15 Days Til Thanksgiving!

Is it too soon to start a countdown? It's true, after Halloween, Thanksgiving is my next favorite holiday. I like it even better than Christmas (actually, I'm not a huge Christmas fan overall). For me, Thanksgiving is drama-free, mainly because Shane and I have claimed it as our own. We live about 2 hours away from our families (we grew up in the same area), and every year we struggled to squeeze everyone in. After only a short time of that, we threw in the towel and decided we're no longer traveling for Thanksgiving and eating 2-4 turkey meals in 1-2 days. For the past 8 years (9?), we've had Thanksgiving at our place. Sometimes it was just the two of us, but usually Shane's mom, sister, and sister's now fiance come up. We eat, watch movies, play games, and laugh uncontrollably. I usually have no voice by the end of the weekend, but it's so worth it.

So...let the countdown begin with vintage turkey day postcards that I found on Flickr. I love vintage postcards and even used to collect them when I was a kid. I think it started because it was the only thing in the antique shops my mom would frequent that I could afford to buy on my allowance. All of the postcards are now with my mom, so maybe I need to start a new collection of my own.

I love this one! It looks like Halloween, but is really Thanksgiving. And the creepy little elfy guy cracks me up!

Poor turkey. I apologize now to my vegetarian friends/readers. This one is a tad offensive.

This one reminds me of the kinds that I used to collect. I love this style.

Come on...how can you NOT love two turkeys in a corn car?

Not Sick...Would Like to Stay That Way!

I wish I could be more specific on the exact reason for this post, but alas I can only be vague. The only thing that I'd like to say is that if your sick, stay home. For no reason should you leave the house...go into work...even just to drop things off. Enough said.

I found these on Etsy in Danner's Place shop and they made me laugh. Stay healthy this season!

Paint Preview

Shane and I...well, really more Shane right now...are getting ready to paint the living room and dining room this weekend. Nothing like family coming up for Thanksgiving to light a fire under us. Actually, it seems that just about every Thanksgiving once the turkey is in the oven, we start hanging pictures on the walls. I'm convinced that our past condo would've had nothing on the walls if it weren't for visitors. =)

But I digress...back to the paint. I want to keep the colors in these two rooms relatively neutral and somewhat related since the two rooms open into one another. We're going to be using the Behr Premium Plus paint, which has the primer built in. I'm also hoping it just means one coat...but we'll have to wait and see.

Above is the living room color. It's called Ryegrass. The room in this pic has a lot of white accents, but our living room has a lot of honey oak trim. I'm hoping that the room ends up feeling warm and earthy.

If you recall, these are the curtains I had in the apartment. I'm going to use them in the living room with the ryegrass, which is actually one of the colors in the embroidery of the curtains. I found red sheers (another color in the embroidery) to go underneath (which means bye-bye blinds!).

In the dining room, we're using Gobi Dessert. And I'm going to take a stab at painting our ugly wood and brass chandelier red. I think the two colors will play well off of the Ryegrass and the browns and reds that I'll be decorating with in the living room. But it's also still neutral enough to allow me to change up my tablecloths...as I so often do.

I'm thinking of going for very neutral window coverings as well. This is French General's new fabric and I was thinking of turning it into roman shades. However, I also found the below curtains--not neutral--that I really love, too, and play off the colors in the living room really well. (Sans valance.)

Decisions, decisions.

Honey Bun Scarflette...Complete!

I needed something to donate to the United Way Art Auction at work, so I decided to put the Honey Bun yarn to good use. I knit a big chunky scarflette using an adapted version of the Misti Ribs & Ruffles pattern. I left the ruffles off and I doubled the number of ribs going across (so CO 31 stitches if you want to make your own). And then I finished it off with two ceramic buttons that I found at Joann's. I really wanted to get antique wooden buttons from this shop that has great buttons. But then when I got over there, I discovered the store moved about 25 mins away. Damn! Oh well. Joann's did the trick.

For My 5-Year Wedding Anniversary...

...might as well feature the anniversary gift on the blog. (Giving the people what they want!)

If only all of our back fat was this cute!

He looks fat here. Heavy D!

Trouble. =)

Love you, Shane! Thanks for 5 wonderful years... and a puppy!

Serenity Now

For those lovers of Seinfeld, you'll totally get this post. If not...sorry.

It's been a hell of a week, and I've found myself saying "Serenity Now" on more than one occassion, which led me to Etsy to see if other people use this phrase. It appears that I'm not alone!

Space Invaders Cross Stitch Pattern

Necklace

Basic Cross Stitch Pattern

Plaque

Domino Pin

Halloween Dreams

Halloween...it's my absolute favorite holiday of all time! Yet sadly, my house is undecorated thanks to walls getting prepped for painting and my Dexter dog has no costume. Sigh. I had so many big celebratory ideas for doing Halloween up right in my new home, but alas, those dreams will have to remain just that...dreams. Life just gets a little hectic and sometimes we all need to stop and just breathe...or drink--your choice. BUT NEXT YEAR, I'm going to make something like this sweet skull garland to drape across my fireplace. It will be lovely...next year.

Get your garland here.

So freaking cute!

These are more in the Day of the Dead sugar skull style, which I equally love.

Here's Dex doing exactly what I'd like to be doing right now: