Thanksgiving Jar Craft Project

Last year my daughter made us a Thanksgiving Jar, and we have loved it so much I thought I'd share this easy project with you today.

Our Thanksgiving Jar is a jar into which we put slips of paper where we've written things we're thankful for, to be read out loud during our Thanksgiving feast.

We put our Thanksgiving Jar out in early October, but you can leave your jar out all year if you want. We found that the perfect spot for it in our home is on the kitchen bar counter where we walk by it all day long. It's easy to stop what we're doing for a moment to write out a card and pop it in the jar when we think of something for which we're thankful.

My daughter made her own stencils using contact paper and etched the designs on our jar using cream etching paste she purchased from the craft store. She etched THANKS on one side.

And she etched an acorn and leaf design on the other side. For the lid, she decoupaged a mosaic design using some squares of scrapbook paper.

Here's a video from Martha Stewart Crafts showing how easy it is to etch glass using the etching cream.

Last year I simply cut out squares from brown paper bags for our thankful notes, but this year I saw these cute I'm thankful for cards designed by Michelle of the Elegance & Enchantment blog and downloaded them for free over at Remodelaholic. I just printed some on card stock and cut them out. 

Of course, the first thankful card that went into our jar after we got it was for the jar itself and for our thoughtful daughter for giving it to us! We've treasured this gift and the opportunity it gives us to slow down and note all that we have to be thankful for. And it inspires such a wonderful conversation around our Thanksgiving table.

Wouldn't a Thanksgiving Jar make a great hostess gift for that special person who hosts your Thanksgiving dinner this year? 

Let's party today! Join me at:

Rooted In Thyme
From My Front Porch To Yours
The Charm Of Home
The Cottage Market

Fall Dining Room

The day after Halloween I packed up our ghosts and skeletons and began decorating our house for fall and Thanksgiving. The first three days of November having whizzed by here so quickly have reminded me that Thanksgiving is just around the corner! 

November in Boise is usually a cloudy, cold and wet month. Bringing the warm colors of fall leaves into our little cottage creates a cozy and inviting atmosphere for welcoming family and guests indoors from the now chilly drab grey world outside.  

On the dining room table I placed our long rustic wooden box on a burlap runner and filled it with bright faux leaves, berries, flowers, pumpkins, and candles.  

This rough-hewn box is fun to decorate, and the possibilities for filling it are practically endless.

It's my favorite new thing!

Over on the sideboard I shopped my big armoire for warm colors, textures, and seasonal decor.

A wire cloche ringed with berries covers a few colorful seasonal squash nestled in an old footed iron tray.

As I pulled items from here and there around the house, family heirlooms became a theme in the dining room. This large heavy brass sign is a treasured heirloom from the barn of my old childhood home in Saratoga, California. I love using its warm glowing patina as a backdrop for vignettes like this. I bought the glass oil burning lantern from a hardware store when I was a girl of sixteen, and it's traveled the country with me. At one point, it even cast its soft glow over my college dorm room!

My husband's antique coffee grinder is a family heirloom gifted to him by his mother.

A basket filled with cloth place mats and napkins makes quick work of setting the table.

When I was growing up, my mother added to her own small set of wedding silver one place setting at a time so that I would one day have enough for big holiday celebrations in my own home. Before family dinners it was my girlhood task to polish the silver, and after dinner my mother and I would hand wash and dry the flatware while standing side by side at our big farmhouse sink and carefully place it back in the silver chest. 

I haven't used my silver too much over the years. It sadly became a way of life for which I didn't make time. Now days, I have lots of time and a strong desire for sharing my mother's and my past with my own daughters, especially over the holidays. I decided to leave the heavy silver chest right out on the sideboard where I won't forget to use it and where it's easy to reach. It makes a fine place on which to rest our basket of everyday table linens.

     

I also unpacked some of my grandmother's hand painted antique china into the glass doored corner cabinet where I'll see it and be inspired to use it more often. Perhaps I'm getting sentimental in my old age, but for this year's holiday season I'm loving having family heirlooms close at hand.

A grocery store chrysanthemum sits in front of the sunny dining room window on a little pine bench my husband built years ago.

The shiny finish of our old brass lamp lights up this dark corner of the kitchen bar, and the black lamp shade creates an intimate soft glow in the evening.

