I {Heart} Pumpkin

This is by far one of my all time favorite Thanksgiving decorations

I feel like it does a pretty good job explaining my LOVE for pumpkin!

I'm pretty much obsessed with it!

 Back in nursing school, it was such a delight to find out that my 3 close friends all loved pumpkin just as much as me. One day, my friend brought a whole book of pumpkin recipes to pharmacology class and so of course we all spent the whole class period copying down recipes. I even made my other friend get a little teary eyed when describing Cold Stone's pumpkin pie ice cream combo. So great!!

So since it's Thanksgiving week, I thought I would share our favorite pumpkin pie recipe. 

It was made very clear by my dear husband that his mom's pumpkin pie was his favorite and the only one he would truly love. After 5 years of perfecting it, I would agree- it's pretty delicious.....

So here it is....

Extra Good Pumpkin Pie

1 1/2 c canned or mashed cooked pumpkin

3/4 C sugar

1/2 t salt

1 t ginger

1 1/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t cloves

3 slightly beaten eggs

1 2/3 c evaporated milk (one can)

Combine pumpkin, sugar, spices, salt. Add eggs, mix. Add milk, blend. Pour into a 9 inch pie crust. 

Bake 400 for 15 min then reduce to 325 and bake 45 min longer

 or until knife inserted comes out clean

Pumpkin pie not your thing?? (btw... I feel sad for you :) !!)

Here are some other pumpkin recipes that may fill the void.....

 Dana from the MADE blog made my life when she posted about her love for pumpkin and had a Submit your Pumpkin Recipe series- you can find SO many great recipes here

Also, we had these last night- they were very tasty!!!

here is another amazing pumpkin list

and

I made these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls last week- (recipe found here at Idea Room)

and they didn't disappoint!

I better stop now...

Happy eating!!

TuRkEy HeAdBaNd!!

My craft addiction started full force with this project last year

Like my son's skeleton costume, my inspiration came from Pottery Barn.

It was one of my first projects where I had no formal directions, just an idea to go off of.

Looking at it this year, I realize there are many things I could have done differently (like making the feathers a little bit smaller...) -

 but the fun is in learning right....

Overall, this was a fun project and taught me that homemade opposed to store bought can sometimes be more exciting!

Thanksgiving Banner

 My mantle was looking pretty plain this year after putting all my Halloween decor down. Even though it is a short time until we will put up our Christmas decorations, I decided to make something to spruce it up.

I pulled a couple ideas I have seen recently together and came up with this

This was pretty simple, just took a bit of time to put together.

I cut each of my squares 6X8 (however now measure 5X7 after front and back pieces sewn together) 

As you can see, this is not hanging up on my little mantle- it was way too big but I like it this way- so you can  obviously adjust your square size to fit where you want it to go

My letters are felt and embroidered on using a back stitch

I originally planned

 on attaching rings onto each little panel through an eyelet

and then threading some sort of rope through but

in the end decided on using ribbon to attach everything together

-I still may change it later on, but for now, I am happy!

Thanksgiving Book

This is such a GREAT idea!! I am totally starting one this year!!

(see here)

Eighteen25 shared how every year on Thanksgiving everyone writes down what they are thankful for in the book of thanks. They also include a picture of the group they celebrated with that night and post it in next to the entries!

What a great way to remember the holiday and the reasons why we celebrate it!