Thanksgiving

Source: 3meadowlakecottage.com via Prairie on Pinterest

When I turned on the radio the day after Halloween, I heard one of my favorite sounds... Christmas music!

But I remember thinking, Christmas music already?  It seems the airwaves are not alone… from store ads to emails, blog posts to Pinterest pins, it seems the world can think only of Christmas.

And it saddens my heart that Thanksgiving is deemed less worthy of the months of preparation given to Halloween and Christmas. 

In all my memories of childhood, November was for Thanksgiving and it was celebrated first.  Time stood still for a moment while families were thankful… for each other and all the blessings enjoyed over the years.

And guess what -  Christmas was not diminished in the slightest.  In fact, it made the Christmas season THAT much more special and anticipated.  

Lately, I find the more Thanksgiving gets pushed to the side, the more intentional I become about celebrating it…planning, decorating, crafting, cooking and baking with the same enthusiasm as I do Christmas. 

Here are some of the projects I have made for Thanksgiving this year… in hopes my children’s memories of this holiday will be as fond as mine are!






  Thanksgiving Subway Sign

                                     
                             

                               Scarecrow Crunch

    Thanksgiving place cards

Source: brownpaper--packages.com via Prairie on Pinterest

Make ahead this week (and freeze) gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and pie crust.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions?

Falling

I’ve always been a huge fan of summer. . . mainly, for the long warm days.   But the last few years have only allowed for a few short weeks of true summer weather, so I guess warmer days is more accurate! 

Fall wreath

The cold nights and early sunsets have already begun and still I try to hang on tightly to the memory of summer.  The flowers and every green plant that brightens the prairie ground.  Summer sports.  Camping. 

I hesitate for it all to end. 

Fall.  For us, it’s really just another word for winter.  An almost winter.  Snow.  Cold.  Wind. 

And I’m okay with that.  Once it’s painfully evident that the warm, it has departed. 

But for now, even though warm fall colors are starting to make an appearance around the house. . .

my heart is hanging onto summer. 

Linking to:

 

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Countdown to Autumn Party

Autumn Greetings

This is my favorite fall wreath.  No reason.  It just makes me happy…

I can’t wait to put it up every autumn :)

The pieces are all thin wood.  I cut them out with my scroll saw and hand painted them before gluing to a grapevine wreath.

Acorns, pumpkins and corn:

 More pumpkins, leaves and a sunflower:

And an autumn angel
who is…

GiViNg YoU a HaRVeSt WeLCoMe:

CAST your cares
on the LORD and he will SUSTAIN
YOU; he will NEVER let the RIGHTEOUS fall. Psalm 55:22

(Couldn’t resist sharing this favorite “fall” verse :)

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Fall’s call

Summer is short here. 

So short, people here say we only have 2 seasons: 

1) Winter and 2) It Feels Like Winter

Or, more appropriately,

1) Winter and 2) Road Construction

As such, we really don’t have much “fall” to speak of.

It just gets a little colder than it already has been.  All the pretty green flowers, gardens and trees succumb to frost.

And every morsel of weather that is non winter related is cherished and DELIGHTFUL. 

The extreme cold cooler temperatures and the mountains many feet of snow will be here soon enough.  Perhaps even tomorrow.  REALLY. I’MNOTKIDDING. 

Oh, and don’t forget the incessant gale force entity known simply as THEWIND. 

To sum up- the weather here is LOVELY.   Please come visit any time. 

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A primitive light box is fun and cheerful in any season.  Here’s how I make mine: 

Start with an old sewing drawer. 

If you don’t happen to have a sewing drawer, use whatever you have on hand…. an old tin, sifter, colander or you can even paint a paper mache box to match your theme.  It’ll look great no matter what you use!

Cut a piece of Styrofoam or florist foam to fit inside.  To fill the sewing drawer, I used fabric pumpkins, fall berries, pine greenery and a fall star. 

This tutorial explains how to make the pumpkins…

I used a twig from a lilac bush for the stem and used my primitive grunging recipe to coffee stain and scent them.  They smell SO good!

The star is made from muslin with a pretty scrap of fall fabric whip stitched on top.  It’s also stained and scented. 

I insert small sticks or dowel pieces into the stuffed pumpkins and stars… then stick them into the florist foam.  The berries and greenery have their own stems. 

Tuck in a strand of twinkle lights.  
 
And finish with a strip of fabric tied in a bow. 

I use mine with a timer – to come on at dusk and turn off at bedtime.  I love to change the theme and have a twinkly primitive box all year.f

FaLL BLeSSiNgS!
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Organizing Your Fabric Stash

I have entered a brave new world. A world where all the fabrics are neatly stacked and sorted by color. Folded. Stacked. And sorted by color.

Oh, the happy. Words cannot describe how much easier it is to find a particular color or fabric when working on a project!

And those pretty little stacks of color-coordinated bliss fabric just look so cute!

Just one word of warning.... when you get all your fabric shelved in neat little columns of color, like this:

You will suddenly have empty spaces where fabric once lived.

Which you will want to fill with more neatly folded stacks of fabric.

But that's okay. Because now you can fold, sort, and keep it tidily in it's place.

This video is just precious... she really is enthusiastic about fabric folding! For more tutorials on organizing your stash, type 'how to fold fabric' into your search engine. You'll find plenty of folding and stacking info.

Please visit Works-For-Me-Wednesday for more great cleaning tips and ideas.