Glitter Trees and a Couch Sleepcover!

Hello! I hope you are all having a great day and getting ready for Christmas. I am not ready yet. Still working on some projects.
Recently I got this lovely nativity on e-bay.

We have a Boyds bears and a Playmobil nativity, but I wanted a "real" one.
This is "A King is born" from Lenox, and it was a bargain. It is small, what fits our space and budget. After displaying it on a shelf I decided it needed some kind of background. I choose to make glitter trees.  I got three cardboard cones at Joann's (sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the before).

Some glitter and spray glue...

And there you have it!

Just a little tip: Cover your work area very well with newspaper.  Or use the spray glue  inside a box.
Now, don't you think the nativity looks a lot better? Even with the bad light.

I just love it! I am very happy with my new nativity.

Another  project I made this week.
We have this hand me down old couch that is so old style, but comfy. For now, we are keeping it. I wanted to make a slipcover to hide it, but it was a project way to big for me.
Other day Joann's had fleece for $4.00 a yard. The couch's fabric is some kind of plush. Fleece sticks well to it. I got six yards of beige fleece, made a big blanket from it, and after tucking here and there, here is how it looks now.

I know it is nothing like something from Country Living or a Pottery Barn catalog. But, it works for us. When Brenda arrived from school she said: You got a new couch! I liked the old one! She had to look under the cover to make sure it was the old couch. We added pillows and the Christmas quilt from my previews post, and we are ready to go.

Keep warm,  and thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.

Christmas Rag Quilt

Hello! Very busy around here, but here is my last project.

It was made using cotton and corduroy for the top and flannel for the back, and it has a smaller
piece of cotton batting inside each square.

This kind of quilt is  very easy  to make, since unmatched corners will not show so much :) Perfect for me!

This is after 3 washes. Corduroy makes a LOT of lint. But the quilt is very soft and fluffy.
I love the paper doll fabric, and I think this little quilt looks great with my Christmas decor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.

A Christmas Table runner and Thanksgiving Decor

Hello!
On the weekend I finished a new quilting project. There are lots of tutorials online for this quilt as you go table runner. I used this one. Her blog is great, many tutorials and beautiful pictures. I had made a similar table runner years ago,  but this one turned out a lot better. I am really happy with the results.

I made it to fit on this Ikea  storage trunk that I use as a coffee table.
It was easy to make. I used fabrics from my stash , cotton batting and a muslin back.

No Christmas decor for now, but I have some Thanksgiving decor to share.

 We made this Thankful garland other day. Just a bag of paper leaves from the 99 cents store and twine.

Brenda wrote things that she is thankful for on each leaf. A simple and meaningful craft.

I put my Halloween stuff away and out came other things.

This sweet pilgrim bear is from Bearington bears.

Some Indian corn. I love their colors and variety.

A Cherished Teddies mini plate.

Brenda loves this little Thanksgiving display .

Today I went to her school to teach the kids to make a little craft.

Her class loved to make Tom Turkey, this cute craft from Gooseberry Patch. They have the directions on their blog here . We make this craft with the cousins every Thanksgiving dinner. It is so cute!
One last thing, a gift I am putting together for a friend's girl  who turned ten years old.

Because she likes crafts, I got a cute craft book and some supplies that will help her on her craft adventures. A cool idea for Christmas, don't you think ?
Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.

Hi! I am so busy around here that only now I am posting some Halloween pictures.
This year Brenda wanted to be Rapunzel. It was my first time sewing a princess costume. I used a Simplicity pattern.

We did a lot this Halloween. We  went to Disneyland.

And to our church's party.

Brenda had the school parade and class party on Halloween morning. Of course she went trick or treating at night.

She had the chance to wear her old witch costume at the school fundraiser party on the Friday before Halloween. I got a picture before we left.

This year our pumpkin was turned into a witch.

With spiders on her hair.

 We had some yummy treats, like this chocolate coffin our friend Jodie and her kids made for us.

How cool was that?

Around Halloween Brenda's best friend was baptized.

I made her a CTR towel. You can see more about CTR towels on this post .

On the weekend after Halloween  we went to the Children's Tumor Foundation's San Diego walk.

It was a fun event ! To learn more about Neurofibromatosis (NF) and how you can help, please click here .
Time goes so fast. I have lots to do before Christmas.
Right now I am working on knitted hats and quilts that will be donated by our church women's group to shelters in our area.
Thanks for stopping by!

 Ana Paula.

Slipcovers and fall decor

Hi! Several weeks ago I finally finished the slipcovers for my "new" dinning room chairs.
Well, they were not really new, but had good bones. That's a very good reason to make slipcovers.

I used the directions from this book I got at Joann.

The fabric is also from Joann. It was my first time making slipcovers and I am all excited to make more. :)

Now, a little bit of Fall decor. My friend Jodie gave me this super cute spider.

She made it using the pattern from the 2011 Holiday Crafts magazine.

I was lucky to find this vase with our family initial at Home Goods. The flowers are from Tai Pan Trading. I was looking for sunflowers, but when I found these poppies I changed my mind.

As I said on a previews post, i don't do a lot of Halloween decor, but when I find stuff like this little witch, I can't resist. Sorry for the bad shot.

It was a bargain I found last year at Ross.

And here is my last Cross Stitch Sampler to share.

This is the Autumn Sampler from Janlynn. I got it on e-bay and I love it ! It is my favorite of the three I have. The colors are beautiful.  I posted about the other samples here and here .

Sorry for another bad picture. I just can't get a good one from my framed cross stitch pieces.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy and safe Halloween.

Ana Paula.

A Halloween Cross Stitch and a Fabric Pumpkin

Hello!
Today I have a couple of new things to share. The first one is  this Halloween mini pillow . The cross stitch pattern is from San Man Originals.

It was hard to find a matching orange print. I had the aida at home and got the bat fabric at a quilt show last Saturday. It is from Moda fabrics. I think next time I will do black and white... it will be easier to match the colors. I used tiny felt triangles for the fangs because I could not find the right buttons. I think it came out ok.

I am not big on decorating for Halloween, just a little thing here and there. Last night Brenda and I put spider webs over the plants outside. Halloween is fun.
And here is my new fabric pumpkin. With a real stem!

I made it using this great tutorial from The Simple Wife . It was fast and easy.  I had one stem from last year and will use all the ones I can get my hands on this year to make more pumpkins. I loved this project!

Thanks for stopping by! I have a lot of cleaning to do now.
Ana Paula.