Thanksgiving Quilt

 I'm sharing this beautiful Thanksgiving quilt my mom made.  She did the embroidery during the summer and finished the quilt to hang up for the holidays.  I love it!!  She did such a good job on it.

 Here are a few close ups of the hand work.  

 It's that time of year to get out all the Santa and snowmen wood carvings that my dad has done.  Two crafty people for sure

I've been doing some sewing for Christmas.  Since I'm working on some gifts I can't post pictures of what I'm doing yet.  I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be able to get it all done before the big day this year.  I should be down sewing now but I'm catching up on reading blogs instead.  Gotta have some downtime, right?  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I made a peach pie and 2 pumpkin pies yesterday while watching Gone With The Wind.  I love that movie!!  

 Then this morning we got up early and put the turkey in the oven.  We cook them in a brown paper bag because that's how my mom did it.  They turn out so moist and tasty!  The smell of paper bag and turkey cooking is one of the best smells ever!  Crazy tradition for sure.

 While dinner cooked we looked through the Black Friday ads.  Don't know why I look because there's no way I want to brave the masses at midnight or early morning to find a bargain.  Bleh!

 I was so glad to see the dishes all done and the turkey platter ready to go into hiding for another year.  Gary had to work today so we just had a little dinner before he had to leave for his 2nd job.  Thank goodness he was able to help me cook it.  Actually he does most of the work.  He makes he best sausage stuffing.  I'm happy to have a hot roll, Brussells sprouts with balsamic vinegar, and tons of stuffing!  

I just had a piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  I make the whipped cream with a little powdered sugar and Mexican vanilla.  I learned how to make it this way from my mother-in-law.  Another tradition.  Once you've had it you'll never be satisfied with any other type of whipped cream.

I've seen people on Facebook posting what they are thankful for.  It got me thinking over the past year.  I would have to say I'm thankful for my family.  I'm so thankful that the contents of this folder finally led me to find the baby I gave up for adoption 35 years ago.  I've kept the folder close at hand all these years.  It has some pages of my diary, hospital records, and other clues that helped me find Darren.  We've gotten together a few times since July.  I can't express the joy of seeing him interacting with my kids.  The similarities.  The way they all seem to want to know more about each other.  The way his son gets along with my oldest grandson.  It's been comforting to know that he has good parents and family.  It has helped fill a void in my life and added much joy and happiness. 

Loving Fall....and finding happiness!

 This is one of my favorite quotes.  Life certainly can be stressful and hard, especially this time of year.  I try to remember that I can control my attitude to a certain extent.  It helps get through the tough times if you try to think about positive things and find happiness in the little things in life.  I've been trying to think of things I'm thankful for this time of year.  

 We've been looking for a little space heater for the front room.  I love this one...found it at Sams Club.  We keep the heat down and wear hoodies at our house.  I know a lot of people do the same thing.  Just hate to have those high heating bills!

 We put up this baby gate about a year ago.  At first it was really for the young grandkids, but we found it's great to keep the dogs upstairs when someone comes to the door.  I'm really an animal lover....as you can tell from some of my posts.  I just love Max and Molly.  They keep me company as I work from home.  But I believe that you have to be a responsible pet owner.  Why am I mentioning this?  Our neighbors across the street have a Blue Heeler that is really mean!  I took out the garbgage Monday morning and it came running across the street 90 miles per hours barking so aggressively.  The owner was yelling for it to come back, and I just stood there frozen in fear.  His nose hit my leg so hard.  I'm amazed he didn't bite me.  We hear screams all the time from people walking down the street when that dog attacks them.  It's come after us as so many times when we get the mail or walk out to our cars.  Why can't they obey the leash laws and fence their backyard to let the dogs out?  Grrrrr!!  Okay, done venting.

I did get a new hair cut and color.  It's Fall colors this time...no purple!  I'm loving it.

Weekend Wrap Up

 Jaycee made this centerpiece in her floral design class.  It's in a real pumpkin and fresh flowers.  I want to buy a plastic pumpkin and flowers and have her make another one that will last through November.  I really love it!!

 I saw a wreath on one of the morning shows Halloween morning.  I have been looking for something for my front door and decided to make one real quick before I had to work that afternoon.  Got out my trusty glue gun and gathered some dead branches from the backyard.  I broke the branches into about 6 to 8 inch pieces.  I didn't have a wreath to glue them on so I cut a circle out of a thick foam poster board.  Then I glued the twigs around the circle.  I spray painted it gray and let that dry.  Then I sprayed it with a metallic silver.  This is the wreath part way painted with the silver.  Love the way it makes it "pop!"

 Then I grabbed a bag of rings I picked up at the dollar store last week.  I cut the ring part off and then hot glued them to the wreath.  Then I glued a piece of black ribbon to the top of the wreath so I could hang it on the front door.  This really is a fast, easy wreath to make.

 Ta-Da!!  All ready to greet my trick-or-treater guests Halloween night!

 Since Gary has been working so much I decided to help him out with the yard work on the weekend.  I got out the lawn mower.  I hate to admit it...but I've never mowed the lawn before.  My friend from work gave me a pep talk and some great hints for working a lawn mower (Thanks Sandy!).  I found the red button to prime the lawn mower.  Sandy said she pushed her 5 times.  The instructions on Gary's mower said to push it 3 times.  Well....it was a cold morning.....so I decided to push it 6 times.  Yup.  I think I flooded it.  I had to get Jon to start it for me the first time.  After that it was pretty easy.  It took me all morning to mow the lawn.  I had to stop and rake up all the apples off the ground and scoop up the dog poop.  

 There are still plenty of apples in the tree.  Darn...we really should spray the trees and use the apples.  Maybe next year...sigh. 

 I was about to rake up the leaves when Gary called from work.  He told me he just mows them up.  That saved lots of time!  I had a little trouble figuring out how to empty the bag, but Jon showed me how.  It was a really productive day out in the yard.  While I was mowing Jon and Bekkah were in the way back yard cutting up some branches and stacking the wood.  The back yard looks great!  I'm thinking I'll have to help out more with the yard work.

I was feeling energetic and so I decided to drain the pond in the back yard.  I have to admit I was a little nervous about doing it.  The water was really icky.  I was worried that a chicken that went missing a few weeks ago might be in the bottom of the pond.  Whew....thank goodness she wasn't.  Still not sure what happened to her.