A Day Late and a Dollar Short

But better late than never, right? I know I'm a bit tardy with my Thanksgiving post, but I wanted to share our feast with all of you. Despite the fact that it was just the two of us for dinner this year, we wanted to make it special since it's the beginning of the holidays in our new house. We obviously didn't want to roast an entire turkey so we ended up buying a bone-in turkey breast which Travis prepared.

We had no idea what to expect when we opened the turkey breast package, but low and behold it looked just like a full turkey except with all of its limbs cut off. It even had a little cavity that Travis filled with bay leaves and seasoning. It may not look like much, but it was incredibly tasty.

For my part, I made my grandma's stuffing for the first time ever, and I must say it came out pretty dang awesome. It's not your traditional stuffing made with bread cubes or crumbs. As a matter of fact, it doesn't have bread in it at all. This stuffing has ground pork, ground beef, potatoes and a whole lot of other yummy seasonings and vegetables. I think it was our favorite part of the entire meal.

Another first for me was homemade cranberry sauce. YUMMERS! I never knew it was so simple to make, and it adds such lovely color to the table.

Here's what our feast looked like right before we dived in. As you can see, we also made creamy mashed potatoes, gravy, home style biscuits and had some pinot noir to drink. It truly was a dinner fit for a king (and queen)!

And here's a plate of our delicious meal.

Lastly, I snapped a quick picture of the two of us in the midst of our cooking extravaganza. I'm wearing my Christmas apron :)

As most of you know, we moved into our new house about five months ago. Having moved MANY times prior to this, I knew it was going to take at least this long to get the house in order and to sort through our stuff. I had a feeling it might even take a little longer this time around since a lot of our stuff had been in storage for three years. Over the course of those years, I wasn't able to decorate for the holidays, but that didn't stop me from buying holiday decor when it was on clearance in late December ;) Having said that, we had a *few* holiday bins to sort through the result of which was a purge-fest and a very early decorated house.

My first decorating mission was the dining room which came equipped with this interesting wall of built-in cubbies and a matching buffet underneath it. We didn't quite know what to do with it at first, but it turns out that this area makes for a very fun area to decorate!

As you can see, I merged both Thanksgiving and Christmas decor this year mostly for convenience's sake. Everything will stay up until early January. Here are a few shots of some of the cubbies:


On the buffet we have our little Christmas village set up. I love the soft glow that the lights give off at night.

To the left of the Christmas village I set up a little corner with fall decor. The pumpkin sunflower cookie jar is my favorite, and I love the scare crows (got them at Bed, Bath & Beyond one year at a super clearance price).

Moving along to the entry of the house, we have a glass curio cabinet and an antique phonograph that used to belong to a dear friend of mind who has since passed on. We normally have pictures and random house decor up there, but I thought it would make for a lovely nativity scene.

At night, I light the Yankee Candle and the three small votives inside the crystal candle holders. The tree and the garland also light up. It really looks nice in here when the sun goes down.

On top of the phonograph I put a glass reindeer and sleigh I got at Costco a few years back. The sleigh is filled with holiday candy that I all too frequently indulge in :)

In the kitchen/dining room, we have this really pretty baker's rack that I got from a friend right before we moved. It couldn't have fit better where it's at if we had planned it that way (which we didn't)! I wrapped some garland around the wrought iron and added a few other Christmas items. The "Cheer, Joy, Peace" Santa banner is my creation :)

Lastly, we couldn't forget the exterior of our house! This year marks the very first year that Travis and I have actually hung lights on our own house (and we've been together for a LONG time). Of course, it looks much better at night, but you get the picture.

I hope all of you are enjoying the season!

Craft Fair Mania!

Hello bloggers! Sorry it's been so quite here lately. Between losing Keno, getting sick and preparing for a craft fair, I've been busy and a bit out of sorts. Thank you for all your kind words about my little man. I picked up his remains from the vet office this past Friday, so he's home with me now.

The week after saying my goodbyes to Keno, I fell ill with a nasty head cold. Unfortunately, there was no rest for me as I had to prepare for a craft fair. It's been a couple of years since I've been a vendor at a fair, so getting back into the swing of things while feeling like pooh was pretty difficult. I had a few items left over from a craft fair I had done a few years back plus I had been working on some items before Keno got sick. However, I pushed myself to have a variety of items to sell, so I worked non-stop for an entire week. My craft room looked like a tornado had hit it! In the end, I was so pleased with how everything turned out. I didn't take pictures of all of my stuff simply because I ran out of time, but here's a sampling of some of the items I made and sold.

