Happy Thanksgiving and Harvest Blessings

I want to wish all my faithful "lookers" and all my newly found friends on this blog a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We will have to do about an hours driving to get to my Mom's and lunch is at 1:00, so I did most of my prepping of food last night. I made two pumpkin pies and a chocolate snickers cake. It looks and smells wonderful. I also baked a turkey breast and a whole turkey. And of course I made two 9 x13 pans of dressing. I will make the gravy once I get to Moms. Here is a photo of some little favors for all the family members to take home with them. Just a memento of the day. Everyone slow down and enjoy the day!

Ions ago I worked in a daycare and I was in charge of 13 -2 year old children. (What memories, I have there. These little ones are grown with families of their own now. A few I still keep in contact with their mothers. As MS would say "It's a good thing".) But every Thanksgiving there is a little ditty that keeps going through my head all these years later, so I will close today with Blessings To All of You, and this little ditty. I hope you smile. Just imagine a room full of 2 year children singing this.

The turkey is a funny bird

It's head goes bobble-bobble;

And all he knows is just one word...

And that is GOBBLE-GOBBLE.

Pat's Challenge

I know Pat gave us extra two days to turn our challenges in, but I got to work on it this weekend. I like to do that when possible, because a lot of times after working, I am so zonked out, I can't be very creative.
Here are the rules for this weeks challenge:

"A few days ago Robyn posted her version of a previous Challenge entry by Shelia. I loved it and thought that was such a neat idea! So tonight's challenge is to pick a previous submission to one of the Saturday Night Challenges and rework it to your own style. Fun, huh?"

Back in October, when Pat had her Grand Opening, I did the challenge for her. Robyn submitted this wonderful organizer for grocery coupons. I turned her ideal into a Christmas Planner. This will be a early Christmas present for a friend. I will try to get it in the mail this week so she can use it the next couple of weeks. Thanks Pat for the challenge and Robyn for the inspiration.


Robyn used the tops of little lunch sacks to make pockets for her grocery coupons. I followed her lead but used white bags instead. I also covered the front of each little sack, to dress them up, and make them a little sturdier. The snowflakes I punched out of vellum, then just added some glitter for sparkle. I made 4 compartments. One for receipts, one for the list, to do, and one for people's sizes. I went overboard with the snowflake theme, but it was easier then getting up and finding other stuff. I used my cricut to cut the book plate that framed "Christmas Planner". I fastened the pockets to the cover with the snowflake brads. I used ribbon to cover the back of the brads on the back of the holder and added the ribbon also to the raw edge where the top tucks down to close it. I added some colored paper clips to a couple of the pockets for easy access.

Holiday Cheer

It is hard for me to believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving. It will soon be 2009. Time is passing way to fast. I am working on Christmas gifts. I really don't know what you would call this thing I made. :) I have bought several bottles of Scuppernong Cider. It is made not to far from where I live. Scuppernongs are a bronze colored grape. They are delicious right off the vine. I felt like I needed to dress the bottle up a little more then just tying a ribbon around it. I cut a 4 x 8 strip of patterned Christmas paper, then used my oval punch about 3/4 inch from the top. Then from the bottom of the punch I scored about 1/2 inch down and folded both scored lines. It fits right over the neck of the bottle. I used the cricut to cut the snowflakes out and adhered MS fine glitter to them. After gluing them on, I added little silver dots to the center of each snowflake. I added one more snowflake that I cut out of red paper with MS glitter on it to the edge of the tag. To that snowflake I put a little silver heart in the center. I faux stitched around the white layer with "Holiday cheer" printed on it. Since I did not have any red ribbon that didn't clash with the red reindeer, I decided to pick up the green in the paper. I punched hole in end of tag threaded a ribbon through it, and tied it on to the bottle neck. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Supplies used: Reindeer patterned paper Basic Grey I think

Striped Christmas paper by Daisy D's

Snowflake Cricut (Accent Essentials Cartridge)

Glitter Martha Stewart

Ribbon from stash

Pat's Challenge

Hope everyone made it through Monday unscathed. It was a typical one where I work. I work for a company that does service work, and everything always tear up on the weekends. And of course, I was one of the weekend victims. My water heater had to be replaced this morning. But still have a leak because of the pressure on the line or something, so till the plumbers can come back tomorrow, we have had to turn it off. I am not a happy camper.

