I was about to make a whole bunch of them when another idea struck.  I have a bunch of felt laying around from other projects… why not put it to use?  And so I went to work, and soon this was what I had:

Lots of brown felt flowers!  And on the backs:

To make the flowers you can find a felt rosette tutorial here.

After I’d made the flowers I whipped up some simple napkin rings using more brown felt.  I cut strips about 5 1/2 inches long and used pinking shears to cut the sides.  They’re about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Simply fold them in half lengthwise and sew the ends together (right sides together, of course):

After sewing, trip threads and turn right side out.  It should look something like this:

Insert a napkin in the ring…

Then you just clip the flower onto the napkin ring and you’re done!

It’s also easy to add a tag to the clip.  You can assign seats this way or simply express a sentiment.

Why did I put the felt flowers on a clip instead of gluing them to the napkin ring?  I’m not sure, exactly, except that I thought it would be fun.  I guess it sounded like a fun surprise to be able to re-use the flowers, or send them home with our Thanksgiving guests as a little favor.  Doing it this way certainly got the attention of my girls, and one little helper in particular!

I love the way the various shades of brown work together and am excited to see them on our Thanksgiving table.  I also wouldn’t mind it if I see some of this after our meal:

And so, using materials I had on hand I was able to make two dozen new napkin rings for Thanksgiving dinner.  I’m enjoying the less-traditional shape (a flower) with more traditional fall colors.  I hope our guests enjoy them, and I particularly hope my nieces are happy with them.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow?  Where did November go?  I’ve still got SO MUCH work to do… I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get it all done.

Jennifer

For as long as I can remember we’ve made spice drop turkeys on Thanksgiving day.  It’s a tradition I’ve continued with my family.  Usually we place a small bowl on each plate filled with toothpicks and spice drops but this year I decided to try something different.  I created a build your own turkey table.

I borrowed my vintage desk from my bedroom to use in the dining room and put the candy in glass vases.

The candy and the turquoise desk was so colorful that I opted to run with the color instead of sticking with a traditional Thanksgiving palate.  I gathered my velvet pumpkins from around the house and made a couple of turkeys to put on display.

Finally, a tiny silver urn for holding toothpicks.

Maybe it’s our gray skies, but I’m loving the colors of these candies:

It takes only a few dollars to provide spice drops in two sizes, some fruit slice candy and toothpicks.  It’s a great way to keep the children occupied while the final dinner preparations are made and some adults really get into it as well.

I’m hoping this format will be fun for everyone on Thursday.  It’s nice to know I’ve got something ready to go!

Do you have a fun Thanksgiving craft or activity you do every year?  Please share!
Jennifer

An old metal bench.  An oversized acorn hanging from burlap and embroidered ribbon.  A simple wood plank declaring “A Day of Thanksgiving and Praise”.  A lantern with a pumpkin and some battery operated candles enclosed.  A couple more candles on the ground in blue lanterns.

Simple.  It makes me happy.

And over by the front door, the wood sign I’ve had for many years:

Welcome to our home.  And welcome, Thanksgiving!

Jennifer
*Love Thanksgiving?  Dont’ forget to tell me how you celebrate and enter to win a “give thanks” banner here.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  It is so rich in meaning and history, and comes at a time of year when abundant harvests are still fresh in memory, if not all around us.  I also believe that gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions we can feel; that it transforms us as people and it also transforms our memory.  Lack of gratitude is an open door to unlimited challenges; gratitude is an open door to potential and excellence.

I realize that to some Thanksgiving is simply a meal, or a meal on a single day with people we love, and that’s totally fine.  To me it’s more of a season, like Christmas.  Last year I wrote about wanting to carry the Thanksgiving spirit forward into my Christmas observance and my heart still pauses on those thoughts.

Because it’s a special holiday to me,  my list of things to do for Thanksgiving is rather lengthy.  I love hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house (it’s a lot of work but in some ways easier than taking my large group elsewhere).  It occurred to me this week that if I shortened my Thanksgiving “to do” list I might get more accomplished on my Christmas list, but I’m not sure I want to.  The two holidays pair so well together.

Among my Thanksgiving projects to complete this year was this banner.  A friend and I got together and started them last year.  She finished hers; I finished mine last week.

It’s made of felt, with a leaf and letter sewn onto a felt background.  I hung it on sturdy rope and added a green ribbon between each letter to keep them properly spaced.  The inspiration came from a small picture of a similar banner in a Pottery Barn kids catalog several years ago.  (Why do they never sell the one thing I fall in love with?)

When we started them last year I cut enough fabric for two banners, so I’d like to give one away!  To enter, just leave a comment telling me where you are on the Thanksgiving spectrum:  is it a holiday you really get into, or do you let it take just a day or two? 

The giveaway will end at midnight on Friday November 11, 2011.  I’ll announce the winner on Saturday.

On a similar note, I’m also offering a giveaway this week over on the blog I participate in with my sisters.  It’s called Sisterview, and we have some fun things planned for the next few weeks.  I just finished making my first velvet pumpkins, and I’m giving some away.  If you’d like to enter, head over here to leave a comment.

And check back here at Hopeful Homemaker in the next day or two for a second velvet pumpkin giveaway.

