Tea Towel Pillow

I've had this new, sweet-but-simple tea towel which I purchased on clearance at Home Goods, for 1.5 years.  I also had a pillow form with an outdated cover over it.  So it made good sense to put the two together.  It's really nice to work with tea towels as fabric...the edges are all finished and it is a quality fabric.

One suggestion I have is that you play around with your tea towel or whatever fabric you plan to use to cover a pillow, and just pin it together around the pillow til you decide how you want to do it.  My tea towel was a bit too wide, and I didn't want to cut off any of the wonderful green stripes.  So by playing with it I came up with a way to make a fold-detail that would make it the right width without cutting any off.

I ironed a crease down the middle of the towel with wrong sides together.

Then opened the towel up, and folded about a 1.5 inch portion of the fabric toward that center crease, pinning it.  Did it on the other side as well...hopefully the picture illustrates that well.

You can see the idea in more detail there.  Kind of a pleat in the middle of the towel, vertically.

Then put the shorter ends of the towel together, right sides together, and sew.  I did a very small seam of about 1/8 of an inch b/c I needed that to make it fit the pillow.

Open the new seam and press

I repinned my pleat in several places, then sewed one of the open ends closed.  I used a larger stitch so that if I ever need to wash this pillow cover, and I fairly easily remove enough of the stitching to slip the pillow out and wash the cover.

Time for the final seam!  I still have the pleat pinned in place so that I could get the pillow form into the pillow without opening the pleat too far.  I didn't remove those pins til after I sewed up that final open side.

A green gross grain ribbon tied around it, to dress it up a bit....and....finis!!  I can add-to and change the embellishment if I figure out something I like better, as the ribbon is just tied on, not sewn on.

And that's it!  I've wanted to do this for weeks...how nice to cross it off my list, and have an extra cushy pillow on the Den futon for when I read in there or watch tv.  Me likes.  :)  Thank you so much for stopping by!  God bless you richly today.  And our love and prayers go out to the dear ones in Joplin who have lost so much.  One last little photo to remind us that God is still good all the time, and gives us sweet gifts in the midst of painful times.  These are the first little cut flowers from my gardens this summer.  

  Blessings! 

Donna
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Vintage Goodies To Be

We went to a set of neighborhood garage sales today.  Beyond fun!!  I was thrilled to find some vintage pillow cases for .25 each!!!  I know you can make pillowcase dresses for little girls from them and aprons...would love more ideas, ladies!

Gorgeous!!  What a beautiful little border for a dress!

What should I make of this one?

A bag of vintage beads from a lady in her 60s...can you imagine the crafts and such I can do with these? Any ideas? $1.50!

Another treasure...the 60-something lady's mother's table cloth...for $1.  Some stains, but I can make some sweet things with the rest of it....ideas please!  The lady thinks this is from the 40's.

This set for $1.

1965 Book of Knowledge.  For $1.  The illustrations are delicious...I'm a complete sucker for sweet, old drawings of children.  I'm envisioning making some wall art and a bunting with these pics!  Other ideas?

This picture sealed the deal for me...the book had to come home with me.

Would love your ideas...I know there are waaaay more creative people out there than me, and I so appreciate borrowing their ideas.  :)  Thanks for stopping by...Blessings!

Donna
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Garden Rocks

I saw a photo this morning that gave me a fun idea...when people come into my backyard gardens they often ask me what herbs I have coming up.  So I decided to make Garden Rocks to identify my herbs.  I chose 3 nicely shaped river rocks from our landscaping.

I've been saving my cute calendars over the years for some kind of craft.  Loving the drawings of Susan Branch, I used little pics from this calendar for decorating my rocks.

I used scissors and my small circle punch to cut out the little pics, then cut them down alittle further to fit the oval stones.

Here are my freshly washed and dried rocks, fitted with their calendar pics.  It would have been ideal to have had little herb pictures to go on these, but none were to be found.  Since I'm working on not being a perfectionist, I figured this was a good opportunity to just enjoy and accept what I had on hand.  :)  Time to Mod Podge...oh yes!

Satin Mod Podge and an old watercolor brush.

I applied some Mod Podge to the spot on the rock where I wanted to stick the picture.  Added the picture, then Mod Podged over the top of it, using my finger to smooth down the edges and conform the picture to the shape of the rock.

Let that initial Mod Podge dry, then added a nice coat over the entire top of the rock for a uniform shine.  Let dry about an hour.

Once dry, I took them outside and sprayed them with 6-7 light coats of polyurethane.  I also sprayed the Garden Spoon I made back in April, to weather-proof it.

Now for the fun part...place them in my garden!  I planted these herbs from seed, and have a nice stand started.  In a month, it will be lush and wonderful!  But for now, they are a bit humble.  I'm ok with that!

Thank you for visiting my herb garden today!  I always enjoy your comments and appreciate you stopping by. God bless you today with health, joy, and memories made!

