jolly thanksgiving table

I decided to kill two birds with one stone this year.  I made placemats and a table runner for my kitchen table.  I did dancing fun loving christmas penguins on one side, and a thanksgiving theme on the other.  The placemats are quilted with just regular batting on the inside.  Each one is quilted differently.   The table runner is also quilted.  however, each side is quilted different and the inside is that hot pad batting stuff.  The idea of the table runner is that you can put hot pans on it and it not ruin the table underneath.  I haven't tested this theory out yet, but I'm confident that it will work out.  I decided to do this so that i don't have to fish for pot holders all the time and so that i could just use the same stuff all season! hope you enjoy!

 front and back together

 penguins up close

Halloween decorations---outside

 Outside our apt.  You can see my painted pumpkin stand, our carved pumpkins, garland, and my hubby's reaper! Oh, and my dog.

These are our pumpkins.  Mine is on the left, and Lee's is on the right.  Mine was a design from a book, I decided to do something a little more complicated than a smilie face.  My husband, lee, did a devil.  The weather turned warm here in utah and as a result, our pumpkins died fast! I took this picture after they were out for two days! On halloween night they looked like total crap, but, what do you do? normally its 30 degrees in oct.  not 70!!!!

Halloween decorations---towels

 These were so easy to make, I think I'll make some for thanksgiving, christmas, etc. I love how they make my kitchen more homey too. These were cheap too. I think I paid less than $10 to make these.  Most of the stuff was 70% off at Jo-Anns. 

For this one the towel was too big.  So I had to cut it in half.  I then pleated the towel at the cut end and sewed it into the fabric.  I doubled the fabric so it was like putting a glove on a hand when i put the towel in the fabric. I added a button to hook it! so simple.

This was actually the first one I made and I didn't make it real tall. It was enough to hang the towel, but not as much as the other.  This towel was also the right length that I wanted so I didn't have to cut anything. super simple, super quick!

Halloween Creation (no sew)

I made a neat little Halloween creation that had no sewing involved.  It took a few hours because paint had to dry.  This was a really simple project.  It was also super cheap....I think it may have cost $20!!! First I'll talk about the base!

The base was way cheap.  I brought home two boxes from work, then covered them in a white vinyl table cloth.  We have a lot of wind and weather here in utah so I completely covered the boxes in case of wet weather and taped the table cloth to keep it from flying away.  I then wrote Happy Halloween with orange paint.  I taped the little scarecrows on and hot glued all the leaves on.  I bought two bags of leaves.  I didn't use them all so I can have some for next year.  So that's it.  boxes, table cloth, tape and decorations!

Next, the pumpkins!!!

This is my spider.  I started with painting the whole thing black with acrylic paint.  I did two coats.  I used hot glue to place the eyes and legs.  I used 4 pipe cleaners for legs.  I then used red paint for the mouth.....his tongue is sticking out lol. Very easy, however it took a while to dry.

My witch.  Take a pumpkin and paint it green! While it's drying, start the skirt.  I used elastic and tulle.  I tied the tulle to the elastic.  the amount of each depends on the size of your pumpkin.  I again did two coats of paint on the punpkin.  If you don't the orange will show through.  Once Dry, I glued the skirt and hat on.  I then glued on the hair and eyes, followed by painting on the mouth. 




There.  Simple, easy, and cheap!!!  Hope you like my creation and hope everyone has a Wonderful Halloween!!!!! 

Here is a close up of the creation: