Christmas Face Mask

Early yesterday morning I was able to squeeze in a bit of time for some little sewing projects while everyone was still asleep. It was the perfect opportunity to finish sewing a custom size face mask that I had promised however I was quickly sidetracked when I started looking for more fabric.

This cute candy cane border caught my eye as I was looking through my stash. It was not a very big piece of fabric however I was able to cut two masks out of it. 

Both the custom mask and the Holly Jolly Christmas mask were finished before anyone got up and I have four other Christmas themed face masks cut out and ready to sew. It turned out to be a fun and productive morning.

Have a Merry Monday!

Thanksgiving 2020

This Thanksgiving was unlike any other due to the Covid pandemic and the social gathering rules that were put in place in our state just a week before the holiday weekend. Our gatherings were limited to 6 people from no more that 2 households which of course changed all of our plans. 

Since I always like to set our holiday table ahead of time it was already stretched out and ready for Thanksgiving when the announcement was made so over the course of the week it was reset several times as our kids made new plans to stay home. 

Before we knew about the new social distancing restrictions I had been planning a wonderful appetizer menu which included some cute cheese leaves and acorns. About a week or so ago I decided to try making a few to be sure they would turn out the way I imagined. It worked pretty well so this will be back on the list  next year. 

Ordinarily I make standard size loaves of cranberry nut bread but decided that mini loaves might work better for the four of us. They were the perfect size.

Our Thanksgiving dinner menu is traditional for the most part and stays pretty much the same each year with a few new recipes added in to spice things up. 

Even though Thanksgiving was much smaller this year it was a lot of fun and we are very thankful for Zoom and FaceTime so that our family can get together virtually when we cannot be together in person. We look forward in hopeful anticipation to Thanksgiving 2021. 

Go Beavs!

Thanksgiving Morning Treats

These easy morning treats were a fun way to start our Thanksgiving Day. 

The turkey cinnamon rolls were almost too cute too eat.

A batch of cranberry~orange scones with pecans always make it on our Thanksgiving baking list. 

And, they will most likely be made again in the next few weeks.

A great way to start off Thanksgiving.

Happy Friday!

A Table for TWO ~ fall dinners

What to cook for dinner? That question can sometimes stump me when we are cooking for just the two of us. And when I say "we" I do mean both of us. Mr. Wonderful does a fair share of cooking these days and I must say he is quite the cook. 

One night we decided on oven baked pork ribs and spicy baked beans which was easy.

Cornbread sounded good with that but we did not need leftovers so I cut down my recipe and just made two servings. 

It has been a rainy, cold week so soup sounded good one night. 

We had not had minestrone soup in a while so I started that and made some focaccia bread to go with it. The leftover bread would have made great sandwiches however we enjoyed it with leftovers and also as a snack. 

Of course, there is always dessert at our house after dinner and this week we have been on a cookie kick. That is because Mr. Wonderful put in a request. He is not typically big on desserts however he does love to have cookies with his coffee in the morning and had just finished up some gingersnaps and asked for either snickerdoodles or chocolate crinkles next. So cookies it was! 

We went with snickerdoodles first. The recipe makes a lot so I put half of the batch in the freezer and once the others were gone I made the chocolate crinkle cookies.  

Now it is time to focus on our Thanksgiving menu and maybe a new recipe or two.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

paper punch pumpkins and thank you card

Thanksgiving is almost here and we are busy preparing.

The table has been reset several times and each time I think of something new to add, like this cute little paper punch pumpkin. 

My idea is to use the pumpkins as place cards or maybe small food  signs or both. Thankfully there is still time, but only a smidge, to decide where to put them. It will also depend on how many I can get finished as it does take a little extra time to shade all the edges, cut out the leaves {since I do not have a punch for that size} and make the stems, which are green pipe cleaners wrapped with florist tape. I had trouble at first finding something that would work as a  stem/curly tendril so I ended up  improvising one. 