My "Snowman Poop" packages sold like hotcakes and were gone in less than an hour. I forgot to take pictures of them, but I plan on making a few more this week, so I'll be sure to photograph them when I do. I sold them for $1 each. Another popular item was the Post-It note holders that I made using plastic 3.5x5 photo frames that I got at the Dollar Tree. I sold them for $3 each.

My $1 notepads also sold out quickly. I used PaperTrey Ink's new exclusive notepads which are already pre-cut for you. They were a real time saver!

Throughout the show, I found that people were really intrigued by my hot cocoa/apple cider sliders. I had lots of fun making these! You just untie the bow, pull up on the ribbon and the packet slides right up! I priced them at $2 each and sold about half my inventory.

My lovely friend lent me her two-tired basket to house my sliders. It worked out great!

I also made some fun treat holders. I got the wooden boxes at Michael's for $1, spray painted them different colors, then decorated each one with festive tags and bows. I sold half my inventory at $8 each.

My nugget tins were a big hit as well. I wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey Chocolate Nuggets in holiday paper, stuck them in the tin, wrapped the tin and called it good. I sold out at $5 each.

Speaking of candy, I also wrapped some Kit Kats to resemble little purses. I wrapped some Hershey bars as well and sold out of all of them at $1.50 each.

The binder clips weren't as big a seller as I had hoped they'd be. I sold a few, but that's it. I think they're pretty cute! I priced item at $3 each.

These fun $1 paperclip bookmarks were pretty popular...

...as were my laminated bookmarks. I got this idea from Kerry's blog. I sold over half my stock at $2 each.

The most fun item I had on my table had to be the Rudolph's Spares. I got so many laughs out of these, and they sold well, too, at $1.50 each.

These pencils at $0.25 each were a hot seller, too! These are the only ones I have left.

Besides papercrafts, I also made some of my S.A.M. Charms. S.A.M. stands for "Supporting our Animal Menagerie," and the proceeds not only go to my own critters, but also to various shelters. My mom surprised me on Friday by presenting me with this jewelry tree to hang my charms from. Isn't it awesome?

Hanging from the tree are a few of my holiday charms. I sold a few of these at $10 each. I still have the ones I'm about to show you, so if you want one, let me know!!

Now onto my booth! I took pictures the day my friend and I set up, but I was so busy the day of the fair that I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of my full set-up, but you get the idea.

On this side table I have some wall decor items as well as my treat boxes, nugget tins, comp books, Post-It note holders and some ornaments made by my late grandma.

A quick close-up of the table:

In this picture you can see my S.A.M. Charms along with more Post-It note holders, notepads, bookmarks and wrapped candy.

Moving left, you can see the hot cocoa/apple cider sliders, another two-tired wicker basket with my handmade cards inside, the Rudolph's Spares, the Snowman Poop packages (in the blue bucket), some decorated wood frames and another tree with handmade ornaments.

Last up is my display of picture frames. I sold quite a few, so I was happy about that!

I hope you enjoyed my virtual craft fair tour! If you see anything you want or have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. I also want to thank all of my friends who came and showed their support! You all ROCK! Thanks to everyone who came, saw and bought :) You made my time and effort totally worth it. Hugs to all!

Let's get ready for the holidays!

I had an ephiphany this weekend. Okay, it was more like a reality check. The holidays are just around the corner! I can't even believe we're half way through October already. Seriously, where does the time go?

With cooler weather blowing through lately, this fun votive decoration is the perfect little accent piece to warm up your home. With inspiration from my friend and fellow SU demo, Ana, I made the pumpkin using the small and large oval punches from Stampin' Up. I then inked the edges using some Chocolate Chip ink. The little stem is actually a piece of leather cording. The votive holder is wrapped in a strip of Very Vanilla paper and stamped with the lovely Watercolor Vine wheel. Wrap some raffia around the votive holder and plop a pumpkin scented votive inside and viola! Instant home decor that's not only attractive, but it's fun and easy to make.


Speaking of quick and easy projects, be sure to check out one of my favorite scrapper's, Anne Marie. She's doing a "Christmas Gifts Roundup" where she's featuring holiday projects and directions on her blog. She rocks! As for me, I'll be back tomorrow with yet another holiday idea for you. Have a scrappy day!