I'm Thankful

I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was able to go home to my parents house for three days! I spent time Christmas shopping with my sisters, cooking with mommy, and chatting and watching Better off Dead with my daddy. (that is a hilarious 80's movie bytheway!) I am thankful for so many things- my family, the great food, a warm bed, my husband getting a little time off work, and Poppop not only being at Thanksgiving but also walking around on his new steel leg and eating his fair share of pie!

Everyone signs the table cloth every year they come to Thanksgiving

I made this FANTASTIC pumpkin dip and carved a pumpkin to place the bowl in.

playing games

So good to have Poppop on two feet!

Went to the craft fair for a little Christmas shopping with my mommy and mommy-in-law!

Thankfulness in a Jar

Let's be honest- I LOVE mason jars, especially the uncommon shapes and the blue ones. I really fell in love with the dark teal jars that are even more rare and more expensive when I do find them in antique stores. But guess what I found at the Goodwill yesterday!

I literally gasped out loud when I saw it and snatched it (carefully) from the top shelf to find...a $2.99 price tag!!!! Thank you to whomever put that in their donate pile!!! I'm not exactly sure what I am going to do with it yet , maybe just display it or fill it with Christmas candy- I do have 3 of the same model but in clear so they'd look cute next to each other. Any Ideas?

So now that I've shared my excitement- thanks for listening :),  I want to tell you about another jar, one with much more meaning.

This jar was displayed on my lemonade table at my wedding to collect "tips," honeymoon money and marital advice. It was so sweet opening it up and reading well wishes and having a bit of coffee money in our pockets.

This is my lovely Aunt, Uncle and cousins who kept the lemonade full and my uncle built that GORGEOUS stand! (you can sort of see the jar sitting in the center of the table, it's an extra large mason with a tin cap.)

This jar was far to special and sentimental to just get thrown in a closet, it needed a purpose, a meaningful life. My husband came up with the idea to use it as a thankful jar, sort of like the thankful box our Premarital counselors/friends had. I knew I married a good guy!

Here's how it works, throughout the year we write down things we are thankful for on slips of paper and put them in the jar and we don't tell each other what we wrote down. On Thanksgiving, usually in the car while we drive to see family, we open the jar and read them aloud and record our blessings in our scrapbook (which is more like a journal we write big things in-like Thanksgiving, new jobs, big events in life). It's really neat to see what the other was thankful for over the year and which things we both wrote down. Last year was our first year doing this so this year I think I'm going to add to the tradition reading last years thankful notes as well. This is such a fun way to remember God's goodness throughout the entire year and remember what He has done in the last year on Thanksgiving.

Fall Pinterest Party

I hosted a Pinterest party last night for some of my girlfriends and it was awesome! I decided to do this party because I have WAAAAY too many pins I haven't tried waiting on my Pinterest boards and because I love spending time with friends and playing hostess.

We started out with dinner. Everyone brought goodies they had on their Food Boards to share. We had apples and cream cheese dip, peta-pizzas with garlic butter, potato soup (which is now a favorite easy crockpot dinner!), and I made brown sugar cookie squirrels.

I also cooked up some Pumpkin White Hot Coca for the girls as they were crafting. It's really easy and sooooo good! Tastes like Pumpkin pie in a cup! (tip: whisk the ingredients as you cook them)

We worked on three different crafts:

                                     My mom here is working on a burlap "give thanks" banner. see how here

We also decorated mugs (which i bought for a dollar a piece at the thrift store. Jo Ann Fabrics has glass paint pens in lots of pretty colors. I just bought black (to keep it simple) and everyone decorated a mug or two. I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures! We had all sorts of cute sayings, some adorable owls and love notes. (see some mug ideas here)

We also made leaf mobiles out of plastic bags- YES plastic bags! This was the coolest thing ever, super easy and surprisingly pretty! Even my husband was impressed with how it looks! I hung mine in the window where the sunlight can filter through it-the picture doesn't do it justice! (find the tutorial for making these here.)

 

Then I sent the girls home with their own little goodie bags. See these ideas and more on my board.

I had so much fun I think I'm going to plan a Christmas Pinterest Party!

My Autumn House

Sorry for leaving you hanging for so long!(Previous post) Here are pictures of my autumn decor...

I bought all of my mini pumpkins at Winco. I think I got them (11 of them) for about $6. Yay for cheap decorations!

 These burlap banners took me about 40 minutes total to make. First I cut out triangle shapes in two different sizes for the various banners. Then I added letters. I wrote the GIVE  in Sharpie but cut the THANKS out of orange scrapbook paper and hot glued the letters to the fabric. I just free-handed the letters because I dont have a stencil. Then I hot glued the triangles on to string. Wha-la!

I found the artist's mannequin at Value Village for $3 a while back. My mom has one and it reminds me of home.

I made this banner in the same manner as the others only I glued the burlap onto a sparkly black ribbon instead of twine. A girl like me has to have some sparkle somewhere. :)

I have found that my chalkboard is probably the best decor decision I have ever made. It's fun, quick and cheap and allows me to change the feel of the wall any time I want-which is quite often!

The Thankful poster above is a free printable from thelatestfind.com It's a quick easy way to dress up a space! I just printed mine out on regular printer paper and put it in a thrifted frame.

See before photos of my home here and by clicking on the     decor and craftiness link above.

Coffee Coffee Coffee!

I love coffee. It makes me happy. I love the smell of it, the warmth, the fun flavors, the paper cup... I really love the coffee house experience too. One of my favorite things to do, that I don't do very often, is to tale homework or a book to a downtown coffee shop to work, read and people watch while sipping a latte.

Coffee is just one of those treats/happy things in my life. Jeff knows that to make any day more special he can buy me coffee.

So now I'm going to brag about how awesome my husband is, ready?

I stayed up late last night working on a paper (I mentioned how I was suppose to be working on that same paper in my blog post from last night.) and I was tired and not happy about how long it was taking. We went to bed sometime after 1:30am and this morning, when my alarm went off at 8 for 9am my weights class, Jeff, who didn't work until 10 and could have gotten another hour of sleep, popped out of bed saying he needed to take the car to go get something before work. Guess what he went to get?

He brought me a Starbucks Pumpkin Latte for no other reason than he loves me and knew we'd been up late.

BEST. HUSBAND. EVER.

Bringing me coffee is wonderful, but the best part is that he got up early to go get it, that he was thinking of me and wanted to love on me. Sigh...cue the girlish heart flutters :)

 I love you Jefferson <3 br="br">

Be Still- Day 2: Prayer

This last Sunday's sermon we went over Colossians 4:2 which says

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.

So i got to thinking about how thankful I've been lately, and how much I've actually been praying...

Praying is so easy, it's simply talking to God. So you'd think I'd be better about talking to the One who loves me more than I can dream possible. The Almighty God, maker of the heavens, the earth, mountains, rivers, animals, me, wants me to talk with Him.

It's so lame to say the reason...I get busy, I forget to pray, to be thankful. Oh, and when I do pray, it isn't always with an "attitude of thanks." I can be really selfish and bratty toward God. 

And yet, He still loves me.

 This little quote on Pinterest got me thinking:

Things I'm thankful for:

My husband, home, friends, my family and extended family, a warm day, ability to go to college, a warm sunny day, a good job, freedom to say things like this, freedom to worship God without fear of violent persecution, food in the fridge, gas in the car, pumpkin lattes, laughter, friends getting engaged, owning my own Bible, going to a Christian college, knowing that I am saved-a child of the Most High God.

There are so many things I am thankful for, things I need to thank God for and remember how He provides when I need an "attitude of thanks." 

What are you thankful for? How can I pray for you?