Thanksgiving Decor Wrap-Up

I mentioned that I've been a bit busy with my Thanksgiving preparations.
We had 20 people for Thanksgiving dinner. My dining room seats 8 people comfortably (.... 10 people uncomfortably). We needed to move things out to the patio.

Since we live in Southern California, this is usually a safe move. However, our patio just isn't the warm and welcoming place I envision for Thanksgiving dinner.

With a self-imposed tiny budget and a lot of elbow grease, I turned thisinto this.


I draped the edges of our patio cover with fabric from the clearance bin at our home decor fabric store and sheer panels on clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I used dowels and cup hooks instead of curtain rods. Total for fabric and hardware was about $70. I love it that I will be able to use this fabric for many Thanksgivings to come.

There were 2 panels I wanted to hang at angles to keep people from falling into a flower bed, and the only way we could think of to suspend them from the top of the patio cover was to use wire. Specifically, wire hangers from Handsome Hubby's dry-cleaning.
Not the look I was going for. While I tried to figure out how to camouflage the wire hangers, I worked on the "centerpiece."

Over the summer, I had purchased small Japanese lanterns on clearance. I didn't know what I would do with them at the time, but it was $20 for 30 lanterns and I have a hard time passing up such deals.

Last month I came across several boxes of "scatter" on clearance at Kohl's. (Apparently scatter is big beads or marbles for throwing on tables or filling vases to help hold flowers. Who knew?) Each box was originally $13 and was marked down to about $2.50. The discount was significant enough for me to stand there in the clearance aisle for a good 10 minutes with my brain clicking away, going through options as to why I might find this handy later and therefore, shouldn't pass it up now.

When I noticed that these big beads had a hole and could potentially be strung together, I remembered my Japanese lanterns and the idea for my Thanksgiving centerpiece came up off the table and hung from the ceiling instead.
I thought it was pretty cool for $40. (Although Grant couldn't understand why I was taking all of the fishing line from his Scooby Doo fishing pole to string my beads and suspend the lanterns...)

I can't explain how, but the beads hanging from the patio cover sparked the idea to spray paint leaves in the yard.
$12 in copper spray paint took care of all the leaves and chargers that I already had. I love how they turned out.


They covered the wire hangers very nicely, and leftover leaves were used along the length of the table.


I thought it was pretty, and the fact that this "room" cost less than $200 to pull together was even better. (The fact that the cost of the fabric will be sort of amortized over the next few Thanksgivings justifies the purchase in my head...)

Thanksgiving would be great if we ate frozen dinners on TV trays and card tables... as long as we are surrounded by our loved ones. However, this kind of thing makes me happy. There is soooooooo much in my life that is "have to." This kind of thing is completely unnecessary and frivolous, but it brings me joy to do it.
I'm Thankful that there are a couple of times a year that I get to do it.

Tomorrow I start on Christmas decor at my friend's house and this coming weekend, at my own house. (And in between, I am participating in a holiday boutique and have to make a ton of ornaments...)

This is my favorite time of year, and I am so excited I'm about to jump out of my skin! Or perhaps it is adrenaline and too much sugar. Time will tell.

Time management is a turkey.

I haven't been posting much and I certainly haven't been reading much. Just thought I'd try to explain why.

I have been having trouble finding the time to get a shower in before noon.
I get kids out the door to school, I unload the dishwasher and they're home from school already.
Time is compressing. It actually seems to have weight this week.

There will be 21 people at my house for Thanksgiving dinner. I am creating an outdoor "room" on our patio since our dining room is not big enough to hold everyone.
I have been rushing to get it finished so that on Thursday I will be cooking instead of glue-gunning or spray painting something.

I spent yesterday stringing beads and hanging lanterns.
I'll explain more later.
If the finished product looks like it does in my head, it'll be very pretty.

Happy Thanksgiving.

What's in a name? And what does it have to do with you leaving the kitchen?

Scene: The kitchen. I am trying to make dinner. Grant is underfoot.

