Thanksgiving craft

I agree with hopestudios sometimes Thanksgiving gets forgotten, so I wanted to show you a cute, easy kids craft my boys and I made several years ago. They wanted to make a whole flock so that's what we did. You will need some pinecones, fall colored feathers, red pipe cleaners with the bump(see photo) and a glue gun( Elmers glue would work fine for the little ones!)
Pick out your feathers and glue them on

Cut one of the bumps from the pipe cleaner for the head

And you've got yourself a turkey! These would be cute for the kids or adults Thanksgiving table! Stay tuned for the Best Pumpkin Pie....

Sugar and Cinnamon Pecans

Okay...so I tend to get a bit stressed at this time of year(don't we all!). Two birthday parties for my oldest son, Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping,(oh yes, I'm addicted to it), hubby's big hunting trip and the ever looming Christmas..not to mention working extra shifts to pay for it all! A co-worker of mine mentioned the other night that she and a friend started baking Christmas cookies, 15 dozen chocolate chip and 18 dozen peanut blossoms, AHHH! Every year I send some Christmas cookies/candy (which I need to get started on) with my hubby to give to the family he stays with on his hunting trip. And every year I send Sugar and Cinnamon Pecans, they are so easy to make and are addicting once you start eating them! Here's my recipe- I always double it,


1 lb. pecans, 1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar, 1 egg white
1 TBSP cinnamon , 1TBSP water

Beat the egg white and water until foamy, than stir in nuts until coated with egg white.
Add sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Bake on buttered cookie sheet at 250 degrees for 15 minutes, stir and bake 15 more minutes and one more stir and bake 15 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.



I'm going to include some in Christmas gift bags for the kid's teachers, along with chocolate covered pretzels and Hot Pepper Jelly, YUM!

My Bedroom

I wanted to show you a few pictures of my bedroom makeover, minus the before pictures...I'm not very good a remembering to take pics, maybe someday! Let me just say it was a drab green on the walls, maroon curtains, darker striped bedcover and and in need of some help! I decided to go with white on the bed, that way I can easily change coordinating colors and I'm really not sure how the rest came about... I used HopeStudios faux quilt idea for the bottom of the bed and repurposed some mirrors from my living room, spray painted them black, love them... I also hot glued some beaded trim to the new shades, it was just the right touch! I couldn't be happier with everything, in a few months I'm doing the living room, I can't wait..I love gathering ideas and colors and then seeing everything come together!

Bird Watching

Okay, I'm not sure who's idea this was,(husband) and why exactly he thought it was a good idea but we ended up bird sitting for my husband's co-worker and his wife! They own 5 different birds, parrots, macaws etc. and they brought one to our house for the week they were going to be on a bike trip. Her name is Fancy Pants, she's a Cockatoo and she was actually quite entertaining. Not only does she ride on the motorcycle with them at speeds up to 40mph, she dances, does some talking and can open a beer bottle with her beak! We had a huge cage set up in our living room, various different foods( including her daily pancake and pizza rolls, oh and Coke)and we were given instructions for the week. She's potty trained, yes she goes outside or over the garbage can when you say poop! Of course the co-workers wife was worried as this was her(the bird's) first real sleepeover at someone else's house! Needless to say we had her on our shoulder, son #1 took her on a bike ride and we think we taught her to say Sidney Crosby! Her parents picked her up a few days early, they cut their trip short due to weather, so they say, and we learned a great lesson....we don't want a bird or any other pet right now, which is I'm sure is what my husband wanted me to realize!!

Seashell Frames

I wanted to show you a fun, easy craft the boys and I did after our vaca to the beach. The idea was given to us from joybeadworks years ago and we've made them after each beach trip, ( I'm thinking you could use the stones/rocks from Lake Erie's beach and do the same thing). I'm sorry I forgot to snap photos of the process, I'm determined to get better @ that, but it's super simple. We bought 3 wooden frames from the craft store, $1 each. We rinsed our shells and brought out the sand we took home from the beach. Paint some glue(Elmers is good) on the frame and sprinkle with your sand. Let dry. Next hot glue your shells on, my boys each did theirs differently, one did a pattern and the other was random. It's fun to hear them talk about each shell, they know who found which one and the story behind it! This year we decide to spray them with a little varnish, the boys like it because their shells looked wet and pretty! We placed them in the living room, which I've decided to paint Sand #4 and yesterday I hung new curtains in a pretty blue!

Wow...this month has flown by, and I'm sorry you were stuck loooking at the BeDazzler box!! I'll recap: PittsburghPenguins won the Stanley Cup!! I think we're still a bit dazed by it. We went to the parade, which was crazy, but we did see the Cup!

Next we were off to Surfside Beach, SC...it's right below Myrtle Beach and has become one of our favorite beaches. The weather was wonderful and we had a blast! I'm trying to save enough to stay for two weeks next year, one week just isn't long enough!

Next was 4th of July, I made the best ribs, recipe from HopeStudios, and our big debate was where to go for fireworks, we decided we'd stay close this year and went to our small town's display...it was obvious their budget for fireworks was cut( I did verify this to be true several days later!). There was so much time between each firework, there were people actually leaving, and the Grand Finale happened about 6 times, they set it off once and then 30 seconds later the same fireworks went off again etc.. If only they had set them off all at the same time! Everyone had a good laugh and we've already decided to head downtown for next years 4th.

Now all the big stuff is over I feel like we can finally do some summer relaxing( maybe), I've got some crafting to do, some sewing , some house stuff and of course the kids have lots of things for us to do. We may start our letterboxing this week, it sounds like fun! And I promise to start blogging more frequently!

Thank you sisters for such a great day yesterday!

My New Favorite Purse

This morning I finished what is now my new favorite purse! I've been wanting to use this fabric and I just love it! I love the colors, the pattern, the size...it's perfect, and if you can't tell in the photo I have also embellished it with rhinestones. How did I get the rhinestones on the fabric you ask? Yes, it's the BeDazzler! This was a given to me years ago as a gag gift from my sister and I have just put it to good use! The rhinestones add just the right touch to the purse, I placed them in the center of each small flower. If you want to borrow it, just ask!

Now about the Pens game tonight...I have a good feeling about it but we all need to do our part, if you need to sit in the same chair, do it...wear the same shirt...drink the same drink and eat the same food, whatever works! Make sure you're thinking positive, don't get negative and keep chanting LET'S GO PENS!!!!