What A Turkey!

I hung this guy on my door this morning.  What a Turkey!  I am in love.  

I cut this guy out of 1/4" mdf handi-panels, sanded the edges to my favorite beveled edge, then painted him up.  I mod podged pattern papers to his feathers for some color, then distressed them a bit around the edges with the same paint used on the feathers and a dry foam brush.

It took me about a week to settle on what to put on this sign.  These things are very serious matters not to be taken lightly.  I like Give Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving and all that.  However, I wanted this sign to be a statement of how I feel, not a command to everyone else.  Finally I settled on "We Are So Blessed" cause that is how I feel.  I LOvE Thanksgiving.  It is actually one of my favorite seasons.  There is so much energy in the air, no presents are needed, and it is just about family and reflecting on all our blessings.  Thus, my statement.

Now I need to make my letters for the shutter next to the front door.  I made a pattern today and have it all drawn out on my wood.  It sits there, leaning up against the garage door, waiting for the morning when the boy becomes a Man...or the wood becomes a work of heart.  

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving Season!

Hello Punkin!

Hello there Punkin'!  

Don't you love my new door decor!?!

I had a little bit to much fun with my vinyl cutter and am SO loving the extra floral and wired leaves.

Alone, my pumpkin was looking a little like a droopy bum, but with the flowers, I love it!

The whole thing was cut from 1/4" mdf.  If you wanted the pattern I could probably come up with one...

I made the swirls out of silver vinyl and cut it out on my Silhouette Cameo.

The floral came from the fall section at Hobby Lobby.

NOW I am ready for fall...I think.  It took my by surprise, but I have really loved the leaves.  I can't quite remember a fall as beautiful as this one, and it has lasted SO LONG!!!  

{Sister and Daughter at our photo shoot just over a week ago}

Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Just don't snow yet.  I am not ready for THAT!

ShopenCraftenAtors

I know it may seem like I am totally behind.  That is because I am.  I figure I am here on this earth to make you feel more organized than you are by simply looking at my example :0}  If you don't, you should.  Despite my never ending efforts, I cannot keep up with ANYTHING!  That is why, this mid-December evening, I am finally posting about Thanksgiving weekend.  And yes, as you can tell by my title, I have been watching WAY more Phineas & Ferb than the normal brain ever should.  Emmers knows it is one kids show I do like.  That means if she picks Phineas & Ferb to watch while I am working, she gets to watch way more TV than usual.  Smart Girl.

So anyway, we had SO much fun over Thanksgiving.  The SewCakeMaker's were invited to a friend's house for the actual Thursday Thanksgiving festivities.  About 4:30pm, Madison and I checked ourselves out of the party and headed for Mankato, Minnesota for some Black Friday shopping.  Eli calls it Black Ops for Women.  That is pretty accurate.  

I wasn't actually sure I was going to make it shopping this year.  I was just getting over a bad case of bronchitis and was desperate for sleep.  Mankato is about 1.5 hours from our house, and with the sun disappearing around 4:30 now-a-days, it makes staying awake for the drive a challenge.  Luckily we were armed with peppermint hot chocolate from Kwik Trip and a fabulous book on tape to keep us going.

Our first stop was Target for their 8pm door busters.  I dropped Madison off in line next to this very nice girl and went to sleep in the car for a half hour. 

When I came back Madison had made friends with everyone in line.  Silly girl.  It was about 10 degrees out there in line, so we kept warm wrapped in blankets and checking and re-checking ads while we waited.

Target was as fabulous as always.  We got our little granola bars while we waited to get into the store.  The Target employees handed out maps showing where each doorbuster would be located.  Before we knew it we were inside and headed to our treasures.

Really the rest is a bit of a blur.  Here is what I can show you...I need this shirt!

Just in case you don't get it, my name is Vanessa!  I have, in my youth, been known to answer to Nessy, Ness, or The Nessinator.  Ok, maybe not the last one, but HELLO!  Shirt...me...want.

