Place-mat Pillow

I know it's been a while but I've been busy... til now. So I made this lovely pillow using a place-mat I found at Target.

I liked the design and noticed the place-mat was double lined and hollow inside so I wondered if I could fill it up with polyester and turn it into a pillow. Well the price was right ($3) so I decided to give it a whirl.


1.I started by taking out about 4 inches of stitching on the edges.
2.I then added the polyester filling.
3.Next, I tried using iron-on tape to put it back together... I do not recommend this. It was awful and as you can see, the yellow strip of fabric is separate from the white (and the white separate from the pattern..) so it literally became a 'hot mess'. I eventually gave up on that idea and sewed it with a needle and thread. I am no Betsy Ross so anyone can do it and if you mess up no one will notice (and if they do, just whack them with your new pillow)!

Orzo Recipe

Here's a little recipe I came up with on my own tonight. It's my first Reema original!

1.5 cups orzo

1 tbsp butter

3 cups water

Salt

Grated Parmesan

1.Boil the water in a pot.

2.Add orzo and cook til no longer hard (7-10 mins) on medium-high heat.

3.Drain water.

4.Add butter to orzo and stir.

5.Put on plate and add salt and Parmesan to taste! It's delish :)

Framed Dried Flowers

Here's a craft I did not too long ago. I dried out some flowers I'd received and hung them upside down for ~week. I then framed them with scrapbook paper in the background. The flowers were a little too thick to fit in the frame though so instead of shattering the glass I found an old school binder and cut out the plastic cover part out and inserted it where the glass would go and voila!

Dried Flowers in a Frame

Artful Paintings

I started off with a crafty aspect of me, but now want to show more of my 'artful' side. Here's a painting I did that sits above my mantle. It's a 24" x 36" semi-replica of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. The proportions of my canvas were wider than his though so I had to get creative...

Reema (2011)

I'm also starting to work on another painting of a photograph I found online but it's a work in progress. Here's what I've got so far:

I'll try to post pictures of my progress over the next few months.

Hidden Pillow Message

My boyfriend and I recently celebrated an anniversary, and I wanted to make him something unique. I couldn't find any ideas online that I liked completely so I mixed an idea I found with one of my own. 


I liked the idea of the pillow cases from this website  http://boldloft.com/osc/couple-pillowcases-m-27.html?page=2&sort=2a but there's no chance he'd let something like that show.... so I bought pillows and a protective pillow cover (goes underneath his pillow case) that I decorated with Crayola fabric markers. He's in the health care field so the stethoscope makes sense by the way. I also added a little message (which I blurred out ;) ) and our anniversary date. Now it's our little secret... and now yours :)

PS. He absolutely loved it!