Handmade Christmas Gift #1 and more

Hello!
I am starting working on several new projects. Some are Christmas gifts. So far I finished one.

This is the half way picture. And following, the finished scarf.

It is very simple pattern, since my knitting  skills are a little rusted.

It will be a Christmas gift  for my Mother-in-law. I love this shade of blue and hope she likes it too.

Now the projects I need to finish.

This will be one of the popular rainbow pencil rolls that are all over the net. I will use denim for the pocket and exterior.
Brenda will get it for Christmas. I will post the finished pencil roll when I finish.

And here are the 7" squares for a Christmas rag quilt. The back will be red flannel, and the top red corduroy  and the Christmas paper dolls fabric.

I also started a new crochet basket, this time using t-shirt yarn. But I run out of t-shirts and the basket will have to wait.
I have some other projects that will be finished soon.

Now, some new treats I got recently.

A friend gave me this beautiful Moda Jelly roll. It is from the Hometown collection. It is the first time a have a jelly roll and I am trilled. It is a quite pricey little thing, really a treat because I only buy fabric by the yard at Joann using a coupon. I never buy pre cut fabrics and  rarely buy fabric at other places.  I don't have many choices around here.
I am still deciding what to do with this beauty.

I was crazy for this magazine. The new Just Cross Stitch Magazine Sept/Oct.  My husband stopped by a Joann super store on his way from work to get me one. The two Joann's near by don't carry Just Cross Stitch.

And look what I got in the mail today. The Christmas Ornaments Special Issue and the new Halloween book. They are beautiful. I ordered about  two weeks ago!  Silver Needle was very busy.
As you can see, I have enough to keep me busy for a while.
Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.

Summer and Little House on the Prairie Activities

I am back on blogging. Brenda started school yesterday and now I have more time. Lots of projects waiting! :)
I want to share some of my summer stuff. Yes, now when summer is almost over.
I really don't have a lot of summer decor items, but here it is.

This is my beloved  Summer Sampler in Cross Stitch.  I got it on e-bay. It is From Janlynn. I got both Summer and Fall Samplers from a Canadian lady.  A real bargain.

My friend Jodie made the seahorse and the picture frame I got at Hallmark.  The little sailor girl is from Boyd's Bears.

The picture of Brenda at the beach is in Brazil, about 4 years ago.
That was it.  I will do better next year.

Now...  we gave Brenda the first five books from Laura's Little House for her birthday.
We started to read the books together and I decided to do some related activities.
My inspiration was this :


"Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday."

Little House in the Big Woods, pg 29

So, we started our work for the week, Ma's  style.
I was lucky to find a washboard at a Peddler's Market.

Our wash day was a blast! Brenda loved to scrub her doll's clothes.

She loved to hang the clothes too. She thinks doing laundry this way is so much fun.

For our Ironing day we used a Barbie iron. I could not find my vintage toy iron.

For mending day we did a  simple embroidery.

It was another favorite. She was very excited.

For Churning day we colored the cream like Ma Ingalls did. With grated carrots.

Now shake, shake, shake! After all the  shaking the butter was inside the container. Like magic!

Now it was ready to eat on bread.

 No pictures for cleaning day. It was a very hot day.
 For the baking day I made muffins... way too hot for Brenda to be at the kitchen.  Also, no pictures. Sorry.
For resting day, we went to church, as we always do. Here is Miss Brenda all ready to go.

She wants to do the activities all over again, specially washing day.
Hope you are enjoying your last days of Summer. Here in Southern California the heat will stay for awhile.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Summer

We are having a stay cation this summer just doing local trips.
We also joined the summer reading program from our local library. We just finished it.
I will share some pictures of our little adventures. First, a Fourth of July celebration and breakfast at church.

Some days later we were invited by friends  to go to the Paul Getty museum in Los Angels.

On the way back we stopped by the LDS Los Angeles Temple to see the newly remodeled visitor's center.

Of course we had a day at The OC county fair. Brenda got a new "carriage".  It helped a lot, since walking the whole day can be difficult for her.

Fair food can be  weird like bacon dipped in chocolate and fried butter. The corn looked good, but we got  fennel cake with strawberries and went to a restaurant after the fair. A lot healthier!

At the crafts building they had some lovely things.
Beautiful quilts.

I love redwork. And Swedish weaving.

My favorite quilt was the one hanging on the middle. Amazing work!
Now the cross stitch. This one really looked like a painting.

More beautiful pieces.

I liked this one... so cool!

We also spent some days in San Diego where Brenda among  many other activities, built a sand castle with grandpa.

