Trick or Treat!.... Happy Halloween!

That's it. It's here.

Last day of October.

The 31 ...

Halloween!

Trick or treat!

I already had some Halloweeners coming by...

an Indian Princess and a Miss Kitty and a Jacob as himself... lol...

and the evening is still young...
I wonder who else might be coming knock at my door....
boooo.....

Happy Halloween everybody!!

Tunisian crochet tote, quilted fabric pouch, T-shirt bag and... sarubobo!

I've got several different matters to share with you today.

The first being that J has not been well
and I've been fighting myself not to take him to the ER.

I'm scared to death of what this H1N1 might do to him.

I guess I'll have to wait and decide what to do

(he's still feverish tough not as much as 3 or 4 days ago).

With all this going on I don't have much time left,

but I've been working a little bit,

just trying to keep my mind away of things for a little while.

So... I finally finished the Tunisian crochet bag I had started late September while with J at the hospital.

After crocheting the front and back panels I decided I would like some kind of applique, so I went for a crocheted flower.

The little critter crawling up the flower stem... ahhhhhh!.........

THAT is a sarubobo

and I've found it here.

I've to tell you...

I just love this girl's generosity and her kindness

and how well she manages her tutorials....

Thank you very much for sharing, Mai!

Inspired by her I decided to make also a little fabric pouch

(of course, just an excuse for another sarubobo...lol).

I've used some left overs from a quilt; pieced them together,

cut a piece of batting and a piece of lining about the same size as the pouch

and quilted them together.

To fasten it off

I've used a big button

and for the fastener

as well as for the sarubobo I used the same printed lining fabric

(I love this word...sarubobo ... lol...

from reading Mai's blog my understanding is that it means baby monkey...).

While surfing the net just looking for trapilho
(my sister has sent me two craft magazines from Portugal for my BD.. :0) ... and they are about trapilho works).
Of course I tried different research approaches to find out how to make or to buy trapilho here in the USA,
and I did find out a very easy way to make T-shirt yarn (you just cut it out from a T-shirt... lol... but I found a good tutorial on you-Tube).
And this was the closest for trapilho that I've found.
Of course I already bought tape yarn from Joann.com
(the package should arrive tomorrow).
I'm willing to pursuit this trapilho thing for sure...

Anyway...

all this kind of talk to tell you about my new T-shirt bag!

LOL... there we go...while surfing looking for trapilho, I found out about making a T-shirt bag just using duct-tape and staples...

This is how it looks like after is finished.
The front and back have some iron-on appliques;
a dancing cow and a guitar playing pig... :0)

As you can see from this pic the insides are... duct-tape!

It's really easy and quick to make one:

grab a T-shirt you don't wear any longer, cut the sleeves out,

turn it inside out, and start taping it... You'll have to tape the whole thing and try not to get any wrinkles on the front, which I got... :0(

When it's all taped out, fold it (so the handles present themselves the right way) and staple the bottom.

Next step, fold each corner into a triangle, and staple it.

That's it! Turn it inside out again et voilà!

You got yourself a nice looking T-Shirt bag!

Oh!... almost forgot... I did my iron-on applique before taping it!

And I reckon that's about it for the latest craft stuff...

For last but not least....

I got a Kreativ Blogger award!

YAYYYY!.........

 

Rochelle from Acquiredflavor gave me the award!

Thank you so much Rochelle!

I understand that I should choose 7 other blogs

and pass this award to them

and link to them here too...

which for sure I'll try to do soon,

I just need a little time to do that!

But in the meanwhile...

check out Rochelle's blog.

She does an outstanding job,

not only in her kitchen but in her live.

Believe me, I would know:

her little one is my grandson and her husband is my son...:0)

Trough my window I see the leaves gently falling down...

I do love this time of the year.

It's really pretty.

Tough I always see the same scenario

year after year,

it always makes me feel good.

My burning bush looks prettier each passing year;

J would really enjoy the way it looks now,

he helped me plant it about 6 or 7 years ago.

It has been a little bit cold, not really much, but colder anyway.

I've not been gardening lately,

just waiting for a little bit of sunshine.

A couple days ago I found a pretty little doll here 

(thanks for sharing Liz, Margot)

and I loved it so much I decided to make one.

Of course she is not as pretty as Margot's but still...

Her name is Purpurina and it's easy to see why, isn't it?

For such a cute small little doll it took me about 5 to 6 hours to make it.

But it was worth it, don't you think?


Whenever I have a little time I just go and surf the net, looking for crafts ideas and stuff.
That's the reason I would like to tell you about this freebies for crafters blog.
It's one of my favourites blogs and it's a really nice site (thank you, Khris, Diana and Sharon-NZ).
Check it out!

