Take a word challenge..Butterflies

When you feel that fluttering in your belly, take my advice....

This week's challenge

Merry Monday..Before December

Hi!

How was your Thanksgiving?

We had a great time..

Lot's of cooking, lot's of eating..

We ate fairly early, I usually have the Turkey ready to eat by 2 or 3 pm 

Afterwards we went to Michael's craft store, 

it's open on Thanksgiving!

We don't go for the early bird sales or anything like that..

I like to go and walk around, get out of the warm kitchen

maybe get inspired..

There usually aren't too many people there either, which is nice.

On Friday afternoon

we went to a thrift store nearby.

They had a black Friday special 25% off your total purchase!

After that we stopped at a book store which sells new and used books.

I found this book, which I used to have. 

It was only 2 dollars!

That night we went to the movies and watched 

All in all we managed to avoid large crowds of people.

 

 

 

On Saturday I made enchiladas with the leftover turkey.

I don't roll them up, I layer them.

Corn tortillas, sauce covered turkey, cheese

over and over, like a lasagna.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 and it's ready.

Notice I don't have many photos of the food, haha! 

Sunday was a lazy day..

We baked chocolate chip cookies, made hot cocoa and went for a drive..

the evening was cool and I try and take advantage of that as much as possible.

I did not get much crafting done this week.

There are a few things that I started...

And there were two commissioned  paintings I had to finish up and send off..

other than that, cooking and spending time with these amazing girls was the focus of the week.

What did you do this week?

Are you ready for the Christmas frenzy?:

........................................................................

Here's my list of three

Merry Monday, Turkeys,Toast and Books

It's time for our third

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?

We are..we got most of the shopping done for it last week, all we needed 

was the bread, the green onion and the celery, which, we bought today.

Do you have a special dish you make to go along with your dinner?

My mom always made the usual side dishes,

mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, cranberries,stuffing and rolls.

When she passed away, it was up to me to keep the tradition going

for my dad and my girls.

The first year was pretty difficult, I was dreading actually cooking it all, but I got the hang of it.

Now, it's a night we look forward to.

I start the night before, preparing the vegetables for the stuffing..

First we put on Christmas music..

Helena makes the toast..(as she always does)

 (2 years old)

(3years old)

'

I'd add more but I'll refrain:)

she has moved from toasting the bread to cutting up the vegtables though.

I usually put the turkey in the oven  at 5 am

then I go to sleep. I wake up and the whole house smells amazing!

It's ready by 1 or 2.

Something I really enjoy making is the green bean casserole.

I slice one small onion and fry it with some pieces of bacon

then I make the casserole according to the directions..

I add the onion and bacon pieces to the cream of mushroom soup before I bake.

It's fantastic!

On Thursday we went to our library's annual book sale.

 It's so cool, you can fill a grocery bag with books from their store for only 10 dollars!

We found so many really good ones,

I arrange them in the best possible way and we end up with at least 35.

This was one of the one's I was really excited to find..

Here's a few of the other ones...

I didn't even photograph the ones Helena chose!

We had a great time and even had a chance to go to the cafe and have some breakfast.

We made this garland out of felt for our dining room.

We also made some big felt turkeys but Peeves, our lovely craft assistant

decided to sneak into the room and

 lie on the freshly painted turkey faces.

I had to wash them off his belly.

Here he is drying off on the rest of the felt.

I looked everywhere for a turkey cookie cutter and just did not find one!

We ended up making some with a duck & flower cookie cutters..

This is regular sugar cookie dough.

Here are some made with the flower shape and hand rolled turkey bodies, lol

I wasn't impressed but it did induce many giggles from Helena.

I made some more ornaments.

These are made from

burnt out night light bulbs, Lisa Kettell Designs pixie doll heads,

pipe cleaners, glitter, ribbon, fishing line and tinsel.

you need hot glue to add ribbon the the top (metal) part of the bulb

add the pixie, hot glue fishing line (to display) then attach pipe cleaners to the back (for arms) 

wrap with a small amount of tinsel (skirt)

once this is done paint the hat with white glue and sprinkle with glitter.

This is what we created for our abandoned art project this week..

It's a felt leaf 'pocket'

it's securely glued all the way around and in the 'pocket' 

we put a couple of dollars.

There have been times when a dollar would've helped me so much..

I'm hoping someone can get themselves a water or a candy bar..whatever.

maybe it'll just make someone smile.

If you make this, you could add an inspirational quote instead of money.

or maybe a 5 dollar gift card to the 99cents store..

Helena asked me

what if someone that doesn't need it, finds it?

I told her maybe they will give it to someone who does.

I was able to get a picture of it..

We left it at a walking trail.

How chilly is it for everyone now?

We are getting some nice lows in the evening,low enough to make me crave a hot drink.

I've stopped drinking coffee for some reason.

I do that sometimes, 

But I never really get tired of tea.

I know of an incredibly awesome tea shop on etsy that has

a huge selection and guess what?

it's not ridiculously priced either!

KipersLilTeaShop 

Here's a few:

 'tame the tension'

it's a relaxing herbal tea

'Pixie Dust'

a tea to help you sleep.

'Not my mama's Merlot"

 It's wine flavored!!

She also sells essential oils, prepackaged tea bags or a monthly subscription box.

She is very sweet and will do all she can to get your 

order to you quickly and packaged beautifully.

There's a black Friday sale 50 % off, with just a $10 minimum purchase required.