Madison and cousin Alexa {actually MY cousin, not Madison's} had to get their yearly photo with the Hollister boys.  Yep.

Friday morning I got to stand in this line at Menards, Minnesota's version of Home Depot.  I was literally feet from the back wall of the store.  Crazy, isn't it!?!  Crazier still, I made my way to the front in less than 20 minutes.  I am super impressed Mankato!  Way to keep up with Black Friday shoppers!!!

The rest of this is just a jumble of random thought.  Check out the birch for sale at Micheal's.  

Remember this:

Bins and bins of birch wood used to make these:

and These:

Um, well, I guess I should have sold them.  Wowzers!  Micheals is making a KILLING off of those birch branches!

Madison wants this movie.  She has been trying to remember the name for years.  One long line staring into space at some random store...BAM!  Found.

I found this book and the next at Joanns.  The Collage Couture book I saw back in June at a Joanns in Shakopee, MN.  I flipped through it, was intrigued, and too cheap to buy it or the other three I loved.  Ever since I wished I would have purchased them {especially this one about crafting with plaster, WANT!}  Anyway, I decided to take a picture so when I am rich and famous I can run over to Joanns with my 40% off coupon and buy.

I know this is kinda nerdy, but I am actually really interested in learing more about working with metal.  I figure a nice book on soldering would be a great place to start.  I flipped through this book the whole time we were waiting for the cutting counter to call our number.  I probably put down and picked back up this book about 12 times.  In the end, I wanted to make sure I had enough money for presents and put this back.  I will be back though.  I just recently inherited a soldering iron and I am very anxious to start learning.

Have you seen all the new home decor at Hobby Lobby???  I am sure this one stood out to me because I have a yellow/grey thing going on in my bedroom, plus the fact that yellow IS my favorite color, but I decided to take a picture of this sign in case I decide to come back for that too.  

Well, we shopped until there was nothing left to buy, then headed down to Grandma's house.

Grandma has her big family dinner on Saturday.  My sister Kallie, daughter Madison and I got the kiddos together to make some crafts for the dinner table.  

They worked very hard at making some crayon turkeys.

They look like this:

Remind me next year and I will make a pattern for these ;0}  

They turned out so cute!  And they were fast to cut out, fast to paint, and so cute on the Thanksgiving table.

My little 2 yr old niece even had a great time painting her turkey.  When we took them over for the dinner she even knew who painted which turkey and just where they should sit :0}  What a cutie.

We also had the kids decorate some placemats for the dinner table.  Emmalee in particular was all business with this assignment.  I think I have a little artist on my hands with her.  She loves to draw and write night and day.  I hope she never loses that love.

Here is part of our crew, all getting busy using the crayon turkeys and making placemats of their own too.

Still coloring!

Once dinner was over, we started on our traditional post-Thanksgiving crafts.  Remember last year???

We made These:

Uh, yea, I did a much better job last year of taking pictures.  Funny how David was sleeping on the couch last year too!

Anyway, this year I was going for something that I could cut out quickly.  With how crazy my holiday orders have been I really didn't have much time for wood cutting {and my garage is totally frozen...literally...everything liquid out there solid as ice}.

After long deliberation I went with Candy Canes and the same Ornaments I did a few weeks earlier at Super Saturday.

I love that even the guys got crafting.  This is cousin Austin.  He made a candy cane AND one of the holly sets I brought, left over from the Super Saturday.

My baby sister Trina.  She is a fabulous artist, currently college student.

Lots of crafting...

A little sleeping.  

Ta-dah!  Finished.  I love it.  I love bringing the big box of wood in and making grandma's house smell all pine-y.  I love all the ladies, and some of the guys all sitting around creating and laughing together.  Love it.  

Isn't family the best!  If you don't agree, just move away for 7 years like we did.  Try going through all sorts of torturous life experiences all by yourselves, and eventually, you will agree with me...

and this sign...