Me: "Grant, I need you to get out of here, there are hot things in here and sharp things in here."

Grant: "OK.... Mom? Why didn't you name me PJ? You shoulda named me PJ."
I just don't even know what to say to that one. Where did that come from?

Conner the Terrible

Saturday was Conner's 13th birthday.
Today is Tuesday.
So much for a timely birthday post.

Devin & Conner's dad and I were in the middle of a divorce when Conner was born. Great timing, right? With each pregnancy, I had pre-term labor issues and each baby was born about 3 weeks early.

The evening of November 14, 1996 I was home with Devin, who had just turned 4. I remember the time-line of that night based on what was on TV. I was watching the first round Jeopardy when I felt the first little tinge of a contraction.... shortly after 7:00. By the time the show was over at 7:30, those contractions were darn uncomfortable.

By 8:00, I was in obvious discomfort and little Devin brought down every single stuffed animal he owned and lined them up on either side of me on the couch in an attempt to comfort me. I must have looked like ET, when he hid in Elliot's closet amongst the stuffed animals.

By 8:15 I had called my friend to have her take me to the hospital and bring a sitter for Devin.
By 8:20, Devin was scared of me because I was making strange noises and whining.
By 8:45 my friend had arrived but I now refused to get off the couch as it hurt too much to move.
By 9:00 they wedged me into the car.
By 9:10 they realized I would not make it to the hospital where I was pre-registered. They would need to take me to the closest hospital.

Now you may be asking yourself, why didn't she register at the closest hospital to begin with? Well I was a Kaiser patient and Bess Kaiser, the closest hospital, was in the process of closing. They would have been closed by the time my actual due-date rolled around. Because Conner was early, we ended up going to Bess Kaiser, which was only open to emergencies.

A baby being born on the side of a freeway? I consider that an emergency. So did my friend. She pulled off the freeway and rolled up to the Emergency entrance. I waddled into the ER like someone in a bad comedy. I'm havin' a baaaaaayby! Help me!

Here's a big problem with a hospital operating with a skeleton crew.... not a whole heck of a lot of anesthesiologists to go around. I was told that the one anesthesiologist on duty was in surgery.
Yeah? So?
Is the patient out...? So... why can't the guy come and give me an epidural now?
Some pain killers?
An aspirin?
A hammer to knock myself out...?

No pain management options for me. Not even a bullet to bite on.

My friend got up to the room in time to hear the ER doc on duty give me instructions to push. As this young doctor was down South, getting ready to catch the baby, I did what he asked me to do. Problem is, I came in howling and crying and the staff was scrambling. No one bothered to ask me if my water had broken yet. It hadn't. When I pushed for the first time, my water broke. All over the doctor.

I remember very clearly seeing a sheet of liquid cover the doctor. It was like someone had thrown a bucket of water in his face. He was shocked and, unfortunately, had his mouth open a little bit. He sputtered. He shuddered. He spit out amniotic fluid and told me to wait a minute before I pushed again. In the middle of all of my pain, I was laughing hysterically at this dripping doctor. I am certain he did not like me much.

Screaming and yelling, probably scaring everyone within the sound of my voice, I pushed a few more times and out popped Conner. The cord was a bit tangled. As this still dripping doctor tried to untangle it, Conner sent out a little fountain of pee-pee.... all. over. the. doctor.

The doctor finished up whatever he needed to do to be rid of me and then headed for the showers. And probably the pharmacy to get something for himself.

There was a TV on in the room. It was a Thursday night... ER was in its first half hour. I consulted the TV Guide in my head. From Jeopardy to ER, that meant that my first "Hmm. Was that a contraction?" to "Here's your baby!" took about 3 hours. Fast, furious and painful. I wondered if it was a harbinger as to what Conner's personality would be like.

Conner was a great baby. A sweet personality, a good sleeper, with a good appetite. He was such a blessing, because as a newly single mom with a 4 year old and a newborn, I sure needed a break.

He was funny. Very much a little bruiser. For sure all boy. He was loud and rambunctious.

