Thanksgiving in Retrospect

This year I started Thanksgiving preparations early. Even though I had wonderful helpers (our new interns!) it felt like the first time it was all on me. That is where grace abounds… even when my first baking item comes out like this!

The first pan of spice cake cupcakes turned out great. We’re still not sure why the lower pan decided to explode. I’ve forgotten those semesters of food science!

Thankfully there were no more mishaps, apart from the butcher being very late on having our turkey ready. So my brining process was about 12 hours versus 24. Everyone complimented the turkey, so I can recommend Pioneer Woman’s  Favorite Turkey Brine. Just be sure to use a fresh turkey, for “they say” it can be too salty otherwise.

My next adventure was procuring flowers for our table since I’d never bought anything from a florist in Portugal. I was pressed for time, so I went to the first florist I came to. Another car pulled up at the same time, and the woman rushed in and bought nearly all the cut mums the florist had. I was left to choose between white or brown mums since there wasn’t many other Thanksgiving-ish options (since they’re not celebrating the holiday as we are). I got envisioned for the white mums once I saw the florist had some dried wheat. But how to arrange it all?

We have one of those long candles with multiple wicks that sits in a narrow tray on legs. Thankfully I had enough floral foam to fill the tray, so I covered the foam with the leafy branches the florist had.

Then I put the mums in. It was looking a little funeral-ish. Thank goodness for the wheat!

I was able to use the wheat in vases on other tables to pull it all together and some dried leaves to help it look a little more fall/Thanksgiving-like.

 

I used some linen remnants from curtains we hemmed at the Haven (the retreat center) as a runner and mix and match candlesticks and candles.

Abbie and Piccola (our interns) jumped right in and whipped up many of my recipes—things they’d never had to make from scratch before (like rolls). And several of our guests brought pies and/or food, so it really wasn’t all on me.

I wanted to share the sites I got the printables from for our dining table and our food table. The “Gather Here…” printable came from Craftily Ever After for FREE! Check out the other Thanksgiving printables and her new Christmas ones in a her blog archive.

 

The placecards, cupcake toppers, and napkin “rings” were downloaded for FREE from HWTM Daily Blog. There was so much more they offered that I didn’t even have a place to use!

 

This word really does sum it up. I’m very encouraged by the peace I had during all the preparations and the enjoyable, memorable time we had with our friends.

Notes From Home

This past weekend we had three great visitors from our home church in America. One came specifically to love on the kids at each stop the group made. Of course the girls ate up the attention! Thanks Jessica!

Jessica brought some notes the kids in the preschool department made for our girls. So fun to see!

A few of my favorite small notes, one written by a child we’ve known since he was bitty:

Encouragements come in all shapes and sizes and from all ages! Thanks home base!!!

Autumn Accents on the Sofa

I found a fun and cheap pillow at a local store recently.  It reminded me of a project I’d seen in a Do It Yourself  magazine where they appliquéd a bird print onto a turquoise wood grain pillow (the Fall 2010 edition). I thought it might be just the thing to add a Thanksgiving fabric graphic too.

I have seen different examples of using free graphics in decorating. I thought Just Another Hang Up’s printing on fabric tutorial seemed simple enough, I actually tried it!  (She also has a tutorial on using iron on washable graphics if you’re interested). I chose a Thanksgiving graphic from The Graphics Fairy—scroll down to Clip Art Categories to see all she has to offer!

This is my printed graphic on fabric still attached to card stock (with spray adhesive). It was easily removable. I cut out the printed section and realized I didn’t like how it covered up my wood grain pillow so much. So I ended up using a piece of burlap that fit perfectly around one of my rectangle pillows to make a new cover. Before I sewed it up, I sewed on the printed graphic and frayed the edges a bit—nothing fancy.

These new pillows led to a decision to change out a few other less “fall-ish” looking pillows for a few I had stored away or used elsewhere. I pinned on a quick circle flower to one to help it coordinate {cut out some imperfect circles, stack, and glue or attach with a sewn button}.

So, a seasonal change in our living room for not too much effort or money!

Autumn Accents on the Sofa

I found a fun and cheap pillow at a local store recently.  It reminded me of a project I’d seen in a Do It Yourself  magazine where they appliquéd a bird print onto a turquoise wood grain pillow (the Fall 2010 edition). I thought it might be just the thing to add a Thanksgiving fabric graphic too.

I have seen different examples of using free graphics in decorating. I thought Just Another Hang Up’s printing on fabric tutorial seemed simple enough, I actually tried it!  (She also has a tutorial on using iron on washable graphics if you’re interested). I chose a Thanksgiving graphic from The Graphics Fairy—scroll down to Clip Art Categories to see all she has to offer!

This is my printed graphic on fabric still attached to card stock (with spray adhesive). It was easily removable. I cut out the printed section and realized I didn’t like how it covered up my wood grain pillow so much. So I ended up using a piece of burlap that fit perfectly around one of my rectangle pillows to make a new cover. Before I sewed it up, I sewed on the printed graphic and frayed the edges a bit—nothing fancy.

These new pillows led to a decision to change out a few other less “fall-ish” looking pillows for a few I had stored away or used elsewhere. I pinned on a quick circle flower to one to help it coordinate {cut out some imperfect circles, stack, and glue or attach with a sewn button}.

So, a seasonal change in our living room for not too much effort or money!

Pearls and Metal

This week I got to wear a new creation born out of mostly really old things. I’ve had these pins, clip earrings and broken necklace for years with minimal wear. I think I bought most of them when I was young at a flea market. I’ve seen several tutorials for Anthropology copy-cat necklaces (and here), so I thought I’d try and get a new necklace repurposing these old jewels!

I really didn’t follow any specific tutorial and thus it’s not perfect and I got to redo things a couple of times. It’s like that for me with many projects—thankfully I keep at it! A quick run down of what I/my husband did:

1. Take off some pearls to have more string to knot onto jump rings (those metal O’s that can be opened).

2. Connect the pearl necklace to the new metal necklace.

3. My husband removed the pins and earring clip.

4. I started trying to group the “jewels” with jump rings but it wouldn’t work since they flopped all around.

5. My husband taught me how to use epoxy glue to glue metal together. We had a silver metallic version thankfully. Not the easiest task to do and not be messy, as you can see:

 

I don’t think you notice it from the front! Just the glue the original jewelry maker used back when.

I can wear the pearls on top or bottom,

…but honestly the jewels part makes it way down to balance the weight of the pearls on its own. Regardless, I’m celebrating a new necklace and using old things that had little use!

Linking up to

Bread From God Day

Today the girls got to participate in a Portuguese tradition called Pão-por-Deus (or “Bread from God”). Kids go around to all the neighborhood doors before noon and say “Pão-por-Deus” to get little breads, candy, fruit, nuts, or other goodies.  {Sound familiar to a night time activity in America?} It’s a holiday--All Saints Day--today so everyone is at home.

I’ve heard some variations on the origins and meaning of this day. The girls’ teacher said it’s a time we’re thankful for the harvest. My language teacher said traditionally it was a day to give food to the poor who came to your door. Wikipedia says the tradition started after the November 1st earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755.  Maybe it’s a little bit of all of that!

Our girls decorated bags for the occasion in their kindergarten last week. Pears, apples and grapes are the main agricultural products in this region.

  

The girls only made it a few feet in the door before they were organizing all their loot. We really had a great time being together, meeting new people and seeing neighbors. I’m definitely up for trading frightening costumes coming to my door and all that kind of stuff for this!