It is always nice to have cards made ahead and ready to send. A couple weeks ago was in the mood to make something with a Thanksgiving theme so came up with this little notecard. For the front I hand cut the flowers, acorn and leaves out of preprinted paper. 

To decorate the inside I used a punch to make flowers and tiny leaves similar to the front and added the white dots in the centers with a tooth pick and white paint.

 I also like to decorate the backs too so added a matching flower there as well. 

Just some quick and simple paper projects for Thanksgiving.

Happy Monday!

Thanksgiving Count Down: getting organized

Checklists are my favorite way to stay organized, especially for a holiday or event. Spiral notebooks are what I like to use to jot down my initial thoughts in a somewhat orderly fashion because there is plenty of room to doodle, although, I do like to make printable templates too. My planner comes in handy as well so there are list everywhere.  

The doodled boxes are used for grocery and shopping lists, cleaning schedules, head counts, craft ideas, game suggestions, decorating reminders and menus. You name it, I have a list for it. In fact, there is even a box for my Thanksgiving playlist. 

The songs are always changing however this is the most current list which I thought I would share in case you need some ideas. Hope you find a song or two you like. 

Happy Friday!

A can of Pumpkin = cookies, scones & soup

Last weekend I was in the mood for Pumpkin Scones because this is the perfect season for them. In fact, I usually only make them in October and November however the opportunity had not presented itself until Sunday. Finally, a perfect morning to make a batch. 

I always try to keep a few cans of pumpkin on hand however I only had large cans this time. That was much more than my recipe calls for but I decided to go ahead anyway and save the rest to make some other pumpkin treats. Once the scones were finished baking I plated some of them up to give away since we cannot eat an entire batch ourselves.

They are so quick and easy to make and go great with coffee or tea. A perfect autumn morning combination. 

The days have turned cold and rainy for the most part just as you would expect in November, and, with the chill in the air it makes it the perfect time for soup.  So, I decided to use some of the leftover pumpkin to make a spicy soup for dinner.  

This Spicy Pumpkin Soup is especially good when topped with roasted spiced up garbanzo beans, fried bacon pieces and then sprinkled with some feta cheese. 

Well, even after making scones and soup I still had enough pumpkin puree to make two dozen pumpkin cookies which are one of Mr. Wonderful's favorite fall cookies. 

This time, instead of using raisins I substituted currants and, as always, mixed in some chopped pecans too.

A big can of pumpkin goes a long way! 

Have a Thankful Thursday!

Our Love Story Timeline: DIY wedding sign

Wood Pallets are great for DIY projects and we made good use of them this past summer. Our most recent project was a wedding sign. We had been using them to make chalkboards for our nieces wedding and when those were about finished we asked if there were any other signs they needed or if they would like any routed signs like Mr. Wonderful made for the bridal shower. The reply was yes and the idea was a rustic Love Story timeline sign. It did not take long to come up with an idea and then for it to all come together. It was a good thing too because we only had about a week left to complete it.  

Once we had the style of sign figured out and how to display it we needed to decide on what to use to connect the boards. We knew that it needed to be easy to take apart to transport so we bought some heavy chain and used a couple links on each side between the boards. 

The rustic, personalized sign was ready in no time.

It proved to be easy to pack, quick and easy to assemble and  it was a fun addition to the entrance of the arena.

The new router tool has been used to make reserved parking signs, direction signs, bridal shower signs, and the list goes on. I think some fun holiday signs might be next on the wish list.   Hopefully we still have a few pallet boards left but if not we will just keep our eyes open for another one.  

Happy Wednesday!  

Happy Election Day!

Patriotic cupcakes seemed like the perfect after dinner treat for Election Night so I decided to make just a small batch.

Four cupcakes seemed like just the right amount for the two of us. 

Especially since I just made a gingerbread bundt cake a couple days ago. 

Cupcakes are always a winner! 

Have a wonderful day!