Thanksgiving by amr

Tangled and True is one of my favorite (and first) blogs to follow - so how excited was I when she decided to feature her readers' Thanksgiving ideas? Check out my guest post on her blog today. Thanks Brittany - and a happy holiday to everyone!

Patterned Paper Place Mats

*Image via Paper Source

If you have a big crowd coming for dinner and don't have enough matching table settings, here's a quick trick that can really pull your look together: scrapbook paper. For less than $1 each you can place a square 12x12 piece of paper under your place setting in any color or pattern you can dream up. It's just paper, but you will be amazed how much spark it adds to your table.

Gifting Time Savers

I'm all for time savers this holiday season so I've been perusing Etsy for some personalized tags for our gifting goodies. These simple black and cream with jute are topping my list. You can find them here.

It's been sparse around here lately...

...and here is the main reason why. I've been starring in a major role since late September. It's called "Stage Mom." And last night the big production went down. My girl Kalli was Portia in Shakepeare's "The Merchant of Venice." Of course I'm going to say she was wonderful, magnificent, and beautiful. Because I'm her proud mom - and she was.

Story Deli

School house tables, vintage mirrors, cardboard stools, and chalkboard menus. Not to mention the yummiest organic pizzas with the craziest toppings. It's been about 7 weeks since we've eaten there (right off Brick Lane in London) and I'm craving to get back. Who's coming with me?

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween celebration consisted of one elementary school Halloween parade, three classroom Halloween parties, two soccer games, two piano concerto recitals, one neighborhood chili party, and of course two entirely separate rounds of trick or treating. It was a blast but also utterly exhausting. Mix that busy cocktail up with nursing kids back to health (who really shouldn't have been trick or treating in the first place) and the results are this: 1. Halloween decoration coming down 8 days too late 2. Pictures posted 8 days too late 3. One sick mommy who didn't get out of bed for two days

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

Oh Gourdy!

I know! I know! Halloween is over...but I just had to share. It's no secret I LOVE my Jeni Gochnour Gourds. In fact, at a recent party I hosted - a few guests wanted a house tour. Funny enough, it eventually turned into a gourd tour. I was kind of dying that I had so many to show. Now to the fun part - Jeni saw the picture I posted of my living room and posted it on her blog! You can check it out here. If you haven't been to one of her shows, be sure to put her Christmas show on your calendar. It's one of my favorite holiday art shows of the year.