Mr. Dan D. Lion

Wouldn't it be cool if you knew someone named Dan D. Lion?

When Sarah and I were little, we always loved to pick dandelions for our mom.  We would put them by the front door, ring the doorbell, and run.  Even though we had done this a million times already, Mom would still open the door and look at the dandelions like they were diamonds and pretend she had no idea that we were hidden on the other side of the porch.
Thanks, mom,  for making us think we were the coolest.

Here is my favorite recent DIY pillow.

Of course the idea came from Pinterest.

All you need is:

-White fabric (I cut mine 17"x17")

-Yellow fabric (17"17"), plus extra for the piping

-2 yards of 1/4" cord

-yellow yarn

-white thread

-green thread (for the stems)

Start by making the piping.  Cut a 2 inch strip of fabric long enough to wrap around the whole pillow.  Fold the strip in half lengthwise with the cord inside.    

Use your zipper foot to sew the piping strip together.  Stitch right next to the cord.

Cut out your main fabric squares for your pillow.

Now to make the flowers.  Wrap yarn around your fingers.  Once you have as much wrapped as you want, use a piece of yarn to tie around the middle of your whole bundle.

cut all of the yarn loops open and fluff.

Trim the yarn until it is the size and shape you want.

Make 3 pom poms.  Stagger them on the front side of your pillow fabric.

Use a water soluble marking pen to draw stems from your flowers to the bottom of your fabric.  

Remove you pom poms and use the green thread to stitch over your markings to make the stems.  Use water to remove the pen markings. Hand stitch the pom poms to the top of the stems.

Pin your piping to the right side of your top fabric.  The cord side of the piping should be facing in. The seam of the piping should be 5/8" away from the edge of your fabric. 

Clip the corner so they lay flat.  Now stitch your piping onto the fabric with a 5/8" seam.

Once the piping is secured on, sew your two pillow piece together.  Right sides together. Leave an opening on one side big enough to fit your hand through.  Clip the corners.

Now turn your pillow inside out!

Use the opening on the side to stuff your pillow with polyfil.

Fold the raw edges of the opening under and pin the opening together.  Stitch the opening closed.

And you are done!!  Happy crafting!

Thanks for reading!

DIY Towel Rack

When Sarah and I first moved into our apartment, I new right away that I wanted to get rid of that ugly standard towel rack. I was in the mood to build something, so I began hunting around the old sheds at home to see if I could find anything I liked.

Upstairs in our house, these are the baseboards and corner pieces that outline all of the doors and floors.  When I was looking around at home I found left over baseboard and corner pieces.

I took 4 four corner pieces and a 25 inch piece of baseboard, sanded them down, and painted them antique white.

After a second coat and when they were completely dried, I drilled a hole through the center of each of the corner pieces.  (Don't you just love the detail on these pieces?!?)

I decided to use drawer handles for the towel hooks.  The corner pieces were too thick for the screw to fit through and hold the drawer handles.  I used a 1 inch woodboring tool to fix this problem.  It you ever use this, make sure the set your drill on the highest setting.  

As soon as this was done, the screw was long enough to hold the drawer handle on.  I repeated this for all four corner pieces.  

The drawer handles were from Lowe's!

I then took the four corner pieces and screwed them onto the baseboard.  I attached 2 sawtooth hangers on the back of the baseboard to hang it.   

I had to take my old towel hanger off the wall, which was easy enough, but I may or may not have taken some of the drywall off.  I will deal with it when I move out. 

And here is my new and improved towel rack:

The apartment is still coming together, but I hope to do another apartment tour post soon!

Thanks for reading!