Congrats!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't get pepper sprayed at any Black Friday sales.

Congratulations to Jenifer Agee, winner of the Black Friday giveaway! Jen, cards are on their way to you. Thanks for following the blog!

If you didn't win, hang in there! There will be more giveaways another time.

Remember to support your favorite small business tomorrow on Small Business Saturday. I'm thinking a creative and fun day crafting at the Little Blue House, then picking up something that's not turkey at Ted-E's (best Philly cheesesteaks around). Today, it's all about the Muppets! Woooooo! Who doesn't love Muppets?

Ma-na-na-na (doo-DOO-doo-doo-doo),
Jenny

I See Friday Coming, and I Want to Paint it Black

This is the time of year for counting down the days to:

• Thanksgiving
• My kid's birthday
• Christmas
• New Year's
• and, of course, how many days till I can wake up at 2 in the morning to go stand in line to get a voucher for a new laptop only to have some complete jackass with no voucher snag the last one at the Black Friday sale?

Ah, Black Friday. What sort of sick, twisted minds invented this? I have to admit, I bought (and bought) into it for the longest time. But now I am enlightened. This means that at 2 a.m. on Black Friday, I'm not dressing up in my warmest clothes and getting ready for a possible street brawl type of fight in front of Best Buy. Instead, the enlightment is literal, with my face reflecting the soft electric glow of my laptop screen, its fan purring oh so delicately while I'm in cyber checkout at 2 a.m., and the only jackasses I have to deal with are the ones that didn't plan well for server allocation on amazon.com or kohls.com. And if they run out of whatever it is I needed, there's no trudging off to the next store. It's back to bed for me. How Zen.

If you are also looking for good things to come your way this Black Friday, look no more. I am giving away a set of 4 Santa belly Christmas cards to 1 lucky follower.* Could it be you?? A follower of this blog will be chosen randomly this Friday. If you're reading this blog and not following, I'm not saying you're a loser: I'm just saying that you can't possibly win. So follow it already!

Here's a peek at the cards you could win:

And noooowww, back to the countdown.

I have too many things to count down to at this time of the year, so rather than try to count down on all of them, I put my focus on the countdown to Christmas. Here's my Christmas countdown sign along with instructions so you can make your own. This would be a great project to work on on Friday when you are coming down off your shopping high. Just make sure you aren't in a tryptophan stupor when you do it, since there are sharp objects involved.

https://picasaweb.google.com/107274384649999210248/Movies?authkey=Gv1sRgCMif3oe544X4lQE#5677319269655188770 

Moving like Jagger,
Jenny

P.S. Follow the blog to win!* Or just buy a set of cards at jenboothe.etsy.com.

*Standard rules apply: If I married you or birthed you, you aren't eligible to win.

So much to do, so meh to actually do it

I started this blog posting about 20 different times, trying to find some happy words of inspiration about Thanksgiving. I think I've kind of mentally checked out on Thanksgiving. I've been making Christmas stuff for a while now, and am starting to think about Valentine's Day, so Thanksgiving really feels like it already happened.

Of course, it hasn't happened, and sometime in the next few days, I'm going to freak out because I have about 6 different lists going on things to do or buy for Thanksgiving but I have no master plan. This is odd for me, because I am a planner and a lister (meaning that I write lots of lists, not that I lean. Well, sometimes I lean, too). In the meantime, I'll try to take comfort in the Thanksgiving decor I've been able to get done before I hit this holiday do-nothing slump.

Here are the tags I made to go on my Words for All Seasons blocks I made at the Little Blue House last year. These blocks are one of my favorite things I've made at LBH, because I can really change them up however often I want and express my sentiments exactly to fit the holiday, season, or just the way I'm feeling.

I used chipboard to cut out some autumnal shapes: a pumpkin, an apple, 2 leaves, and 2 acorns (I just did this freehand, but you could use a diecut machine or some pre-cut shapes if you have them). I covered the pumpkin, apple and acorns with some pretty patterned papers in fall colors. The leaves I covered with metal from Ten Seconds Studio that I ran through my Cuttlebug to emboss with swirly designs. I also used embossed metal to create the acorn caps, and covered each stem on the shapes with metal. On each shape I added letters to spell out THANKS. I cut out a leaf for the pumpkin and added smaller letters to spell out GIVE. Lastly, I added a ribbon loop to each shape and hung them on my blocks. Ta-da!

