Chez Larsson

Merry Christmas

From all of us to all of you:

A Merry, Merry Christmas! 

xoxox

Benita
Martin
Wille
Mini
&
Bonus

xoxox

 

Envelope Pillowcase How-To

 
 
So you did want the tutorial :)

I love making pillowcases. They are such an inexpensive and quick way to change the mood and décor in a room. Make them mostly with zippers so they are reversible but sometimes I just don't have a zipper on hand but feel the urge to make a pillowcase anyway. Enter the envelope closure.

This is an easy enough project so if you are missing a last minute gift and have a bit of fabric and half an hour or so to spare you can whip up one (or a couple) of these. Here's how:

Cut a length of fabric the width of the pillow that you want to make the pillowcase for + seam allowance.

The length should be 2 x the length of the pillow + an additional 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) or so to overlap + seam allowance.

The envelope overlap depends on the size of the pillow, bigger pillow more overlap. For the pillowcase I'm making here which is for a 45x45 cm (17 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches) pillow my piece of fabric measured: 48 x 116 cm (18 3/4 x 45 3/4 inches).

Start off by pressing a seam at both short ends of the fabric. You can make the seam wider than this if you want to but my fabric wasn't wider so this is what I was left with. Works fine though.

Sew the pressed seam and...

 

...zig zag stitch the long edges to prevent the fabric from fraying. My fabric here's by Anna Maria Horner btw.

 

Now your piece of fabric is ready to be "assembled" into a pillowcase. This is simply done by laying the fabric wrong side down and folding the edged over so they overlap. Measure as you are doing this so pillow will be the correct size in the end. Pin the fabric together and stitch along the pins.

  

Turn right side out and press with a iron and there's your pillowcase. It can be a little tricky to get your pillow in there as you have sort of an obstacle in the way inside but if you wiggle around a little with your hand in there along with the pillow you'll get there.

While I was at it I made three. Like I said, it's quick and easy.

Ps. Another interview with me is up on Lipstick on Your Teeth if your curious. Thank you, Alison! 

 

The Tree

After a few years of white we got a real tree this year. I missed the smell of the real tree and since we'll be at home and can supervise the furry portion of our family we figured it would be ok.

Neither Mini or Bonus have shown any interest in the little shrooms, snowflakes...

...discoballs...

... or even birdies though so we seem to be ok!

It wasn't intentional but there's sort of a winter woodland theme going on. With the addition of little red drums, candy canes and the disco balls of course.
  

Powder

 

 

 

 

We've had the most awesome winter weather this past week. I don't think we've ever had powder like this. It's like Aspen!  

Polka Dots

First I'd like to thank you so much for all the congratulations after yesterday's post. THANK YOU! I have the BEST readers!

 

This year I have a little polka dot theme going on for Christmas. Made some new pillows and got the napkins at Michael's. That's glögg BTW.

The dots are on the little mushrooms in our advent candle holder too.

 

Part of the inspiration came from last  year's gift wrap. Will probably do something along those lines this year too. Haven't wrapped much yet, but I'm hoping to get to it this weekend.

Oh, about the pillows. I have a tutorial on how to sew an envelope pillow case. Is that something you're interested in or is that too obvious and too simple?

Excitement x 2!

You guys will not believe this! Almost too much excitement in one day, I tell you.

 
EXCITEMENT NO 1

I won the paint competition! Wohoo!

I got a couple of comments on winning already two days ago from readers who saw it up on the site but hadn't heard from the people organizing it until yesterday.

The prize is a whopping 10 000 kronor ($1400) worth of paint and/or painter! I'll get the details on the prize after new year's but I'm hoping to be able to have the hallway walls painted (dingy from being closest to the street outside) and am also hoping to have a lot of trim and doors painted too. The stairs could use a coat and so could the downstairs hallway... Oooh! I can't wait and feel so lucky! Thank you all so much for voting for me!!!

 

 
  
EXCITEMENT NO 2

My little blog on what is basically an organized life in suburbia has been chosen by Times Online in the UK as one of it's 50 Top Design Blogs in the world!
D E S I G N blogs!