Hope you go take a look, 

She even has one that is chocolate mint flavored and it's amazing!!

My daughter's recital went beautifully.

It was her senior recital, vocal performance.

We were all blown away.

This was immediately after

(Grace, Gabriella, and Helena)

She started singing at 18 months old

At 9 years old, she decided to sing opera

next month she is graduating from college 

Summa Cum Laude

We are very proud of her!

I hope everyone that is celebrating Thanksgiving this week 

has a beautiful, abundant time.

I count my blessings everyday

but I will definitely give extra thanks this year.

See you soon!!

Fruit Fairy

"Be very mindful of your actions & deeds.
Negativity grows just as fast if not faster than positivity.
Plant seeds of kindness, love and peace
And your harvest will be abundant living.” 

-Sanjo Jendayi

created for this week's

Three Muses Challenge

Merry Monday ll

Hello!

Welcome back!

How was your week?

We have been very busy here.

My older daughter is preparing for her senior recital soon.

There's been much running around and rehearsing for her.

She's also getting ready for her graduation next month!

I'm late posting this because my email is acting up..it's not loading any of the

photos I have added today.

................................................................

Have you had peanut butter kiss blossoms lately?

We made some yesterday.

You need some peanut butter cookie dough or mix.

We used this:

 bake according to the directions.

After the cookies are out of the oven and cooled off a bit, 

place a Hershey kiss right in the middle.

 

 

I love when Christmas comes around and we stop at the dollar store.

Where most people see Christmas decorations, I see future art projects!

tinsel or fairy skirts?

Flower picks or magic wands?

And who says only indoor trees in December need stars hanging from them?

All  the trees in my yard have stars on them! Year round.

I'm excited to create some fun with the goodies I found the other day.

I made a couple of crafts using some old containers.

Hansel and Gretel was my favorite fairy tale when I was a child, 

well, one of them anyway..

I had the Little Golden book and I would read it over and over..

I was fascinated by the witch's house, her windows were made of spun sugar!

Oh, I loved that book!!

 

 

anyhow...

This is the icing cup project..

You know when you buy cinnamon rolls to bake at home,

 they come with the icing in a little cup at the end of the tube..

That little cup is what I used to create this ornament.

Hansel & Gretel (Nibble Nibble mousie)

I used some mini Kewpie dolls from Lisa Kettell Designs Etsy

A small chipboard cupcake 

scrapbook paper

pink glitter foam

small plastic candy

markers

white fabric paint

glitter

tinsel

white glue

hot glue

icing cup

cut out the paper to fit in the icing cup, then glue it in place with white glue.

sprinkle glitter on any excess glue that showed.

paint the cupcake, add  a door & windows.

use white fabric paint to create icing on the "roof" of the cupcake.

cover it in glitter, of course.

when it dries hot glue it to the scrapbook paper in the cup.

cut a strip of pink craft foam to fit from the top of the cup to the cupcake.

(like a little path)

hot glue tinsel all around the top.

paint your little dolls using markers and glitter, add clothing made of fabric scraps if you want.  

And there you have it, Hansel and Gretel running for their lives.. 

instead of eating the witch's house and destroying her life..hahaha

 This next one is Alice in her wonderland circus tent!

I used an empty salt container to make this

You need a violet doll from Lisa's shop

acrylic paints in:

yellow

peach 

white 

blue

black 

pink

silver star confetti 

glitter glue

yellow wool felting

tinsel

glitter star

 moss

glitter

white glue

Ric Rac trim

small mushroom

mini chandelier 

sheer ribbon

rhinestone pendant

hot glue

X-acto  knife

pretty scrapbook papers

pink glitter foam sheet

Carefully cut an opening on the container.

make sure you leave a small ledge on the bottom so it doesn't fall apart.

secure paper to the inside using white glue 

hot glue moss to the bottom,

add mushroom and star confetti

make tent folds by folding paper accordion style

add ribbon

hot glue around the container

add glitter glue to edges

 cut out 8 triangles from gold glitter paper

glue above doorway

 make a large cone out of pink craft foam

glue onto the top. 

glue tinsel around door way

hot glue chandelier to the inside

paint doll, let dry

add yellow felting

hot glue doll to inside the tent

add silver confetti stars to rooftop

glue rhinestone pendant to door way

glue glitter star to top

I can't show you the abandoned art we created this week because of my email

but we left it at a place called Tempe Town lake..

It was a little gingerbread boy ornament made of clay.

we wrote 

"You Are Loved"

and left it on a bench.

Elizabeth, from 

Altered Book Lover

suggested that we leave socks near areas where there are many homeless people,

because that's one item that's always in high demand.

We think that's a wonderful idea and will show you in the coming weeks

what we do. Thank you Elisabeth:)

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So, last week I talked about Lisa Kettell as a person that inspires me,

This week, I'd like to tell you about her mom,

Joan Kettell

She is absolutely the sweetest lady ever, if you meet her, you just love her!

I felt like I belonged when I was visiting New Jersey.

She has a knack for making you feel comfortable.

 She's generous, beautiful, genuine and so, so talented.

The jewelry she creates is just gorgeous.

That's not all she makes either,

Here's a sample of  her amazing art.

If you want to see more of her incredible creations you can find them on her 

instagram here.

thank you for inspiring me Joan!

 

I'm ending this Merry Monday

 with three things I'm grateful for today....

1. Helena

2. the moon

3.improved health

Thank you for stopping by,

See you soon!!