Here's another view.

Hopefully my tags will inspire me to get my butt in gear and come up with a good Thanksgiving strategy, or at least a consolidated to-do list. Or maybe I'll just grab a glass of wine, watch the light reflect off the shiny metal on the tags, and call that meditation. Um, ommm?

Next week I'll be posting a Christmas giveaway to a follower. If you're reading this blog and not following, then you won't win. So go ahead and follow! Or if you aren't into winning free stuff, you can buy stuff on my new etsy site at jenboothe.etsy.com.

Happy listing, or leaning, whichever it is you do.
Jenny

Owl Be There, With Hate-Filled Food

Finished off that leftover Halloween candy that you "accidentally" overbought? Then it must be time to start planning the Thanksgiving menu.

 

This year, for the first time in several years, I'm hosting the Thanksgiving festivities. I love the starch-fest that is Thanksgiving. Mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, stuffing, hot buttered rolls, cakes, pies, and everything covered in gravy. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of Weight Watchers Points holiday forgiveness.

 

To put myself in the spirit, I made up some invitations to send to my family. Of course, they all knew they were invited, but this was a terrific opportunity to use my cheerful autumn paper I got at The Little Blue House and some metal that I picked up from Ten Seconds Studio.

 

The other thing I wanted to do to get in the spirit was make test batches of mac n cheese, but in the interest of combatting the 3 lbs I put on during the Rangers devasting run up to losing the World Series, I nixed that plan. Instead I've been making lists of what I plan to make for Thanksgiving. There is one food item I usually make, something so good I have to make enough for a small army because everyone wants leftovers to take home. It is also the food item that I loathe making. It is absolutely the biggest pain in the rear food I've ever made. It has 9 million steps, involves what seems like hours of chopping, and you can never make enough of it. And every time you make it, you'll hate making it just a little bit more.

 

Due to the extreme intensity with which I despise making this dish, I have dubbed it the Hate-Filled Squash Casserole. It's similar to the squash casserole they have at Boston Market, only instead of it taking 30 seconds for you to order it at Boston Market and pay for it, it takes you a zillion ingredients and huge amounts of time. I made it under protest last year (resulting in the proclaimation that it Now Features More Hate!), but this is the year where I make a stand: I AM NOT MAKING HATE-FILLED SQUASH CASSEROLE THIS YEAR.

If you want to make it, I've included the recipe. I hope to God that someone will make it and bring it by my house, if for no other reason than it will keep my sisters from saying "Where's the squash casserole?" Well, also because it's really good and someone should make it. Just not me.

 

If you want to make the cards, here's a little how to for you:

 

If you want to make the casserole, it is the best darn casserole in the world, but you should never serve it to others, because then they will want you to make it again and again and again, and then you will not just hate making the casserole, you may also become resentful of these people, people you probably love. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Hate-Filled Squash Casserole
(serves 6-8; for a Thanksgiving crowd, just double everything)

Ingredients:
4.5 c sliced zucchini
4.5 c sliced squash
1.5 c. diced yellow onion
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix (egg & milk according to package)
1.5 sticks of salted butter
8 oz shredded cheddar (it's best if you shred a block of cheddar, but by all means, take a shortcut and buy pre-shredded cheese if you want)
3 cubes chicken bouillon
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
.5 tsp dried thyme

1. Prepare the corn muffin mix as directed on the box and allow to cool completely. You're going to crumble this, so it doesn't matter if you make muffins or a pan or a loaf.
2. Put zucchini and squash in a large pot wih just enough water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat until just tender.
3. Remove from heat and drain, reserving 1 c. of the water.
4. In a large pan, place all the butter and melt over med-low heat.
5. Saute onions in the butter until the onions are clear.
6. Add herbs, spices, and bouillon and stir.
7. Add drained zucchini and squash and cook together for about 3 mins.
8. Crumble in the cornbread and remove from heat.
9. Add the reserved water and mix well.
10. Add cheese and stir.
11. Spray a large casserole dish with Pam and dump in the whole gooey mess.
12. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degees for 1 hour, removing foil for the last 20 minutes.

Wishing you a non-hate-filled week,
Jenny