Hello December... finally...

Wow, it's almost a week into December and I haven't posted a thing! Just to let you know, (you being the wonderful handful of blog readers that I have), all is fine. Just really busy. Thanksgiving (a completely photoless affair) was wonderful and we really enjoyed having Kent's mother here with us for a week. She sewed and I don't know what I did, honestly... cook and do dishes maybe...but it wasn't crafting!

So, we are getting into the Christmas spirit at our house, just a little more slowly this year. The Friday after Thanksgiving Kent and I had a date night at Table 16 for dinner and then saw the play "Beautiful Star". It was terrific (the food, esp. the Roasted Pumpkin and Feta cheese soup, the night out, and the play)!

This past Friday night we attended a community festival of lights downtown and since I did take photos, I'll share a few:

I'm woefully behind in my Dec. Daily again, but I plan to catch up this week, really... and I did scrap a layout this weekend after we decorated our tree... but I can't show it to you... it's part of a fun Fall Layout Tag I'm participating in over at Noel Mignon... you really should check out the community there for some great holiday ideas in "Santa's Workshop!"

Candlelight Coffee

Last night was our church's annual Candlelight Coffee held to kick off the holiday season. We had over 50 tables decorated and hosted by ladies using their personal china, centerpieces, etc. It is so much fun to see all the creative touches and sweet little favors everyone does. This year my friend Pam helped me decorate and host our "Season of Blessings" table (you can see the favors in my post below). We also gave them some "Indian Corn" candy. Here is our table:

Almost 500 women attended! Our pastors' wives sang 2 lovely songs for us, our Children's & Preschool Pastor showed us how to make lovely Boxwood Christmas trees (he has such a talent with floral arrangements), we dined on little sandwiches and "coffee cup cakes", and were inspired by PJ's stories (PJ is our Pastor's wife). It was a fun evening and maybe by next year I'll be ready to do it again, lol!

Here are a few other tables that were just amazing:

Fall favors... blessings booklets

This weekend I've been working on table favors for the dear ladies that will sit at my table Friday at our church's Candlelight Coffee. It is fun to see all the beautiful decorations and china the women use to decorate an assortment of holiday tables. I'm so thankful to Pam, who is co-decorator and is providing our pottery!

I've made little "blessing booklets" for each place setting... a little something they can use to record their own blessings, or they can take out the cards and have others write their blessings (maybe at Thanksgiving), then re-assemble and have a special little memory booklet. I used my Stampin' Up Top Note die and brown ink, trimmed index cards, oval, leaf and acorn punches, fall felties, stickles, ribbon, and Unity stamps.

Made a mini...

We're having another challenge over at Willow Traders this month (THAW - three a week) and the one for today was a scraplifing challenge from a gallery of the generous sponsors of prize kits. I've been admiring a mini album of Kindergarten Favorties by Michelle Lanning at Work In Progress kits. I don't have that WIP kit (tho' I do have others and LOVE them), so I finally opened up my Core Curriculum kit from Noel Mignon Kit Club and made a mini for Tessa, to record her favs this year. I was also inspired by Noel's school year mini album.

Happy Birthday, Tessa!

Yesterday was Tessa's 6th birthday. She's been so excited (and thinks we'll be celebrating her the whole month of October). Here are a few photos from our "family dinner". Tomorrow, she'll celebrate with friends at the Natural Science Center's "Creature Feature" party.

And I am also including a layout of her "galloping" (this is when she was 4.5 or so). She still loves to gallop and prefers it over running... wonder if she can do a "mile gallop" instead of the "mile run" at school this week? Whatever works!

Hello, October... one of my favorite months!

I've always loved October. We get "picture perfect" days here in NC - crisp cool air, clear blue skies, beautiful leaf colors and my favorite daytime temps (70s). Of course, Tessa thinks October is "her" month since she celebrates her birthday (9th) and Halloween (she adores the decorations and costumes... the candy isn't too bad, either).

Under the willow tree (Willow Traders), we're finishing up our September LEO challenge today (Layout Every Other day) and a new challenge is starting THAW (THree A Week), so come join us for some creative fun! Here is my last LEO layout (where the challenge was to use paint or ink). I painted some chipboard and used my woodgrain tool (also pictured below... I bought it in the paint dept. at Lowe's). I scraplifed Lisa (check out her blog, she's so talented), I used papers from the Scrapbook Circle Sept. kit, and a bunch of assorted embellies I had around here. This photo goes back about 10 years - Seth is 9 months old and Grandma is "teaching" him piano.

Thankful for friends...

Today for the LEO "then and now" challenge, I scrapped my prayer group. My friends, the "th club" (Beth, Ruth, Beth... and they added honorary member Candath way back in '93...) So thankful for their friendship and prayers. Was fun documenting a few highlights. Have journals of our prayers over the years and it is so cool to go back and read them, to see the answered prayers (some the way we hoped, some not... but always in His will and His timing). God is so good and I am so glad he put us in each others' lives.