projected

So, no pictures of rooms today -aside from inadvertant peeks in the following pictures-. It's dark and gloomy again and you're lucky in that the hallway bathroom was the only room I couldn't use that excuse for. It's been kind of a gray and gloomy week.

So instead I thought I'd show and tell a couple of quick Thanksgiving projects I did around here in between painting house stuff a couple of weeks ago.

Sidenote:
I've discovered that it's really kind of hard (for me) to try to move in, unpack and decorate a new home in seasonal times. You want some seasonal/holiday decor, but you also kind of want things normal and be able to see where what of your everyday stuff will go where. And no matter what kind of decor it is -seasonal or real life- it's a ever evolving puzzle trying to figure out where it best fits in the new house as you go room to room made doubly hard with holidays. Gah!

But here we are at Thanksgiving. And sorry I'm a little late on getting these ideas out there considering Thanksgiving is less than a week away, but oh well. They're super simple enough that you can still easily throw them together if you're still looking for a last minute way to decorate or celebrate this holiday of giving thanks!

This one is nothing big, nothing special, but I really like that it's so simple and understated.
I'd been struggling with my mantle in the family room... no longer feeling the things that were in the old house fit in this room, but not wanting to spend money on mantle decor right now when it's holiday time and I won't even be looking at a "normal" mantle until January. I have a collection of Christmas trees that are up there all of December (LOVE that collection), and while I have plenty of Fall decorations, I wasn't feeling any of it in this room.
I think it's that I wanted it to feel like it complimented the colors and the feel of the room... it's mostly cool with punches of bright colors and just a bunch of dark warmth, the orange and brown and leaves and such thrown in there, felt wrong.
Also? Didn't want to buy anything.
But I needed something new.
So making a sweet simple sign was my simple little answer (for this year anyway).
(And by they way, I still have my eye out for the perfect -and cheap- mirror out there for above the mantle hence the vast expanse of empty space on the wall)
















Everything on the mantle is from my stash except for the green berries on the wreath, which I grabbed at Michaels for like $5. Candles were on our original mantle, apples and pear from my Fall decorations, grapevine wreath from extra craft supplies and a canvas board I covered with paper and letters.













I simply glued a piece of scrapbook paper to the canvas board, scrounged up some chipboard letters (the bigger cream colored ones were glittery blue and I spray painted them cream and then dry brush painted some white to give it some depth) and whalah!



I love the simplicity of it.












And here's another Thanksgiving goodie we've thrown together the last couple of weeks -one that I know I saw somewhere while back on some blog, but have no idea where;
Our give thanks board




















I used a frame missing it's glass, stapled some twine zigzagging back and forth, and made a little plaque (that's only temporarily attached so I can use the frame for something else in the future or for other seasons) with paper and rub on letters.

















I cut up some little cards and they now reside in a little bowl on our kitchen island...

















The kids are excited about this one and filling out the cards and hanging them on. (In fact, I think I need to limit them to three a day!)(and find other places to put them!!)























A close up of a few of my favorites...
Sawyer wrote thanks for graham crackers and God ♥ me [he's just learned how to draw hearts] and SJ wrote friends visiting (the Swinigans) and the Thanksgiving turkey.










Any Thanksgiving specials from you all this year??