Pat's challenge this past Saturday was to do a layout and at least one stamp on it somewhere. I am making my mother for Christmas a month by month reminder book. The months were already in there and the pockets made. I will recover the cover, and do each month as I have this one. My mother is getting forgetful, so I hope this will help her on this hard journey she is facing. The people that have birthdays in that certain month, I am putting their pictures on the page that faces it. I put some homemade cards in the pocket, and will get some postage stamps later and put in it. On the left hand layout are the photos and I use stamps for two sentiments, and also the October stamp on the tab. Over on the date page, I wrote their names on the right date, and tried to use balloons and other things to symbolize what the occasion is. On October 31st, I used a stamp to recognize Halloween. Thanks Pat for challenging me to get started on this Christmas present. When I get the whole book completed I will show it too.

Monday again

It's Monday again, and just be in the high 40's today. I know some of you would welcome that high. I worked all weekend, but not as much playing as I would have liked to have done. Saturday from 10:30 am till 7:30 pm, my sister from Boone, and my niece, Ashley and I went Christmas shopping for my mother. She isn't able to do all that walking now. Now talk about power shopping, we bought a total of 26 gifts and that was just leaving off 3 names. I was really proud of ourselves. We even stopped and had an leisurely lunch. The first picture is of the 29 gift tags I made on Friday to have ready for Saturday. The three of us have not been together in a long time. We had a wonderful time The pictures did not turn out very good. The lights were terrible. Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Pat's Note Card Holder Challenge

This week Pat had us make a note card holder. At the beginning of the week I showed you several note cards that I put together for a stocking stuffer. The recipient of this little gift is a teacher and I am sure she will have plenty of use for these. Julie also likes the color orange, so I made the dominant color on the holder, orange. I had made a card-a-lope for a birthday card While I was making it, I realized I could make two pockets, by using 2 envelopes. This easily accommodates 5 cards and 5 envelopes. Next time I will use stiffer paper, the envelopes that I used were a little flimsy.

The firs t thing I did was to cut off one flap of one of the envelopes, then put glue on the flap of the other one and slide it down into the pocket of the 2nd envelope. That makes the two pockets.

I was lucky that I had some envelopes that were already lined. The next step was to put a ribbon on the folder to use as a closure. I used red sticky tape to attach it firmly to the back of the holder and then brought both ends to the front.

I put 5 note cards in one side and 5 matching envelopes, that I monogrammed with a J on the envelope flaps.Then it was time to embellish the front. I cut up one of the extra unused note cards. I used one side of the card as the background, found a scrap of turquoise, then cut the border out of the extra card along with the J monogram that was on it. I used a bling to dot the I with.

I used a glaze pen to color in the J, let it dry and tied the ribbon to close the holder. I hope you may be able to use this ideal in your gift giving this holiday season. As I mentioned before, the only thing different I would have done, is used stiffer envelopes. Thanks for stopping by today and thanks to Pat at One Little Spark The Shop for the challenge.

Supplies used: Monogrammed note cards by G Squared, ribbon by American Crafts Elements and an orange Sakura Glaze pen.

A Christmas Card & Veteran's Day

I wish I knew how all you people came up with these cute little quirky titles to your daily post. Mine are just what they are, but anyway, I guess you have guessed that I will be sharing a Christmas card with you today. I wished I could say I have them all made, but that is far far from being truthful. I've got 3 out of about 75 finished. It's really beginning to look like purchased cards this year. I have always had them made and addressed by this time of year. It is all my DH's fault, he makes me fix him a meal every night. And then there is Pat, she has all these wonderful challenges and I can't just say no to participating*wink*wink* Oh well, I keep telling myself I am not going to get all stressed out about Christmas this year like all the years before. But I've said that for the last 36 years, and I haven't been calm yet, and really enjoy the season. Well enough of that, here is my card.
I like this woodsy nature looking card. The rub- on is by American Traditional Designs. The papers are just a hodge podge of scraps that I had leftover from another project. The yarn is used for plastic canvas and is made by Needloft.

Please remember all our Veteran's today. Here is a picture of my Daddy. He was just entering the Navy.

Bradley's Birthday Card

Yesterday was my next door neighbor's son's 21st Birthday Party. He has lived next door to me since he was 3 years old. I have had the pleasure of watching him grown into such a wonderful young man. And his wonderful parents get most of the credit for that. I have been blessed with wonderful neighbors. I knew I needed a masculine 21st birthday card, but I could not figure one out. Men cards get the best of me. Bradley is in college and big into sports, likes snow skiing, but still I had no ideal. But then I got a automatic update from Julie and she gave me the solution to what kind of card to make, but still no ideals on the sentiment and such. But here is what I finally came up with. It is a card-a-lope. It makes a super pocket to put gift cards in. I slipped a card for gas in his. What 21 year old don't need gas? He thanked me, and said it was a nice card. He even recognized the fact I had hand made it. He's such a good boy *wink*
I am also going to show some of the pictures taken at his party. Make sure to look at his cake :)

