Thanksgiving Check List

As you know, George and I are hosting his family for Thanksgiving.  Yes, there will be about 18 of us packed into the first floor (cause the second floor is a bathroom and 3 bedrooms... boring) of our 1600 sq ft. colonial. 

But it's cool because we are in full-planning mode.

First, I have made my lists and have checked them 200 times.

List one: Wegmans!

Many of you are familiar with Wegmans or already adore the majesty that is WEGMANS.  However, where I am from, Wegmans is more than a store.  It's a way of life.  A respected institution.  Mecca.  It is our city.  Wegmans was founded in my hometown.  It employs a third of George's family and thousands in our area. Sure, there are a few other places to shop for groceries but none are as trusted as Wegmans.  People suffer through the economic hardships and lack of opportunity in our area because we know Wegmans is a catalyst for change.  They drive pricing competition (I know, I worked in PR for their top competitor), quality standards, green efforts, and bring other businesses to our area. 

And no one said it better than Alec Baldwin's mom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqEUYzOpvZ0

Okay, enough of my Wegmans obsession and back to the list.

List one: Wegmans
2 turkeys - one 15 lbs. and one 22 lbs.
3 servings batches of green bean casserole
2 cans of corn
4 bags of dried bread cubes for stuffing
Parsley, Thyme, Sage
Onion, celery and carrots
Yams
Marshmellows
Butter - 1 box of each salted and unsalted
Poultry seasoning
Nutmeg
Allspice
2 boxes of chicken broth
2, 5-lbs bags of potatoes
Cream cheese (for potatoes)
Sour cream (for potatoes)

List two: Perkins... I am getting some assistance on dessert cause sister needs a break!
1 peanut butter silk pie
1 pecan pie

List three: Liquor Store a.k.a. - my happy place... more on my wine interest later
1 box of Black Box Riesling
1 box of Big House Red
3 bottles of red wine
3 bottles of white wine

List four: Decor
Paper plates (the fancy brand)
Plastic utensils (the fancy brand)
Snack plates
Festive napkins
Clear cups (the fancy brand)
Brown craft paper - 1 roll
Crayons
Area rug
coffee table
Table clothes
Flowers
Folding chairs
Folding tables

Ahh, nothing better than seeing a bunch of tasks crossed off!

As you can see, we have a good start!   There are a few more things we need but we are getting there.  I anxious to finish up and start cooking.  We both took off Wednesday so we will get the rest of the items, start some prep work and make a few dishes ahead of time.

I would love to have grace but, as I mentioned before, George's family isn't religious.  So I am thinking about having a "Moment of Thanks".  We can all go around saying what we are thankful for.  I know this might open me up to some gruff but I want to start some traditions.  So we will see.

How are your plans coming along?  What new or old traditions do you have?

Soapbox Moment: Positive Thinking

I sometimes welcome the little-black-rain-cloud.  And though I think it's totally normal to have days were you don't want to do anything or don't want to turn on the smile, I do think I welcome that mopey mood too much. 

My can easily blame my former job, living with my in-laws, being unemployed for 9 months, money, our less-than-drama-free wedding, being new at a job that's not my ideal job, my hair/body/skin, etc., for being a grump or a little sad.  And I let it linger too long.

So here and now I am making a promise to try and change my Debbie-downer ways.  I will be more proactive in swiping that rain cloud away.  I have to think positive... but not loose the sarcasm completely!  I deserve to be happy.  I deserve to have happy people around me.  I deserve to have a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye.

(stepping off my soapbox)

Wordle: Cheap Art

While the search is on for bedding, I have started thinking about art and accessories.
 
I took some of the sand dune photos from our honeymoon, sharpened them, made them black and white, printed and framed those little lovelies to make a college on our largest wall.

Now I am turning to my old bag-of-wedding-tricks and making some art.  My assistant: Wordle.com.

The program asks you to enter a bunch of words then they mix them up and gives you cool layouts, colors and fonts to choose from.

So I took a bunch of words from George's life that have meaning to him or us.  And a bunch of words from my life that have meaning to me or us.  And the result... his and hers art!

Now, you are not able to save your Wordle (without publically publishing it) but you can increase your monitor zoom, print-screen, paste in Paint, mess with the margins and paper size then you got some custom art.

Now, I just have to figure out printing and framing.  Stay tuned!

Dream a Little Dream

George and I are in the midst of redoing the bedroom.
At first, we were going with something like this...

It was summer. It felt fresh and cool and, well, summery!

I had been craving a more patterned duvet for years now. We have been doing the solid and the solid-with-a-contrasting-boarder looks but I'm kind of over it.

I thought this was feminine yet not floral and the colors were obvious without being bold.

So I bought the paint and $80 and four months later; We ain't lovin' it.

We kept with the Pottery Barn Simply White walls (because sister is not about to take an $80 bite on paint) and are now researching new bedding that is in the grey-color palette with some scroll or geometric shapes.
Something like this...

And that's about it.  We want this bedding!  We just have to wait until the budget can let us have it.

Any thoughts on affordable grey bedding?  And ideas on how to make our white walls work?

Coffee Table: Before & After

We had purchased a matching set of living room furniture when we first moved in togther.  You know, the couch, love seat, coffee table and matching end tables.  We had nothing, we were renting... it worked.

Well, now that it's been about 4 years and our collection of stuff has grown and our amount of space has like tripled.  So we are kind of over the matchy-matchy and are slowly moving towards breaking up the set and adding new pieces to creat a fresh look.

The first thing out: the matchy coffee table.

The tables are perfectly nice, but we wanted something a smaller and round.

So I scoured craigslist and found this 1970's beauty...

"This stupid, wagon wheel, Roy Rogers, garage sale COFFEE TABLE."

~When Harry Met Sally

Pa-errrfect!!

With so much thick, dark wood in the molding and trim, we wanted to lighten things up.  So with a few cans of white spray paint and spray varnish, Ta-da!

 

We got EXACTLY what we wanted!  And our new area rug came in today from Overstock.com so it's a double-bonus day for our living room :)

The area rug is a bit more traditional than we wanted but the price was right and the colors are so wonderful... it's hurts. 

How was your Monday?

BTW... George is away on business, so you know what that means...