But the best thing this summer was our  visit to Brenda's leg doctor.
She is doing very well and now she is allowed to use the slide at the playground. When it is not crowded, to avoid accidents. This may sound like nothing for many, but for us it is huge! She is so happy, and we are too. The doctor even recommended walks around the block.
If you want to know more about Brenda's condition please visit The Childrens Tumor Foundation website.
Brenda does her best to follow the doctor's orders, but she is just a seven year old that wants to do all the things the other kids do. It is very hard for her to be "normal" but not to be able to do normal things. She is a very faithful child, and before the visit to the doctor she told me that she wished  the doctor let her to do "one thing"...meaning less restrictions at her play time.  And she got it!  Yes, life is full of little miracles and my little princess believes in it.

Hope you are having a great summer.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

A late cross stitch finish

Hello!
I have a new small finish to share. This is Celebrate the 4th,  a freebie from Glory Bee.
I know, I am very late. But, as my husband said, I am getting a head start for next fourth. :)

I changed some of the colors and because the star button I had was too big for the flag, I put it on the yo-yo fabric instead.

I am happy with the way it looks. I love the pattern. You can find it here . They have some more nice freebies there.
We have been so busy doing "summer stuff", but this is another post.
Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.

Home Sweet Home

Hi! I am so behind on my cross stitching. So many other things going on!
I want to show you today a piece that I made years ago, and found it stored with my summer stuff.

The pattern is from Manequim Ponto Cruz, a Brazilian magazine. There is no indication of the designer, but I sure is an American designer.
The Magazine has the chart for the complete alphabet. I used the letters to spell Home Sweet Home.

I first had it framed, and more recently I made it into a hanging pillow.

Now I need to work on some ornaments and other things.
I just got some new patterns on e-bay.

I was lucky enough to get all the Lizzie Kate Flip it  stamps for a bargain!
Because I am working on other projects,  for now I am not starting these.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Happy Fourth of July !

Hello! Hope you have a great and safe Fourth of July!
I just want to share my patriotic stuff.  Just little things scattered here and there. Next year I will plan better.

These I have out all year long. I only put them away on Christmas.
Being a double nationality family, (American and Brazilian) we try to have a little display of both countries in our living room. It is on the top of the bookcases. I will show the Brazilian display in the future.
The flag pillow Is from Boyd's and I got it for Christmas some years ago. I just love the little bear
coming out .

This is Mason, a cookie jar also from Boyd's. Of course I never put cookies in it. He is the cutest thing, I love him.

More bears... this time a little family watching the fireworks.

Now, Uncle Sam. I found him last year after Christmas at World Market.

I decided to display him for Fourth of July instead of Christmas.
Now, the last one. She is a sweetie. 

Can you tell how I love Boyd's Bears? I can't resist to something like her.
Brenda loves her too. But she knows she is not supposed to play with Mom's bears.


I truly love my country and I am very proud of being Brazilian. But I chose to live in America and I have an American husband and daughter.
I live here for almost nine years now, and about three years ago I became an American Citizen.
Brazil allows double citizenship. So, I am half - half.
I come a long way. Learning a new language and a new culture it is not easy. I do the best I can.
Sometimes my English is a disaster, I apologize for that.  But I keep going. Practice makes perfect, right?
I try to teach Brenda what I can about Brazil, but I find it very important to teach her to love her country and to know how blessed she is for being born and live here.
Let's celebrate America !

Thanks for stopping by,
Ana Paula.

Patriotic Bandana Bunting

Hello!
I wanted to make a patriotic bunting so badly. I have seen so many all over blogland, made of all kinds of materials. I decided for a bandana bunting.
I could not find red white and blue bandanas with the same print.  I used what I got.

This is a very easy project. The hardest part is deciding what part of the bandana to use.
I had one bandana of each color and used the corners for the red and blue and the sides for the white. I cut the triangles, sew right sides together and turned.
For hanging, I got a package of bias. I tucked the triangles in the fold of the bias, pinned and sewed from one end to the other of the bias. I made knots on the ends. That's it!

I don't have a mantel or anything like that, so I hanged it above my living room window.
I like how it looks. A little patriotic touch.

Another thing I wanted to show you is Brenda's birth announcement.
I had it stored away  but other day I found it.

 

This is an old pattern for a very detailed birth announcement. I don't know the name of the pattern, it is from a Brazilian cross Stitch Magazine called Ponto Cruz Bebe. The original pattern is from Janlynn.
I made some changes, leaving out five chubby babies and the words "Come ... Join the Fun!".
I made only the border with ribbons and birds, that I absolutely love. Her full name and birth date are under the paper. Another change I made was the colors. Had to be pink, of course. The original was mainly  yellow. It was a framed piece. I decided to make a fabric border and turn it into a wall hanging.

It was the first time I made prairie points. I used the same fabrics from which I made Brenda's baby bedding and the rest of her decor.
Even with my poor quilting talents, I think it turned out lovely.
It is a keepsake that we will treasured always.
Ok, our scanner finally decided to work.
Here is the picture from the old Brazilian Magazine.  You can see how different mine is.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.