While in North Carolina, we visited my husband's mom. She had some artwork I'd done years ago, framed and hung on her walls.
This is a painting of the house she grew up in.
And this is the home her husband grew up in.
A watercolor iris.
And a butt.
My husband had a business trip to North Carolina, and while he was there, he offered to snap up Dewdrop from her Asheville home and bring her to KS for Thanksgiving. Since he'd be getting her on her birthday, I couldn't miss the event and had to come along to celebrate with them.
Before we scooped her up, we spent a night in Raleigh and ate a fancy meal at the City Club there.
(That last photo might look as tasty as the others, but is a light fixture, not candy. And the first one? That is candy! Cotton candy pork belly appetizers, wowzers!)
And we had a scenic drive to Boone where we passed through some misty, Christmas tree farms.
We stayed at Banner Elk, with Rich's Mom and brother, at their mountain house with this pretty view.
It changed to this overnight! Even prettier.
After our zig zag trip from Raleigh to Boone to Asheville, we drove to Charlotte and visited a nephew and his sweet baby. They made our Dewdrop feel very special with some birthday surprises.
They even treated us to a night at the trampoline play place. I didn't think I'd be doing any jumping, but once I saw how much fun the rest of the group was having, I had to start hopping around myself, and bounced around for almost an hour and a half, hating to end when it was time to go.
This is my new favorite thing to do!
The next morning, our thoughtful nephew made some Mickey shaped pancakes to keep the party going for the birthday girl before we flew home to deliver her to her family who had been missing her for way too long.
We will be seeing her again at Christmas, and while I'm heartbroken not to have her daily, I'm very happy to be able to visit with our North Carolina relatives when we do the kid-switcheroo. It was a lovely trip.
When we went to The Other Karla's son's wedding, Beth and I made a stop in Des Moines to visit some of our Birdsong Peeps and have a crafting sleepover at a rustic, charming, and cozy, Airbnb barn. Our Peep, Nora, generously made up kits of felted wool for us to create these fab trees.
Beth and I sorta crashed their party, they'd made plans to go up to the flea market and stay at this charmer, and we asked to be included. They graciously let us stay with them. This was our room.
It had a uniquely curved, metal ceiling.
Okay, I'm going to have to use "charming" again, because that is what the whole place was.
We missed the dinner they shared, but were there for the tasty, overnight oatmeal breakfast.
Our dinner was at an Iowan diner where we had the local special, loosemeats.
After a night of laughing and crafting, we headed out for the Junk Jubilee.
And it was so festive!!! I loved the holiday decor everywhere. I thought this would be an ideal spot to get a selfie to show the room and the cute display at the entrance, but as you can see, our heads block most of it.
I think I could use a selfie lesson.
Overall, I sincerely think this is one of the best fleas I've been to, pricewise. It was also set up with gorgeous displays, the dealers made major efforts to have enticing booths.
Plus we ran into Peeps everywhere! (don't ask me why I don't have photos of them, pure carelessness, I guess- too busy hugging and being happy to see old friends to remember my camera!)
Thank you Tami, Gail, and Nora for your hospitality, and thanks Beth, for hauling me along on your trip. It was a raucous roadtrip. At our age, we don't get enough of those.
I can't imagine a nicer Thanksgiving. Kia helped me prep quite a bit the day before and we had a pretty laid back Thursday, with all of the chopping done ahead of time.
We even baked a double batch of gingerbread cookies on Wednesday, which made for a fun morning of playing with icing and sprinkles before getting dinner in the oven.
After cookie masterpieces were created, we popped a little turkey into the oven (for the few of us that were not vegan) and headed out to the woods to enjoy the sunshine and the last of the fall colors.
We didn't go far, just out in our back yard, we have ten acres that have a few trails through the trees.
While out there, we visited the fallen Grandfather Tree, which we have harvested to make slabs. In the future, it will be a dining room table.
For now, it is fun to climb on.
And jump off of.
