I'm Thankful For: Part II

 II: by Lena



"I am thankful for my sweet baby girl, Claire.  She is my little sunshine and I have many reasons to be thankful for her.  One of my favorite times with her is the nights I get to tuck her into bed.  I have come to cherish and love our little routine of reading a book, scratching her back, and singing “You are my Sunshine.”  It’s in this moment that I know she knows just how loved she really is."

Thanks so much for your story, Lena!

To read more from Lena, hop on over to her blog Stella Sola!

SHAZZAM!

Little Pumpkin embroidery on sale! $2.00 off, now $4.50!

My brand spankin' new, 40 year old thermos!

This... is my new thermos. After the stressful afternoon on Saturday, Ryan and I went down the street to the Texas Junk Co and poked around for a while. After a few minutes, I stumbled upon this gem! I can't wait to get some red carnations in it.

I sent this photo to my mom. She replied "Oh my gosh! Pappy (her daddy) had one just like it. Amazing!..."

  It was meant to be mine.

Happy Monday Giveaway!

Happiest Monday to you! Can you believe Turkey day is just around the corner? Hop on over to my friend Stacy's blog, Stacy Says, where she's hosting a little Thanksgiving-time Notes from the Republic giveaway!

Here's what's up for grabs:

.............................

One embroidered "Give Thanks" note card and a sweet birdie fabric button ring.

...................................

You should be her friend, too!

A little pretty on this rainy election day

I awoke at 3am to the sounds of rain, thunder and lightning crashing and I crossed my fingers, wishing that the storm would bring cooler air...but no such luck today.

In anticipation of the coming fall, here is a little pretty for your Tuesday...thoughts of hot coffee, warm muffins, leaves crunching under your cowboy boots, and deer sightings.

{ all photos weheartit }

Oh just cuttin' up gourds... like ya do....

Growing up, Dad carved a pumpkin for us every year. He'd draw a face on a pumpkin freehand, ask us if we liked it (if not, he'd erase and begin again), and if it passed, he'd start carving. I always liked the scary ones, mean eyes and sharp teeth. The photo above is of me in 1984, with our cat C.J. Dad's pumpkin was a little lopsided that year and had to be propped up with a rock.

We didn't love it any less.

The other day there was a Halloween special on the history channel. I always geek out over these specials..they're sooo interesting. I love learning about where our current traditions originated, like why we carve pumpkins! Here's what they said:

"The carved pumpkin with a light inside was supposed to ward off evil spirits. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form.

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul...

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since.

The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

Knowing it's history makes you so eager to participate. We were so excited to carve our jack-o-lanterns last night. We chose our patterns, transferred them to the pumpkins and got to work.

Cleaning out the guts

Dixie helpin'.

Ryan at work

I did 3 candles. Mom says it looks like some optical illusion because your eyes go directly to the solid pieces and not the negative space. It doesn't translate very well in photos, but I'm happy with how it turned out!

Nora's owl turned out great!

I love Ryan's lurker, peeking out of the blinds.

Trio of pumpkins:

We spent about 2 hours on them...but of course took a break for some pizza, wine, and Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin on TV.

I'm so antsy for Halloween! We're doing to Montrose pub crawl on Saturday. I still have work to do on my costume... gotta hit the costume shop for some fake blood... CAN'T WAIT!

Cranberry Walnut EXPLOSION!

The awesome Miss Erin @ Reading My Tea Leaves posted this fantastic Epicurious recipe on her blog last week and I had to try it. It's what I was craving, only I didn't realize it yet.

It's still so so warm here in Houston. Too warm to get into the spirit of the fall season. My orange lights are hanging outside, the pumpkins are tucked in little nooks around the house, he horror movies are all over the airwaves...and it's 90 degrees. People are still having pool parties, walking around town in tanks, shorts and flip flops and the Frizz-ease is still flying off the shelves.

What's a Texan to do? Put the A/C on 60 and start baking. Sometimes you just gotta fake it, so I did and booooyyyy did the house smell good. I've baked 2 loaves in the past 2 days and there are mere crumbs left. Friends and family may all be getting muffins for Christmas.

