What Did You Buy On Black Friday?

I did some serious shopping on Black Friday. I dropped $865 on one item. It wasn't on sale and I hadn't been dreaming of the day I could finally get one of these. We were forced to purchase this item Thanksgiving Day when I heard my husband yell from the garage,

"of all days not today"!

The water heater gave us ten good years. Thanksgiving Day it spewed water from the top and flooded the garage. Now we had two hours to clean up the mess while putting the finishing touches on the house and meal before our guests showed up. Plenty of time! I hurried to take a shower before all the hot water was gone. My husband mopped up the garage and drained the water heater.

Our Black Friday Purchase. A 50 gallon water heater with a six year warranty. There goes my coaching pay check.

It could have been much worse. We were home when it happened and my husband caught it early. No major damage. We didn't really need hot water to make the Thanksgiving meal. (Doing dishes that night was not fun) We got in a shower before everyone showed up. Our friend Plumber Paul came the next day and replaced it with a new one. Happy Black Friday purchase!

On the way to get in a quick shower I got side tracked by the kid's table. I decided it needed a personal touch so I grabbed the Sharpie and did a five minute fix. Does anyone else get so easily distracted while one the way to do something else? It's a wonder I accomplish anything.

This isn't a new idea. I have one of those red plates that says "You are Special Today." I've seen people do this for welcome plates and I've used a gold pen and wrote our initial on dessert plates before. For the kid's plates I added an initial to the middle of the plate, wrote around the edge and drew a turkey and some simple hearts. I like this idea and will use it again for Birthdays and other special dinners. The Sharpie washes off with a scrub from the green side of the sponge and soap and water. Very quick, easy, and no artistic talent required. You could use a stencil if you don't feel confident in your lettering.

My turkey is upside down in this picture so he's hard to see. The cartoon quality keeps it more kid friendly.

Here are my center pieces for the buffet table. Simple fruit and flowers in a cornucopia basket. Some from my yard and some purchased.

The day was so busy and fun I didn't get to take anymore pictures. The ones I did take came out blurry. I hope Santa brings me a new camera for Christmas.

Other than the water heater it was perfect day. The sun came out. The food and company were excellent and everyone was in good spirits. We read the Gratitude Cards after the meal and it was very touching. We remembered the family and friends we lost this year. Most everyone wrote they were thankful for their family and health. No one mentioned their car, house, jewelry, water heater, or any other material possession. We will definitely continue this new family tradition. See my Thanksgiving Tree blog for more on the Gratitude Cards. Click on the Link below.
http://anythingologyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-tree.html

These two are what I am most Thankful for! My wonderful husband too, but I can't show his picture or write his name. That's a whole other blog.

I am also grateful for all of you!

Plan B

I woke up at 12:30 am to the sound of pouring rain and thought, oh crud I left the cushions out. I guess we aren't having Thanksgiving outside this year! I had spent the previous afternoon blowing, cleaning , and trimming the outside in anticipation of a outdoor dinner and had left the chair cushions out on an uncovered table. Not only is it wet out today, it's cold. Even with a warm fire and portable heaters I didn't think we would enjoy the meal.


I had to go to Plan B.

This is where I was planning to have Thanksgiving dinner.

I don't have a formal dining room in my house. The picture above is my "formal" dining room. Our everyday eating area is in the great room included in the family room and kitchen. I really didn't want to eat there this year, so I turned my living room into the dining room. Perfect for a dinner party since I removed the carpet and painted the concrete floors. This is something new we haven't done before.

This is Plan B, my living room.

I left the couch in the room, my mom's idea. It's really heavy and as my mom pointed out, it would sit three people comfortably. It's also the perfect dining height and will be quite cozy for lounging after the meal.

I lowered the candelier for table height, removed the starfish, and stuck the ottoman in the garage.



Here's the room decked out for Thanksgiving. I brought in two conference tables from the garage that I use for stacking stuff on and skirted them in black table clothes to hide the ugly metal legs. My Thanksgiving Tree can be seen in the background. I have more about my tree in my "Thanksgiving Tree" blog. Click on the link below to see more of my Thanksgiving Tree.
http://anythingologyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-tree.html

I used my Grandmother's silver goblets she left me.

The place setting consists of my wedding china (Lenox "Hannah"), cranberry colored chargers, punctuated with my studded pumpkins and silver leaf name cards. See my "Tack it" blog for details on how to make the pumpkins. Click on the link below to see more tack ideas.

http://anythingologyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/tack-it.html

These feather balls are usually on my Christmas Tree and most recently my Thanksgiving Tree, but I plucked them off the tree for my table. They tie in nicely with the jewel tone color scheme. I put a green feather boa and some silver twigs under the ball to frame it and keep it from tipping over.

My parents picked up the silver flatware at an antique auction years ago and gave it to us as a gift.

