Happy Thanksgiving

Photo props for the kids table. SOOOO fun!

I am taking off a bit early for the holiday. These next 5 days I hope to:
* take long naps
* catch up on Fringe episodes
* watch a few Netflix movies (definitely The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
* try new recipes (definitely will be making this over the weekend!)
* fold laundry
* paint furniture
* hug and cuddle my family!

Happy holidays to all of you. I love this season & cannot wait to celebrate Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for! xo, shari

Happy Thanksgiving

Live Love Eat Tea Towel by Studio Patro

happy thanksgiving! hope you have a wonderful day (or hopefully few days) of eating/relaxing/shopping! we had a wonderful party with lots of friends last night. this morning we watched the parade. harper is still not old enough to enjoy the parade. she kept saying “MOMO?” which is Elmo. Elmo and the Sesame Street float came and went way too fast for her!
this evening we will celebrate at my MIL’s. she always cooks such yummy food. here are some fun turkey day facts to share at your dinner table!

catching up on email & Happy Thanksgiving!

i am way behind on email, and this is why! if you have not heard back from me and it has been more than 3 weeks feel free to send me a reminder. so so sorry – my hands are so full these days!

tonight my husband and i are hosting a Thanksgiving Eve party with old friends. i am so excited and i am running out the door to pick up Harper from preschool and then prepare for the party. (beer/wine, cleaning, hanging lights, music, ordering food!)

i hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. we have 4 days together and i am going to put down my computer and enjoy every minute. (no black Friday shopping for me!)
xx, shari

Fall Acorn Cake

a simple acorn cake to celebrate fall! yum yum!

Prep Time: 10 Min.
Bake Time: 50 Min.
Decoration Time: 20 Min.
Difficulty: Easy
Yield: Makes 2 Acorn Cakes (Each Acorn Serves 15).

2 boxes (18.5 oz. each) Devil’s Food Cake mix
1 container (16-ounces) prepared vanilla frosting
Brown food coloring (or green and red to make brown)
1 ½ cup prepared chocolate frosting
3 cups SNICKERS® Brand Miniatures
2 pieces TWIX® Brand Caramel Cookie Bar Minis
colorful M & Ms
1 1/2 quart oven-safe glass bowl
1 (9″x13″) cake pan
Waxed paper

1. Prepare both cake mixes according to box directions. Divide batter between buttered oven safe glass bowl and buttered and waxed paper lined oblong cake pan.
2. Bake both cakes in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 40 to 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely.
3. Cut both cakes in half. Use photo as guide to cut the flat cake into bottom portion of acorn. Use half moon shaped cake as acorn top. Push cake against the straight edge of flat cake to form acorn.
4. Tint vanilla frosting beige with several drops of brown food coloring. Cover bottom of acorns. Cover acorn tops with chocolate frosting. Arrange SNICKERS® Brand Miniatures around acorn tops, using a TWIX® Brand Caramel Cookie Bar Minis for the stem.

brightideas.com

Gumdrop Turkeys Thanksgiving Project

LOVE these! definitely the cutest turkey food creation that i have seen!!

supplies: 1 large gumdrop, 7 small gumdrops, 6 toothpicks, nerds candy, gummy worm, marshmallow, scissors

instructions:

1. attach a small gumdrop to the end of 5 of the toothpicks, and poke into the large gumdrop to form the turkey’s tail and body.

2. cut a gumdrop in half and attach to the turkey body as wings.

3. create the turkey head by first cutting two small pieces of marshmallow and attaching them to a gumdrop as the whites of the eyes (the sticky marshmallow adheres quite well!). push a small candy nerd into the center of each eye. poke a larger candy nerd in the center to form a beak, and then trim a small chunk of the gummy worm to form the snood (red flap that falls along the beak).

4. cut the last toothpick in half and use it to connect the head to the body of the turkey.

via Design Wash Rinse Repeat

Decorate Thanksgiving Pumpkins

isn’t this a cute idea? paint your mini pumpkins white, and then let the kids use fabric paint to decorate them. use them as centerpieces at the table on Thanksgiving day!

A Beautiful Mess

Gobbled-up Cupcakes

now that Halloween has come and gone, we can talk about my favorite holiday! i love Thanksgiving- delicious food and football! here is a cute and simple turkey cupcake recipe. your kids will think you are genius

Prep Time: 10 Min.
Bake Time: 20 Min.
Decoration Time: 25 Min.
Difficulty: Easy
Yield: Makes 24 Cupcakes.

1 box (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix
36 pieces STARBURST® Fruit Chews
3 cups prepared chocolate frosting
24 thin chocolate wafers
24 pieces thin pretzel sticks
24 TWIX® Brand Miniatures
¼ cup M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Mini Baking Bits
Fall-colored paper cupcake liners
Small rolling pin
Scissors
Resealable plastic bag

1. Prepare cake batter according to instructions on box. Divide batter evenly into paper-lined cupcake cups.
2. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 18-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, soften STARBURST® Fruit Chews (about 6 at a time) in the microwave for 2 to 3 seconds. Flatten them with a rolling pin and immediately cut into feathers using scissors. Use any red STARBURST® Fruit Chews scraps to make the waddle.
4. Frost the top of each cupcake. Using the scissors, snip a corner off of the resealable plastic bag and spoon 1 cup of chocolate frosting into the bag. For the tail: Pipe a line of frosting across the chocolate wafers and arrange three feathers on each one. Press pretzel stick to support wafer and press it into the cupcake. For the head: Pipe 4 dots on the short end of a TWIX® Cookie Bars candy to stick on the M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies eyes, nose and STARBURST® Fruit Chews waddle.

recipe and photo from brightideas.com

Thanksgiving Facts

Turkey Facts

Will you be having turkey for Thanksgiving? You aren’t alone – 97 percent of Americans have Turkey for Thanksgiving. Here are some fun facts to share with your family during the celebration!

* A male turkey is a tom. A female is a hen. Babies are called poults.

* Ben Franklin liked the Turkey so much he thought it should be the official bird of the US.

* A hen lays around 115 eggs a month which take about 28 days to hatch.

* A mature turkey has 3,500 feathers. Turkey feather were used by Native Americans to stabilize arrows.

* The largest turkey on record was 86 pounds.

* Wild turkeys can run 20 miles per hour and fly 55 miles per hour.

* Only the tom turkey gobbles. The hen makes clucking noises. A tom’s gobble can be heard a mile away.

* A group of turkeys is called a flock.

* Turkeys have lived in North America for 10 million years. Forty-Five million are eaten at Thanksgiving.

* At the first harvest celebration with the pilgrims and Native Americans, “fowl” was eaten. While this might have been turkey, it’s more likely to have been geese and ducks.

* At current Thanksgiving feasts, over 675 million pounds of turkey are consumed.

* It is NOT the turkey that makes you sleepy after a Thanksgiving feast. Tryptophan can only make you sleepy if taken on an empty stomach without protein – hardly the case on Thanksgiving! It’s the carbohydrates in the other foods we eat with our meal that make us sleepy – neither of which are traditional from the original pilgrim’s diet.