He was hard to contain. Hard to cuddle him when he was younger. Go, go, go.


While he cleans up beautifully....

... he is famous for his ham-handedness.

I've seen him get peanut butter on his ear.

I watched him try to leave for school one morning with a single oat from his morning oatmeal stuck on his shirt in the center of his back.

We've seen him drop food on the floor and quickly say, "5 second rule!" but pick up the dropped food with his toes.

His handwriting is atrocious.

He reminds us of Pig-Pen from the Peanuts comic strip.

His room is always a mess.

We would love it if we could hand down his clothing to Mitchell, but nothing survives Conner.

Click on the picture below to clearly see the peanut butter and sand on his face and the sunscreen on his hat...

He may be messy, but Conner has a great spirit and a loving heart.

It is Conner who is more excited to give than to receive at Christmas time.

It is Conner who delights in hand making cards and creating "clues" that lead people to their gifts on their birthdays.

It is Conner who has confused me the most, but made me laugh the hardest.

Conner keeps things interesting.
We love him so much.
Happy birthday, Con Man!

MORE crappy stuff, made pretty.... easy monogrammed ornaments.

Make pretty, monogrammed ornaments.

Take horrible, plastic, over-sized ornaments from the Dollar Store....

Spray paint them, add a monogram and liberally apply glitter....  Ta-da!

To do this, I used a Cricut (calligraphy cartridge) and black cardstock.** I watered down a little ModPodge in a shallow dish, then floated the cut letter in there for a moment or two. It made the cardstock more pliable. Regular paper was a bit hard to work with.

Then I just placed it onto the ornament, tapped it down with my finger. Once it dried, I put a coat of ModPodge (non-dilluted) over the whole thing and sprinkled it with glitter...

**You could make a stencil and paint the letter on, or use vinyl or contact paper as well.

I'm going to do several that make up the word "blessings" or "thankful" and incorporate it into my Thanksgiving dinner decor. Then I will use them as embellishments on Christmas gifts for people who have those initials....

Gotta run! There's much spray painting to do!

Centsational Girl's Ornament Party

Crappy stuff, made pretty.

As I try to promote my new business, a friend suggested I come to her Holiday Boutique. I could hand out brochures and business cards.

Cool. But I figured I should have a little something to sell, too.... and that whatever I sold should be a re-done/re-worked/re-purposed something or other.

Here's one of the things I came up with:

A ubiquitous crystal candlestick holder ($1.50) and cheesy plate (50 cents) from Goodwill, and a Funkin fake pumpkin on clearance at JoAnn's ($6.00)

 

Take a strong adhesive like Goop and glue the candlestick holder to the bottom of the plate. Spray paint the entire piece once the glue has dried.

Paint the pumpkin separately. Add any embellishments you choose. Glue the pumpkin to the center of the plate.

This one is my favorite.

For this one I added strips of burlap and smaller "fake" pumpkins that I painted with metallic paints.

I liked this one the least, and oddly, it sold first.  Go figure.  Anyway, the cost for the materials for each one was less than $8.

Happy crafting.

Definitely a boy thing...

I would've thought it is more convenient to blow one's nose into a kleenex and then toss the kleenex in the trash.

Apparently, it is more convenient to pick one's nose and wipe the contents onto the bathroom counter and mirror.

I don't understand due to the fact I have a vagina.

I have 4 boys...

Scene: Helping Grant with his homework.

Mom: "Let's read the directions... you can choose from this list of words and draw a picture of the word you choose. Here are your choices: mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa...."

Grant: (incredulous) "Sister!?!? What's a sister?!??"

Remedial Graffiti Artist

This morning we noticed that Someone had taken a pencil and written on the panes and trim around our sliding glass door.
(Please click on the photo to more clearly see the artwork)
Someone signed his name.


When asked why he did this, Someone shrugged his shoulders and stated, "My brain is not very good."

ugh. Not THAT stage....

Every. single. one. of my boys went through this stage....

Smile! = Grimace and bare your teeth.

I sure hope Grant gets through it quickly....