Thanksgiving Preparation and Unusual Christmas Colors

Good morning!  Is your turkey thawing in the fridge? Are you baking pies today? Have you made your cranberries? It's a lot of work preparing for a big holiday meal.  Alton Brown from the Food Network made me laugh when he said  "fifteen hours of preparation for a meal that is eaten in fifteen minutes". Sadly it is so true. But what would Thanksgiving be without preparing all of those special holiday dishes that you most likely would not cook any other time year with the exception of Christmas or Easter?

Bob and I are going to simplify our holiday meal this year as we are both on a program to improve our health by not only loosing some weight but also to get some of those nasty "lab rest " in a healthier range. Bob had some terribly unhealthy results recently that shocked me into action for a healthier lifestyle. I will modify recipes and create dishes that will still be festive for the holiday without loads of additional fat and sugar. I will miss my mother's creamed peas recipe served in little individual pastry cups and the mashed potatoes smothered in turkey gravy but not as much as I would miss my husband if he were no longer with me. I am cooking more fresh vegetables and less starchy dishes. Splenda Blend is a wonderful product and works well in dishes requiring sugar. Fresh cranberries are a must for my holiday meals and we can still have them with only half the sugar. Dessert will be wonderful pumpkin custard made with Splenda but and without pie crust as Thanksgiving would just not be the same without pumpkin. I am most thankful for my husband and family and look forward to celebrating many, many more holiday seasons with them. I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and hope your holiday is a blessing for you. 

Rubbernecker Blogger Challenge

Speaking of food!  Hop over and check out today's Rubbernecker Stamps Blogger Challenge. Broni is hosting today's challenge and is challenging you to do projects that deal with food. I'm hoping to upload my challenge card later on this evening.

Unusual Christmas Colors

I stayed home from work yesterday with muscle spasms in my back. I fell a couple of nights ago and all of my body weight hit the side of my computer desk…..back first.  Ouch! I woke up with spasms in my back yesterday that I am sure were caused by favoring my injury. Getting old is hell.  Anyway, Bob gave me strict orders to lay around and to not do any stamping or bending over my stamping table. Snort!!! Me and orders from Bob!!! Well I was good all day using heat compresses, resting, etc but the SCS Color Challenge finally got the best of me last night and I had to make just one little card and it didn't take long. The colors for the challenge were Going Gray, Really Rust and Vanilla. Yuk! As I lounged around all day those colors kept going through my head. I kept thinking of how I could challenge myself to make a holiday card with such non traditional colors. Last night Lovely as a Tree popped into my head and I invisioned a heavy falling snow scene all done in gray and vanilla. I knew in my mind that would be really pretty but how in the world was I going to incorporate that rust. I decided I could get by with just a touch of rust in the scene so I drew in a little snowman with my gray marker and used my rust marker to draw his scarf. UGH! It was not enough to make sense in the scene. Anyone seeing it would have thought…..huh?????. I decided to punch out several vanilla leaves (they look like snowflakes) with my Martha Stewart punch and to sponge rust ink on them. I then used a versa marker around the edges of the leaves so I could apply silver embossing power.  I wanted the leaves to match the silver trim of the ribbon. I used Anna's Wights Diamond Dust Glitter  (her favorite new embellishment) on the snowflakes as well to add one more element of interest and then attached them all around the bow. The silver trimmed ribbon is special to me as mother gave it to me when she sold her flower shop more than thirty years ago. It is a 100 yard bolt of ribbon but I use it sparingly and only when the occasion calls for extra "wow" appeal. I colored the white ribbon with a cream Copic marker to make it match the vanilla scene. Although this is very unusual I still think this is striking and it was fun therapy for me. 

Stamps:  Stampin" Up! Lovely as a Tree, Petal Pushers (seeds stamps used for snow)

Paper:  Going Gray, Vanilla

Ink:  Going Gray, Really Rust, Vanilla Craft

Accessories:  Satin Ribbon, Sponge, Diamond Dust Glitter,Gray and Rust Markers, Paint Brush, Copic Marker

Reminder:  Mark your calendars to go to the Rubbernecker Stamps Blog on December 5th and see my Friday Focus "Ribbon/Bow Tying" tutorial.  Better yet….subscribe to the blog so you don't miss any of our features and challenges.