My Autumn & Thanksgiving Decor

Y'all!  It's almost Thanksgiving!  Am I the only one that is more excited to eat stuffing than turkey?  I mean I eat turkey year round, but stuffing ohmygawd I love stuffing.  And the stuffing I love to eat the most is my mom's and my hubby's Nana's stuffing.  Two different recipes but equally delish.  I look forward to that dish(es) in particular every Thanksgiving. Mouth.Is.Watering.  Okay on to my little bitty decor I have to show ya.  

I know lots of folks are already decorating for Christmas but I like to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to bust out my jolly decor.  And since it is Thanksgiving week and I never got to show you guys what I have, well here it is.  No drum roll needed.  I don't have a lot but I like to make my mantel and fireplace look cozy with what I do have.  

Most of what you see here was purchased at Hobby Lobby, Michael's or the dollar store over the course of a few years.  And the majority of it was purchased on sale or clearance.  But of course.

On the mantel I have two pictures of what I am most thankful for: my husband and our marriage...

and a picture of my babies.  One of my favorite pictures of those two.  :)

and here's a close-up of the fireplace area.

This broom was purchased from my local grocery store (HEB) a couple of years ago.  It was cinnamon scented and the smell was quite strong.  Nice but strong and it took a couple of years to actually wear off.  I stuck a couple of autumn picks in the broom to dress it up for the season.

My dining room table is plain Jane compared to others I have seen.  You see, we don't have Thanksgiving at our house.  We always go to our parents/grandparents homes.  So that is one reason why I don't have a table setting but the other is that I'm just not fancy like that.  We had turkey day at our house once and it was only a few family members.  We totally did the sturdy paper plates and plastic cups.  And it was buffet style and sit where you'd like style.  Maybe one day I'll go all out but right now this is the real deal.

Another reason why my dining room table is plain.  It doubles as a homework table.  :)

But do you like my cornucopia and owl table runner?

I scored that owl table runner at my local Dollar General store.  I snatched it as soon as I saw it.

And I know other parts of the country get some beautiful autumn colors this time of year; but it is not too common here in Texas (in my neck of the woods).  But because the central Texas area has received so much rain lately, our tree leaves have been able to produce these gorgeous bronze-like colors and I'm loving it.  Here are two trees on the side of my house.  Beautiful!

I posted this pic on Instagram (@pinktexaschick) and used the Kelvin filter to bring out the gorgeous color.  I ooohed and awed the first few days because we never get to see such gorgeousness.  

How about some straight up cuteness?  My friend's daughter made this adorable candy turkey centerpiece.  Seriously.  I could eat it (pun intended).

Sorry,  I have no step by step pics but the body and head are made with styrofoam balls.  The head is a 3" styrofoam ball cut in half and secured with toothpick and a low temperature glue gun.  Obvisouly, the rest is candy and sadly this is not in my house.  I just wanted to share with you all the talent of  an artistic 6th grader.  What a  great centerpiece for a kids table! 

This wraps up my short show and tell.  I really wish I could deck out my entire house with gobs and gobs of autumn decor.  Every year I buy a couple of things here and there and I patiently build up my stash.  I hope you all have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving holiday.  Peace.

Cookbook and Magazine Organization

Hey y'all.  Right now it's like fifty something degrees out and yes I am cold.  Insert hashtag #nativeTexan and #coldweatherweenie right here.  Yep, that is me.  So with the cold weather upon us I started looking through my cookbooks and magazines to find some new soups and stews.  This is when I realized that I really needed to hunker down and organize this growing collection of mine.  I hit up the Container Store and bought some bins and magazine files and now my all-things-cooking-and-baking resources look like this:

DIY Kitty Cat Costume & Makeup {Halloween}

Happy almost Halloween, y'all!  Okay so I told you all a few weeks that I was just learning how to sew and after those lunch hour lessons I decided to tackle my daughter’s Halloween costume.  She told me that she wanted to be a kitty and soon after I started looking for costumes on the web.  After some searching and not really finding what appealed to either of us I told myself: “Self, you just learned how to sew now show the world what you can do!”  Well I can’t do much but I was confident I could accomplish this mission so off to the store I went and in the end this was Kitty Cat costume I “created” for my baby girl. 

bad quality pic, sorry!

