Celebrating Thanksgiving

Anyone else out there celebrating Thanksgiving?  Or has everyone skipped ahead to Christmas?

Don't get me wrong, Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday of the year and I like to go all out with gingerbread houses, cutting down a fresh tree, and coating our house in multiple layers of tinsel and glitter, but I've always loved Thanksgiving and it makes me kind of sad that it gets the shaft - being stuck there in between Halloween and Christmas.

When I was younger, Thanksgiving consisted of me sleeping in, and waking up in just enough time to watch the parade while helping my mom make pumpkin pies (she made the crust while I made the filling), going to my grandparent's for the absolute best meal of the year, then playing games and eating said pie the rest of the evening.  Such a low-key, cozy holiday.

Taking a day to give thanks became even more important to us three years ago when we discovered just a few days prior that our cycle of IVF was successful and we were expecting our first baby after two years of trying to conceive.  When we went around the table to say what we were thankful for, we passed out pictures of our precious little embryo.

So I've definitely been trying to make Thanksgiving meaningful in our house and talking with Phoebe about the first Thanksgiving (and as one of my friends said, "Without going into the whole Trail of Tears thing", lol) and what it means to be thankful for what we have. 

The major bummer is that there really aren't a lot of decorations that scream "Thanksgiving",  and since I like to keep things festive around here, I've resorted to making a lot of my own.

Phoebe became really smitten with finding pretty leaves in October, so we ended up pressing a bunch of them and suspending them from our big picture window.  Of course my husband walked in and immediately questioned my sanity as to why there was a giant stick suspended in our living room (as I'm sure most of the other moms at playgroup were when I found it in the park and drug it back to my car a couple weeks ago). 

I also took some inspiration from Pinterest and made a bunch of these simple garlands by cutting out random leaf shapes from some felt scraps and sewing them together with a basic running stitch.

This little crocheted turkey and pumpkin pie have actually been around for quite awhile, as I went crazy during the early days of amigurumi and crocheted pretty much any free pattern I could find.  The turkey pattern can be found here, but I can't seem to find where the pie pattern came from.

I hope all of you have just as much to be thankful for!

Bite-size apple pies

Is anyone else's house overflowing with apples?  Well, this recipe won't get rid of a ton of them (I think I only used 4 apples for the entire batch of two dozen micro-pies), but it's certainly a cute and delicious fall treat!  Everything is more fun in miniature, right?

I started by rolling out some of my great-grandma's fantastic pie crust that had been chilling in the fridge (roll it out between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment - it keeps it from sticking and you don't have to add any excess flour).  Then I used a cookie cutter to cut out 3 inch circles of dough.

I nestled the dough into mini muffin tins and let the edges naturally crimp as they settled into place.

Then I mixed up my apple filling.  Like I said, it only took about 4 apples (I used golden delicious, picked from Wasem's Fruit Farm last week) mixed with some flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to fill all of the tiny pies.  Sorry I can't provide exact amounts - I always eyeball measurements when I bake - contrary to what people say about baking being an exact science.  But then again, I rock as a baker, but completely suck at cooking.  Go figure.

Fill your crusts with the apple filling, erring on the side of overflowing since the apples will cook down a bit.

Then I made my crumb topping.  Once again, no measurements, but I promise that if you combine some butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats (not the quick cooking kind), you'll end up with something delicious.  

Sprinkle the topping evenly over your pies.

Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes, or until they are bubbling and the crust and topping looks nice and brown.  Prepare for squeals of excitement when you bring them to your next party.  Or just eat them all before 24 hours is up.  That's what happened in this family :)

Martha Stewart craft paint review and project

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you're probably sick of hearing me talk about my love affair with Martha Stewart's new craft paint line.  And no, I am not being paid to go on and on about this stuff (I wish I was!).

First I was awestruck by the rainbow of amazing colors available in all sorts of finishes and their ability to paint on anything (wood, glass, plastic, fabric, metal, etc.), but what I really fell in love with was all of her specialty paints and finishes - specifically the magnetic and chalkboard paints.  I've seen these types of paint before at hardware stores, but only for upwards of $20 or so for a small container.  With my trusty Michael's coupons, I paid a grand total of $3.50 for the magnetic and $3.00 for the chalkboard paint.  And hey, slap a Martha Stewart logo on something and throw on some lovely packaging, and I'm pretty much sold before I even know what it is.  Sad, I know.

 

When we moved into our new house, we were lucky enough to have an updated kitchen with one of those fancy, stainless steel refrigerators.  Attractive - yes.  But I was bummed out about it's un-magnetic capabilities.  So I decided to transform this skinny 2 foot wide section of wall into a magnetic chalkboard  

I taped off a 14" x 56" rectangle and first painted it with 2 coats of the magnetic paint which used up the entire container - it is some really thick and gloopy paint - but of course myself and a couple of friends all squealed in delight when it actually held magnets :)  And then painted it with 2 coats of the chalkboard paint, which took about 1/2 of the bottle.

Then I put my husband to work framing it out with some simple trim that he picked up from the hardware store (I have a bit of a difficult time cutting miters the correct length).  

Next on the agenda?  To whip up some cute magnets to accessorize this baby!  I'm thinking some of these, some of these, and definitely some of these.

Have any of you tried out these paints yet?  I'd love to see some of your projects!

The start of fall craft season

Why is it that people don't really decorate the house for summer?  I guess we're all too busy doing fun things outdoors to really want to stay inside anyways.

Well now that the temperatures are getting colder and we're spending more time indoors, we're doing a lot more crafting and getting the house ready for fall.  This project I found via Pinterest - the greatest place on the internet, in my opinion :)

After painting coffee filters with watercolors and markers, I cut out little leaf shapes, backed them in double stick tape, and let Phoebe go wild sticking them onto a large kraft paper tree I taped on the window.

Phoebe liked to stick most of hers onto the trunk (I guess that's what you get when you tell a toddler, "put the leaves on the tree"), and I took liberty in finishing the branches.

That extra branch turned out a little bit crazier than I had planned.