Only 5 more days of Thankful November to go. I can’t believe I’ve been able to Instagram photo every day so far. I have so much to be thankful for that I could easily do another month. Last week I was thankful for my girls and J. who couldn’t stop hugging me when I got off the plane last Wednesday. I think we can say without a doubt that I was missed, and that is a really good feeling. And HUGE thanks to my sweet husband who made reservations at the Grand Californian hotel at Disney on Thursday and Friday and dinner reservations, too. I think some of it was just self-preservation and making sure he got some turkey, but a lot of it was knowing that I wasn’t in any shape to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful to just relax with him and the girls.

Here were the other thankfuls for the second half of last week:

Day 22: On this day of Thanksgiving I am ever so thankful for waking up in our own home, surrounded by my sweet, healthy family. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be married to my best friend and to be mom to our beautiful girls. May all our family and friends have such blessings today and always.

Day 23: I’m thankful I didn’t eat too much last night so we can spend the day riding coasters and enjoying the park. Nice to have a day “totally off!”

Day 24: I’m so thankful for this lazy, no-soccer, bagels and coffee, watching “THE game” in our jammies kind of Saturday. (Even if the game was a disappointment!)

Day 25: I’m thankful that I can at least make enough $ doing crafty stuff to support my crafting habit. Thanks to all our friends and family who came out to our boutique to support us and PRISM last night.

“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season – like all the other seasons – is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them.”

– Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal

I am truly grateful for all of the miracles in my life. Wishing you many miracles of Thanksgiving today as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so when last we left, I was flying off to Marquette to be with my mom and our extended family to celebrate the life of my aunt, my mom’s sister, Chris. (Aunt Chris is here on the far left – my mom is kissing her. 🙁 She lost her fight with ALS last Friday morning.) It was very hard on the sisters and I was happy to be able to go and spend some time with them.

Of course that meant I did not update the ‘ol blog on Sunday – so we have a week and a half of Thankfuls to run through today! So, here we go…

Day 12: I’m thankful, so SO thankful that we have the means for me to be able to stay at home with my two monkeys. Even on days when they are driving me to the brink of insanity, I know this time with them is fleeting. And I’m so blessed to be a part of their every day life. (Believe it or not cleaning out the drawers and closets today was NOT punishment! They wanted to do it. Seriously!) I could also be thankful for cheap labor I guess, but that is another day.

Day 13: Today I’m thankful for my 25 amazing Girl Scouts and that I get to be a part of their lives. They are all caring, sweet, and generous girls who love to offer their help and spread their joy. It is really special to be able to witness them growing up into such lovely young ladies.

Day 14: I’m thankful for sisters. Today I’m especially thinking of my mom and her sister, so thankful for my own sister and the richness she adds to my life, and thankful my girls have a sister – a built in best friend to always lean on.

Day 15: I’m thankful we live near the ocean. There is something very restorative about being near the water, even if it is with 66 4th graders!

Day 16: I’m thankful for Almond Tea Cakes. A mom at school makes the most delicious ones for our coffee sales and just delivered some for me. On a rainy, chilly day with a cup of tea…perfection! What am I saying they are good on any kind of day! Thank you Grace. (Now can I please have the recipe?)

Day 17: I’m thankful again for my amazing husband. I know I already “used” him, but I could do 30 days of Thankfuls for him and not run out of reasons. This morning he spent hours trying to get me on another flight that would just get me to my mom! I’m at Santa Ana airport on a different airline flying into a different city, but I’ll get there at some point tomorrow. Thank you my sweet J. You were by far the greater half of our team this morning.

Day 18: Today I’m thankful for being in Marquette with my mom and dad. They may only have one flight a day, 20,000 deer to avoid, and freezing weather – but they have a Starbucks. After the travel day I had and getting in at 1 am this morning, I was so thankful to see this!

Day 19: thankful for a workout along Lake Superior this morning.

Day 20: Today I’m thankful for my mom and dad. I’m thankful for every minute I get to spend with them, I’m eternally thankful to them for giving me my brother and sister and for helping me be who I am today. Love you both.

Day 21: Very thankful to be going home. As good as it was to see my family, I cannot wait to get hugs and kisses from my three loves. And to sleep in my own bed. There is no place like home.

We have some crafting going on…but it is all in prep for our upcoming Holiday Boutique. If you are in the area – come have some treats with us and check out our crafty goodness. Maybe you can get a little holiday shopping done, too!

I’ll post pics and prices for those of you who can’t make it to my courtyard this Saturday! Have a great week.

I didn’t do a darn crafty thing last week. Wait! I did…but didn’t take a photo of it. I made “I survived Camporee” tees for all my moms who camped with us.  I’ll have to snap a pic as soon as mine reappears from the depths of the laundry.

I didn’t have to scoop pumpkins this year (thanks Nena!) or help carve them. But I did love Daddy’s ingenuity with Em’s pumpkin (complete with braces!)…

And Ad’s pumpkin of, what else? … A CAT!

Even their costumes were relatively easy, as in – already made. Em went as Hermione, so I only had to braid her hair the night before and help her gather the pieces of the costume together. And Ad went as a ballet kitty…so I quickly sewed up a tail for her and some ears. Already had black outfit, pink tutu and ballerina slippers.

It couldn’t have been an easier Halloween. Addie didn’t even need me to take her makeup off at school during the parade. She got a little help from her friends…

But it has left me jones-ing for some good crafting. I think we best get started on Thanksgiving around here.

So that last week of October seemed to get swallowed up with camping, Halloween, a visiting Nena & Bill, and all kinds of crazy choatic-ness. I’ve got photos and posts to share about it all, but it just might take a few more days for me to get accustomed to it being NOVEMBER before I get it all up!

