Most of my Christmas decorations are up, so today I'm going to show you a small glimpse of them.  I'm still tweaking things, and, of course, doing a few crafts (I'll be sharing those with you over the  next few weeks).

Get your holiday blog posts and links ready because I'm co-hosting a holiday linky party on December 7! 

I'll be sharing a special Christmas craft idea and tutorial as a part of the Winter Wonders & Holiday Happenings Link Party with Claiming Our Space, Black Fox Homestead, Life with the Hawleys, The Thrifty Rebel and Yellow Spool blogs. 

 

This is the time of year when my kids are circling pictures in store ads letting us know what they want for Christmas.  Of course, I remember the excitement of putting together a Christmas list when I was a kid.  It was the time when you could really dream big -- or, at least, what seemed big at the time. 

It got me thinking about my own big dreams.  And, believe me, I could create a whopper of a Christmas list if I really got dreaming.  So, that's why I thought it would be fun to take a crack at it today and make my own "grown-up" Christmas wish list.

The Christmas season is officially here - my tree is up and the majority of my house is decorated. But, if you're anything like me, the decorating is never really done.  I always want to tweak things a little to suit my ever-changing mind.

I've been pinning Christmas decorating ideas on Pinterest all year long and now I'm going through all my pins to see what ideas I might be able to incorporate into my existing Christmas decor.  As expected, I found several that I want to try so I thought I'd share a few: 

A few weeks ago I blogged about all the yummy pecan-related recipes I found while surfing the web (since my pecan tree is blessing us in abundance this year).  I showed you this pecan pie bar recipe that I wanted to try, but when I went to print it out and make it, the link wasn't working. 

I guess it was fate (no offense to the recipe I originally linked to because I haven't actually tried it yet, but it looks perfectly delicious).  Instead of making that one, I found THIS recipe and made it instead.

Cue angels singing!

I'm a little late, but here it is...my FINAL Fall Favorites Friday (posting on Saturday -- oops!!)  Did fall fly by or what?  My kids are already pestering me to put up Christmas decorations.  One thing at a time, kids, one thing at a time.  Momma's gotta cook a Thanksgiving turkey first!

Speaking of which, I feel like I've devoted a lot of my Fall Favorites Fridays posts to food, but honest to God, I love a good meal.  And, one of the reasons I love Thanksgiving even more than Christmas is because a lot of the food we prepare is a once-a-year treat.

Today, I'm sharing a few of our family favorite Thanksgiving recipes.  I'll warn you right now that you will consume nearly a billion calories and lots of fat with these beauties.  But, if you just tell yourself that it's only once a year you'll cut down the fat and calories by at least half - ha!!  (Wouldn't it be nice if that were actually true?)

I'm sure everyone has had a week or even a day where you have grand plans to get things done and despite all your running around nothing does get done?  At least, not the things you planned to get done.

Well, that describes my week.  I've done a lot of running around and feel like I've got very little to show for my efforts.  It's not that I'm having a bad week per se, I just feel like a hamster running on a treadmill.

I'll spare you the details, but thought I would at least get a blog post done (even if it's small).

Today it seems appropriate to share a few words of wisdom that are keeping me inspired.  Sometimes a few good words are all I need to keep forging ahead.

I can't even believe Thanksgiving is a week and a half away! (Well, not quite...)  How in the world did that happen?!

The fact is, it's here, it's going to happen, and I have to get ready!! 

I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year so I've got to start thinking about my table (among other things).  I'm pretty excited about it because I have a new (to me) dining table that will seat 10 people!  Woo hoo!

I want to make it pretty and inviting so I've been browsing fall tablscapes and I 've gotten a lot of great ideas.  Today, I'm sharing 10 Tips for Creating an Inviting Thanksgiving Table. 


Let's get started!

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs this morning and saw this post about defining your own design style over at The Cottage Mix. 


I thought it was a fun post and it got me inspired to share my own design style. 

When I made my large Pottery Barn knock-off chalkboard and my small chalkboard easel I was excited about the prospect of being able to update them with greetings, poems and sayings for each season. 

The only problem is, despite some artistic ability, I cannot write the kind of beautiful script and embellishments that I love. 

That is, until now.




Yes, I did that.  Myself!

November is here and as soon as I turn the calendar page I start getting excited about Thanksgiving and everything it includes; good food, family, friends and focusing on all that we have to be thankful for.