Tuesday's Thanksgiving prep update

As of 5 pm today all Thanksgiving food, with the exception of the turkey, has been cooked/prepped for Thursday. In fact, if Thanksgiving were to be suddenly moved to Wednesday, I would be ready! This is in spite of the fact that Monday's HVAC visit resulted in an overloaded circuit of some sort and we were without power in part of the house until another HVAC guy came out this afternoon.

 

Thanksgiving to do list :

• clean/condition the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pull recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• make shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart
• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
• clean carpets (thanks to a Bissell carpet cleaner borrowed from some friends)
• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
• meet with A/C repairmen for the 84th time since July
  
• change out front door handle and locks (Keith)
• change out guest bath toilet seat (Keith)
• hang hand towel ring in guest bath (Keith)
• change out smoke detector in the hallway (Keith)--no, not in preparation for my cooking; it's just a task we've procrastinated on
• rehang hallway light that is trying to fall down 
• meet the HVAC guy again
  
• mow, if the yard dries out in time (Keith)
• dust
• sweep front porch
• clean porch light
  
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

making good progress!

I feel like we're making great progress, even if we're not right on schedule. Of course, Keith  decided to add a few things to the list.

 

Thanksgiving to do list :

• clean/condition the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pull recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• make shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart
• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
• clean carpets (thanks to a Bissell carpet cleaner borrowed from some friends)
• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
• meet with A/C repairmen for the 84th time since July
  
• change out front door handle and locks (Keith)
• change out guest bath toilet seat (Keith)
• hang hand towel ring in guest bath (Keith)
• change out smoke detector in the hallway (Keith)--no, not in preparation for my cooking; it's just a task we've procrastinated on
• mow, if the yard dries out in time (Keith)

do Tuesday

• dust
• sweep front porch
• clean porch light
  
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

Countdown to Thanksgiving

This year I'm determined to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas rather than participate in a procrastination-triggered frenzy the night before. Therefore, I actually began my Thanksgiving cleaning and meal plannig on Saturday. Yes, a full week and 5 days early. Don't get too impressed, though--we'll have to see how good my holiday preparation stamina really is. As an even bigger challenge, I want to have the house clean and all prep done before Tuesday evening. It's crazy, but my sister-in-law is visiting from Colorado and I want to make sure we get to spend as much time with her as possible during the few days she's here. To keep myself somewhat accountable, I'm going to create a to do list and post it here.

already done (listed here because it's more stuff I get to cross off):

• cleaned/conditioned the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pulled recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• made shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart

do this week:

• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
  

do Monday

• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
  

do Tuesday

• dust
• sweep front porch
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

If this actually works, I'm creating a 4 week plan for Christmas. After that, I'm going to take over the world.

layout leftovers

Following my own advice, I made a card from my "Making Cookies With Mom" layout leftovers. I had pulled the flowers out while working on the layout, but didn't end up using them.

As I learn more about interior design and fashion, I begin to see its influence on my scrapbooking and cardmaking. I love how Candice Olson on Divine Design creates sophisticated spaces by using texture and pattern in various shades of the room's colors. I've also noticed that I'm drawn to rooms, outfits, and layouts that add a contrasting, possibly unexpected, "pop" of color. (The pop is in quotes because it's become such an HGTV/TLC buzzword that Keith has started joking about it.) Black and white dress with kelly green shoes? Done! (Stacy London would be proud.) Chocolate, taupe and cream living room with steel blue accents? Thinking about it. So when it was time to add centers to the flowers on this card, I quickly decided on fun aqua pearls rather than matching pink or brown centers. The card is more interesting that way, don't you think?

Bazzill cardstock; Scenic Route patterned paper; Prima paper flowers; Basic Grey adhesive pearls; vintage seam binding tape; Fontwerks alpha stamps; Versamark ink; Stampendous! embossing powder; Fiskars corner rounder

making cookies with Mom

I remember how I coveted these letter stamps for some time before I finally asked to get them for Christmas a few years ago. Since they came as unmounted rubber stamps on a single sheet I also asked for the EZ Mount starter kit. When the stamps came I mounted them on stamping foam and very carefully cut around each letter with my new special Kai scissors. It was a lot of work, but I finally had my Steelfish Outline letter stamps! A couple of months later I was in a scrapbook store and came across a set of clear Steelfish Outline letter stamps, meaning they didn't have to be mounted on foam, they didn't have to be cut out, and they would be easier to line up. Well, crap.

I couldn't find letter stickers in the right color/size for this layout, so letter stamps with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder were the perfect solution. I didn't have any letter stamps small enough for the "making" and "with," so I wrote out the words with my Quickie Glue Pen (after 4 attempts each of writing them in pencil, of course) and embossed with clear embossing powder. Worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Bazzill Basics cardstock; Scenic Route patterned paper (stripe and dot); Autumn Leaves patterned paper (pink); Making Memories tag stickers; Paper Studio brad ("C"); Recollections tiny brad; Fontwerks alpha stamps; Versamark ink; Sakura Quickie Glue pen; Stampendous! embossing powder; Fiskars apron lace border punch

I have a problem

I think I have OCCCD. Never heard of it? It's Obsessive Candy Corn Consumption Disorder. Sure signs you have OCCCD:

• You go through the motions of hiding the candy corn in the back of the pantry...and then go get some 45 seconds later.
• When you come across an opened bag of candy corn in a cabinet at work in August (and realize it's 10 months old), you still eat some.
• For portion control, you pour about 4-5 pieces of candy corn out into your hand and then put the bag back up before you eat them. You then repeat this process 6 times in immediate succession.
  
• You consider packing a little container of candy corn to take with you to work. 9 hours is too long to go without it.
• You sneak into the kitchen to eat candy corn when your husband isn't looking. It keeps him from judging you...and eating the candy corn.
• You plan to make a special trip to Wal Mart (where you hate shopping) because their Sunday flyer shows that they have a sale on candy corn.

going simple with die cut paper

Did you notice that the last layout had nothing but cardstock, photos, die cut paper, letter stickers and journaling?  I find I often reach for my die cut paper when I'm wanting to create a quick and simple layout. Here's another one using the same formula.

Hasn't Keith gotten quite good at the dual self-portrait? Pretty handy when no one's around and you're too lazy (or cold) to bust out the tripod. It's important for me to have lots of photos of us together.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; KI Memories die cut paper; American Crafts velvet letter stickers; Fiskars corner rounder