The grandfairies found a few fun places to climb around.
And Avahni showed off her fire fighter training by carrying people around.
Dororthy enjoyed it.
Twinkle isn't as fond of the hugging.
But the girls are.
After a festive dinner with lots of toasts and laughter, we started decorating gingerbread again, this time some premade houses.
Every year, I get a couple for the littlest grandfairies to pile up sky high with globs of candies, but didn't even think about getting them for everyone to play with.
But after watching the Halloween baking shows with Ryan, he and I thought we should probably try our hands at making some houses ourselves.
I certainly had plenty of toppings! We do NOT eat these, they are just for display, so we use candy that has been around longer than Dewdrop, back when Sugarwings first crafted a house. And I buy the 25 cent, clearance decorations after Christmas to save up and use too.
The only fresh stuff we have is for the cookies that we eat, and they are dye free, organic goodies.
Oh, yes, I do buy fresh fondant to play with too. You have to have that soft and pliable, it doesn't save like hard candies do.
The big girls like the fondant as much as the little ones do. Thia made a unicorn with hers.
This looks like it will be a holiday tradition around here, we had such a good time with it, that there is already talk of gingerbread birdhouses for Easter. And maybe even some more houses at Christmas dinner? Although, we usually spend the evening playing games that the kids get as gifts from Santa after dinner on that day, and decorating cookies in the afternoon.
I am truly blessed to have a family who can enjoy a relaxing day together, while pitching in to help with cooking so that the day wasn't all about slaving away in the kitchen and dozing in front of a game on TV.
And I was thrilled to have them want to make Gingerbread Houses! I'm not really a Thanksgiving person, for me, it is just the gateway to the holiday season, it is hard to hold back and not start rushing headfirst into Christmas before Thanksgiving is over.
This season, I decided there was no reason to hold back and went for it. I was glad to have my trees up, and the twinkling lights strung for atmosphere. And loved having these houses to do, even though they are a traditional Santa thing, not a turkey thing.
(with a side of Turkey!)
The kids were calling the meal, our "Healthgiving" Dinner, we kept all of the items freshly made, with no processed foods. With everyone helping, that wasn't hard to do. There were circus tricks on the aerial rig, a walk in the woods, crafting, massage therapy, and we all took turns giving a Huzzah! for what we were feeling grateful for.
The laughter, warmth, and hugs were much appreciated.
What a nice holiday! I hope you had a happy one too.
I'm still enjoying the bounty of paint pours from my creative binge this summer and am now using the pieces to make holiday tag books.
You can purchase them HERE, in the Boutique.
I seriously adore the technique and the look of the swirled paints. Acrylic flow painting is the BEST!
I'd gone with Beth to attend the wedding of The Other Karla's son in St Paul and brought crafty goods (including these painted tags) with me to play with in the hotel room, then found a bounty of beauties at a flea market on the way there.
Once I got started on making these, I couldn't stop. I was a bad friend and sent Beth out on her own to have lunch with her Minnesota nieces while I stayed in my jammies and made book after book after book that day, till it was time to get ready for the wedding.
Because- WOW- look at this paper I'd found!!!!! How could I leave it uncut, when I had all of these pretty, painted tags to make things with????
I'd also bought 1928-29 women's magazines from December with lots of helpful Christmas tips, along with an old book of hymms that included Christmas carols.
And stacks of holiday ephemera.
And did I mention that it was 13 degrees outside? And I'd driven through mini blizzards to get there. Yes, I was content to do hotel crafting in my jim jams and had a beautiful, wonderful, magical day.
It was the BEST.
Not only did I have a fab night with friends, then a day at a flea market on the way to the wedding, I had an entire day with the most magical of vintage supplies, topped off with a night of dancing and laughing til my sides hurt at the wedding.
Or did my sides hurt because I was way to old to dance that hard and that long?
Either way, it was a perfect weekend. Laughter, road trips, making things, attending a lovely wedding. Yep, the BEST.
