Giving Thanks

Every year I get a little more nervous for Thanksgiving because it seems like the Christmas shopping sales start earlier and earlier. I think I saw Christmas decorations in the stores before it was even Halloween!  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I also love Thanksgiving because of it's simplicity; there is no need for gifts or extravagant decorations.  It's nice just getting together with friends and family for good food, good company and being thankful for having them in your life... having what really matters.  Anyways, today I'm sharing photos from our simple little thanksgiving.



My sister and I put together our table with things that we could reuse and find in our mom's vintage linens and silverware.  The only things we bought were fresh flowers and taper candles!



We bought three simple grocery store flower bouquets and I attempted flower arranging. I had read about flower frogs on Design Mom, and used a pin flower frog and a vintage glass flower frog in two small bowls.  I think they turned out ok, but I definitely need more practice!



I didn't use a frog for the teapot, I just kept fiddling with it until I was happy with it.  And I really thought my mom's teapot brought all of our table colors together perfectly!



My sister took our left over pumpkins from Halloween, spray painted them gold, and cut little holes in them for taper candles.  To help stabilize the candles in a couple of the pumpkins, Gin put wadded up newspaper in the bottom so that she cut tape the bottom of the candle to the paper.  (The tape didn't want to stick to the inside of the recently scooped out pumpkin!)  Super easy, and super cute!



The vintage fabric we used on the table is probably around 70 or 80 years old!  We were scared to use it at first, but we thought we could be careful, and if we didn't use it, it would continue to just sit packed away where no one could appreciate it!



We also took out my mom's vintage silverware and cleaned it up with silver cleaner.  Gin and I had never really looked at it before, and really fell in love with the different pieces!  With those designs don't you think they're pretty on-trend?!  We know we will be fighting over them someday haha!!





We ran into a slight problem when looking through our napkin options... We decided blue napkins would be perfect, but we didn't have any!  We did however have some white napkins and some blue Rit dye...  My mom, after calling my sister and I "table divas," helped my sister dye our napkins blue.  (Should I mention that we did all this the night before Thanksgiving?)  I love how they turned out!



And I love how simple and pretty everything looked together!



Gin and I also decided we needed to sneak our golden beaver (from last Christmas) on the table.  Hooray for new silly holiday traditions!

Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving?  Do you have any fun holiday traditions?  And another bigger question, are you guys getting ready for Christmas?!



If you are in need of some awesome Christmas decorations (and live in the United States), look no further than the Christmas village set above! You can find it on Etsy HERE!  Yes, this is a shameless plug for my boyfriend's incredible work.  I may be biased, but that in no way changes the awesomeness of his Christmas villages!



These villages are left over from the craft fair that we did together over the summer (back before "friend" was affixed with "boy").  I never got around to blogging about that day probably because of the lack of success I had.  And after the lack of success I had there two years before, I wouldn't have tried again if it weren't for Nehill suggesting that we share a tent for it.  I may have only sold one thing that day (to Nehill despite my refusal to take his money), but the support and confidence I got from him (and our sisters who sat there with us) was what was really important.  I am truly thankful to have someone so special in my life.

(And just to reiterate, my man can craft!! Eat your heart out ladies! Just kidding.  But seriously.  Actually, for those following along at home, you may have already seen some of his craftiness before here, here, here and here!)

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday, week, and weekend!