Blue Lemon - Review and GIVEAWAY

Do you want to WIN one of TWO $25 gift cards to Blue Lemon so you can have the fun date night we did?!?!  To enter, just comment on my posts on Instagram or Facebook.  It couldn't be easier!  Giveaway ends July 22.

We love Blue Lemon for date night because it's good food in a classy atmosphere but still fast and not too expensive.

We also love it because they have so many healthy options.

I can't wait to go back!

Planning my Cherry Hill Adventure

I've been spending all morning planning the rest of my summer, trying to fit in all our "summer bucket list" items, including our first trip as a family to Cherry Hill in Davis County.

 

I went as a teenager for a family reunion but am excited to see what's new and spend the day at the water park, mini-golf course, rock wall, jungle maze, campground, and much more! With acres of activities to explore, my family definitely won't be bored.

 

 

Cherry Hill has been family owned and operated since it opened 50 years ago. To celebrate 50 years, they are giving away over $20,000 in prizes including Megaplex tickets, Lifetime products, ski passes, and much more every day of our 2017 summer season. Check out the website and follow them on Facebook for more information and to see a calendar of events. http://www.cherry-hill.com/

Black and White Bunco theme with FREE printables



 Does anyone else play Bunco?  Our Bunco group has over 20 girls in it and we love it.  If you've never heard of Bunco, you should look into it!  It's an easy dice game but mostly it's an excuse to hang out with a bunch of girls every month and eat snacks.

Last month's theme was black and white.  The invites, score cards, decorations and food were all black and white and the gifts people brought for prizes were black and white too!

For food, I did popcorn (boom chicka pop at Costco), Hostess cupcakes, oreos, cauliflower and black olives and these amazing Oreo cheesecake bites.

What could be better than a soda bar for Bunco night?!  We had lemonade, sodas, limes, flavored syrups and pebbled ice.  I printed out recipes for Italian sodas, dirty sodas, flavored lemonades and other drinks we could make.  (Link to FREE recipe card printables at the bottom)

 We used black and white tablecloths and the centerpieces were glass square vases from the dollar store filled with dice.  I also printed a lable for each vase with the table number.

I love Bunco night!  Do any of you play?  What are some of your favorite themes?

 

FREE PRINTABLES

Bunco score cards

Drink recipe cards

 

FREE INVITATION TEMPLATE BELOW

(Just add text to tell them where, when and what to bring)

Downloadable link here

(or right click on pic below)

©2017 Just Another Utah County Mom.

You are welcome to download my products for personal use but if you want to repost this idea, please link back to my page do not steal the content and use it as your own.

Mangia Pizzeria in Draper and GIVEAWAY

Last week, after we went to the aquarium in Draper, we met some friends at Mangia Pizzeria in Draper for dinner.  The owners and staff were so nice and it ended up being a lot of fun.

I'll just leave this food porn up for you to salivate over.

The crust was amazing.  They fly their dough starts in from Boston to make sure it's just right.

 We got the family special - with 2 large 1-topping pizzas and garlic knots for just $19.99.

 My favorite part was the live music.  It was a ton of fun to eat and talk while listening to some good music.  Did you catch it on my Insta stories?  He played some of my favorite covers.

 My kids' favorite part was the gelato.

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Do you want to WIN the same family special we got so you can check out how fun this place is?!?  Just enter on Instagram or Facebook.  Giveaway ends March 31 and is open to everyone within driving distance of Mangia.



Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa

I happened to be browsing my local online classifieds when someone posted a FREE sectional.  FREE!!!  The only problem is it was made of this pleather that was ripped and peeling but I decided I wanted it anyway.

My husband was on shift at the fire station, when I called him and said "don't be mad."

"What did you do?"

"I got us a new couch...for FREE.  But I have to reupholster it."

"Do you even know how to reupholster a couch?"

"No, but I will.  How hard can it be?"

My ever-patient husband responded without even a hint of hesitation that he believed in me and was sure I would do a good job at anything I put my mind to.  "If this is really what you want to do, I fully support you.  Just let me know what help you need from me," he told me.  *Swoon*  He loves me.

The next day we rented a small U-Haul and picked up the couch.  I was committed.  Click the links below to see how I did it.

STEP ONE:  CHOOSE THE FABRIC

STEP TWO:  CUT APART YOUR SOFA

STEP THREE:  REUPHOLSTERING

STEP FOUR:  THE CUSHIONS

 

Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa: STEP FOUR

Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa: STEP FOUR - the cushions

 

Every cushion is going to be different so I'm not going to go through making the pattern to shape mine.  I will tell you that I had six cushions that were five different sizes so I had to make five different patterns.  For three of the cushions I measured the existing cushion and drew a pattern myself using my measurements.  For the other three cushions I actually unpicked the existing cushion completely and used the fabric to cut out the new pieces and pieced it back together.  The cushions I made my own pattern for actually turned out better but both types of cushions looked fine and honestly no one but me would even be able to tell which ones I did and which ones I unpicked and pieced back together unless I told them what to look for.

 

I will, however, tell you in detail how I did the cute tufting.  Tufting with buttons is a little easier than tufting without.  Here is how I did the tufting without buttons.

 

First I took the front piece and measured where I wanted the tufting by dividing the finished size in thirds and marking where I wanted the lines to be with colored pencil.  Then I pinned 3/4" strips of upholstery fabric in place (shown below).

