Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the U.S. I'll be spending yet another day cleaning and decorating for Christmas, but I'll stop long enough to go with my husband over to my sister-in-law's house for dessert in the evening. My husband will be making a pumpkin pie in the morning--hopefully he'll be able to find some empty space in the kitchen where he can do that. I just realized--and here it is 1:30 a.m.--that I STILL haven't packed away the fall decorations covering the kitchen table. And since that stuff was covering the kitchen table, I'm afraid I've piled a few more things on the kitchen counters--stuff that was in the living room that I've taken down to make way for Christmas decorations. You know those little tile puzzles where you move the tiles around to make a picture or put number in order? My cleaning and decorating is much like that--everything keeps getting shifted from room to room until things look right.

I think my seven years of bad luck are over--knock on wood. Not that I'm superstitious or anything, of course. But here's why I think it just might be true. I left the house this morning at 10 a.m. for Target and was back home, after driving through Starbucks, at 11:15. I never knew I could spend that much money in that little time! But I got another rug shampooer, found the perfect sheers for my bedroom (I was worried I'd have to settle for something boring), found some new RED corduroy tie-on chair pads for the kitchen chairs, found pre-tied little red bows (instead of having to make a separate trip to JoAnn's or Michael's), and came across numerous and sundry other wonderful things that I simply HAD TO HAVE. How often do you go shopping with several specific things in mind and find them all at the same store? I know that rarely happens to me! See, seven years must have passed!

Then today I was one of two winners of my online group's monthly bingo game. I won a pattern and a bunch of pre-cut 2-1/2" strips of Thimbleberries fabric. Cool, huh? Yep, I'm thinking that seven years is definitely over!

So what did I do today? I took a few photos 'cause I knew you'd want to see.

After shopping, I hung the new sheers and the old valance and threaded cream-colored ornaments onto the points of the white eyelet valance. And see those bows on the ornaments? Those were my fantastic Target find! For a few minutes there, I thought my seven years of bad luck might not be quite over because as I went to hang the valance, I realized I had mixed up the rods for the sheers and valance, so I had to take everything down and switch the rods, but it really didn't take too long after all.

Once I got the curtains hung, I finished cleaning the bedroom. Funny all the cobwebs and things you can see when the sun's shining in the window and you have no curtains up! But I had planned to do the cleaning anyway. Oh, and when I dusted off the pin up board that I never use, I remembered I had some vintage Christmas cards, so I put them up--now I have something interesting and festive to look at when I'm sitting at my desk.

By the time I was done, I decided to take a little break and enjoy some arts and crafts therapy out on the patio. Mostly I was painting stuff, like all those wooden letters. I also wanted to do a crackle finish on that little sled. I love crackle finishes. How often do you get to work on something where you actually WANT the paint to look old and deteriorated?

After a bit, when I got tired of watching paint dry, I decided it might be time for a little snack. Painting's hard work and a person can really work up an appetite. Besides, what says "Christmas" more clearly than hot chocolate with marshmallows served in a red and white cup? Yeah, I really didn't WANT the hot chocolate, you understand, since I'm on a diet, but I thought I probably ought to force it down for the sake of the festive holiday spirit. Besides, marshmallows are a low fat food, right?

I don't have any more photos, but after that, I cleaned the living room really, really well, so my husband could haul in and assemble the tree--yes, we do have an artificial tree. So that's done and ready to be decorated. Then we had dinner (turkey leftovers) and I headed into the Sweat Shop with my big, red wooden letters for a little more arts and crafts therapy. I'll show you those when I get them done.

In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!