I'm in excellent company with most of my faves (Am definitely missing Anna at Door Sixteen but I'm sure it's a typo!) and a few fellow Swedes Fine Little Day, Dos Family and Emmas Designblogg.

I'm so adding the little brag button in my sidebar!

Guess What We're Getting for Christmas?!

Mmmm. Interesting arrangement...

 

 This year we're giving each other a family gift. Can you guess what it is?

~

Ps.Check out this interview with me. Thank's Imene!
 

Glittered Holiday Cards

  

I had no idea what kind of holidays cards to make this year and got stumped for time if I wanted the ones going abroad to be done on time. Then I remembered the tried and true glitter technique and Bob was my uncle!

I set to work and used my fave font and printed Merry Xmas onto cardstock on my home printer. Then I cut the sheets to a size that fit into the green envelopes I bought i NYC last year.

Supplies needed were also a glue pen (mine's by Martha and has a felt tip) and of course the glitter.

I had printed the words in light grey so they wouldn't be visible in case I didn't hit the dot right on with the glue pen. It was simply a matter of adding a little glue dot on each printed dot...

... and sprinkling glitter all over and shaking off the excess. I kept a paper underneath with a fold in it and after a few cards I poured the glitter from the paper onto the next few cards with a tray underneath to catch the rest.

And here's the finished result. The glitter stays in the dotted areas and even if a little comes off during shipping it will be like having sent fairy dust and I hope my recipients won't mind.

~
 
Ps. We had 5 inches of snow over night! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Dinner with Anne

One of my very best friends, Anne, came over for dinner on Saturday. Anne's been through a lot lately and it was soooo nice to meet her IRL again and not just via our blogs and e-mail. Love you sweetie!!!

I love setting a simple table and used to do the table cloth thing when we had friends over but have fairly recently "discovered" cloth place mats. Love the look AND the ease. 

So, the coming week will be a busy one; Finish holiday cards, buy last of gifts and wrap, lots to finish off at work, do some baking, get a tree (we're getting a real one this year!), trim said tree etc, etc. I work until the 23rd next week and since we celebrate on the 24th over here I want to prep everything in advance little by little so on the day itself I can relax and enjoy.

Are you starting to feel stressed out or do you have everything in control by now? I feel pretty ok, still a lot to do but by doing a little something after work every day it will be ready on the big day. And if it isn't that will be ok too, nobody else knows about all the stuff you planned but didn't get to :).
  

Sugar Cube Building

Photo Courtesy of Martha Stewart Living 

Ok. I've been wanting for years to build cute little cugar cube cottages or a rustic castle or perhaps even an igloo. Decided this year was the year and instead of the gingerbread house we'd try our hands on something new.

Broke the news to Wille and Martin and they agreed! Wow, that was easy and kind of unexpected!

Turns out they had a different idea than I... They wanted to continue last years theme of NYC landmarks...
 

 

So 8 kgs (15 pounds) of sugar and a string light later, here it is in all it's glory!

Here are some shots of the process:

A print out of the building, the Muji mini as inspiration, a bit of math, a whole lot of sugar and patience is what it takes.

Martin and Wille started out by mapping out the size. Good thing they didn't go with the first calculations of 27 kg (59 pounds) of sugar...
 

We were a bit unsure if frosting alone would hold our building together so Martin and Wille experimented with hot glue, elmers glue etc but ended up using caulk from a caulking gun to attach each cube using a small metal spatula to get an even coating.

We came up with the idea to add light inside and inserted a string light in the process. The back of the building is actually open to prevent it from getting too hot. The whole thing sits on a foam core board and the cable runs in a guaged out tunnel at the bottom.

After a few daýs (Rome wasn't built in a day and so wasn't this) we brought the project downstairs so we could eat at our dining table. It was a slow and apparently quite boring process to build the main mid part but as soon as they got to the top bit it got exciting again and the project took off.

 

And again here it is! Now we're just hoping Mini and Bonus will keep their little tounges away...