Papertrey November Blog Hop Challenge; and Freshly Made Sketches #62

Hi Everybody!

We made it through Thanksgiving with thankful hearts in tacked, despite eating outrageous amounts of carbs and sugar!  Story and photos of our Thanksgiving holiday are below, if you'd like to see them.

First, it's back to creating and challenges.  Oh, how I missed thee.

My sketch inspiration today came from Freshly Made Sketches.  This sketch was designed by the superb crafter, Jen M.

And today is the monthly one-day blog hop challenge over at Nichole Heady's brilliant {capture the moment} website. 

We are to make cards using cover art for our inspiration:

I was inspired by the "sweet cream, sugar cones" cover art, mostly because I have the PTI cupcake dies and stamp set, never used.  I also wanted, however, to make a Christmas card, so I did this:

I traced the top of the PTI cupcake die and drew it longhand into a sugar cone shape and topped it with peppermint icing.  Joy, indeed!

If you're doing the blog hop, this is the end of the card talk.  Thanks for stopping by to have a closer look!  If you'd like to leave a comment, just page down to the comment section.  (Mwah!)  I'll return the flavor!

~~~

Thanksgiving Memories

Holiday "incidents" are as expected and traditional as the sunrise.  This year I nearly had my defibber go off when all of a sudden the house smelled of something burning. 

You know how you have those side dishes that need to be reheated, but there isn't room in the oven with the gynormous turkey in there?  So you wait until the turkey is out to put the side dishes in, but they never have time to really heat through?  Well, this year I noticed for the first time that there are notches on the very bottom of the oven to put a rack.  The turkey just fit on a rack a few inches higher, which allowed room for the shallow dishes of creamed onions, Brussels sprouts, and stuffing to be put on the bottom rack to begin reheating before the turkey was out.  How cool is that?!  Now everything will be ready at the same time!

Not.  At the first whiff of something burning, I whipped open the door and there were the onions boiling over!  Setting them (basically) on the floor of the gas oven, right above the flame, was a kin to putting them on the stove top, turning the flame on full blast, and walking away.  If I only had a brain.  And why are there notches to put a rack there in the first place?!

I pulled the dish of onions out, but they were still loosely covered with foil, so I couldn't really see the roiling sauce, which left it free to pour out into the crack between the door and the oven, all over the glass on the inside of the door, and then all over the front of the stove, sliding down behind the stove knobs, and over the stove top as the dish came to rest with an unladylike bang.

It takes an awful lot to steam my kettle and this was one of those times.  I'm afraid to say that grandma lost her cool and began to speak a very colorful language.  Folks who had the misfortune of stepping into the kitchen at that moment took one look at my eyes and beat a hasty retreat.  Fortunately, my whistle is only set to blow for a couple of minutes, so very quickly the clamity was mopped up and I resumed my attitude of gratitude.

What was your little "incident" this year?  No holiday meal would be complete without at least one!

~~~

Here are some photos from our house, beginning with the turkey table decorations I made with the twins.  I didn't have enough paper towel cardboard rolls to cut up to make the turkeys into napkin rings, so instead we made them as cute table decorations, one for each place setting.

(I love their crookedy smiles at this age, full of both adult and baby teeth!)

  

One of the two tables: 

My beautiful DIL Rachel and me.  She was an enormous help!  (I'm wearing a narrow scarf that Adam "finger-knit" for me!)

Here I am being licked ferociously by my SIL's new and delightful puppy, Cisco:

The twins again.  Their daddy took them to Rock City for a couple of hours so they could spend some boyish energy.

~~~

And the mad dash towards Christmas now begins.  We stayed far away from Taupe Thursday and Black Friday and Scarlet Saturday to avoid being trampled to death.  I'm surely and forever old because now it all seems so cray-cray to me.

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  I hope you found all the items your heart desired at 80% off, plus a coupon for 20% off your next visit!

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  PTI white; unknown
  glossy green, peppermint;
  SU! dsp for the cone
Stamps:  Technique Tuesday
Ink:  SU! real red
Dies:  PTI Cupcake Collections
Ribbon:  SU! real red
Bling and candy from stash