nurturing hope, creativity, family
It’s time to announce the winner of the “Give Thanks” banner. The winner is comment #7, Janelle Hansen.
Congratulations! I’ve just sent you an email and am excited to send this Thanksgiving banner to you.
Thank you for all your comments. I enjoyed reading your thoughts about Thanksgiving, and hearing from some of you. I feel very blessed.
Don’t forget there’s another giveaway going on for a few more days.
Click here to enter.
Early in the week I posted this giveaway which also included a link to a second giveaway I’m offering over at Sisterview for some velvet pumpkins I made. Well, it doesn’t stop there. You see, it seems that in some things I’m great at moderation and in others I’m not. This would be one when I’m not. I’ve spent the week with a pot simmering on the stove with various colors of fabric dye and velvet in it.
Did I have time for it? No. Should I have been doing other things instead? Yes. did I get some interesting looks from my almost 13 year old daughter? Yup. But was it fun? Absolutely! And I learned some new things. A week ago I’d never tried to dye fabric, and now I’ve done it at least a dozen times. It’s healthy to try new things, and I’m finally using my stash of pumpkin stems as well!
I think they’re beautiful: deep navy blues, teal, aqua, burgundy, plum, lavender and a gorgeous dark gray. No orange in this batch! Seeing them sitting there together brings a smile to my face and I’m enjoying the unexpected colors as much as I like the traditional ones.
Once again, I’d like to share some. I’m going to send a lucky someone a set of four velvet pumpkins in various colors and sizes.
The giveaway will close at midnight Tuesday November 15th and I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday. I know that’s getting close to Thanksgiving, but I hope you can still enjoy them or at least enjoy packing them away until next Halloween!
Here’s how to enter:
Leave me a comment telling me how you feel about using non-traditional colors in holiday decor/celebrations. I’m curious to see what you think.
I typically stick with traditional colors, although the hue changes as color tones come and go. I also find as the years go by that I yearn for more white in all of my holiday decorating. I’ve also let some aqua creep into my Christmas decor in the last few years. But every once in a while there is something I want in every possible color, and these velvet pumpkins would certainly be it. Somehow it’s the variety of colors that draws my eye to notice each one, compare and contrast, and savor the composition they create together. So while all my Thanksgiving decor is in browns, oranges and other earthy tones, this year I’m loving the little surprise of colorful pumpkins here and there. (And I have three or four mostly white projects I’d love to tackle if there’s time.)
Good luck! And don’t forget you have until midnight Friday to enter other giveaways here and here .
Jennifer P.S. Are you keeping a gratitude list this year? I am. And color, velvet, and pumpkins are all on it. (Along with much more important things, of course.)
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