The name tags are spray painted silk leaves. I added tacks to the feather balls to tie the look together with the pumpkins.



More feather balls accented with small gold birds and silver twigs under a cloche. I picked up the cloche at Marshal's for $20. I think the feather balls are from there too?

I can't remember I've had them so long.


The only thing new on the table are the table linens. I didn't want traditional fall harvest colors. I went with jewel tones this year. I found the fabric on a clearance table at a fabric store and made the table cloth, napkins, and runner. My surger makes it fast and easy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a whole other room to show you. I will post those pictures later.

Cozy Poncho

I made this because I'm tired of being cold and getting asked if I'm going skiing? I live in sunny San Diego and while many people are still running around in shorts and flip flops this time of year, I'm in my ski parka and Ugg boots. Ski parkas are great for skiing, but aren't the most stylish thing to wear. This is my solution. I made this cozy poncho. It's like having your softest, warmest, yummiest blanket on. I keep it in my car and throw it on whenever I get a chill. I get so many compliments on it I thought I would share it with you. Here I am getting ready to go to Casey's soccer game. It's great because I can keep my hands inside and be totally cocooned from the cold.




It's reversible and I made it with a double sided fabric. One side is a faux Sherpa and the other side is a super suede. Both sides are extremely soft. I used this pattern to help me figure out the collar. I used my surger to finish the edges.

I made this one for my mom. This is the reverse side. She was having a bad hair day and asked that I didn't put her head in the picture. I made her collar diferent from the pattern. I like the way it turned out better.






Here is my condor pose to give you a better view of the volume of fabric I used.

No skiing or North Pole jokes for me when I'm wearing this.

Thanks for checking it out.

My Gym

I, like many of you am a busy mom. It seems the most common response I get to "How are you" is "I'm busy." We have created crazy lives for our families and one thing that moms tend to do is put themselves last on the priority list. The workout seems to end up at the bottom of the "To Do List." Now with the Holiday's in full swing we need our workouts more than ever. That's why I take "My Gym" with me where ever I go.

This is My Gym.

These three things are all I need to get a great workout. They are always in my car. My medicine ball, my "wheel of pain," and my band.

This where I use my gym, my girl's soccer practice.  I know, we have phone calls to catch up on, it's cold, you need to clean out your purse, you had a hard day at work, you need to answer emails, blah, blah, blah. I have heard them all and used most of them myself.

Don't let your kid's get all the exercise. You gotta get out of your chair and your car and move too!

Okay, I know you might be like me and really enjoy watching practice. You can still do that while you're moving. When my kids were younger I would run around their field and do sit ups or push ups at each corner. Yes, my kids thought I was weird, but they got over it and I still got to watch the scrimmage. I use my gym while I watch them play or after I go for a run first. It's amazing what a great workout you can get with just these three items. What else are you going to do for an hour and a half while you're there? I figured working out at their practice gave me another hour and a half during the day to get other things done instead of working out then.

I know it helps that I take my kids to a beautiful place to practice. This is the view while I'm on my run. It hasn't always been this pretty. My kids ran track in "the hood" and I used to grab other moms to walk or run the outside lane of the track during the kid's practice. Trust me, you feel way better than if you had stayed in the car to organize your glove compartment!
I know it's hard at first, but I also know some of the moms I see year after year at practice have made the transition from spectator moms to workout hot mamas! Your kids will be proud of you, well not at first, they might think you're weird.

Tack It

In-expensive eye candy for your decor.

I bought a box of upholstery tacks for a chair I was reupholstering and it opened a whole new design opportunity. What to do with the rest of the box?

I used some of the leftovers for a few house projects. You might have noticed them on my pumpkins from my Halloween post and here are some more on the shelves of my kitchen pantry.
I bought another box of 1000 silver tacks at UFO for $25.

1000 tacks goes a long way.



My most recent use of tacks were for these pumpkins. I painted them and added silver and brass tacks. These are for my Thanksgiving table, but could also be used for Halloween too.

Here is my powder room embellished with the tacks. This room is VERY difficult to photograph. It doesn't help that I'm not a great photographer.

This makeover started by painting the room black and replacing the small builder's mirror with a much taller one purchased at Ikea. The light fixture was purchased for $30 at a second hand store. I painted it silver and swagged it over the sink. I added the tacks around the mirror and to the ceiling and the recessed areas.

I continued them to the bump out on the ceiling. The plan is to eventually do crown molding in this room. Just haven't gotten to it yet. The tacks look like small pin points of light in person.

I added them to a pedestal in the bathroom

and to the accessories to tie the room together.

Candle detail


This is the rotunda that leads from my family room into the master bedroom. It is a small round room, again sorry it's hard to take pictures of it.


Ceiling detail

This is a small mirror on the opposite side of the rotunda that I added more tacks to.

I would love to see your tack ideas.

Thanks for checking it out!