Thanksgiving Blessings...Part One!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It does my heart good to see my hard-working husband happy.  He loves this holiday and so it is fun for me to make it special for him!  We started the day with our Parade Breakfast...

Our good friends stopped by on their way to Gulf Shores

PJs are welcome...and some even watch the parade!

Everyone brings a breakfast item...which makes it easy!

Our dear friends...who love this tradition!

 

We loved all the sweet sentiments on the Thankful tree...this one done by our fabulous and apparently gifted granddaughter, Claire ;)

But the best one had to be this sentiment written by Katie Jernigan about her brother Nick (who couldn't be here)...

But alas, when the parade ends it is time to switch gears...

Willy Bird (named that by Williams Sonoma...not me) must go in the oven!

Stay tuned...the day is just getting started!

Kathryn Stockett

Remember back when I went to Vandy to pick up Katelyn for her Thanksgiving break???  I went on the Wednesday of that week and Katelyn and I went to hear Kathryn Stockett speak about her book The Help. 

I loved this book and was very curious how this young woman had so much insight...the answer...she wrote on a subject she knew something about first hand.  She grew up in the south and experienced a life with the family "help."

Her Abilene was named Dimitri and she had a fierce love and respect for her.

  Here are some interesting points from her talk:

*She lived certain aspects of the story she wrote.

*She grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.

* She went to Alabama where she got a degree in English/Creative Writing.

*After college she moved to NYC and worked in magazine publishing and marketing and wrote this first novel.

*She got 60 rejection letters for The Help.

*  For the cover design she chose a picture of a black woman's hand holding a small white child's hand.  Her publisher called and said they couldn't use that picture because it would make the book look racist...

*Her one request about the cover...any colors but LSU's...

*Alas, the final cover design has no hidden meaning...she was just tired of looking at artwork...and yes, the colors are vaguely LSUish!!

*Her best friend begged to write the screenplay version, she hesitated because he hadn't been successful up to that point...but in the end...

She is currently working on a new novel and she claims that it is not going well at all...she has no idea what the characters are thinking/doing at this point and she and her agent go to lunch and talk about everything but!!

And her advice to budding writers...

Read everything, everything, everything. Do not give up...ever! if you believe in the story you have written, keep submitting the manuscript.

The Thanksgiving festivities begin...on the road!

I am leaving tomorrow for Nashville...it will be a long day of driving to get up there in time to go with Katelyn to see Kathryn Stockett at the Vandy Student Life Center!  I loved her novel, The Help, the movie was really good, and I totally love her red dress :)  Can't wait!!

            

I have been doing tons to get ready to go because when I return with Kate, we will have Claire...must be organized!!  I finished all of the grocery shopping that can be done up to this point AND I finished all of my little projects which included moving the furniture from the boathouse out onto the deck by the fire pit (which also meant cleaning it), making Claire a snugly blanket (then I decided to make her two...one just for Christmas...but she loves blankets when she is sitting on the couch :), and putting together last year's Thanksgiving memories into a scrapbook...just in time for this year's pictures!!
Here are a few pages...

I love a good old fashioned scrapbook (I do love those that you make

online and they arrive in the mail beautiful and finished and not one single trip to Michael's...but more about that another time)! 

I am not certain if I will make it back on the blog before Thanksgiving...maybe I will get a bug next week to stay up super late!! Either way, I wish for you a wonderful Thanksgiving...we are all truly blessed!

Pinterest Fun!

My new best friend on the internet is Pinterest!!  I love, love, love it!!
I can design dream rooms, pick out beautiful jewelry and chandeliers, put together new outfits, drool over shoes, books, photographs, and decorate my house for the holidays....without spending a penny!

This is one of my favorite boards...I love RED!

My Arts and Crafts board has lots of inspiring projects.

The hello kitty Halloween pumpkin that Chelsea made was a Pinterest

 idea she tweaked!

 I love this globe..."go and make disciples of all the nations."

For Thanksgiving I did my version of the Thankful Tree...

On Thanksgiving day guests at both our parade breakfast and later on, dinner, will get to share words of thankfulness!

I bought gift tags and decorated them.

 I spray painted the mini clothespins yellow.

The teacher in me loves a good art project!!!! I am not the only one...go check out some of my friend, Renee's, pinterest projects (yep she is a teacher)!
                                             http://renee-eskimokisses.blogspot.com

If you haven't checked out pinterest yet...here is the link to it

www.pinterest.com

Go...enjoy...it doesn't cost a thing :)

Happy Pinning!!

Getting ready for the Holidays...toile and Mr. Clean!

The days are speeding by...does anyone else notice that this happens in October, November, and December?  But January...that month just creeps along!  Anyhow, I am busy trying to get organized for the Thanksgiving holidays which for me starts next Wednesday when I head up to Nashville to bring Katelyn home for Thanksgiving week!  When we return home we will have Claire with us (David and Nicole will follow a couple days later).

So it's back upstairs I go to finish up Chelsea's room which we had painted a month ago.  She gave me carte blanche to sort and store and get rid of STUFF and I did!  I bought new bedding and updated pictures in frames (a lot from our trip to Europe)...the room is supposed to have a grown-up french country feel to it (my little curly-haired red head is turning 21 on the 18th)...

Chelsea is not a huge fan of the color red...so I used it sparingly but it goes so well with black and toile (the bathroom is black and taupe toile with black cabinets...the furniture is my grandmother's.

My friend, Yvonne, bought these paintings in Paris many years ago...

I love them and am so happy to be able to hang them again!

I wish I had taken a before picture of these shelves!!

I did devote one shelf to trophies...one from each sport she played...

soccer, tennis, basketball, t-ball...and dance!

This book is for Nicole...and me...we always need to brush up on our French!

Over the top you think...well I had to buy a pack n' play...and this one just happens to match the room where the kids stay when they are in town...I couldn't resist :) 

I have also been doing things that get done infrequently...or maybe just every November before the holidays.  We have white doors everywhere in our house.  They are beautiful but get dirty, especially around the handles and doorknobs. It is super easy to clean off fingerprints with the magic eraser...in no time my white doors are smudge free (for the most part) and this year I tackled my white staircase...

Lots of spindles...but great results...evidenced by the dirty eraser!

I know what you're thinking...she needs a life...but no really this is my life!