Happy Thanksgiving for CCC11

We've been off school this week on vacation and having a wonderful time taking day trips to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory, an Exotic Zoo in Johnson City, Texas, eating out, doing a little yard clean-up and best of all just relaxing together as a family!

The Creative Challenge Club this week is a color challenge and wow did it leave me stumped!

For several days I had mixed emotions about what I came up with but I think it's growing on me the longer it sits on my desk. ha!

I'll jump right in and share what I came up with:

 (Sorry for the slightly blurry picture and shadow!)

I started off with a card base in Crushed Curry and layered on some DSP featuring Island Indigo and Whisper White. I embossed the "vintage" tree in white on water color paper and then did a water color wash of Island Indigo (bottom), Crushed Curry (middle), and Pumpkin (top). Using my sewing machine I did a little machine stitching three times around the edge of the water color paper, scuffed the edge with my finger nail to roughen it up a bit and curled the top right edge over on itself. The sentiment is cropped with the banner framelits and clipped on with a mini paper clip with a knot of Island Indigo ribbon tied to it. 

Here's the Banner for this week's challenge:

If you create a card using the color challenge don't forget to link up for a chance to win free Stampin' Up! product. See their website for details!

Happing Stamping!

 I lOVE sharing what I make with you! If you would like to use any of my pictures on your own blog, please directly link back to me and give Christina Thurlow credit!

Thanks!!!

The Thanksgiving Table

 First things first...

I'm very aware that Thanksgiving is over and in the blog world, everyone is sharing their Christmas homes at this point. I know I'm a little late in the game but I still wanted to share anyways. 

Our Thanksgiving table this year was rustic and simple and I love how it turned out.

I find myself describing everything as simple these days. 

Sometimes simple is best.

One thing I love about our table this year is that it easily transitioned into cozy "winter"/Advent/Christmas without changing the center piece a single bit. 

My sweet hubby screwed two boards to some smaller strips of wood for me and then I took a hammer to it and beat it up a bit before staining and waxing. 

It makes the cutest rustic (simple ha!) candle holder for the center of the table.

I layered up a scrap of plaid flannel fabric and burlap to finish it off.

I love layering things...from clothing to decor to table settings, layers are cozy.

Chalkboard tag place settings (sold in my shop- will reopen early next year), china plates, cloth napkins and woven place mats makes for one very inviting table!

So with an easy switch of dishes and maybe some evergreen clippings tucked around the candles this Thanksgiving table can effortlessly transition to Christmas. 

I like that!

As of now, we are decking our halls for Advent and Christmas and I hope to be back soon to share!

For now, bye!

Giving Thanks

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving with family (and friends?). We headed out to the country to my parent's house this year. I love being in the country. We are determined to have our own spot in the country one of these days. There is something relaxing about looking out the window seeing trees and rocks and land instead of seeing your neighbors house, cars, sidewalks and streets like you see in the city.

Thanksgiving morning we headed over as early as we could get all 7 of us fed, bathed and dressed. Once we got there (a short hour drive) it was a day of running around and playing for the kiddies and cooking and visiting for the adults. 

My mom set a beautiful table. Notice the chalkboard place setting tags? They are from my shop and exactly how I pictured them looking at a table! I had many many orders for them right before Thanksgiving to do the very same thing with. If only I were a fly on the wall of all of those dining rooms to see the beautifully set tables!

We enjoyed great food and great wine. I made these little maple leaf wine glass charms as a prototype for my shop. They worked beautifully and passed the test. (Gotta love job research right? ha!)

You can find them here. I'll be adding other shapes very shortly. Check back soon to see those. I'll post something once my full line of charms are listed :)

This picture makes me laugh now. Most people take a picture of a pie or the turkey. Me? The dinner rolls. ha! After we ate the turkey we realized no one ever took a picture. It was a beautifully golden 20 lb turkey; perfectly brined in a lemon infused salt and sugar bath and cooked to perfection. The gravy from the drippings were to die for. I could cook a whole 'nother (nother isn't a word is it? In the south it is. "whole nother" meaning a second. Now ya know!) turkey just to have more gravy! 

After dinner, headed out for a beautiful nature walk, as the kids were calling it.

First stop was at my dad's really old tractor for a family picture. (The kids LOVE tractor rides!)

 Then on to the nature walk.

This little cutie cracked me up trying to cross the cattle guard. I bet that is how a cow feels, too!

Cowgirl boots, denim, rustic fencing and a cattle guard- IN LOVE.

Boy's best friend. They walked side by side. The cutest!

Another pause to watch the deer feeder spray corn. 

Best Friends. Even though they won't admit it!

Nothing cuter than a little boy on his Papa's back. He had just slipped on the rocks and was a little too upset to walk.

And today, we are back in full swing with life and school. Three more weeks and we are off for our Christmas break! I love this time of the year. Soon our Jesse Tree will go up and other Christmas decorations will start to make their appearance. 

Don't forget to stop by my shop for my Cyber Monday Sale. Use coupon code MBFSAVE15.

BLESSINGS!

Popcorn, Pretzels & Jelly Beans

Good Morning Ladies (and Gents?)

I hope everyone is happily stuffed with turkey and pie and all the thanksgiving dinner fixin's. I know I am! I love Thanksgiving. It is truly the best meal of the year. Wouldn't you agree? It is one of my top 3 favorite holidays.

Who doesn't LOVE Peanut's Thanksgiving? It is one of our favorites in our house. We always joke that one year we are going to have popcorn, toast, jelly beans and pretzels for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids think it is a wonderful idea! My husband and I, on the other hand, would miss our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

As a compromise, we made up these cute goodie bags filled with popcorn, jelly beans and pretzels to set at each place setting. They looks so child-like and fun- I love them! And of course, I crafted a cute little turkey tag to go on them. (I'll grab at any excuse to stamp something!)

Before I go, I wanted to share the details about my Black Friday sale!! Yep, it's that time of the year again. Swing by my shop and use the code MBFSAVE20 at check out to save 20% off your entire purchase.

Have a restful day!