12 Days of Christmas For Teacher

Christmas shopping is pretty much done, house is decorated, and presents are wrapped and under the tree. Of course the list never ends and even when I think I'm ahead of the game...I remember I still need to ship out gifts and cards. A while ago Chloe and I decided we would do 12 days of gifts for her teacher. They are just little tokens, some better than others. I only have about 6 of the 12 in mind. I did see a lady on Pinterest who did this, but she wrote cute little poems for each gift. You can check out her ideas here. I didn't use her gift ideas and I definitely don't have the time to be that creative. So I went with this simple theme of just writing the number and the name of the gift. We are going with her idea of "secretly" giving the gifts. Then Chloe can reveal herself on the last day. Here's is today's...

Hostess Gift

The first one in NC was a genuine success. Of course, we missed the fam and normal 80 degree temperatures in SD, but it was special nonetheless. Thanksgiving has come and gone along with Black Friday. Now as I wait for Cyber Monday, I'm putting away all things fall and hopefully by Monday the house will look like...as cousin Ian says, "Santa threw up in it." Thanksgiving was a great success and just in case I lose my directions for my superbly moist turkey that was perfectly cooked in my counter top roaster, I'm including a link here. That, my friends, is the solution to only having one oven when you are hosting the Thanksgiving dinner. BTW, the way you get dinner on the table at 4:58 when dinner is scheduled at 5:00, is to have a list...and follow it!

Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad

I also wanted to share with you the most wonderful hostess gift. It's so good in fact, you'll need to buy two. One for her and one for you. No one brought me this gift, but I did serve it yesterday. I found it on my own many years ago. However, I haven't had much luck seeing it around until now. It's Champagne...well not really. It's Cava. Cava is the term for sparkling wine in Spain. We can technically only call Champagne, Champagne. Champagne is the region in France that it comes from. It also refers to the method that is used to make it, méthode champenoise. In this method, the best method, the wine is fermented in the bottle,  the actual bottle that you purchase it in. Now, back to Cava and what makes this Cava so special is that it is made using the Champagne method. So you will get this beautiful bottle of sparkling wine that tastes great and is a great value. Your hostess will think you spent a fortune, and she will have the beautiful bottle to keep long after the wine is gone. She can use it for olive oil or dish soap if she gets one of those little pourer thingies, or she can make a bottle lamp like I did, if she's crafty.

Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad is a sparkling wine that always gets rave reviews. It is one of my personal favorites. Especially the price point. I got mine at Lowe's Foods for $21. Once upon a time they sold it at Trader Joe's. I would highly suggest putting in the effort to find some, you won't be dissapointed. Imagine what a great Christmas gift it would make!

Under $5 Felt Pennant Bunting Banner Tutorial

Pennant Banners are all the rage. Are they called banners or bunting? What is bunting anyway? Regardless of their name, they are so darn cute. I've really wanted to make one, but I don't have any fancy tools like a Cricut machine and I wanted this to be a quick, simple, and inexpensive project. Since I am hosting Thanksgiving this year, I decided on a Thanksgiving theme, to add some extra festiveness to my dining room. Speaking of Thanksgiving, am I the only one who is so sick of walking into any store to find something Thanksgiving related only to be inundated with Christmas stuff? For God's sake, I was starting to think I missed Thanksgiving altogether. But I digress, here is what you will need to do.
Supplies:
Your supplies will ultimately depend on what size flags and lettering you choose.
I needed 3 squares of fancy felt and 1 square of felt that has a sticky side.
Good scissors, I used fabric scissors for the felt
Printer
Yarn or anything you want to use to hang it.
Embellishments (optional)

First, decide on what size you want your pennants to be. My pennant template was 6.5"x 4.5" with 1/2-3/4 inch space at the top if you want to fold it over. You can search online for different sizes and shapes of pennant templates. Then print it out and cut it.

Next, print out your lettering. I used a Word document and printed out the letters for the word "THANKFUL" in Beach Extended font in the font size of 200. After it's printed carefully cut out each letter.

Trace those letters onto the paper side of the sticky felt. Make sure you place the letters backward or upside down rather when you trace.

Now, cut the letter out of the felt using your fabric or really sharp scissors. Peel off the backing and invert it and stick to pennant.

Once all your letters are done you have to decide how you want to hang it. I wanted to sew mine for a more finished look. That's why I added the 3/4 inch flap at the top. I folded it over yarn and sewed it. That way the yarn can move freely and I can move the flags closer together or farther apart. You can sew this by hand if you don't have a machine. You can also use ribbon or raffia to hang it. You could glue it I suppose, or you could leave the flap off altogether and punch some brackets though.

After I hung it I added these flowers that were on clearance at Michael's.

This was sooo easy and I was perfectly happy with it's simplicity. I can't wait to make one for Christmas, but not until Thanksgiving is OVER!

Week In Review

The week is coming to an end and can you believe I haven't been to Target one time???! Absolute madness, I tell you. Anyway, I really wanted to post some pics of Halloween, I know I am a bit late, but oh well.

My Zombie Cheerleader

Zombie Cheerleaders Pumpkin

Get this! Honey had to go get some new pumpkins on Saturday, because the ones I had gotten to carve had turned to mush. As we are carving them we notice they are green pumpkins, spray painted orange! Look closely at the star eye. What's up with dat?

Nash's Pumpkin (Grim Reaper)

Lil's Pumpkin

In other news, Chloe had a swim meet this past weekend. She did quite well. But...they don't really compete against each other. I mean they swim against one another, but times are only meant for personal growth. Each child receives a participation ribbon with their time. They really just want them to improve on their own time each meet. I get it, but for someone who is competitive, like Chloe, it really took a lot of the fun out it.

Other than that not too much going on here except that we are taking a break from piano for a month. The weather is cooling down, nights in the 30's and days in the 60's. And, I have found out that I am hosting Thanksgiving for my in-laws. Pretty funny, since I haven't cooked them a bowl of cereal, much less a freaking turkey! Should be interesting. My guest room is almost ready. I have been working on it for about a month and it is becoming a beautiful, romantic retreat. I don't have any guests scheduled, and I'd be surprised if I ever get one, but it's there if any miracles should happen. I will be posting pictures soon, I just have some finishing touches to make.

Have a great weekend!