Below are a few step by step photos of my baking process and the recipe is found here!

I threw almost 2 cups of cranberries in the mix instead of just 1, almost 3/4 cup of walnuts instead of 1/3 and stirred ground cinnamon in. FOR THE WIN.

ch-ch-changes

OOOOOhh so much has happened the past few weeks! I'm SO happy to say that I'll be able to blog more now but I'm EXTRA happy to say that I have a brand spankin' new job! After a little over 2.5 years with Pegasus, nee Universal Pegasus, I submitted my resignation. It was all so bittersweet, I have lots of happy memories there, I made some wonderful friends and was very comfortable but the times, they are-a-changin' and I gotta roll with 'em. Today marks 1 full week at Bluewater Industries and it's been really good! I like my office, the location is perfect- a little under 10 minute drive, the people are great, very patient and I think I'm going to learn a lot. It's exciting!

With all that's been happening, I haven't been crafting, cooking or playing as much as I'd like, but I did manage to whip out a few Halloweeny things- some little ghosts! I stitched up a little spooky cat and a witch but they have found homes already (shame on me for not snapping photos, though).

My sister and brother in law live in St. Paul, MN where he is a law student and she is a 3rd grade teacher at the Twin Cities German Immersion School. The school has a fall/winter craft sale around Thanksgiving time so I stitched up a tiny MN to donate. I want to do a few more, maybe some variations, like a MN with a smiley face or maybe "You Betcha!" stitched inside.... hmmm..
I hope you're all having a wonderful October... can you believe it's almost Halloween already?? I better get to workin' on my costume!

WIP Wednesday part deux

I love the summertime. Srsly. I love swimming and grilling and shorts and suntans... *most* of the things that come with summer in Texas. I don't like being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and I don't like it when my shins sweat as soon as I step outside. Maybe it's me wishing it didn't "feel like" 106 degrees...maybe it's me wishing I could sit outside by my fire pit, maybe go camping? I'm not wishing summer away... I'm not....I just really like the fall, too. I like hearing high school marching bands practice...and... I'm gonna say it. I'm kind of excited about football season. I'm looking forward to going to a few games this year...cheering for the saints and the tigers...maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but a little early planning never hurt and who knows? People (someone) might want one of these:

I'm going to start a little line of spirit wreaths for the fall. This one (I don't know why it looks blue on camera because I swear to you, it's royal purple in real life...) is my first; a small LSU wreath. It's 1/2 way done and my thumbs are killing me from shoving those little pins in...but I'm excited to see the final product.

[I don't know what it is with me and wreaths that look huggable.]

Thanksgiving happiness and giving the house a holiday makeover.

Although tomorrow is the first day of December, the apartment looks like Christmas Eve. Packed up all the orange and yellow and pitched the pumpkins. This weekend, we got an early jump on getting into the holiday spirit. Went to Target, Arne's, Party Boy, Ross and Jo-Ann's, and purchased: lots of ornaments, the most fantastic star tree topper: a real Christmas tree (yee!!), stockings, red and green candles, lights and garland, wreaths, holiday hand/kitchen towels... and a bottle of champagne + cranberry (bye bye Mimosas, hello Poinsettias!) to celebrate! The inside is complete, sans the green garland/ white twinkle lights for the bannister and the bunting..but we'll get to that. This week we'll work on the outside! CHRISTMASTASTIC. And did I mention how amazing it smells in there? oh. amazing. I just want to bake/cook all day while listening to Bing tell me how badly he wants a white Christmas.

Photos to come!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Turkey day?..Couldn't have asked for a better weather. It was absolutely beautiful in Covington this past week, and we all really enjoyed the day filled with the best food and family visits. Hope your holiday was wonderful!

good day for a little boardwalking

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous so Ryan and I went down to the Kemah to see what the boardwalk was like before his plane ride back to Omaha. The day was filled with good seafood, rollercoater and ferris wheel rides, exploring, relaxing in the sun, boat watching, playing in the big fountain and watching old ladies line dance.