   

Behind the lamp I tucked a print of feathers I created in Photoshop for my favorite gold leaf frame.

I enjoy bringing a glowing warmth into our home this time of year using color, pattern, texture, and the soft patina of old metals. I'm so glad you stopped by to share some of my family heirlooms and what I've been up to around here as I prepare our home for fall and the holidays to come. 

Please come again soon!

   

{For my fall decor from last year, visit the tours on my sidebar.}

I'm sharing my fall dining room at these fabulous parties. Come join us!

Between Naps on the Porch

Cozy Little House

Elizabeth & Co.

Our Home Away from Home

Savvy Southern Style

Adirondack Girl At Heart

Halloween Ghost Decoration

I'm getting into a Halloween mood! 

Over the weekend I baked a batch of caramel frosted pumpkin cookies, and while a big pot of chili simmered on the stove for our dinner, my daughters and I made some cute Halloween ghost decorations together. 

We followed the easy DIY Halloween Ghosts tutorial shared by Amy over at The Idea Room blog.

 I love making holiday decorations with our girls. My daughters both have busy full time jobs, so I usually shop for all our supplies and have everything ready when they arrive at our house. Then we just chat and laugh and have a great time together while we work on our decorations. 

After we draped our ghost shapes, we left them to dry while making the BOO bunting and bats. Then we finished up the evening enjoying our chili and pumpkin cookies while watching the Boise State football game on TV. 

What a perfect fall day!

How about you? Are you getting into a Halloween mood, too?

I hope you all have a very 

Happy Halloween!

To see my Halloween decorations from past years, just click on the links below each photo: 

Halloween Hutch

Glowing Pumpkins Halloween Banner

Halloween Friday Finds

Free Halloween Tags & My Halloween Decorated Studio

   

A Few New Cottage Finds

I'm back from our fabulous vacation to California! No matter how wonderful a trip is, it's always good to be back home, isn't it? Today, I'm sharing a few new purchases for our home, found at prices that didn't break my budget. I just love to share great deals!

 First up is this beautiful cake plate and dome from the Pioneer Woman's new collection sold at Walmart. I first fell in love with Jadeite when Martha Stewart shared her collection on her TV show. You can watch a video all about collecting and using Jadeite on Martha's website here. Collectible Jadeite is pretty expensive, so when I saw this Pioneer Woman cake plate online for only $19.00, I just had to have it. It's my first piece!

 I keep my new cake plate on the bar between the kitchen and dining room where I pass by it all day long. I don't care that I don't have a lick of this color anywhere else in our home, I just adore its soft green milky glow. 

 Next up is the fence picket box my husband made for me. I've mentioned before that our go-to source for old aged wood is our own backyard fence. When I want a piece of faded old wood for a project, we just pry a picket off the fence and replace it with a new one from the lumber store. It's our own renewable resource! 

I showed my husband a Pinterest photo of a rustic box, and he had this one cut and screwed together for me in about ten minutes. I enjoyed filling it with my garden zinnias in milk bottles during late summer, and now it's holding some old craft store faux hydrangeas in green mason jars. So easy!

    

 I love the hand painted look of Pottery Barn toss pillows, but they are so out of my price range! When I spied this sunflower pillow one day at Michael's Craft store, my first thought was that it reminded me of a Pottery Barn pillow. It wasn't priced much lower than one from Pottery Barn either, but guess who never sets foot inside a craft store without a 40% off coupon? Moi! 

So I hemmed and hawed for about two seconds, then snapped it up for $17.00.

 Sitting on the little table next to my reading chair is my last great find for today. This heavy ceramic honeycomb vase is exactly like the one I bought my daughter a few Christmases ago from West Elm. I found this one at Walmart recently for $10.00, a third of the price of the West Elm vase. I do plan on putting something in it, but honestly, I just love the honeycomb pattern all by itself.

  So those are a few new budget-minded decor items I've purchased for our cottage lately. I'm mostly shopping my home these days for seasonal decorations and vignettes, but when I see something I really, really love at a super fantastic price, I'll still grab it. Having a few new things around you that you really love to look at everyday can breath new life into your whole home. 

This weekend I'll be lugging my boxes of fall decor up from the basement. I'm excited to see how the beautiful fall colors look with the new wood floors we installed last spring and with the new furniture arrangement in the living room. 

Don't you just love how each season makes everything feel new again?