Turkey, stuffing, STUFFED...All we have to give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving comes every year and each and every one of us celebrate it in our own way. There's no right or wrong. We give thanks for everything we have and the good Lord above. Here at my house we don't do anything big and fancy. We don't go anywhere. We all just stay at home, relax, eat, watch football and pretty much do whatever fancy us.

We had a great Thanksgiving meal. We ate turkey, Stove Top stuffing, pan stuffing, green beans, mac-n-cheese, macaroni salad and Hawaiian King rolls. We all got STUFFED!!!

                                                       Here's my plate. LOL!

 I also fixed Spirit and Weewaa Thanksgiving Dinner too. They love the giblets and broth from the turkey.

Weewaa

                                                                              Spirit


Everyone ate until stuffed then went  separate ways to relax and unwind. My husband doing the football thing. "Dallas Cowboys all the way!", he says. My daughter and grandson are gone to Wal-mart. My granddaughter took a nap but now playing in her walker. Lastly, myself, writing this blog and hoping to get in some CRAFTING today.

                                                                          Miss Avah

 Mr. Tray

Oh dear, how shall I decorate for Christmas? The possibilities are endless...

Every year I go through this dilemma of, "How shall I decorate for Christmas?" I try to do something different every year but there's so many possibilities. You have monochromatic, silver and gold, red and white, black and gold, blue and silver, whimsical, etc... I just don't know what to do anymore. I scroll through Pinterest and Google Images looking for ideas but the possibilities are endless. You know the old saying, too many choices, makes it difficult to choose. Well, I'm in that "sleigh". (Hehehe!)


2014 Christmas Tree

2013 Christmas Tree 

So this year I'm thinking either whimsical or brown and red. If I choose brown and red, then I'll have to decide if I'll go rustic or elegant. If I go whimsical, I can mix and match and it'll look great no matter what.
How are you going to decorate this year? Love to get some feedback. Thanks so much for reading and Happy Holidays to all of you! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Altered mask for mixed media challenge

4G or Girls, Giggles, Glitter, and Glue on Facebook has a mixed media challenge which I participated. You didn't have to send anything in nor was it a swap. You just had to alter something you purchased from a thrift store or the Goodwill using some of the products listed for the challenge.
I altered a Halloween mask. I put it off so long because of other obligations that the deadline crept up on me before I knew it. I didn't do it until 3 hours prior to the deadline. Whew! I did it though. I didn't win, but I had fun and in the end that's what count.

I used gesso, paint, crackle paint, rhinestones, glitter, glitter glue, flowers, buttons, ribbon, black oil marker, jute, butterfly bow and bling.

Yep, that's a Thanksgiving tree alright...

Every year it seems like we all go from Halloween to Christmas without really doing anything for Thanksgiving except cooking turkey. So this year I wanted to make a Thanksgiving tree. Why not? We do one for Christmas every year. Easter and Halloween trees are even becoming popular.

I wanted to do something different this year being my grandson enjoys crafting with grandma. Turkey hands it is and we even topped it off with a pilgrim hat. (Also for fillers I punched holes in some cutouts I had gotten from the Dollar Tree, wheel barrels with pumpkins, leaves and squirrels.) On each turkey it has something we should be thankful for. I think having the tree up helps up remember that Thanksgiving not just about food but a reminder of all we should be thankful for. If you like to make one, hopefully ours will give some ideas. 

This is how ours is done.

Pinecone Turkeys Galore!

Today my grandson, Tray and I made pinecone turkeys. He's 2-years-old going to be 3 next month so it was kind of tricky using hot glue around him. So, I did most of them and saved two for him to do. We did ten of them. You'll notice one of them has Avah, that's Tray's sister. In the picture there's only eight because Tray and I haven't did the other two together. Yesterday when I mentioned we would be making pinecone turkeys, he got really excited but it didn't last long because today, he didn't get to participate as much since we were using hot glue. :( Also the corner thing on the counter you see with tape is a bumper I made so Tray won't hurt himself. It's right at eye level so I taped the corner off with paper and tape to cushion it just incase he hits it.

If you'd like to make them, it's really quite simple. Here's how Tray and I did ours.

Boo! My first ATB (Artist Trading Block) and my first swap.

Bored, I went on Facebook to see what kind of groups I could join. I joined at least 25+ craft groups. After a while I weeded those now to just a few. Realistically I knew there was no way I would participate in all the groups. One group in particular, Girls, Giggles, Glitter and Glue, ultimately persuaded me to participate. Originally I would only watch and comment. I participated in an ATB or Artist Trading Block swap with our choice of any theme. Names were drawn and I had a partner. I, myself, didn't have any particulars for making my ATB but my partner liked, pinks, purples and turquoise, girlie theme.

I've seen the ATBs but never really paid attention to them. After looking on Pinterest, I decided to do my with a Halloween theme. I made the box approximately a 4" cube. Used the papers from an old Halloween Collection, I think maybe it's My Mine's Eye, something, something, something. Dyed the lace with some homemade ink spray I concocted after watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M3Ac3QGUyI . Attached some ribbon on all corners, hot glued the lace around the edges, screwed in some blue glass knobs for legs inked with black Stazon, Ranger Stickles, rhinestones, silver chain, rhinestone sprays, WOC (Wild Orchid Crafts) flowers, paper bat and some cut-outs all used on the ATB. Once finished, I just hoped my partner would like it. You know when you make something, you're always worried they might not like it but she loved it.:) Anywho, Thanks for taking the time to read and posted below is pics of my project.

If you like you can also watch a short video of the ATB on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnGmjQBjhbk . Until next time, Happy Crafting!