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!!