Our Advent Door

For his 60th birthday, I collected cards and letters from people who love Brad and I tucked each one in an envelope, one for each of the 24 days of April leading up to and including his birthday.  He truly rushed downstairs each morning to open each day's gift, and the folks who sent them would check, "Has he opened mine yet?"

It made his special season wonderful and personal.

I wrote in my last post about our Advent wreath tradition, and this year I've incorporated a card a day into Advent too.  Using 25 days of Bible verses I located  here after a google search, I've made an Advent calendar door.  During a quick trip to Michael's I found these gold envelopes and little gift stickers.

Sorry for the blur, school nights don't allow for pictures perfect.

I cut card stock of red and green alternating for each envelope, and on each card I wrote the subject on one side and the corresponding verses on the other side.

As much as I wanted to pre-read some of the verses, I did not.   Day one, Saturday, holds a card that reads "Sharing" on the front and John 3:1-21 on the other.  You can go ahead and read that if you'd like, just don't tell me what it says.  Yet.

Really, they're gold.

It's kind of bland now but as cards are read, the red and green will peek.

From a design standpoint, I was thrilled with the gold envelopes when I came across them, but I may spend 2013 looking for something with more oomph.  Regardless, I am excited at the prospect of sharing time in the Word with Brad each evening, and for that the wrapper matters not.

It will make this special time of year wonderful and personal.

May you usher in Advent well.


P.S.  Brad decided we should turn all the cards to make the door more colorful, so after our first reading tonight (Christmas is for Sharing, John 3:1-31), we did just that.

Thanksgiving, It's Not My Favorite

     I could write a lengthy blog post about why I've never been a fan of Thanksgiving.  But, to keep your from clicking away due to too much text, I will bullet point it.

• Parades on TV are boring. When I was a kid, we only had a few channels, so Macy's was it
• Growing up with all brothers, any TV past 11 a.m. was all about football
• Went to gramma's where there were no other girls
• My mom didn't like to cook, so I was not encouraged to come help in the little galley kitchen
• Dressed like a girlie girl, my tights always were pretty, but also always slid down uncomfortably
• As a young woman my mom died on Thanksgiving
• I feel like we have no established traditions from before then or after--though I suppose if I buy the canned cranberry thing and serve it, all will be well.
• Waa waa waa, right?

     So when Brad and I hosted our first Thanksgiving in 2007, I looked to him to be expert, only to find out (that morning) he had never made a turkey either.  All things turned out well that year nonetheless.  A true reason to be thankful.  Last year, my friend Jenn and brother Jim came over and helped with things.  To save the day they decided to make a rue for the gravy.  I thought rue was French for street, I still have no idea of what it has to do with cooking.
     This year there will only be five of us here for turkey, so cooking should be easy, right?  My brother is bringing stuffing and pie, so as always I have less to do than most hostesses.  Mac wants cheese filled crescents, so he's being assigned that gourmet rolling.  But still I angst.  This will be the first time I've mashed potatoes for Pete's sake.  I'm 52 and I've never mashed a tater!  I'm more of a graze on appetizers all party hostess, so the idea of having a meal ready all at once is overwhelming me.
  The best thing about Thanksgiving is I have a week off of school.  I am going to go grocery shopping today, something else that makes me anxious,  so I opted to write a blog post instead in effort to avoid it.  Martha Stewart I am not.  Meijer is open and here I sit.
     I am a mess.
     Here are my feeble attempts at decorating so far:

You've seen my tree of thanks, but I've added some festive twine to the vase.

Inspired, no?

     Bad blogger that I am, I found this printable on line, but can't recall the source.

The owl was Mom's, so it is a little tribute to her.

The "THANKFUL" banner was also a free on line find.  

I used, twine, grocery bags, and clothespins to hang it.

Note the twine on the candles.

It's a theme people!

This will be added to the buffet that day.

Be sure it will hold cookies (not a banana, turkey, garlic, or bread) AND be festooned with twine.

Impressed yet?

Until then I grabbed a textured platter to balance things out.

I don't think it's working.

     Shucks.  I'm done.  I have to shower and shop.  I have to buy a turkey.  I have to select potatoes.  I have to exchange a tablecloth...at least I hope to.  Wish me well.  

     Seriously, complaining aside, we have an incredible amount of blessings to be thankful for--and as I age, that awareness is precious to me.  Also, I plan on wearing a dress with tights that day, so I have no doubt it will REALLY feel like Thanksgiving no matter how the meal turns out.

     If you have gotten to this point, I am thankful for you.

Glue Gun Girls

Starting off with a disclaimer is never a good thing, but here I go.

 I have seen many versions on the web of this design.  I could give credit, but chances are the sites I was inspired by were inspired by others, and I don't want to follow that train of dominoes.  So, this was not my idea.  But I took it and ran with it.

How's that for a couple of jumbled idioms?

Last night, three of my friends came over with alphabet letters, faux berries, glue guns, and snacks in hand for our Christmas craft party.  Many more were invited but could not come, but may I just say, four women with heated devices around one table was just the right fit?

We got to gluing and talking and laughing, and so no photos were taken during the process, but the after allows for some.

I made this:

A few photo details:

A wood letter from Hobby Lobby, $2.49 and made in the USA.

(A rare find in H.L.)

This photo shows the back side.

I bought red berries on stems from Michael's.  

Each stem was $1.99, but they were 50% of,

and I think I used my teacher discount of 15% off that. 

I used only four stems.

The how-to-do-its (as if it's not self-explanatory, hello, it's a craft I did...):

• Paint front side of letter with red acrylic paint (we did this the night before)
• Let paint dry
• Snip berries from stems
• Hot glue to letter

Interesting observations:
     Erin used a letter that could stand on its own, and she applied bigger shiny red berries.  Katie used a variety of pearlized berries of gold and white along with two shades of red.  Ashley, never having used a glue gun before was quite precise, and her berries were very orderly. (I regret not getting photos, and I will beg them each to post to facebook so I may steal them and augment this post.*)
     In my effort to be random, my hot gluing resulted in a hot mess of glue shnoobly and cobwebs, one of which landed in my margarita. I'm thinking about adding more berries to hide some of the glue blobs. (I was teased that my S may be six layers of berries deep when I am finally done. But I like the lumpiness of it.) This S definitely looks better from a distance!

I may add a ribbon and hang it...

I may prop it up against something and just let it be:

     The most important thing is we had fun and good conversations.  We started a little after seven, and at one point one of us said, "It's almost 11!"  Stunned, we were aware of what a sweet way this was to pass the time.  I love my girls.


*Ashley's!

Katie's  :)

Erin's Friday night A, and then another

P.S.  Mine, after  more finessing and booger removing.  I love it!