It feels like Fall! It looks like Fall! It is Fall!

Fall is finally here!

The smell in the air, the changing colors,

the crispy feeling of the evenings...

everything brings back sweet memories

from another time an other places... 

I remember the beach in the Autumn evenings back in Portugal...

Here there is no beach.

Just my backyard, me, and J, and the things I make.

And the cats, of course.

Oh no, I'm not complaining.

I love it here,

as long as J is with me everything still kinda makes sense.

And if I do miss a lot of things

I also just love some other things we don't have there

like Halloween.

That's right!, Halloween is just around the corner...

I still don't know what my grandson wants to be.

Last year he was a knight...:0)

But anyway... I just finished sewing

a few halloween baskets.

They are really easy, quick to make and I think quite cute!

Today I also baked some banana bread

(used a very common and usual recipe)

and I added some dried sweet cranberries.

The house smells so good!

And also made some bread from scratch

(which I have been doing for the last couple of years!).

Today I've decided to bake some rolls (adapted from a french bread recipe) in an atempt to copy the portuguese carcaças which I miss so much

They were really tasty!!!!

My sister just spoiled me with some goodies she sent from Portugal... :0)

(obrigada de novo sister!),

So, for supper tonight, I'll have a carcaça with farinheira... :0)

Things have been a little busy around here

Things have been a little busy around here and aren't still quite alright.

We are back home since last Thursday,

after a week in the hospital with J.

We are finally home.

Unfortunately, since in a while he has to be hospitalized.

He seems to be doing a little bit better now

but it is always very rough on him to stay at the hospital.

Of course I'm always with him, I stay day and night

(thank goodness for those chairs that lay down and make a bed!)

but I also feel the effects of being away from home.

This is Lemur.I got it for J while in the hospital. It cheered us both up!

It has always been only the two of us alone but I'm okay with that.

Anyways...

I usually meet neat people (patient families) while I'm in there.

We try to support each other

and this time I met a very curious character

which caught my attention since I first saw him.

Remember Georges Moustaki?,

now think about the song Le Métèque

(juif errant, prêtre grecque, avec mes cheveux aux quatre vents...),

and that's him!

About late 50's early 60's, very tall and thin,

long long gray beard and gray hair tied in a long pony tail.

I am describing him just so you understand why I tought of Moustaki
and the surprise I felt

when he told me about his wife

(in a serious condition, she had undergone brain surgery).
He said he had told her if you see the light just go toward it, you go!

So I asked him
why did you tell her such a thing?
(I would have told her to fight and not to go) and he said:

Because we don't belong in here, we belong in heaven and this in here is hell!

Definitely not what my beloved Moustaki would have said!

But again... what do I know... I don't know why I always have grand expectations from people I really don't know.

But don't get me wrong... he was a very nice person

and I wish his wife a total recovery.

Also met a mother and a sister
whose son and brother

had brain injury (like my husband) since earlier this year.

We all knew the same institutions, the same medical staff and had the same grand questions...

It was really nice to talk to them

and I could tell they felt the same.

Mostly, we all feel outraged with the lack of structures and specific support for brain injuries (severe brain injury in both our loved ones).

In their case he has been in a institution since the accident happened
and been having some serious health problems
(lack of hygiene, pressure ulcers and so on...).

When we meet someone that has been going trough the same you have...
it really feels good just to share.

I wish them all the best!

And that would be it for hospital talk.

The cats were very happy to have us back!...

The poor things!... no dry food for all this time, but I'm pretty sure they ate...

yeah, the poor birds come for dinner in the garden... and the cats join them for sure!... :0(

Of course the one I missed the most was Baby.

He's bigger now and likes to fight me!... :0)

Before all this events I had been working on a new quilt for the wheel chair.

I got the idea for this quilt from Geta´s Quilting Studio @
http://cadouri-din-inima.blogspot.com/2009/04/quick-and-easy-quilt-tutorial.html

(thanks for the easy tutorial!)

and then I altered it a little bit.

Like I said it's a small quilt for the wheel chair and

I've applique a flower in each square.

I've also finishd two raggedy bags,

but this time I made the handles differently.

I used some eyelets and cotton cord.

I like the way they look.

They are smaller than my usual ones

(I've used 4 x 4 squares) and probably they will make some Xmas gifts!

Adding to the Xmas gifts and while at the hospital

I made a few more little pouchs,

the tunisian crochet ones.

One of the staff members told me: They look so good just like store bought!

And that was quite a compliment! :0)