I feel like a stuffed turkey...

...but with friends and family, and food and drink, there is so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend. I will be especially thankful if I can still fit into my pants by week's end! 

Our weekend was filled with the colours, and tastes, and smells of autumn. We were extremely thankful the weather cooperated enough (They were calling for snow earlier in the week! Eeks!) for us to visit Apple Park to pick out some pumpkins to carve with cousins at our family Thanksgiving feast. I can't get enough of those colours!! 

I don't think these poor pumpkins know what's coming...

Cousin Chloe insisted on using a spoon to clean out her pumpkin guts because "I'm a girl, and girls don't use their hands," she proclaimed. But she relented (the spoon was taking too long!) and got down and dirty with those boys!

Three little pumpkins standing in a row...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gettin' crafty!

Just over a year ago, after finding myself suddenly unemployed and looking for inexpensive ways to gift the loves of my life, I made a commitment to do so by making everything myself. Inspired by some pretty amazing craft bloggers out there in the ether,  I vowed to make use of every pogey-supported minute (while I wasn't looking for a job, of course!) and get crafty! I dusted off my rarely-used sewing machine and got busy whipping up bags with openings partially sewn together (I think Auntie Nessa is still carrying hers around that way!) and dresses with crooked hems - no, they weren't perfect, but I did it! I made them all myself and it felt so good to give away something that I actually made with my very own hands!! Over the year my sewing skills had no where to go but up - my seams are getting straighter and my seam ripper is...well, I'm not sure exactly where it is because it's been awhile since I've needed it! So I wanted to share my latest creation - the picnic blanket shown above. It was made as a wedding gift for dear friends who recently got married (Congratulations Dominique and Dave!). It was inspired by this post here but I made the squares 12"x12" and did 5 rows of 5 squares. And as I sit here on this frightful day, I'm already planning on whipping up one for myself for warm summer picnics on the beach!