Gone Thriftin'

I'm happy to be done with turkey (at least the kind you don't get at the deli counter) for another year.  I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I'm not a big Black Friday shopper, so I'm going to take a walk, and then visit the thrift store.  Enjoy your weekend!  :)

Grateful

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the bounty that will grace our table.  (Even if I don't look forward to all the cooking.)

I am grateful for the dishes and linens and silver that will make our table glow.

I am grateful for the little things:  for sunshine on silver, and berries from the hedge, and the smell of a freshly ironed tablecloth.

I am grateful for all the wonderful blogging friends who share their homes and their hearts with me daily.

I am grateful for my husband -- my best friend and the love of my life -- and for my wonderful children, who each carry a piece of my heart with them wherever they go.

And I am grateful for our Little Red House, with all it's sweet memories.  From our house to yours:  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Other Other White Meat

OK, so I'm kidding.  But tell me truthfully, do you really love Thanksgiving turkey all that much?  I must confess, I'm not a big fan.  I do like the side dishes -- the butternut squash soup, and the mashed potatoes with enough butter and whole milk in them to be a meal all by themselves.  I also am seriously addicted to mashed turnips.  No joke.  Sweet potatoes?  LOVE them.  And don't even get me started on my husband's stuffing.  I think my son would trade his right arm for that stuffing, with a little gravy.

But the turkey?  Not so much.

My problem with Thanksgiving is that it is a whole lot of work for something that none of the people in my family really likes all that much.  You see, I'm the only one who really enjoys all those side dishes.  True, my kids devour the mashed potatoes.  But nobody asks for turkey on their birthdays, when they get to choose their favorite meal.  Mostly they ask for ravioli, or baked ziti, or maybe roast beef.  I've had occasional requests for grilled chicken, and even for chicken tacos.  But never turkey.  

Back in the eighties, the humorist, Calvin Trillin, wrote a column in which he considered starting a movement to make Spaghetti Carbonara the official Thanksgiving meal.  Now I know that a lot of you are probably gasping in dismay at the very thought.  But wait.  Consider.  A pasta dish and a salad.  Maybe even an appetizer if you're feeling ambitious.  Three pots, at most.  And a couple of hours later, you don't feel as though you ate two times your body weight.  True, there may be no leftovers to snack on the next day, but I consider that a small price to pay for freedom from the tyranny of the bird.

Of course, I talk a good game, but we will be having turkey this Thanksgiving, like everybody else.  But hey, I can dream, right?

OMG

Today my daughter turns 17.  She is scheduled to take her driver's test at 11:30 am.  Holy crap.  Is noon too early to start drinking?

Edited to add:  She passed.  Came home from the test and drove herself to school for the rest of the day.  I've decided to choose brownies over alcohol.  Crying helps, too.  ;)

Yawn

OK, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here.  I can't think of  single thing to write about, so I'm showing you the new curtains I put up in the dining room yesterday.

Aren't I amazing?  I hung curtains!

(That was sarcasm, in case you missed it.)

Actually, there's a bit of a story involved here.  When I was growing up, my mother had curtains made for this window.  I remember picking out the fabric with her.  We chose a large red toile.  She had an upholstered cornice box made for the window.  

Over the years, the toile faded.  I took the curtains down a number of years ago, but for some reason, I left the cornice box in place.  But it looked kind of odd without the accompanying curtains.

A few years ago, we bought this painted chest and placed it under the window.  (That doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but I just wanted to put this photo in here.)

A few months ago, I bought a pair of gold curtains to cover a chair I got from the thrift store.  Well, I never got around to covering the chair, and I decided to see if the curtains would work in the dining room.

 I bought a shower curtain in a coordinating fabric to recover the cornice board.  (It's a cheap way to get some nice fabric.)  Yesterday, I took down the cornice board and hung the curtains.  But I had second thoughts about that cornice board.   I guess I could say that I didn't want that heavy piece overpowering the window.  But actually, I was just too lazy to cover it and put it back up.  That thing was hard to take down.

So I went down the road to Country Curtains and bought a scalloped valance.  Wow, that was a whole lot easier than recovering the cornice box.   :)

Are you keeping score here?  That's now two things I have not recovered:  the chair and the cornice box.

It turns out that the valance echoes the tiebacks that came with the curtains, and they both go very well with the shade on my $2. lamp.

So that's the story of my dining room curtains.  Don't get too excited.

My New Venture

My creation, originally uploaded by carroll.mary.

Yeah, right.

But wouldn't it be fun? Actually, I'm just having a bit more fun at Big Huge Labs. Now go have some fun of your own.

Before the holiday stress sinks in. :)

Making Book

Remember when I posted a photo mosaic last week?  I told you that I also like to make books on Blurb.  It's really fun, and highly addictive.

This is the first book I made.  It's a small collection of my favorite autumn photos.   

The Blurb software is extremely easy to use, and making a book is so much fun.

It would also be a terrific way to record a summer vacation, or a high school team's winning season, or your favorite recipes.  Right now I'm in the process of making a book of flower photographs.

So do you have any ideas for making a book?  I'd love to hear them.  :)