Blog Parties

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Be Thankful I still decorate for Thanksgiving

Do you decorate for Thanksgiving? Or do you go straight to Christmas?

I for one, love to decorate for Thanksgiving. Probably as it's too dang hot to do any "fall" decorating in September. And I love to decorate for Halloween, so I don't get to do any "fall" decorating unless I decorate for Thanksgiving.

I love this little vignette. Nothing really screams Thanksgiving or fall except for the white pumpkin under glass. Everything I had already except for the pom pom on the apothecary jar. I made it from a brown lunch sack. I learned how from 52 Mantels. I had planned on making a bunch to make a garland. But I only got 2 made.

Here I placed a bunch of pumpkins and candles. They came from thrift stores, Dollar Tree and Kohl's. The framed print was a free printable last year from Betty Crocker Wannabe. And the fake flowers came from Big Lots about 4 years ago. And yes, I still use fake flowers in my decor. I love real flowers better, just can't justify spending the money on something that will die in a few days.

These glass pumpkins came from Sam's Club a few years back. I just found the shredded raffia at the thrift store for a quarter.

Just stuff I had up in the attic. Can't remember where I got everything.

I printed out a bunch of Thanksgiving images I had & pinned them to twine.

My Thanksgiving hutch. I'm so grateful I have this hutch to decorate.

Filled this cloche up with some fallish mercury glass ornaments I've picked up over the years.

The Indian couple came from the thrift store a couple of months ago. The "Count your blessings" sign came from Deseret Book store a couple of years ago. I placed it on a Dollar Tree easel.

I used the same letters that I used for my Thanksgiving banner on my mantel to make this Grateful banner.


Well, not exactly the same letters. Obviously you spell grateful differently than Thanksgiving. But you know what I mean.

A funny looking turkey under glass.

I purchased some carved Thanksgiving pumpkins from Terry's Village a few years back. To remind me to always "be thankful".

And I am thankful that you aren't noticing the dust on top of the cloche. How many of you noticed it before I just now brought it to your attention? I'll bet not many. I should have kept my mouth shut.

To be joyful (I have a hard time with this one).

And to always give thanks. THANKS! Does that count?

I added some flameless votives to my hutch. I just picked up a bunch from Costco last month when they had a $4.00 off coupon. At least I think it was for $4.00 off. All I know, it was a good deal.

They also had big flameless candles too, but I already bought some last year.


I like having "flameless" candles. Much safer. The only down side, not quite the same ambiance as real candles, but close.


Here is where I added the second brown paper lunch bad pom pom I made. I also added some glass acorns to one of the apothecary jars.

Here is the hutch with all the fake candles aglow.

And finally this is how I decorated my chandelier. I just hung more Thanksgiving prints with some twine.

I made each card double sided. So no matter what part of the room you are in, you can see a print.

Well I hope you liked my Thanksgiving decor this year. If you missed my mantel that I posted yesterday, you can find it here. I was pretty lazy in my decorating this year. I only got down half of what I usually decorate with.

I can't find my turkey platter and Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Luckily I have another white platter that will work. It just doesn't have a turkey on it. I just hope my turkey in the fridge is thawed. But I won't have to worry about that. Cooking the turkey is hubby's job. I just have to make everything else.

And now we are down 3 people for tomorrow. My sister just called and said that my mom isn't feeling well, so they aren't coming up. Looks like we will only have 11 people now. I think that is the smallest Thanksgiving we have ever had in my family. Oh well, more turkey for the rest of us.

I hope that each of you have a safe & yummy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I want to thank all of you for taking the time to visit my blog. I know there are a lot of other blogs out there (as I tend to spend time trying to visit them all). If I don't tell you enough, you all mean a lot to me.

Happy Thanksgiving! Now, let's eat!



Linking to:

Vintage Inspiration Friday @ Common Ground

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

"Give Thanks" Thanksgiving Mantel

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is in 2 days! Less than 2 days.

I can already taste that turkey. YUM!

Fall is whizzing by. Christmas is going to be here before we know it. YIKES!

I guess I better start posting my Thanksgiving decor. So today I'll share my Thanksgiving mantel.

I call it "Give Thanks". I know, I'm so original.

I made, not one, not two, but three banners for this mantel (that is if you count GIVE and THANKS as two separate banners).

And please pardon the crappy photos. I only have the weekend to take photos, and this past weekend it was rainy here in SoCal. So the lighting was terrible. And I have no idea how to take photos anyhoo.

The golden mercury glass candle holders came from Kirkland years ago. I still like silver mercury glass better, but this gold color works for fall.

I printed out three different Thanksgiving/Pilgrim/Harvest sheet music images (I'm only showing you one up close) from The Graphics Fairy onto vellum paper. Here are the links: Thanksgiving and Praise , The Happy Pilgrim , Tis Harvest Time.

Then I taped the printed paper around the candle & tied some twine around it. My candles are flameless so I don't have to worry about starting a fire.

The Thanksgiving subway art was a free printable from eighteen 25. You know how I love FREE!

The turkey came from Joann's a few years back and the white pumpkin is from Dollar Tree.

Here is my "Thanksgiving" banner that I made.

Super easy. I printed out the letters from my computer. I have no idea where I originally found these letters. But I love them. They are the perfect colors for fall/Thanksgiving. I just pinned them with some Dollar Tree paper leaves to some twine using mini clothespins from Walmart.

Doesn't get much easier than that.

Hubby made me this wood plaque out of some junk wood he had laying around this past summer. He made me two of them to make signs. But so far, I have only made one sign. Remember my "Life is good at the beach" sign from my Ode to Summer mantel?

I still need to make something with this plain one. But it works as a back drop for my "Give Thanks" banners.