Now you see, I didn't misspell ONE, I was leaving the space for the balloon. It was a fun card to make, and I will probably make quite a few for gift cards for Christmas. Now here is the birthday cake, and Bradley is the one on the left on my sidewalk steps. The other one is his best friend who lives across the street. They played on my steps under the big tree, when they were little. I still can find army men and action figures, even 15 years later when I am planting flowers

I must be in Denial

Good Sunday morning. It is suppose to be another beautiful fall day, here in the foothills of NC. It is only 7 weeks until Christmas. Like I mentioned in the title I am in denial that Christmas is coming this year. I think this is the most unprepared I have ever been. I have had a very uncreative past week. I had wanted to get all my Christmas cards finished, I have a total of 2 made. And it is just as bad on my gift list. Just a couple are marked off. I have not missed any of Pat's Challenges, so I couldn't let this one get by me this week. I worked on it some today. The challenge is to make a note card holder. You can go here to see her sample. I started on the challenge by making the note cards that will go in the holder. These will go to a friend for Christmas. I am including 6 in the set. I began with a pack of monogrammed note cards that I picked up at Fred's awhile back. They were just $ 1.00. I made all six of the cards different. I will return tomorrow with the box to put them in.

This last one is of Flossie May. This is what she does all day while I am at work. Thanks for letting me share.

The Morning After

The Election that is!

Pat's Challenge this week is to make a gift tag. I made 2 different ones. One for the children's presents, and the other a more masculine one. Considering we have 5 sons, I thought that it would be appropriate. *wink* Sounds like the women will just get a shopping bag with their names on it, doesn't it?

This first picture is a tag I made for the little grand-daughter's presents. I saw this Santa on a children's web site last year, and it has been in the back of my brain all year, trying to get out. You can't tell with the quality of the pictures that were taken, but the red part of Santa's hat has flocking on it. It is basically just 4 little pieces, the white beard piece, the pink cheeks, the red hat, and the white band and ball of the hat. I just used a hole punch for the eyes and nose. On the back of it is a space for the name of the recipient. The beard was curled up tighter when I first made it, but had relaxed by the time the pictures were made.

The next set of pictures is of the masculine tag I made. I will probably just use the brown shipping paper to wrap the men's gifts in this year. It will be more a naturalistic theme. I used the rectangular nestabilities for the top and bottom layers. The ribbon is made by American Crafts, Seasons, collection. The rub-on is from American Traditional Designs. I'll also be using some of the rub-ons on my Christmas cards. That is number one on my to do list this weekend. That and to get some gifts made. Again on these bad photos you can see in the second one, that underneath the top layer is the To and From area. Thanks Pat for at least getting me started a little on my Christmas To Do list.

Visit

About two weeks ago my cousin Michael came from Fl to visit with my Mom and the rest of the family. It has been quite awhile, since we had gotten to see him. His father and my father were first cousins. Michael has lived a lot of places, his job takes him all over. Our Dads weren't just family, they were best of friends. I hadn't gotten to see Michael is quite a few years so this was an extra special visit. The only thing missing was, his son Christopher was not able to come and his visit was too short. Michael is an avid fisherman, on one of his visits, he and my husband got to go to a local lake near where we live, Michael caught one of the largest walleyes, ever caught in that lake. He had never even fished the lake before. Here is 2 pictures of him with some "big ole bass''. The 3rd picture is of his son Christopher on his 22nd birthday.

Ok any of you young single girls. I've not this one's name and number. *wink*wink*

Thank you Michael so much for the visit. Don't wait so long next time.

I have nothing creative to show for today. I actually worked on some overdue housework over the weekend. I did play awhile with my cricut though. I haven't mastered that "sucker" yet. I decided today, it would be the ideal thing to do would be READ THE MANUAL FIRST.

Sunday Morning

Around here you really know fall is here. The cold mornings, and then comfortable afternoons. And Pat's favorite thing, the rustle of the leaves. But at my house it means raking and lots of it. They swirl around and stay right in front of my deck steps. I have swept the brick walkway 2 times today and there is no way I can keep people from tracking in dried leaves. Can I say

BAH HUMBUG at fall too? I mentioned on Wednesday that I probably would not get to see the grand-daughters on Halloween. Well to my surprise the other Nana brought Natalie to see me. Unfortunately the 8 year old was sick.
Nat had been to the festival at the church and was so proud of her balloon animal.
This picture is of Natalie's other grandmother Cheryl and my husband Allan. If you look real close on the right hand side, you can see Miss Flossie, trying to figure out just what all the excitement is about.

This is Janet, my sister in law, that celebrated her 80th birthday today. We were on our way out of town to celebrate at her favorite restaurant, when I snapped this picture. She sure doesn't look 80 does she? The most wonderful thing about Janet is that she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

Everyone have a Blessed Day.