sweet iced tea and coffee sack pillows

I am here to share a recipe that is not mine. Leah taught me. She’s from the South. The Deep South. Just kidding – I don’t rightly know what the Deep South is but it sure sounds just peachy, y’all. Sorry.

I’m calling it:

Deep South Sweet Iced Tea

4 black tea bags

4 cups boiling water

1/3 to 1 cup sugar (depending how sweet you like it)

4 cups cold water (or a half-gallon of ice)

Place 4 tea bags in a heat-proof container and add the 4 cups boiling water. Steep for 4 minutes. (Easy enough to remember?). Add sugar to taste, stirring until dissolved (Leah's Mema uses one full cup sugar). Combine with 4 cups cold water in a pitcher and place in fridge. Or what I do is fill that there pitcher you see above about 3/4 full of ice, then just pour my brewed tea over the top of that, drink several glasses right then, and put the rest in the fridge. Now you are all hyped up to go on a cleaning spree… or just have enough energy to hold a conversation with a 4 year old. Oh, and putting it in the fridge, I think it gets even better after a day or two.

Sometimes I like to enjoy my tea in a Starbucks cup that I washed out because I am a stay-at-home-mom who doesn’t get to go to Starbucks as often as she would like and I feel like I am getting a special treat when I drink out of a Starbucks cup because their marketing is very successful and has gotten inside my head and made me brand-loyal to them for the rest of my life. =)

Okay, I finally got down to business and made something out of the burlap coffee sacks I got at Ruffles & Rust on my birthday shopping spree…

I was trying to copy the burlap and linen pillows Pottery Barn had out a while back, they only have a couple of the same ones now. They also have flour sack pillow covers which has caused me to scribble FLOUR SACKS in huge print on my Farm Chicks shopping list for this weekend (WOOT WOOT, btw!). Anywhoo, I really loved how the pillows turned out and they look so much better on my couch than the ones that were all matchy matchy stripes the same exact colors as my curtains (too lazy to dig up a before shot)…

But, I say “loved” past tense because I was decorating for the Mother-In-Law last week when I made them, and up against a deadline, and I gave her mine. Now I have to make more for me. That’s okay, the burlap I ended up having left over doesn’t have the coffee logo so obviously, but just some text – the mystery of which I kind of like. And one of them is very worn and one of them brings in gray as well, so I am excited to get those made now that I am done with the MIL job and another little job I was working on for a client this week. “Client” sounds so fancy doesn’t it. I wish I had clients… my ‘clients’ are more like friends and family. =)

Anyway, I love that they were SO cheap to make… compare…

PB feather pillow form + burlap pillow cover = $51

or

PB feather pillow form + found grain sack cover = $105 !!

…in contrast…

Ikea feather pillow form + burlap coffee sack = $10.50

The feather pillow forms are what gives PB their relaxed, casual, comfy look, rather than the polyfill pillow forms you get at the craft store, which are stuffed to the max and won’t pouf or slouch and sometimes even roll... it takes some skill to make a square roll. While PB sells their 20x20 feather forms for $16, IKEA sells them for $6.99. That allows me to make them for about a quarter of the price of PB’s. =) Here is a super easy tutorial if you want to try your hand at a pillow form.

I know you are going to ask if the burlap sheds all over my couch. Doesn't seem to. There were a few tiny hairs, but you couldn't notice unless you got up close and looked for them. And I had planned giving the pillows a once-over with the brush attachment on my vacuum to capture anything loose, but wasn't bothered enough to do it before I used them for my client. =)

And by the way I was cutting up my coffee sacks and wondering if they were even real coffee sacks or someone just pulled the wool over my eyes… when these popped out of a seam…

No wool here, only true burlap coffee sacks… and a few leftover beans. =)

Peace!