Home for the Holidays

This year we spent Thanksgiving at home.

My younger brother, Steve, and Scott's older brother, Derek, were able to join us for our feast.

------The Table------

simple, but still pretty (I didn't really need to impress all the boys!)

------The Prep------

My first Turkey.
Had trouble finding the giblets to take out, a phone call to mom solved that problem (i was looking on the wrong end, oops!)

it turned out moist and delicious, not bad at all :)

------The Rest of it------
J-E-LL-O :)

Rhodes to the rescue-
I didn't want to have to make rolls on top of everything else, so we had Rhodes rolls--which were pretty close.



The pie, oh how i love you!
Apple Pie is my FAVORITE.
I made it extra cute this time too

and of course there was lots of XBOX playing

A Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!

A Turkey for Turkey Day

Gobble Gobble

Cute, huh?!

Besides my pumpkins & subway art, I decided I better make at least one turkey to put up somewhere. I saw this one here on UCreate and just modified it to work for me and what I wanted it to look like. I didn't have a paint stick so I just used card stock on cardboard and then used glue dots to give it more 3D (though it's easier to tell those things in person)

And I just realized I never put up a picture of the updated Tree!
It usually is our family memory tree with framed pictures, and then it became our Halloween tree, and now it looks like this:
I had the paper leaves from last year so I just put them up here instead of on the windows.
I can't wait to change it up again for Christmas! YAY!

Christmas Tags

Another free printable! Yay!

Here are some Christmas Tags to help you spread the holiday cheer this year:[for personal use only please!]

Click the image, click again to zoom to full size. Right click, select "save image as" and save it to your computer.

Merry Christmas...a little early.

**Update** See my new Chalkboard Style 
version of this subway art HERE!!**

i am ready for December and Christmas and all things jolly.

so i worked on this subway art as

my early christmas present to you:

8x10
11x14
[for personal use only please!] 
 {in Firefox Browser} Click the image, then right click and "view image", click again to zoom to full size. (it should look pretty huge on the browser screen) Right click, select "save image as" and save it to your computer.

{In CHROME browser} you need to click "open image in a new tab" instead of "view image" all other instructions are the same.

If you are using Internet Explorer these instructions will not work. 
Use Firefox {which is what I use} or download Chrome.

Christmas Inspiration Sheet

I have 2 sheets from last year:

[click picture to enlarge]

And this year's sheet:

I was planning on doing a lot more than I will end up doing. Mostly because my hobbies budget is already shot and I haven't been selling to many of these nor anything here lately. sad.

But I am so excited for Christmas and I am not even bothered by early Christmas music this year. In fact I was totally listening to it on Pandora yesterday. so there.

It's probably got to do with the underlying fact that I can't wait for this year to be o.v.e.r already so I can start a new one.

Anyway, enjoy the Inspiration and Happy Crafting!!

This is getting ridiculous.

Luke's new thing is to bring me his toy when he's done with it.
Sometimes he gets bored pretty fast so I end up with a pile on my lap like this:


He comes to me and says "Here go" (here you go) and I say "thank you" even though he makes me take his toy at the least convienient time--like when I'm trying to hot glue something quick before it falls apart! There are little piles of toys on the floor by my desk, by the computer, and by the couch.
oh my silly little boy.

Also, i said the other day he liked to pretend sneeze and then say "oh bless you" to himself?
Well i sneezed for real pretty loud and then he said equally loud "bless you!"

super cute.

Just now: Luke brought me a little birdie that walks when you twist the knob and he wanted me to make it walk...i got it walking and then he said "cool." and walked away. First time ever he has said that.

Man I really do love having this kid around.

Organizing Everything.

It's amazing how quickly things become unorganized, cluttered and hard to live with.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning out and organizing the laundry room, the closet under the stairs, our master bedroom, our master bedroom closet AND our master bathroom. It was a lot of organizing and cleaning but it HAD to get done. I could NOT open my laundry room door and all the other rooms/closets just followed.

Now I am working little by little to organize all the other spaces that bug me. like my kitchen cupboards.
I did these 3 the other day and these 3 alone make me feel so much less stressed in my kitchen:

#1 Messiest, most used cupboard in my kitchen.
Before:

After:

#2 Most used cupboard, not too bad, but still could use some work
After:
Look I cleared a whole section!
#3 Messiest, least used cupboard,
This was my motivation for cleaning out my kitchen, every time this one is opened things were falling out on me!!

Ah, much better.More to come! I love organizing!

what to do on a rainy day

I am all for a rainy day.

Especially in the fall when you have the dark clouds against the beautiful bright reds and oranges in the trees. There is nothing better to wake up on a cloudy day and laze around the house in Pjs and blankets.

However, yesterday the rain was bad for my health.

Why?

Because I cut bangs!

stupid, stupid, stupid.

sure, they look cute today,
they may look cute tomorrow.
But sometime next week and for every day following, I will curse the day I cut them.

Did you know that I have been cutting my own hair for a YEAR now?? Sometime before Christmas last year I was like, "I need a hair cut" but instead of going and getting it cut with a 50-50 chance of it coming out cute, I just took the scissors and starting cutting it myself!! And it didn't turn out half bad so I kept doing it! All year long! Yes. brave I know. Someone really should take away my scissors.

*sigh*

On a better note:

Luke was totally bored, so we made some handprints:

As I stripped him down and then put his hand in the cold blue paint, he was like "what the heck are you doing to me?" and kept looking at his blue hands.
Eventually he got into it a little and tried to make some by himself.

Mostly, though, he just didn't like being naked.

So we went and played in the bathtub for like 30 minutes.

the end.

Autumn Inspiration Sheet

Since many of you liked my Halloween/October Inspiration Sheet, I think I may continue to put them up here for you to see.

This is my Autumn Inspiration Sheet:

[click to enlarge]

As you know from yesterday's post, I have already made sweater pumpkins and the HARVEST Subway art. I am going to make some pillows for my couch out of sweaters and fabric in Fall colors. I already did my porch, I just don't think I'll do a whole lot more. Honestly, I am ready for Christmas. Usually I like to give Thanksgiving it's proper attention, but this year I'm just ready to go ahead and move on with it and get on to Christmas already! (minus the snow, I am not really ready for that yet! EEK!)

I may or may not have the links/tutorials to the picture (sometimes I just save the picture knowing I can figure out how to do it myself later). But if you want to get the link to something just leave a comment and I'll see if I can find it for you.

Pumpkins & Subway Art

My friend Megan and I worked on these 2 projects for Fall and they came out way cute. I probably wouldn't have done either one had she not wanted to make something crafty with me, but I am so glad I did because I love them both!
First, Sweater Pumpkins!
A few D.I sweaters, twine, yarn, a whole lotta stuffing, and several hours later, a bunch of super cute pumpkins!

Next, Subway Art
I truly thought this one would be easy, but it was a lot of work. It took me a long time working on the fonts, sizing, and spacing for the words in my Sure-cuts-a-lot program for my cricut. Getting the vinyl on and off the transfer paper was a beast! And I still wasn't totally satisfied. I peeled off a word and the letter "A" of Autumn and changed them.

But it was worth it because it is dang cute!

Megan's was orange,

and mine red (take 1, before changes)

Take 2, after the changes to the lettering:
{the coloring of the letters is more true in the second picture, but the red is more true in the first one. darn tricky lighting.}