GIVE THANKS Banner

I didn't mean to pass over Thanksgiving when I posted the JOY Christmas craft the other day.  To redeem myself, I made a Thanksgiving banner.  

This was another easy craft. All it took was some scrapbook paper, black vinyl letters that I cut out using my Silhouette, and some twine.  I started by cutting out the scrapbook paper into the banner shape that I wanted.

Then I applied the vinyl letters.

Strung it all together and hung it up on the mantel.

  

As you can see some of the pumpkins from my Halloween decor now double and Thanksgiving decor.

I know, I'm a little lacking in Thanksgiving decorations.

All the more reason I needed to make this banner.  Plus, I can reuse it for years to come.

I also added some vinyl to the soap dispenser in the powder room.  I had "BOO" in vinyl on there before as part of my Halloween decor.

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Reversible Holiday Headbands

It's been a while since my last post and we've had a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving holiday.  A few weeks before Thanksgiving we decided that since the kids had the whole week off school (which rarely happens) that we'd drive to Wyoming to visit my in-laws.  About 70 hours round trip with 4 kids - are we crazy or what?  It actually wasn't that bad.  The 2 year old was our biggest concern and he did great the majority of the time.  We made the trip 4 years ago with one less kid and I vowed to never do it again.  This time the kids were so great, that we are actually planning to go back.  You can click HERE, HERE and HERE to read about our last road trip out west.

Anyway, on to the DIY project.  

Last month my older daughter wanted to do something crafty and asked to check Pinterest.  We found THIS post about how to make these cute reversible fabric headbands.  We decided to make a fall/Christmas one and to make one for each of the girl cousins we'd be seeing on our road trip.  So 3 hours later we had whipped up 8 of these cuties:

We also bought lots of other fabric at the fabric store to make a bunch more in colors to match my daughter's outfits.  I'm just glad we got the fall/Christmas headbands done in time, not sure when we'll get to the rest.  We might have been a little over ambitious in wanting to make so many.  

Fall/Thanksgiving themed headbands:

I love that they are Reversible!

Christmas headbands:

My youngest daughter loves gold, so we made a gold one for her too.  Didn't make this reversible or as thick and it turned out just as cute.

Here are some of the cousins modeling their new headbands just in time for Thanksgiving:

Now that Thanksgiving is done, we can officially switch things over to Christmas.

PIN THIS to make your own!

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DIY Wooden Pumpkins

I try to keep most of my fall decor holiday neutral so it can be used for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  I made these cute wooden pumpkins and they've been sitting on my mantle for almost a month.  I finally got around to finishing them off so now I can show them to you.

I started off making 3 pumpkins each painted a different fall color.  The yellow pumpkin didn't look good next to the other two pumpkins so I left it out.  I found the 'joyful thankful blessed' sign (it's actually a magnet) at Hobby Lobby and the colors and size worked great with my set of two pumpkins so I added that to the mix for a Thanksgiving look.

After the pumpkin blocks were painted, I drilled holes in the top and added a branch.  Then I cut up some fabric and tied it around the branch for a leafy effect.  The process of making these is similar to how I made the wooden firecrackers for 4th of July.  You can read all about that HERE.

The pumpkins look great together, but you could also use them on their own.  And the solid orange pumpkin could have a jack o lantern face painted on the other side for Halloween.  Maybe I'll do that next year since I didn't think of it soon enough for this year's Halloween.

Here's what else is on the mantel.  It's a work in progress and every year I hope to add a little more thanks to shopping those after holiday sales.

Here's a close up of the acorns my older daughter painted and glued to a branch.  I mentioned them in my last post HERE.

And here's the front porch.  I removed the two carved pumpkins and put up my "Thankful, Grateful, Blessed" sign that I made a couple of years ago.  I'm amazed it's help up so well and still looks new.  To find out how I made that you can check out THIS POST.  Ignore the dirt in the picture.  That's what happens when you try to plant with a toddler helping you.

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It's the Little Things

Life is made up of the little things, the seemingly inconsequential things we do each day.

