Natural Christmas Potpourri

Christmas season. I just love it; always have, always will. And now, I have my own house and I want it to smell so good. I bought a Febreeze Air Effcts Air Freshner Apple Spice & Delight, that it actually smells so good, but the smell won't last. 

So, I started looking on Pinterest for a DIY Christmas potpuorri and found one recipe that sounded so good to me on Make it Do blog, called "The Smells of the Season". So I wrote down the recipe, and went to look for the ingredients. I already had all of them in my kitchen, except for the fresh cranberries. Here, in the North of Mexico, it's difficult to find fresh cranberries. You can find almost everywere dry dranberries, but fresh are more difficult to find. I started looking for them in different stores, asking people, and finally, asking on Facebook. Walmart Mexico replied and told me they had, so I went to buy them and here it is. the final product. I hope you enjoy it and try it too. It's real good.

So, you need:

• 200 gr (6 oz) fresh cranberries
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange
• 10 whole cloves
• water

Cut the orange in quarts.

Cut or crush the cinnamon.

The cranberries.

The original recipe calls for a tablespoon of cloves. Please don't ask me why I used only 10 cloves! Please don't, because I DON'T KNOW WHY. I will add more tonight.

Place everything in a pot and cover with water. Leave on the stove top, on the lowest heat, and stir occasionally. Your home will start smelling so delicious. My mom came to visit and she was like "Oh, it's smells delicious" and then I took her to the kitchen and show her the potpourri and she was like "Why don't you make a marmalade instead?" LOL. Anyways, the smell is delicious. And maybe I will make a marmalade. I will just add sugar and a lot of stirring, right? Let me think about it, because I've been thinking on doing one Mango, Ginger and Mint marmalade.

According to the other blog instructions, you should never leave the pot withouth water, so if you see that it's drying, add more water. I will turn it up every day from here to mid-January (the blog says it lasts several weeks). I love the smell! My husband loved it too, and he also thought I was cooking marmalade. LOL. Beautiful smell. So peaceful, full of joy and a constant remember of Christmas season. I just love it.

December 14:

 I'm linking to Michelle's Fabulous Friday party at Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust 

 I'm linking to a daydreaming blogger pinterest pintest linky party  

   Look for it in Pinterest!

December 16:

 I'm so honored to be featured in Michelle's Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust Fabulous Friday Favorties 14!! Thanks do much!

Santa's Belly Cushion

So, I'm really behind schedule on my Christmas DIY crafts!!!! I can't believe it's almost Christmas and I still haven't done almost anything!
Here I will show you how I made a cushion that looks like Santa Claus's belly. I think it's beautiful!

You will need to cut all the pieces for the belly, depending on the size of the cushion you want, it's the size of the pieces of felt you will cut:

• two red circles for the belly
• one yellow reclangle with a rectangle hole in the middle
• one black rectangle for the belt
• thread

Sew the black belt to the belly. Now, place the yellow rectangle on top of the belt and sew, trying to join the three of them: red, black and yellow. I used transparent thread.

Looking good.

Now, sew the "insides" of the cushion. All the edges, and leave one part open, so you can turn the cushion  inside-out and and fill it with filling.

Here's the opening I left.

This is how it looks in my living room!

Do you like it?

Do you have any suggestions? Ideas?

December 6, 2011:

 I'm linking to Stacy's Show Me What Ya Got #52 

December 14:

 I'm linking to a daydreaming blogger pinterest pintest linky party     

 Look for it in Pinterest!

Halloween Cushions

Pumpkin

First I cutted two ovals for the pumpkin face in orange felt.

Then I cutted two big triangles for the eyes, one small triangle for the nose and a mouth with tooth. I placed them with pins so they would not move while I was sewing.

Then I cutted the little green stem and filled it with filling.

I sewed first this green part to the back part of each pumkin side.

Then started sewing from the inside and left one part open. Turn it inside out and filled it. Then sewed the final part.

Candy Corn

First I cutted the three  parts for the front side. Smaller in white, middle one in orange and bottom one (larger one) in yellow. I did the same for the back side.

You can see how they look in my living room? there will be updates for this post and more cushions... maybe in a second part... who knows?

Here you can see my orange table, Wicked Witch of the East, paper flowers arrangement and the Halloween Cushions.

Wicked Witch of the East Legs

I started preparing my house for Halloween, so I decided to make the Wicked witch of the East legs, from the scene when Dorothy's house falls on her.

I used girl's white long socks, black felt strips, and some red fabric.

First, I filled the socks with filling and and sewed the ends, so the filling would stay inside the socks. Then I cutted the felt strips.

Then I sewed the strips as if they were striped socks. I would much more prefer to use striped socks, but I couldn't find any, so I used these ones.

Then, I started sewing the red shoes... I didn't use any template, but I can tell you I used a rectangle.All around the feet part, with red thread.

Then I started making the shoe shape, and for the heel, I filled it too and made the heel shape. 

Here is how it looks with and without the heel shape.

Here are the legs...

This is how they look like in my living room:

I hope you like them, if you have any suggestions or questions, please let me know!!

Little Flowers Stocking

CHRISTMAS. I love Christmas. I love feeling the cold wind, using my scarfs and boots, coat... I love the loving atmosphere it creates. I love the Christmas food: mashed potatoes, turkey with cranberry sauce, spaguetti (cheesy or tomato-y), filled pork and everything else!

And, I do not want to get behind schedule on my Christmas decoration. First of all, because is the first Christmas I'm spending as a married woman ;). And second of all because I learned my lesson from Halloween -getting behind schedule.

So I made a trial felt boot.

I made two, so one is the front part and the other one the back part.

Then I made some flowerly arrangements templates: 

Next step. I sow by hand the side and down borders of the boot, leaving the up side free, so I can attach a bended rectangle as you can see in the next picture:

Here is the boot, all done! My husband said: "That boot is mine" haha, so I'm gonna try new patterns and let you know how it goes.