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

 

Don't think I am going to go deep on my thoughtful feelings about the holiday here.  I do that in the shower or when I am supposed to be working or something, not here on the blog :0} 

No, this is all about what to do to decorate for Thanksgiving!!!

Yep, I am that shallow.

Anyway, I wanted to do a little to decorate for our big family dinner.  We don't really do anything for decorations usually.  Since this is the second year in a row getting to be at the big family dinner since we moved back to the midwest, I think the fam is ready for some crafty craziness.  Don't you?

So here we go.  The first area of contemplation is a centerpiece for the big adult table.

Centerpieces

First I must consider my own pilgrim ship I made a couple years back.  We lost a mast or two in the recent moving spree, but it could be easily repaired.  Hmmmm...  I did make these matching place cards...

I just don't think I have time to make 20 new ones.

OK, how about some other centerpieces I loved...

I am loving the whole wooden box thing lately.  Might have to whip up one of those.

DIY Here with TheIdeaRoom

Beautiful from InspriationForTheHome

I still have tons of logs left from the wedding collection of 2013.  I could totally do this, although, you should know that those holes are pretty tough to drill.  The post says it is a 5 minute centerpiece, but you will need much more than 5 minutes to drill those holes :0}  Love it all the same!

Love this!!!  Don't know where in the world I would find the candles, but I love them.  

I also really like this tall vasey look.  The only problem is these centerpieces can make looking at each other rather difficult, but that could be a good thing :0}

Next category...

PlaceCards or Place Markers

I do love the idea of ships!  These are adorable, but I think I would make them out of wood.  Simpler versions of the ones above.  

Teehee.  These little pilgrim shoes are cute too.  Made from paper you could get the kids to help make these.

While we are getting the kids to help, these ones would be fun too.  Little tee pees made out of craft foam.  

Want something more organic, how about a simple pinecone with a name card in it.  

I have to admit that this little guy is one of my favorites.  I searched all over the blog, but couldn't find the post containing the turkey, so HERE is a link to the pinterest pin.

I am AWFULLY tempted to try out these fork place cards though.  Wouldn't they be fun!  

Next up, 

Placemats!

These Kids Placemats from Pottery Barn are adorable!!!!  Way out of the budget and it is to late to order even if I were totally nuts anyway.  But, they are still worthy of posting.

Here is an entourage of printable kids placemats:

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

Um, I should mention, you need to look at this link.  Besides the placemat above, there are TONS of cute printables to download too!!!

Dry Erase Placemat HERE

Kids can make placemats like the ones HERE using clear contact paper.  

You KNOW I am a big fan of using my Silhouette.  Well, this whole project is made with the Silhouette.  You use the sketch pens to make the placemat, and then the other files included to make the little turkey crayon holder.  LOVE IT!!!

Another great post full of adorable Thanksgiving printables, including THIS placemat.

These Burlap placemats are so cute!  I love the weave at the bottom.

You should know too that Target had three or four different versions of kids Thanksgiving placemats in their dollar section.  I think you got 8 or 12 for $1.  That would be cheaper than printing them.  Check that out if you are in the store in the next couple days.

I know that white bit there is actually a plate, but wouldn't it be cute to cut white scrapbook paper into that shape and use it as a placemat???  12x12 would probably work, right?  Again, sorry.  No viable link, just a link back to Pinterest.

Now for 

Napkin Rings 

 {which could also double as place cards}

HERE

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HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

I think that is enough for one day.  I still want to figure out a couple crafts for the kids and maybe a treat for each placesetting, but for now, I gotta go.  Things are piling up all around me.  I do love this table runner though...

Burlap Table Runner

I better put that on the list.  That and this Jar...

Thankful Jar

I think for the family dinner though, Emmalee had a good idea.  We can put each person's name in the jar and draw one out through the evening.  When your name is called you have to stand up and say something you are thankful for.  Sounds good to me!