 Donna 

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Quick Placemat Pillows

Once upon a summer, I lived in a new-to-me house.  I had a lovely, sunny, extra bedroom that we call the Den.  Truly though, I think of it as my own little room that I share with my family.  The walls are green.  My favorite.  But the room was alittle bland.  So I wanted some cute throw pillows for the futon that didn't cost much and had a neat design on them.  Thus when I found these beautiful woven placemats at Kohls on sale and found with delight that they were lined, I knew I'd found my solution!

So here's how these almost-no-sew pillows came to be.  I slit the back side lining at the bottom.  Careful to just cut through the back, not the front.  This only works with placemats that have 2 separate pieces joined together.

Next I cut an old bed pillow in half.  It's weird inside there!  Kind of like layers of polyester that have been wrapped around each other.  I took out enough of the filling so that the two separate pillows would fit in my 2 placemats.

Since it was a new-to-me house and I'd just lived there a month, I didn't have a sewing spot in the house yet.  So yes, that's me, sewing on the floor.  Don't try this at home.  Ha! I sewed the open end of each pillow half.

There she be...my new (old) pillow form.  I loved upcycling this pillow and keeping the cost down.

I stuffed the pillow form into the placemat, and since I was feeling lazy, I used an iron and some stitch witchery to close up the slit in the back.  Honestly?  It worked GREAT!  These pillows get laid on and tossed around daily and that stitch witchery has held firmly!

Here they are on the futon!  I l-o-v-e them!  The botanical print, shades of green, nubby texture, and the price...about $2.50 each.

By that fall, I had also found grass green pillow cases to further embellish the futon with more color.  I also purchased this little 1950s sewing table, refinished it, recovered the bench, and my sweet green Den is now a very peaceful place to hang out.  Ahhh.  Thanks for visiting!  I l-o-v-e comments and new followers!  Making it to 50 followers would be a dream come true!  

    Blessings!   

Donna
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Individual Brownie Trifles

About a month ago, my husband and I invited our neighbors on each side of us over for dinner.  I think the Reluctant Entertainer should be proud of me!  :)  We had been at a Dave Ramsey seminar all day til 3pm.  Then home to put together a quick but nice supper and spiff up the house.  We've only lived here a year, and this is the first time that these two neighbor couples had even met!  I'm so happy it could happen at our house!

So, one of the couples enjoyed our little casual dinner party so much, that they then initiated having all of us over to their house for dinner! Tonight is the night that we are going to their house along with the other couple!

I offered to bring something, and Carrie asked me to bring dessert.  Here's a true confession...we live about 15 minutes from shopping, and with gas at $3.99 a gallon I decided to make something for which I already had the ingredients.  And that's when I decided on Individual Brownie Trifles!  Putting these ingredients all in one large trifle bowl looks STUNNING and causes ooohs and ahhhhs.  However, it doesn't scoop up very nicely and look very pretty in the serving dishes.  So I thought that putting them in parfait glasses (purchased for a song at my Goodwill a couple of years ago...love them!) would make it nice for our hostess to serve, and give everyone their own little pretty dessert.

Here's how you make them.  Bake a brownie mix for a 9x13 pan.  I like the Aldi's brand.  After they cool, cut them into 1 inch cubes.

Then stir up 2 kinds of instant pudding.  I used chocolate and the other one is cheesecake.  But vanilla would have been great too.

In the dishes, layer a cube of brownie (if it's in a parfait dish), then a ladle of the light colored pudding.  Next, place 3-4 or so more cubes of brownie, and then drench it in a ladle of the chocolate pudding.  Lastly, 'ice' the top with cool whip and...

garnish with chocolate curls or chocolate chunks.

With very little time or trouble, my desserts are on this tray now, waiting in my fridge.  How easy and fun to walk next door with these at 6pm tonight.  :)  Here's a little hint:  Trifle tastes even better when it has sat in the fridge for hours or overnight.  I have leftovers of all these ingredients, and plan to make more of these tomorrow for our Mother's Day picnic on Sunday.  Yay!

I hope you are inspired to give these a try.  Tasty.  Pretty.  Easy.  Blessings to you!!  
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Book Review: Desiring God, Revised Edition by John Piper

I so enjoyed this book.  I've never read anything by John Piper, so this was a treat.  I had to read it slowly so that I could truly understand and think through what he said.

The basic idea that I took away from Desiring God, is that we give Him glory by enjoying Him.  Just as I feel honored and loved when my adult children enjoy me and my presence, so God is honored and loved when I enjoy Him. 

He is everything that I truly crave in life:  perfection, beauty, order, joy, love, and peace.  All of the things I long for in my earthly life and heart are found in perfection in Him alone.

I will be rereading portions of this book through the months so that I can be often reminded of where my joy truly lies.

Announcing my Very Own Little Etsy Shop!

Here she is Ladies and Gentlemen!  She is called Perfect Darlings and will feature vintage and handmade items for the home, garden, and children. Her beginnings are humble as I work at this in between home schooling and house wifing.  But I am very excited for this new outlet of creative crafting.  My shop features things that I love:  things for children to play with and wear, vintage items for the home, and FREE SHIPPING!!!  Please visit and let me know what you think.  New stock will be added shortly!  Thank you dear friends!

 Donna

http://www.etsy.com/shop/perfectdarlings