BOO! Happy Halloween to all! I hope those of you that have little ones have fun seeing the magic in those little eyes when they get so excited to be dressed up!

I know that many areas and many people do not recognize Halloween as truly the times have changed but I will enjoy thinking back to fond memories of going trick-n-treating with my brothers and hoping that Mrs. McCraw would be giving out her homemade popcorn balls! WOW – would I do anything to have one…I still remember how she tied the ends up with black and orange yarn!

I love to remember that all 3 of my children wore the most adorable Pumpkin Costume that I LOVED and they were not as keen about it as they were probably around 4 at the time and I loved to keep stuffing the costume with white tissue paper to make the costume round! (The part that they really disliked was the "stem" that they wore on their head – the boys did not like the elastic part that went under their chin….but I loved taking pictures of them!)

Ok….let me hop off the road of memory lane and now that we have Halloween behind us…let's start getting going on some Thanksgiving inspiration!

Do you realize that 4 weeks from today is Thanksgiving and we are going to be stressing out if the turkey is cooked…how in the world are we going to get everything in the oven and cooked…who's going shopping for Black Friday…ya-da-ya-da!

I adore Thanksgiving for many reasons…I love having my family home and I find it a perfect day of total relaxation and fun!

It is a casual day that I look so forward to…making a big breakfast and homemade sticky buns (kids favorite)…watching the Macy Day Parade…then the Dog Show….then going for a walk on the C & O Canal…to football…and then the HUGE meal that we always say we are going to eat at "x" time…only to always be 2 hours later! Just love this day!!! Then as we are all miserable from over eating – we watch Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation and hopefully someone will play bananagrams with me!

Down to business! I feel like I have totally neglected Crumb Cake lately and I do love it as it always is a neutral that can go both ways….subtle or fun – depending on the colors you put with it!

The stamp is from the Seasonal Sayings Stamp Set and this has such a great assortment of holidays! This is a great stamp set to have if you enjoy making cards for the holidays throughout the year! The sentiments hold up for themselves so you need a minimal backdrop!

When I think of Thanksgiving, I do think of leaves, pumpkin pie, the fireplace going….and I think of warm browns, yellows and orange! The Sweater Weather Designer Series Paper was the prefect choice for today's card!

I had to put my thinking cap on and I kind of "fudged it" but it worked! Remember….anything you do is a work of art from YOU!

I wanted to use the shape of the Chalk Talk Framelits and it was just too short so "Plan B" – I cut 2…and stretched it out to be a size appropriate for the stamp! YEAH!!! I used sticky strip…just love that for certain projects!

I stamped my sentiment in soft suede and then matted it on the ends of a framelit of soft suede before adhering it to a piece of pumpkin pie! A simple "stitch" around the focal part is all that was needed!

A tool that I simply could nt be without is my Stampin' Trimmer…making even cuts of the diagonal stripes is easy and perfect each and every time! This is a fun way to do a quick "something" to a card!

The envelope goes without saying…simple and super cute! I quick lining on the outer part of the envelope and BAM….in the mail you go!

We all have sooooo much to be thankful for…I encourage you to take some time and make some cards and send them to those that make a difference in your life, to those that need encouragement, to those that are less fortunate!

I will continue to inspire you with some Thanksgiving ideas…the calendar is zooming…is tomorrow really November 1st!

Until tomorrow!