Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone!  Although only one day of the year is officially sanctioned as “Thanksgiving,” we believe in gratitude all year ’round. We’re blessed to have amazing family which we see on a regular basis. Not just once or twice a year.

We started the day bright ‘n’ early with a 5k run. The Run for Raz shirts are in honor of Joe’s aunt who lost her battle with cancer a few years ago. She was a high school track coach, so this year everyone decided to do a 5k on Thanksgiving morning.

Joe & Leah

Robert, Lora, and Marissa

Breakfast treats

Run for Ras

After the run and a quick breakfast in the park, we headed to my grandma’s house for our fall birthday party/Thanksgiving combo. While we were there, Joe’s mom and grandma got the turkey started back at Joe’s house.

After my grandma’s house for lunch, back to Joe’s house for dinner we go!

We tried to get the house as ready as we could a few days beforehand.

Strut it

Wash that floor

Set up

Cleanin’ and jammin’

Heat that garage

Wash and dry floors

You know, for a garage it cleaned up kinda nicely. For about 35 people, I think this little house held its own.

Adding some crafty touches

Started with

Glass paint

Taped the glass

Painted and dried

Baking

Baked

Final touches

Glitter

Done!

I decorated two water carafes for around the dinner tables. I just started with some old glass jars and wanted to paint them with this gold and orange glass paint that I snagged at under $2 apiece. I found that the transparent paint barely showed, so go with opaque if you’re gonna try this. Here are instructions from marthastewart.com:

Curing Instructions for Martha Stewart Glass Paint and Martha Stewart Craft Paint

Air cure for 21 days OR bake in an oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

There are a few exceptions to this rule:

• Do not bake any of our paints that contain glitter (Fine Glitter Glass Paint, Glitter Craft Paint and Coarse Glitter Craft Paint). These should follow air curing instructions.
• Do not bake any of our specialty effects found in our Craft Paint Line such as our Fine Crackle Effect, Weather Crackle Effect, White Texture Effect, Glitter Texture effect, etc.
• Only bake glass that is oven safe.
• Always heat your glass objects gradually; start in a cold oven and never handle your piece until completely cooled
• Do not allow any painted area to come into contact with another surface while oven-curing.
• Only plan on baking your item once.  Repeated baking at that high temperature will compromise the integrity of the paint and make it brittle and more susceptible to marring and chipping.

Here are some better ones:

Now that I know how to do this, I’d air dry next time. The oven bubbled up the paint in some spots. It looked kinda cool, but not the look I was going for.

Pumpkinator Project

Pumpkins

Sprayed, dried, and de-stemed

Hold it steady

One done

Drill

Boom – it’s a candle holder

We measured the circumference of a tea light, and decided that the 1.5″ drill bit would do the trick. Thanks for your help on this, Joe!

For next year, I need to stash away mini pumpkins early — I frantically tried to find them after Halloween. No dice. Any grocery store, pumpkin patch, or craft store has plenty of mini pumpkins and gourds around Halloween, but not a day after.

Coming Together

So, it all came together. Didn’t I tell you it would?

Remember all of my pinecones? I sprayed them with extra white and gold spray paint and added glitter. Stores charge $5+ for bundles of pinecones, so this is the way to go. Repurpose for Christmas bonus points

Cones and candles

Welcome!

Candles

On display

Makes kind of a cute entry way decoration, don’t you think?

Centerpieces

I made a couple centerpieces – the first with an old wreath and the pumpkin from my work desk. Wow, I never knew pumpkins were so versatile!

Put together a second one with a ceramic candle holder and a combination of real and artificial leaves:

Home stretch

Lastly, I added a piece of brown parchment paper to the kids’ table with some coloring crayons scattered around it. This was a big hit! I wish I had a photo of all the castles, sharks, and super heros we colored on there.

Game time

We set up a beverage station, turned on the football game, and put our host hats on.

Good food, good family, good memories

Too busy making memories to take photos. Oh well. We capped off the night watching a movie with a few close friends and family and then slept many, many hours. It was a great day to be thankful.

How was your day of thanks?