Fast and Simple Halloween Decor

Hey friends!  Guess what?  I'm just getting around to decorate for Halloween.  Finally!  I'm a little disappointed in myself because normally by October 1st I have the house decorated and in full Halloween spirit.  But for the second year in a row I'm off to a very late start, ugh!  The ONLY Halloween item I have in my house right now is the vase I put together a couple of weeks ago.  Now I have my second Halloween decor out and I put it together this past weekend in less than 10 minutes.  My girl helped me and she had lots of fun doing it.  It was easy & fun for her and there was no mess.  Yay for the both of us!

I wanted to "make" something that was quick and affordable.  So I got lucky when I walked into Hobby Lobby and found all the supplies for this little project on sale 40%-50% off (the mason jars I already owned).

Ready for the directions?

• clean mason jars
• open & pour Halloween popcorn into jars
• decorate jars with stickers
• insert battery in candle, turn on and place inside jar
• Voila!

The supplies I used were two jars, a bag of Halloween popcorn (Styrofoam balls), scrapbook stickers and orange candle lights:

I placed them on my bookshelf with a pumpkin and a skull.  My girl loves coming home everyday to turn on the pretend candles.  And both my kids like they way it looks when the house is dim.  It gives it the "safe" eerie feeling.

Now I need to get going on the rest of the house even if the Halloween decor will only be up for a week.  Better late than never! :)

P.S. - Sorry if these pictures seem to small.  I'm trying to fix it! 

Lunch Hour Sewing 101

Hi. My name is Debbie, I am 39 years young and this is me learning how to sew by hand.  Yes, I am learning how to sew by hand.  Finally.

And here's me proudly displaying my practice work and a few stitches.  Like five or six stitches.  Really.  And yes I did practice sewing a skull and bones patch on a napkin.  But hey at least it was a great hair day.  :)

Okay so here’s the thing.  My kids think I’m the bomb diggity.  I’m all that and a bag of chips (Doritos nacho cheese flavor); and according to them I know it all and can do it all.  My daughter says I’m the best cooker and baker.  My son thinks I know everything.  Oh what sweet creatures they are to me.  If they only knew I was just faking it to make it. For reals.

What they don’t know is that Mama doesn’t know how to sew.  I’m not talking about machine sewing which is true (more on that later).  I’m talking about grabbing a needle and thread and replacing a button on a shirt or sewing a patch on um, let’s say a Cub Scout shirt or vest?  My boy has been a Cub Scout  since he was in the 1^st grade.  I have yet to sew on a patch for him.  Embarrassing I tell ya.  We had my son’s patches on his first Cub Scout shirt (navy blue) sewn on by the ladies at the Scout center store here in Austin and my co-workers mom. 

Last year he became a Webelo which meant he now had to wear the khaki  colored shirt.  Once again we went to the Scout center and had the necessary patches sewn on but there were a couple of more to come.  Most of the badges my son has earned belong on the patch or brag vest.  That vest has been in it's original package ever since we bought it way back when my boy was a first grader.  He is now a fifth grader and all of the patches he has earned have been collecting in one of his dresser drawers.  Oh how pathetic.  

I could not take the guilt or embarrasment anymore so I bit the bullet and asked my co-worker to teach me.  I did the pretty please thing too.  Like in I'm-a-desperate-mom kind of way.  Lucky for me we are buds and she loves to sew so it was a win-win.

So here I am at my second lunch hour sewing class.  The face was serious and the hair was not having it.  My hair appointment can not get here fast enough.  

I mean how obvious is it that I am such a beginner? Look at the major concentration just trying to tie a knot and then thread the needle. I'm hard core determined like that. 

Just like my first lesson, I was only able to do a few stitches.  Probably because there was a lot of laughing and joking around and maybe a little office gossip. heehee.  But as you can see this was the real deal.  No practice patch on a napkin. 

Right here you can see my progress so far.  It took me 40 minutes just to get to the halfway mark.  And of course there are obvious signs of a beginner.  One that you can't see is that the thread kept escaping from the needle. 

So I have half of one patch down and many more to go.  Look at all of these symbols of achievement waiting to get their spot on that red vest.  Actually these are just some of them.  There are lots more.  Oh boy.  

Lesson learned and lesson learning all in one. Note to self: don't ever procrastinate again and don't be so afraid to learn something so basic and useful.  Now I'm off to buy some band-aids because that needle poking is no joke.  Hey give me a break, I'm just a beginner.  :)