Good luck!
Jennifer

Why?  Well, I happen to love history, especially American History, and so there are just some dates I pay attention to, like February 12, 1809.

Anybody know what happened that day?  It was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  Which means that February 12, 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of our nation’s most influential leaders.

So here’s how it went.  I started mentally planning the celebration about 9 months in advance.  I won’t bore you (or perhaps make you laugh) with details of the wonderful things I envisioned and the number of people I planned to involve.  And then, about 3 1/2 months before the party was to occur, I got pregnant with baby number 8.  This means, of course, that suddenly I was so tired that I was afraid I’d fall asleep at the wheel driving kids to and from school.  It means that suddenly I was buried under a mountain of housework that wasn’t getting done.  And the closer the calendar crept to February 12, 2009, the more sad I felt.  I just couldn’t pull it off, unless my family agreed to just quit eating and wearing clothes for a month or so.  Which, of course, didn’t happen.

By the beginning of February I was feeling like perhaps I should just scrap the whole thing, but I knew that I’d never forgive myself, that I won’t be around for the 300th anniversary, that I’d always be sorry I didn’t try.  So I threw something together (a sorry shadow of what I’d envisioned), invited a couple of families to join us, cooked up some hoecakes (his favorite breakfast) and went for it.

It was ok.  I mean, how many people thought to have a birthday party for him anyway?  But I felt a little sad at not being able to do what I’d dreamed.  Still, it worked out, and at least we paused and marked the day for our children.

And I’d found these:

They look like pennies, don’t they?  They’re not.  They’re chocolate coins, and they’re more than 1.5 inches in diameter.  And, they taste much better than any chocolate coin I’ve ever tasted.  When I saw them for the first time at a little children’s museum in Temecula, California, I was smitten.  I had to have them for my party.  I had to have them so badly that I was willing to order 10 POUNDS of them, because that’s the only way to get them!

I liked using the penny as the symbol for our year for two reasons.
1.  Because they have Lincoln’s profile on them, and this is the year of his 200th birthday
2.  Because one of the great lessons of Lincoln’s life is that one person makes a difference.  Small efforts yield results.

It’s so easy, living in today’s world, to feel like one person doesn’t matter, can’t do much, won’t be enough.    That’s kind of how pennies are, too.  Just one penny isn’t worth much, can’t buy anything, doesn’t matter.  In fact, inflation has made the penny so worthless that the US Mint has considered ceasing to make them.  Pretty worthless, right?

Wrong.  Last I checked, 100 pennies still add up to one dollar, and 1000 pennies still make $10.  “Out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”  I kind of like having Lincoln on the penny.  It seems to me that they both stand for the same thing.  And it’s a principle I really want my kids to understand and live.

We used these chocolate pennies at our party, and I still had a ton of them left.  So I’ve been using them all year long with my children as a reminder of the power of one person, one act of goodness.  It’s been kind of fun to have this year-long theme weaving itself through our lives.

Fast forward to a week ago.  I was wishing that we could just skip Halloween and go straight into November.  I really love Thanksgiving, and I was dreaming of all that I’d love to do for the holiday.  Suddenly it hit me that November would be the perfect time to use our pennies again!

Thanksgiving is a holiday which we usually celebrate by remembering our Pilgrim heritage.  But did you know that it wasn’t a national holiday until President Lincoln issued  a proclamation calling for a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863?  What better year to remember that we have him to thank for the holiday than 2009?  (If  you’d like to read the text of the proclamation, which I personally find inspiring, you can find it here.)

Thus was born our Thanksgiving Penny Project.  Each day between now and Thanksgiving, our family will award two Thanksgiving pennies to individuals who have been observed that day doing something positive that makes a difference in our family or in someone’s life.  After being awarded a penny, that person is responsible for selecting the next day’s recipient.  So, we’ll have the children awarding pennies, and a second penny will be awarded each day by the parents.  In addition to giving a penny, at the same time we will place a penny in a  jar and write down on a little notepad the person who received a penny and why.  Then, on Thanksgiving we’ll have a lovely jar full of pretty little copper pennies to use in our Thanksgiving celebration and a list of  blessings we’ve given each other throughout the month.

Today we also bundled up notepads and bags of Thanksgiving Pennies, along with a copy of Lincoln’s proclamation and a letter explaining our project and delivered them to some families we love.   We hope that they will also enjoy a Thanksgiving Penny Project like ours, and that they’ll let us know how it turns out.  I love Thanksgiving so much, and Abraham Lincoln too, that I wish I could bundle up these adorable treats and send them to everyone I know!  Anyone who wants them!  My first thought included a trip to the post office, but since I still have Christmas gifts I never mailed last year, I crossed that part off my list pretty quickly.  My second thought was to do a giveaway here on my blog, which would mean that IF one person stumbled upon my post, they’d have oh, about a 100% chance of winning, but I’m not sure I have the confidence to do that, so it hasn’t happened.  I figure if anybody finds this and is dying to have some chocolate pennies, please contact me and I can help you out.   So, (not that anyone’s reading this) if you want to start a Thanksgiving Penny Project of your own, grab a roll of pennies and a pretty glass or jar, and get going!  Just be sure to write it down.  It’ll only cost you a few pennies, but it just might add up to a holiday season brimming with gratitude for the simplest of gifts:  individuals.