I had never met Karla's son, but soon realized he was a catch. His wife won my heart quickly too, when she told us about the family tradition of using this vintage cake topper.
Karla made ribbon wands that were waved in the air when the couple entered the reception, and soon we were all dancing and waving them around out on the floor. Not only were they pretty to see flying about, but they had magical properties.
When we twirled them about, we were FANTASTIC dancers. We were the BEST.
And personally, I can't dance and have less rhythm than, well, I can't actually think of anything or anyone with less skill on the dance floor than I have.
Between the laughing and the ribbon wands, my dancing skills suddenly became amazing. Everyone's did.
Yep, it was the BEST.
Sugarwings and I LOVE decorating for the holidays, but we try to hold back and wait til after Thanksgiving. Our reminder to each other is, "We must respect the bird!"
Last year, our home was on the holiday tour plus I was hosting a holiday workshop (A Snowbird's Song) and I had a great excuse to ignore our rule and toss tinsel everywhere on November 1st.
And this season, we started our holiday fun a bit early by attending the play, "Elf" at the KU Lied Center. We decided to throw a mini dinner party before the show, and simply had to have appropriate decor to serve our meal, right???? Heck, it wasn't our fault that the date of the play was before Thanksgiving.
Sugarwings was in charge of the tablescape and made up this Candy Cane Forest, from the story.
Cocoa parties are a big part of our Christmas celebrations, and Buddy the Elf loves cocoa too. Typically, we do not have our first cup until the tree is up and lit. We made an exception, and served hot chocolate with organic candy canes and marshmallows in both vanilla and peppermint. She made a banner from one of Buddy's quotes.
He does have some of the best quotes.
While she crafted a candy cane forest, I hot glued some felt and feathers into elf hats to wear that night.
I was kind of surprised that we were the only group decked out for the theme, but was proud of my girls for rocking the look.
We served finger foods and things we thought elves would like, although we didn't go whole hog with Buddy's list of elves' favorite food groups:
1- Candy
2-Candy Canes
3- Candy Corn
4- Syrup
We decided to compromise on our respecting the bird rules and leave our tablescape set up. I dodged a bullet on breaking the rule even further by being very busy, and having a couple of trips come up to prevent me from pulling more yule goodies out of the closet.
But I'm twitching with the need to tear into the storage closet and fling lights and ornaments from one end of the house to the other!
Our sister trip to Florida included lots of craft time. I pack my portable printer and we slap photos into the books I made for us along with doodles, scraps, and other memorabilia of the day.
This is a drawing I did for Bobbie's pages, with highlights of her Disney time. She is a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, so I drew a Capt. Jack for her, and he is holding her cell phone with its Hocus Pocus cover to take a selfie with a giraffe (in honor of taking animal pictures from our balcony at Animal Kingdom), Timon (who has heart pupils because I teased her about flirting with the character at the park), and a flamingo wearing MIckey ears, because she loves those birds.
And here are the three of us as Sandersons stating, "We will put a spell on you if we remember what we were planning to do"
It references lots of fun moments from the week, including our names for the week, Bibbity (Sis) Bobbity (Bobbie, of course), and Boo, (me). My face is painted witchy pink, from our night at the guncles'.
Sis is wearing her Gundren clothes, Bobbie's hair is meant to be both from Hocus Pocus and an ice cream cone shape.
We posed for mermaid shadow selfies on the beach, and I found a shell that I thought was a heart at first, then realized that it was really a tail fin. So, I glued it to my shadow.
Here is Sissy at the Beast's restaurant.
I used paper from Michaels and words cut from the Disney Springs map on this page.
And made a broom for this picture of us in front of the castle after watching the Hocus Pocus show. 
This rug was part of the carpet in our room, I cut out Bobbie on it, and glued it over a napkin that looked like a starry sky.
(Her name is Valentine, so I thought the cut out phrase was appropriate.)