I am participating in the Thankful November on Instagram this month. You can follow along – I’m cvoris – if you’d like, or I thought I’d just post the weeks worth of “Thankfuls” each Sunday. That way I’ll have them all in one spot when I make a hard copy of my blog for the girls. Ahem. Yes. THAT is so going to happen. Get right on it.

Anyhow – what I gave thanks for this week:

Day 1:  Thankful we still have the arts in our school. Em and her class took a field trip to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to see the LA Philharmonic. They were encouraged to dress up and she chose to wear this. (Another reason to be thankful that morning, she looked like a little girl instead of a tomboy…like usual!)

Day 2: I’m thankful that Addie has caught the school and reading “bug.” I love walking into the playroom to scenes like this…she has been playing teacher to all of her stuffed animals and dolls. I guess I’m also thankful she got Mrs. Peters as a teacher this year, too. She has inspired both of my girls to a new level of thinking.

Day 3: I’m thankful that J has a job that allows us to spend our days off at the “happiest place on Earth!” I’m also thankful that it really is one of my “happy places.” Bill asked me how many times I’d been on Pirates of the Carribean and if it ever gets old…and although I can’t even guess how many times I’ve been on the ride (it’s one of my faves), I’m happy to say it never, ever gets old. (This pic is not on Pirates, though. It is on Hollywood Tower of Terror. Em decided to brave it again…the last time she had been on it she was maybe 4 or 5? I guess it was her first AND last time and she hated it. Friday she decided to give it another try and she decided she kinda likes it!)

Day 4: I’m thankful for Birdie #2 who brings beautiful flowers over just because, is the most creative, crafty Mama I know, and is my shoulder when I need one. Love you Mommy Jamie.

Remember when I told you about our new vinyl warehouse find? Oh, yes. That would have been just last week…I’m sure YOUR memory is far better than mine these days.

Soooo, yes. Found great vinyl place. Made lots of great vinyl tees this week.

First we had to make some Halloween tees, what with Halloween only a week or so away!

For our “spooky” cat, Addikins:

Ohhhh…look getting fancy with TWO colors of vinyl. Which inspired us to take it to THREE…

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You can’t see it really well, but that is purple SPARKLE. Oh, yes it is. And Birdie #2 had to make some for the Mama Birds to wear, too…

But it wasn’t ALL Halloween, ALL the time around here, well at least not on the t-shirt front.

I also put together some jog-a-thon tees for the girls. Each grade wears a certain color. Addie (2nd) is yellow this year and Em & Audrey (4th) are blue.

And then I did a project near and dear to my heart. My mom is one of four sisters (gee, how did we end up with two girls?!) and her oldest sister was diagnosed with ALS about two months ago. This is quite the heart-breaking disease as we are all finding out. My aunt’s family is doing a benefit for her this weekend and I cannot go, but I can (and did) create a little something for the sisters to wear to the benefit.

On the back are “jersey birth order numbers, too.”

These are one of those times that it is so frustrating to be so far away and feel so helpless. But I know that at least my mom, and my aunts, know that they are with me in my heart and never far from my thoughts.

Now, go call your sister(s) and tell them how very important they are in your life.

Or better yet, make them a little pumpkin to give to them when you see them.

So easy. Just cut out the initial out of outdoor vinyl, stick on. Tie a bow around the stem!

Plus, these little beauties work double-time all the way through Thanksgiving decor.

Well, maybe that isn’t the EASIEST craft we did this week. This one probably was. Remember when my mom made those amazing cards for us last year? I pulled them out and the folder that they sat in got kinda (totally) messed up. So I made a Halloween banner with them. Literally stuck them on a ribbon. Doesn’t get any easier than that.

Yes…that is our mantle falling apart. The Master Plaster guy is on our to-do list. God bless old houses. They will always keep you busy.

So tell me what has been keeping you busy this week?

I’ve been kind of not been around again this week mostly because I am in full.panic.mode.

One week from tomorrow we are taking 24 girls to Camporee – a weekend camping trip extravaganza for 10,000 of our closest Girl Scout friends. In celebration of 100 years of Girl Scouts (I guess they only do Camporee once every 25 years) and the girls’ burning desire to get out and camp (we bought troop supplies with our cookie earnings from last year – so thank you everyone who bought cookies!) my co-troop leader and I thought it would be fun to take the girls to Camporee.

Seriously starting to regret that decision now. Please send good camping thoughts, ideas for no-cook meals and snacks, and alcohol (for the moms…not the girls!). I think we will need a glass of wine (or three!) next Sunday.

…popping up in unexpected places!

Check this out! I stopped over to look at the prices of the labels and check out the last photo in the 2nd row of items…

Namemaker.com

TWO BIRDIES! Imagine my surprise when I realized that it was OUR label.

Well…I have 50+ t-shirts to show you? I have quite a few projects in various states of completion but this is the only one I’ve been able to pull across the finish line this week.

This little project did prompt Birdie #2 and I to seek out a vinyl/heat transfer supply alternative and ‘lo and behold living in LA has some huge advantages. Eleven miles from our house is this warehouse filled with every kind of vinyl, flocked and heat transfer goodness in every color you can imagine. I’m talking even amazing vinyl that is all glittered up and almost 1/2 the price that we were paying online. We will have LOTS of goodies to show you next week for sure.

For now I’m boxing these tees up (they are coming to you as we speak, Meesh!), and thanking our lucky stars that we were able to buy that heat press machine. THAT has made project life so much more fun. Instead of five minutes to iron the vinyl on each t-shirt, it takes about 30 seconds. Uh huh. Much more do-able.