I sewed all the horizontal strips in place 1/4" from the edge, sewing all the way down.  Then I sewed another line parallel to the first one, 1/4" away from both the first line and the outer edge of the strip.

 

Once those were sewn in place, I started down the vertical strips the same way but when I got to where the horizontal strip was, I pulled the vertical strip out of the way while I sewed through the horizontal strip (shown below).

After I got over the horizontal strip, I put the vertical strip back in place and kept sewing.

   From the front it looks like one straight, continuous line but from the back it creates a loop with the vertical strip.  See below?

 After all the strips were sewn into place, I sewed the rest of the pillows together.  Once finished, I threaded through some black elastic. 

 I marked both ends of the elastic a couple inches from where it was looped through.  (I did it 2", use what measurement works for you and your pillows.)  Just make sure that ALL of the tufts have elastic measured exactly the same so all of the tufts will look uniform and even.

After I had the elastics in placed and marked, I put the cushions in.  Use a long, straight upholstery needle to thread the elastic through the pillows exactly where you want the tufting to be.

Once through, I stapled the elastic to a small, 4ish-inch donut-shaped piece of wood that came with my existing cushions that the other fabric had been stapled to.  The wood keeps the elastic pulled through in place.  I just made sure the markings on my elastic lined up with the edge of the wood and stapled the elastic several times into place.  Then all of the tufts looked exactly the same and uniform.

 

The cushions are beautiful and my favorite part of the couch but they took FOREVER.  Making 5 different patterns and sewing, assembling and tufting 6 cushions with 6 zippers took about 3 hours a cushion.  It was definitely worth it but it took a lot longer than I had anticipated.  I added some throw pillows and I was done!



Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa: STEP THREE

Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa: STEP THREE - REUPHOLSTERING

 

This is going to more of a general tutorial because every couch is different and you kind of have to just figure out what works for you.  As you can see below, I didn't always do everything perfectly but it still turned out great.

The first thing I did (above) is pull up the cushion along the back of the couch and stapled the fabric down (right side down) under where that cushion went.  I laid the fabric so when it wrapped around the back of the cushion and I pulled it over the seat and down to the front the right side out would be out.  You can see it after that one side had been stapled better in the video below.

After I did that one side of the fabric, I stapled the batting on.  I started with the same side I had stapled the fabric and then pulled it over the seat cushion and down the front.  Once I had it where I wanted I spray glued it in place.  This batting went directly over the foam.  Once the batting was spray glued in place I could pull the fabric over the seat cushion, showed in the video below.

Here's where it got tricky.  AFTER I had stapled the back edge of the fabric down AND stapled and spray glued the batting on, I decided that in order to make the curve around the arm cushion look good I was going to have to sew a small seam just around the cushion.  This is what happens when you figure it out as you go.  It turned out well in the end but IF I DID IT AGAIN I WOUL DEFINATELY SEW ANY SEAMS BEFORE I STARTED STAPLING.

After I managed to sew that one seam it looked great.  As a rule of thumb, any inside corners will need a seam to fit well and outside corners can either have a seam or just be folded and stapled in place (what I chose to do because it was easier).

See how I left extra fabric both along the front and sides?  That way I had plenty to use once I started stapling and folding the sides in place.  It's so much easier to have a little extra to drape and make it just right.

Next I did the arm (above).  I was lucky with this sofa because the arm was square and I didn't have to do any big curves.  I started by stapling the side under the cushion and then draped it over, pulled it tight over the fake leather and stapled it to the bottom.

At first I would unpick the bottom and staple the fabric down and then staple the bottom back over the top so it looked nice and professional (above) but by the end I realized you can't tell anyway and ended up stapling a folded edge right over the top of the bottom layer because it was a lot faster and easier.

Then I spray glued the fabric on the seat cushion in place onto the batting, pulled it tight and down along the front and stapled into place.  I folded along the corners of both the front seat cushion and the side and stapled everything where I wanted it to sit, making sure the staples were out of sight, either in between cushions or below where I was going to piece the other fabric (shown below).

I stapled the fabric over the fake leather in the back.

You can see in the movie that I folded along the back edge.  I could have sewn it into place using an upholstery needle but I decided that no one was going to see that edge along the back anyway.  If I was putting it in a high-traffic area with nothing along the back I would have sewn that fold into place by hand or used a tack strip.

 

After I had done the seat, arm rest, back and both sides it looked like this...

  

The last part was that front bottom part.  I don't know how I didn't get any pictures of this part but basically I took the salvage edge of the fabric and placed it along the top line of where I wanted the bottom piece to be.  I placed it upside down - right side against the couch.  So the fabric was draped up and over the seat and back and only about an inch of fabric was hanging down along where I wanted the piece to be.  Then I stapled this cardboard strip along where I wanted the seam.

Once that edge was stapled, I folded the fabric down over the cardboard I had stapled and stapled in place along the bottom (shown above).  That's what creates that seam along the front - since I couldn't pry the couch apart and actually get in there.

 

I followed all these steps for both couches and I was done with the couch part!  It's not perfect, but it's good enough and I get compliments all the time.  Totally worth the $250 or so I spent on supplies and fabric and hours I put into it instead of buying a new couch, but then again I'm pretty cheap.  If you have the money I guess it may not be worth your time.

Go HERE to learn how to make those cushions.