It's the little things that matter most.  Little acts of kindness such as smiling to our neighbors, not getting mad when a child breaks something, and taking the time to listen to a loved one

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Count Your Blessings

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving full of too much good food and even more good memories with family and friends.  Being thankful and counting our blessings is something that should be a part of our lives each and every day.  

Call me corny, but I love a play on words.  So when I rearranged a few things in the playroom and living room the other day, I decided to display our wooden abacus on the window sill.  

And since it's a counting tool, I thought it would be cute to embellish it with some vinyl that says, "Count Your Blessings".

Here's Sweetie Pie showing off a pattern she made with the abacus.  Like I said I "thought" it would be cute to add some vinyl like this to the abacus.  And I really want to do this, but until I get around to it, this photo-shopped picture will have to do.  

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Giving Thanks Is More Than A Holiday - Happy Thanks Living

This is a cute video that sums up how grateful we should all be, every day.
Giving thanks isn't a holiday it's how happy people live.

Hope you celebrate this Thanksgiving with a warm home, a full stomach and the love of family, I know I will.

Fall Leaf Garland

I'm not one to go all out when it comes to decorating for the holidays.  I have also come to prefer making decorations for one time use and throwing them away afterward rather than storing them.  Helps keep the clutter under control.  

Earlier this week I added a leaf garland to my mantel.  This would have been great around Halloween time too, but I didn't think of it.  

Using paper leaves, I strung them together with a needle and thread.

thankful grateful blessed DIY sign

I loved this saying that I saw on Pinterest and wanted to incorporate it into some simple Thanksgiving decor.

Using PicMonkey I created the following text to use as a guide when adding the words to my wood.

Thanksgiving

Last year I shared some things I am thankful for in this post.
This year, I thought I'd do the same but with more pictures.

 Yes, she is in a doll stroller.   This girl is so cute and says/does the funniest things.

 She has the best big brother and she totally looks up to him.

 The Spencinator is doing great in school and scouting.  

I love his teacher and his scout leaders who all sincerely care about him and it shows.

Sweetie Pie is actually listening to me.  Here is what she wrote about having a positive attitude.

 She is so patient to the Babes, just a little mother in the making.

Daddy-daughter activity.   Love that my husband in an involved dad and takes good care of all of us.

I love fall, the change of seasons, all the colors, the cooler weather.  

I am thankful to live in such a beautiful area.

Thankful to live in a free country and for those who serve our country.

I am thankful for a loving Savior.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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A Day of Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving and I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few days. Like most of you, I'll be spending time with family and friends, and doing lots of eating. Just wanted to share with you what I'm most thankful for:

1.  MY FAMILY, the family that raised me and the family I am raising.  I am thankful to have parents who are still married and have instilled such great values in their children.  I am thankful for their willingness to help out and be there for us in the good times and the sad times.  I am thankful to have most of my extended family close by and to share holidays and other special occasions with them.  I am thankful to have found a great guy and that he wanted to marry me too.  I am extremely thankful to have three healthy, beautiful and smart children.  I am thankful for my husband's education and hard work which make it possible for me to stay home with our children.  I am thankful for my in-laws.  They have loved me and made me feel like part of their family since day one.   I am thankful that we have so many people who love us and support us.

2.  MY FAITH.  You can find out more about my beliefs here.  I am grateful for the meaning and purpose it brings to my life and how it makes me want to be a better person.  I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who personally knows me, my trials, my struggles and who blesses me daily and loves me unconditionally.  I am thankful for my knowledge that families can be together forever.  I am eternally grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ who loves me so much that he atoned and sacrificed His life so I can return to Him someday.

Other things I am thankful for are:
my friends who make me laugh and comfort me,
my country where I enjoy many freedoms,
medical advances,
technology that makes communicating with long distance friends and family easier,
electricity (didn't know how much I appreciated it until we were without power for several days this fall)...
...this list could go on and on.  I realize I am so very blessed and have so much to be thankful for.  I am grateful for this day of Thanksgiving to reflect on what we have and to share our abundance with others.

Next week I hope to finally be done a project I started a few days ago. I need to spray paint a few things and just haven't done that yet because of the rain. So hopefully I can get that done over the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!