We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving Day. This is a “cozy” time of year, isn’t it? I like the particular outdoor scent these days: smells of burning wood and dying leaves. And the sounds: geese flying overhead, the tractors making their final harvests and plowing under the fields.

I will be hosting Thanksgiving again this year (about 15-20 people, we don’t have a final count yet.) How do you set the table for Thanksgiving (or for any large gathering?) Good dishes? Paper plates? I admit- we have had Thanksgiving on paper plates when I found the really pretty ones at the party store! (Why wash all those extra dishes?) Do you put all of the food on the table, or do you set up a buffet? I usually do a buffet- because our gatherings are usually pretty big and the mashed potatoes would get cold by the time they got passed all the way around the table :)

For the last couple of years, I have combined metallics with natural materials on my Thanksgiving table. You can pick up the natural elements in your own backyard, the farmer’s market, or supermarket. Try sticks and twigs, leaves, pine cones, acorns, pumpkins, gourds… For your metallics, you can paint your natural elements with metallic spray paint, or spray the items with spray adhesive and then sprinkle with glitter. You can also just leave your natural elements as is and then mix in metallic items found at your craft store.

In the above 2 photos, I mixed items found in the garden and some leaves from the craft store with silver candle sticks and urns.

In the flower arrangement above, I sprayed some sticks with glitter spray to add height and sparkle to the arrangement.

And now, for some goodies! Click here for my free Thanksgiving place card printable. Just print onto card stock or paper, cut out the place cards, fold, and you are ready to go!

Also, don’t miss all of the Thanksgiving-themed recipes that I’ve shared this month- Pumpkin Lasagna, Simple Garlic & Butter Green Beans, and Triple Corn Spoon Bread Casserole.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my computer (including designing quilts for my newest fabric line!) I have been “itching” to get back to my sewing machine… It’s just hard to decide on which project to work on next :) I have been working on some hand embroidery in the evenings.

(Speaking of embroidery- have you checked out all of the free patterns on my website?)

And look at these yummy packets of velvet that I picked up at Quilt Market. I can’t wait to give them a try in an applique project. Someone told me that they unravel a lot, so I’m not sure if I’ll use them for hand or machine applique. Has anyone used them before?? Any tips???

And soon it will be time for Christmas decorating, shopping, decorating…. This is a busy time of year but I love it! I am always sad when Christmas is over- it just goes by too fast. I wish it lasted a little longer so we could enjoy it more. Remember when we were kids and the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas just seemed to stretch on forever?!? Now it seems to fly by. I think we should move Christmas to January 25 so we could have an extra month to prepare and enjoy (and an extra few weeks of Christmas music, too!)

So that’s what’s going on my little corner of the world! Have a lovely weekend!