13 days...

'til Turkey Day! I love Thanksgiving. Probably because I love turkey. And stuffing. Corn casserole.* Green beans. Deviled eggs. Strawberry cranberry salad. *make this at your own risk to your heart health. It is soooo good and people ask me for the recipe all the time, but it is not what I would call a "healthy" dish. In any sense of the word. But I've never met a person who didn't love it. So much so that my MIL made me turkey, stuffing, and green beans the night I came home from the hospital with our second bambino. I cleaned the plate. And then I asked for seconds. And when my husband asked me what I wanted more of, I told him to make the second plate exactly like the first. And then I cleaned that one, too. Sick, I know. It either speaks to my deep and abiding love of turkey and all the accoutrements, or that I had not eaten solid food in several days. I prefer the former explanation. We have a pretty casual Thanksgiving dinner... complete with all the usual suspects... Mom & Dad, brother and sister-in-law, etc... so we don't usually have place cards at our seats. (Does anyone else's family sit in the *exact* same seats *every* time?! I am just not sure what would happen if Dad didn't sit at my left at the table and Mom at my right with my brother across. Because that is just how we eat meals. All other family members have to fit in around the traditional Dad/brother/Mom/me formation because I can assure you, you do *NOT* break ranks in a tradition that workin' on past 30 years at this point. Are we the only ones?) But, I'm not against the idea of place cards. In fact, I kinda liked how this one turned out. This little project comes to you from the November/December issue of Paper Crafts. The Photo Finish section is on how personalize your holiday table with photos... fun! For the holder, I can assure you, it was one of the easiest projects I have ever attempted. I just walked out the front door, picked up two sticks, and hot glued the ends together. Done. I printed Brian's picture in a sepia tone to kind of go with the autumnal theme, then layered it up and stamped his name and sentiment (Simple Alphabet by Papertrey Ink). I trimmed the little acorn and leaf accents from some patterned paper (all papers are from the Mr. Campy collection by Cosmo Cricket) and added those just for a little fun. Then I slipped the whole thing in between the sticks and voila. It stands up by itself and everything. Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. If you're in the mood for a freebie, you can pop on by the Paper Crafts Connection blog for Freebie Friday. Kelly has linked up 6 projects from the Go-to-Gals (my project is from Wednesday's post below) and is offering up a sweet prize package from Karen Foster (it's a calendar kit which you could whip up and give as a sweet Christmas gift, therefore crossing one person off your list!). Later, friends!