This giant lollie/medallion is from last Christmas. I just keep changing out the center piece for the different holidays. What says Thanksgiving more than a turkey? Nothing I tell ya.

I found these letters from AllSorts blog. She created a "Spooky" garland but luckily gives you all the letters of the alphabet. The letters are in black, I just made them sepia tone for my "Give" banner. Added some more Dollar Tree paper leaves & pinned them to a piece of twine.

For the "Thanks" part of the banner I used my own alphabet art. I originally had the letters in a black frame sitting in front, but I like the looks of hanging the letters from the twine better.

If you want to know how to make your own alphabet art, you can find the link here. Everything I used to make the letters came from my own house. Makes it more personal to me.

This is a terrible photo of the right side of my mantel. I had to crop it from a larger photo. I realized (a little too late), that my real orange pumpkin sitting on top of the books had started to rot. The original photo I had for showing you showed a huge rotting hole. I thought I would spare you, so I took it off and put this one up instead. Always thinking of my peeps.

For this photo, I strategically placed the rotting hole in the back where you can't see it. The pilgrim man was a thrift store find this year.

I have to make a confession. I just realized that the above Thanksgiving printable wasn't a freebie. It was actually some ones hard work they were selling on Etsy. I originally found it on Pinterest. But realized that it linked back to Be Different Act Normal. She posted it from Craftily Ever After who made a print that she sells on Etsy after seeing a post by Domestically Speaking where she made one out of real burlap. I just copied the print from Pinterest and didn't realize until just now that it wasn't a freebie printable and that I had actually stolen it. Do you think I can be forgiven since I have now followed back the genealogy line back to what seems the original source?

Let's move on, shall we? Here is the pilgrim girl that goes with the pilgrim guy I picked up from the thrift store. The white pumpkin came from Target a few years back.

And there you have my Thanksgiving mantel. I like that I used stuff I already had lying around the house, plus a printer, some paper and some ink.

Tomorrow I'll try and post the rest of my Thanksgiving decor. I still have so much to do before Thanksgiving. I am hosting this year. We expect to have 14 people. That is small compared to most years. But only part of my extended family can come this year.



Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

Wednesday Bunny Hop @ Bunny Jeans Decor and More

Monday, November 21, 2011

My latest thrifty finds

I am itching to start decorating for Christmas. I just have to wait until after Thanksgiving.

I found lots of goodies this past week at various thrift stores to help me in my Christmas decorating.

Like I need anything else. I have about 15 bins up in the attic with Christmas stuff. But I can't pass up a good bargain.

Here is everything. Except for the grape vine garland that I forgot I have outside. I uncoiled it and strung it out trying to straighten it out some. We'll see if it works or not. I even purchased the white batting at the thrift store. I'm going to use it on my Christmas mantel. At least that is the plan. The batting was 50 cents.

I got these 8 vintage tin Christmas cookie cutters for $1.00. They were a 1/2 price item.

This ceramic snowflake candle holder was a steal for 75 cents. I already have 2 of them that I purchased in a set from Costco a few years back. I'm sure the original set of 2 was around $10.00. I think I might glitter the three of them up with some Epsom salt. I just have to find the two I already own. I did find Epsom salt at Dollar Tree.

This Spode Christmas tree plate was another steal at 75 cents. I collect this pattern.

These vintage snow globes were 50 cents each. I sense a new collection has started. I don't know why I bought them, they are kind of cheesy looking. But hey, they are vintage. And I love vintage.

My most favorite thrift store find of the week are these mini Santa mugs. I just started collecting Santa mugs a couple of years ago. And last year was the first year I started with the mini mugs. I got all 6 of these mini mugs for FREE. Yes you heard right, FREE. The woman at the thrift store threw them in for free when I purchased the larger Santa mug in the next photo.

Also in the back of the photo is a set of mini grape vine wreaths. I'll probably use them for napkin rings. Cost, 25 cents.

And here is the larger Santa mug that cost $2.00. Originally the woman at the thrift store said the mini Santa mugs would be 25 cents a piece. But since I was also buying the larger mug, she said I could have the whole lot for $2.00. Yipee!

The mini Santa mug in this photo came from a different thrift store and has a candle inside. It and the Snowman mini stack-able boxes were 50 cents each.

These 2 urns came from a thrift store down in San Diego county. We were down in San Diego last Thursday to attend my work Thanksgiving luncheon. We always hit up Amvets thrift store while in El Cajon. It was my favorite thrift store when I lived down there. How I miss that store.

I originally found them on a shelf and they were not priced. Now Amvets won't sell you anything that doesn't have a price tag. So I gave them to one of the workers. She took them in back and about 15 minutes later, I just happen to see them being brought back out, with price tags. They each were now marked $2.00, but miscellaneous was 1/2 off that day so that meant they were now $1.00 each. SOLD.

I really don't need anymore urns, but I can't seem to turn down a deal on something I love to collect. I think I will paint them Heirloom white. They may end up at Christmas topiaries of some sort.

And finally I found me some jingle bells. 2 small jingle bell wreaths and a bag of bells. They were $1.00 each. I love how they are tarnished. Hubby already snagged 2 of the bells from the bag to put on our new dog's collar.


What? I didn't tell you about our new dog? She is a golden retriever named Cookie.

I don't have any good photos yet. She doesn't sit still long enough for me to get a photo that isn't blurry.


She is a rescue dog from an elderly woman who could no longer care for her. We think she is about 5 years old. She is the perfect dog for our family. And the first dog I've owned since I was a teenager. And that was a bazillion years ago. My adult sons are beyond thrilled. This is their first dog.

Total cost of thrift store finds: $12.25 (not counting the grape vine garland I didn't show)
New dog: Priceless




Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm