a crafty witch for Halloween!

This year Halloween decor includes this little cross stitched witch:

The pattern is from my favorite: les brodeuses parisiennes: "Fifties women".

It is just a sweet little witch, with a hammer, whisk and sewing machine,

perfect for me, as long as the broom doesn't represent cleaning!

She looks great with the crow!

I kept this year decor quite simple,

just a small "corner" in the kitchen:

There is candy corn in the orange pumpkin,

and usually chips in the cauldron....I guess somebody finished them!

Here are some from previous years,

I recycle my decor a lot!

Apparently there are no pictures from last year.

2017:

2016: 

2015:

Same crows, sign and paper products!

Fall took its time arriving here,

but now it is full force.

The weather is so crazy right now,

there are talks of cancelling trick or treating

because of potential tornadoes!

Miss C has still to carve the pumpkins....might not happen this year!

Happy Halloween!

heart pillows from Breast cancer

About 5 weeks ago, a friend of mine underwent a double mastectomy. It was her second time dealing with breast cancer in 9 years. I felt very useless, so I read about surgery and recovery, trying to find something I could do for her.... I came up with a lot of articles about sewing heart pillows, so I decided to sew some, hoping it was a real thing and not a gimmick! 

I followed this pattern from all free sewing.com,

it was quite easy.

I used 4 coordinating prints from Prince Charming by Tula Pink,

I wanted to make them cheerful and silly,

there are frogs, snails, turtle, butterflies on them!

The shape is slightly different that a true heart pillow,

it is so one could it to prop the arm to avoid contact with the torso...

I gave them to my friend before the surgery,

explaining her some of the stuff I had read about it,

she did not know about the heart pillow.

She likes them with their pretty color,

but was unsure about their utilities.

Well she has told me they were very useful right after the surgery

to prop her arms up, and later she used them to help her neck pain!

And the other day, when I picked her up to go to occupational therapy,

she came out with one of her pillow and 

used it to protect herself from the seat-belt.

So yes they are useful!

My friend has still a long way to go

but she is a fighter.

After my friend second diagnostic of breast cancer,

I did the smart thing and went to get my mammogram,

it is all good, but it is always nice to make sure,

especially after losing my grandmother to this disease!

Happy sewing!