The Stitch Up

Thankful

I spent the last couple of weeks finishing up a section of an ongoing project and getting ready for the holiday season.

This is one corner of a sampler I'm working on.  The flowers represent state flowers from various places my family has lived over the generations.  It's taken me a while to get this portion done, so I'm taking a little break to work on holiday projects before starting back on this.

My first plan was to get my salt and pepper shaker collection organized so I can pull out seasonal shakers more easily.  I had some help on this project:

I've got everything organized now according to season/holiday which is very helpful since when I pulled out my Autumn/Thanksgiving shakers I realized I only had THREE sets.  Obviously this was not enough for any kind of display so I bought some turkey shakers to go with my pilgrims and pumpkins.  

I already know that my Christmas shaker collection is BIG so I'm looking forward to getting those sets out.  And speaking of Christmas I've got some projects planned already:

Currently I have some felt ornaments, a tablecloth and a wreath made of wine corks planned.  If this is like most holidays however, other projects will slip in as well.

I also have a project I'm working on for a contest - it's not holiday themed so it's going to be a little bit of a challenge to keep working on it while I want to just do Christmas stuff but it has a due date in January so I'm going to try and stay focused.

I feel like I'm not necessarily ahead of the holiday crafting game, but I'm at least prepared for it.  I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is great and you holiday season is filled with fun crafting!

 

 

November Salt and Pepper Shakers

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my fairly amazing collection of salt and pepper shakers.  I pretty much can't pass by any set that I find in a vintage store.  I regularly scour Etsy for new arrivals and my favorite type of salt and pepper shakers are holiday shakers.  I love being able to break out the perfect pair for every season!

For Fall and Thanksgiving - I have two pair.  I could just rotate them each year, but they're both cute, so I end up putting one pair in the kitchen to use when cooking and put the other set on the table.  Both sets were gifts from my parent who enable my fairly insane collection and I love them for it.

These two are adorable pilgrims. He has a musket to shoot turkey with and she has...a bunch of other stuff.  I really can't tell.  Is it supposed to be a pumpkin?  It really looks like a couple of apples, which is maybe not historically accurate, but still - very cute.

And most crucial to this time of year?  Pumpkins of course.  I'm never quite sure which one is salt and which one is pepper.  It adds excitement to the meal!

So now it's just a count down to making delicious Thanksgiving chow with the salt and pepper shakers.  The holiday season is in full swing!

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a great Thanksgiving around here. I used a few printables I found around the web to try and get organized.  I realize we're past the holiday now, but if anyone wants a jump start on next year's holiday - the Thanksgiving Meal Timeline from the Peaceful Mom helped me organize some dishes ahead of time.  And this group of shopping lists, meal planners and to-do printables were also helpful.

After all the planning, shopping and eating we had time to sight see with our family.  I also had a chance to encourage my little niece in the delightful world of crafting.

The husband said it looked a little like I was running a sweat shop in my sewing room, but I assure you the niece was having fun.  I also didn't pay her, except maybe with some cookies!

Now that the Thanksgiving hubbub is over, I can start concentrating on the next big holiday - yep people, here comes Christmas.

I dug out my stack of Christmas themed books and magazine tonight and I'll be trying to make a reasonable list of Christmas craft ideas this week.  For tonight I'm going to enjoy a last piece of pecan pie and the peace and quiet of getting back to our routine.  Hope every ones holiday was great!