Thanksgiving Table Place Cards

Hello, happy Monday. Hope you all have had a fabulous weekend. We've had the most laid-back weekend over here. It's been nice, but sort of a little too laid-back, if that makes sense.

Even Arthur has been a little too lazy...

You guys, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I'm so excited and I can hardly handle it. We're going "home" to visit my parents and I can't wait to see everyone and eat some delicious food! It will also be nice to get away from work for a few days. I love my job, but this girl needs a break.

Are you guys planning a big Thanksgiving feast?? We are! I have pie duty, but I won't be driving home until late Wednesday night. The oven will be occupied all day Thursday, so I made mine yesterday and stuck it in the freezer. If it turns out well, I'll be sharing the recipe on Friday :)

And speaking of Thanksgiving, look at these fun cupcakes at Whole Foods. They crack me up! I'm not sure how I feel about the one meant to look like mashed potatoes, especially with the "gravy" running down it.

I'll also be printing these fabulous little place cards for our table. I made them today and they're the perfect amount of festive without being tacky. I'll hand-write everyone's name, fold it in half horizontally, and place it at their spot. Feel free to copy/paste or save it and edit it as you please :)


























Have a wonderful week :)
How early do you start cooking for Turkey Day??

DIY Paper Garland

I've been pretty excited about holidays lately and my new "thing" is making garland. It's a really simple and inexpensive way to add some holiday spirit to a room. I started on Etsy, trying to figure out what kind of garland I could easily manage re-creating. About half an hour later, I had this hanging over the entry way to the kitchen!

 

I noticed that a lot of these types of garland on Etsy were sewn together with a sewing machine. For fall/Thanksgiving, I wanted to incorporate a more natural look and the hemp from my previous projects was just what I needed! I gathered card stock in my favorite fall colors, a one-inch circular hole punch, scissors, and photo squares to make this super cute garland. If you don't have photo squares, spray adhesive would work well too.

After cutting off about six feet of the hemp, I began cutting out my card stock circles with the hole punch. After I had a large amount of each color, I placed photo corners on the back of two circles and adhered them together with the hemp in the middle. I continued this process with a pattern of five different colored circles until I reached the end of the hemp cord, knotting a loop at each end for ease of hanging. Ta-da! I saw similar garland strands on Etsy for $10 plus $4 for shipping. This project didn't cost me anything!

While I had my supplies out, I went ahead and made a garland for Christmas. Instead of the fall colors and the hemp, I used red and green circles and a white satin ribbon. Same concept and just as cute!

I originally got the idea to make my own holiday garland when I found bat cut-outs at the Dollar Tree just before Halloween. As you can see from the photo below, I turned it into something festive with a regular hole punch and some orange satin ribbon.

 

How do you add simple touches to your home for the holidays?