At the Bippity Boppity Boo salon, we were frosted with fairy dust. For my book, I added glitter over the sprinkles.
I used a trading pin, and pictures from the map for this picture of Sissy dancing at Animal Kingdom. Then, I cut out names of the places we visited there and glued them onto the page.
For our photo in front of the stain glass window at the Beast's castle, I layered rose papers and added a charm that looks like the enchanted mirror from the story.
This animal paper from Michaels was ideal for Animal Kingdom!! It is two layers, one as a background, then I cut out the animals that got covered up and glued them over the photo too.
As much as I love vintage papers, for scrap books, it is nice to use some actual scrap book paper, because you can always find something to fit the them. I also like using maps and brochures from places I visit.
On this Halloween crafting page, I cut out a label from a pack of supplies that says, "Halloween Crafts". So, sometimes, it is worth it to use the trash too.
Sparkle papers and textures are great too. I've glued shells and a vintage stir stick (found on one of our shopping days) to this one.
This one is a fave, it is a photo of our grandma, her mom and sister that I doctored up.
Oh, and here are a couple pics of the cover too!
My son and his family live on a sprawling, 13 acre piece of wooded land that they call Kismet Forest Farm. There is a barn full of possibilities sitting on the grounds, and last week a group of friends came to help get started on making those possibilities into realities.
This is the interior of the barn. For now, the plan is to strip down the old dry wall, paint everything white, and add a wood stove for heat. Then, the circus performers can use it all winter.
Later on, more renovations will happen, as budget allows.
Once completed, there will be all sorts of workshops, from yoga to circus classes, as well as sustainable growing classes and music.
Helpers got started on tearing down old outbuildings, and sorting the materials into piles to save and reuse.
Nails had to be pulled out of the wood before it was stacked up for reuse.
Lots of good supplies were salvaged for the work on the barn that day. And a bonfire was enjoyed with the rest of the wood.
It was a beautiful, fall day to be out and enjoying the colors, and helping make Kismet a gathering place for camping, learning, and music.
The family made a vat of vegan chilli for the group, then we all went for a walk in the woods to explore the trails my son has carved out of the wild.
I was quite impressed with what he has already accomplished.
This place will really be something when they get done!
The beach house I rented with my life long buddies for our birthday get together was so nice, I rented it again with my sisses!
And like I did in April, I also made a seashell fairy for each of us as a thank you to the beach.
Each expresses the joy that I found while strolling along the sand.
Aren't they happy little sprites?
And of course, I had to make a boy fairy for Guncle Randy, who joined us for some crafting.
The shells were plentiful, the weather was beautiful, the company was ideal,
I had much to be thankful for.
There was even sea glass! And this shell/tooth thing…
Which was perfect for a Winnifred Sanderson bit of fun.
Staying on the Atlantic side, meant no sunsets over the water, but one morning, I was up in time to catch the tail end of a sunrise. I was pretty impressed with myself for that.
This was the balcony view, at our Cocoa beach place. We hopped around and stayed at 4 different places in our ten day trip.
Beach Place Guest House had some fantastic landscaping, it was just too bad that the red tide made it too hard to breathe for us to spend much time outside to enjoy the well sculpted views.
The shells at Cocoa Beach were harder to come across. This was the total of what I found, but it was just enough for this one little girl.
I crafted a blessings angel for that beach, in hopes of healing the red tide.
As well as a witch, just because I'd found these broken bits of shell and one looked like a jaw, so really wanted to make something with it.
While in Jacksonville, my sisses and I checked out the antique mall that the guncles sell at, Southern Crossing. I found a couple of glorious hats (very affordable, too!), a gigantic and gorgeous roll of older lace, some sparkly tinsel, and…
My Dad!
I wish I had a better photo of him to share. This gnome is so much like him, I just had to buy it. And it was even in Guncle Randy's booth.
Not only that, Hubert the Gnome was holding a seashell, suitable for a beach vacation souvenir!
