Thanksgiving Decor

Sometimes I just don't feel like decorating for Thanksgiving.  We put out alot of decorations for Halloween and then for Christmas and I often feel like I am putting out Thanksgiving decor only for a couple weeks and then taking it down to put up the Christmas stuff.

However, Thanksgiving is late in the month this year so I did put some stuff out.  Here is what the dinning table looks like:

My mother painted and stained these bird house gourds several years ago.  I love how they look on a couple of cake stands.

Here are the corner shelves in the dinning room:

I added a few decorations to my daughter's toy room.  Of course I made sure it wasn't anything that she could easily break :)

I also updated the front and back doors for the holiday.

What I Wore Wednesday

A couple of the blogs that I follow have been participating in What I Wore Wednesday for a while now.  I enjoy seeing all sorts of different outfits and thought that I would join in and share what's in my closet.

Thanksgiving Toddler Crafts

Saturday's in my house are craft days for my daughter and me.  Just about every Saturday morning, my daughter wakes up asking me to paint :)  Most of the time that is what we do.  We paint on paper plates, on construction paper, on bulletin board cutouts.  Sometimes, we glue googly eyes or pom-poms on our paintings as well.

I thought with Thanksgiving coming up, I would try and find some crafts that we could do that were related to Thanksgiving.  Below is our first craft for the month - a toilet paper tube turkey.

For the feathers, I traced her hands, cut them out, and glued them on the back.  She glued her favorite googly eyes on the front and I add a little beak with a marker and cut out a little wattle from some red construction paper.

Pinterest is full of great, fun Thanksgiving crafts.  Here are some other ones that I hope to try this month:

• Candy Corn Turkey - Trace your child's hand to make a turkey.  Glue candy corn in the fingers of the hand to form the feathers.
• Turkey Puppets - Make turkey puppets out of brown paper lunch bags.
• Fall Tree - Use wine corks as stamps to create a beautiful fall tree.
• Turkey Coloring Page 

What do you and your toddler do in the spirit of Thanksgiving?

What I Wore Wednesday

A couple of the blogs that I follow have been participating in What I Wore Wednesday for a while now.  I enjoy seeing all sorts of different outfits and thought that I would join in and share what's in my closet.

Does a clean washing machine mean cleaner clothes?

I realized this week that my washing machine was really dirty.  About a year after we bought our house, my parents purchased a new house and didn't want the washer and dryer that were in the house.  They were newer then the ones that we currently had, so we bought those and donated ours.

When I first got the washer, it smelled terrible!  It was very musty smelling so my mom suggested just leaving it open for a while to air out.  I tried this and it helped a little, but I could still smell it.  At that time, I purchased the Tide washing machine cleaner and it worked like a charm.

Well, that was three years ago now and when I looked at the washing machine this week, this is what I saw:

Pretty disgusting!

After searching around online, I found a couple of solutions to try.  I first took apart the fabric softener container in the middle of washing machine and could not believe how dirty that was.  I don't know how my clothes were coming out clean!  I soaked that in a bucket with a combination of white vinegar and hot water. I had to take an old toothbrush and scrub to really get it clean.

I then filled the washing machine with warm water and added about 2 cups of white vinegar as well.  I let it soak for 1 hour and then turned on the machine.  After an hour I was again shocked at all the stuff floating in water.  I also took a wet cloth and wiped down the spot where you would pour in bleach and the inside cover of the washing machine.

Here is what my new washing machine looks like...

Hopefully with a clean washing machine, I will get even cleaner clothes.

What I Wore Wednesday

A couple of the blogs that I follow have been participating in What I Wore Wednesday for a while now.  I enjoy seeing all sorts of different outfits and thought that I would join in and share what's in my closet.

Sweater:  Target

Tank Top:  Target

Pants:  Christopher & Banks

October Recipes

Here are some new recipes that I tried this month:

Avocado Hummus
This was a great lunch.  I love avocados and I love hummus so I figured this was going to be a winner.  The only change I will make for next time is to cut the recipe is half and make it two mornings in a row.  I made a full batch on Monday and by Tuesday morning it was pretty brown.  Still tasted good, but didn't look the best.

Pita Pizzas
This website has a lot of great ideas for school lunches.  I tried the one that was just like a pizza Lunchable.  I cut a whole wheat pita into slices and brought along pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni in separate containers.  You have to like cold pizza (which I do) to enjoy this one.

Smoothies
I tend to be very busy at my desk over lunch so I had the idea of bring a smoothie for lunch.  Something easy to eat while I check emails, grade papers, etc.  This site has a ton of great smoothie combinations.  I don't know if I will get through them all, but I might try :)

S'more Croissants
This is a great, easy little dessert.  We have pigs in a blank frequently, and I always have croissants left over.  Now, I can take those extra ones, add a little chocolate chips and marshmallows and have a yummy dessert waiting for us after dinner.

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
Yummy Snacks                             
Slow Cooker
Delicious Desserts                           
Soups
Drinks                                             
Daily Dinners

Good Morning Breakfast                   
Lunches