. Super terrified of doing all that sewing! So, I'm going to look for someone to possibly sew the cushions for my, so Hasani and I can focus on the body of the sofa which actually should be pretty easy, considering we only have to do the front of the sofa bottom and and then the back panel of the sofa. 

We plan on doing a sold outdoor fabric, I like the idea of going neutral. So most likely the fabric we'll buy will be a tan color. I found some really affordable outdoor fabric online at Warehouse Fabric, for $ 6.98 per yard! Since I need a ton between 8-10 yards, getting the best price on outdoor fabric is a MUST. i really like this fabric called, Padre Toast. Neutral yes, but still pleasing to the eye. It looks like a nice beige grey tone. 

Once the fabric for the sofa farm and cushions has been selected, I'll also order fabric to make a few pillows for the sofa and also for our outdoor dining bench. I'm still loving this fabric, I found last year online. Luck for me they still sell it!

These indoor looking sofas for the outdoors are my inspiration! 

{via Pinterest}

{via here}

We have a lot of work to get done! I'm giving myself a month and half to get this project done! We want to start enjoying our new sofa by the begining of June! Wish us luck!! :) 


What do you think of our new sofa? Love it, Hate it? Can you see my vision ?? 

Pin of the Week

Whew! It's been a busy week for me! Which means I have a lot of writing to do for my posts next week :) Without further delay my 'Pin of the Week'

Pin of the Week: Cute Print

{ via Pinterest }

I thought this was so cute!!! I feel the same way all the time. Do you feel the same way after you see someones Pinterest Boards? 


Hope you all have a wonderful Easter :)

Chalk Board Outdoors

I should have blogged about this along time ago! A few months ago when I came home from work Hasani happily greeted me at the front door. He couldn't wait to show me what he got for free on a curb on his way home from work. Before I even show what he found, I was shocked he's not one to pick up crib items, I am! I'm the one how gets giddy when I see so-called junk on the side of the road, because you never know as the old saying goes one mans junk.....Well my wonderful husband bought me home a classroom size 'old school' green chalk board! Our neighbors were placing into on the curb for trash pick day, and he asked if we could have it, they said yes! 


The chalkboard is huge and in perfect shape. I was super happy, then thought where the heck is this thing going to go! After some talking back and forth we decided the perfect spot for our chalkboard would be our backyard. It will be the perfect addition our patio area. The chalkboard style is the kind that attaches to a wall or fence. Right now our plan is to attached it to our siding using hooks - like hanging a large picture frame with a wire that way can place it on the garage during the rainy season. Here are some cute examples of chalk boards used in outdoor settings.

Large chalkboards are the perfect spot for plain fences! 

{via Apartment Therapy}

I love this curvy chalk board perfect sign to greet guests

{via Eco-Beautiful Resources}

I love how the chalkboard dresses up the side of this shed, this a huge chalkboard!

{via Built By Kids}

I wasn't able to get a good picutre of the chalkboard Hasani came home with, its in our dark garage, but picture the old school green chalkboard from Elementary and that's exactly how ours looks complete with the framed metal trim and the chalk holder, kind of like this one below. I like how this one is framed out with wood, so maybe we'll add some wood trim and stain it a deep walnut color or paint it white?

{via here}

Once our chalkboard is hung, I plan on getting some cool chalkboard makers! Like these below, I'll only use them occasionally when we have people over otherwise I'll use plain ole' chalk :)

It will be fun to use the chalkboard outdoors to create menus for our guests, I've always loved the look of Cafe Menus on chalkboards and the huge size i get to play with is making me excited!!

What you think of chalkboards outdoors?

Have you found any recent curbside finds?