Advent

is here!  I'm feeling very festive and enjoying welcoming the advent season in ways I haven't for a while.

We started the season is really fun ways at church. Robert played the "Charlie Brown" Christmas song on the guitar and his son surprised him and joined in on the harmony on his guitar on the second verse. Super sweet. I wish I'd had my phone recorder on.
I love the advent candle display.  Pillar candles of varying heights so that as they are burned they will be more even sit on a tray of cranberries and succulents. So sweet I may have to duplicate here.
For our advent "calendar" we are decorating boxes filled with what we hope to find during advent. Right down my alley- I did two!  We are hoping for at least 7 each week, one for each day of the week. This week we had 6. I'll probably do another this week, too. The creativity in this group is inspiring for me and I love seeing the evidence of it every week in meaningful ways.
There is a lovely wall hanging that I'll share another time.
On to the advent boxes. I made on for Peace-I used Martha Stewart punch around the page snowflake and punched with square punch. I die-cut the letters with my Cuttlebug and glued to snowflakes which I attached with tabs and double stick tape to various depths of the box. Added the flameless candle to cover a little round hole in box! Wrapped exterior in foil and sponged alcohol ink on the shiny interior. The other box is Happiness and is a vintage image enlarged and cut out. I double cute the outside and pop dotted onto the bottom layer. Added a brad with a hanger and threaded gold ribbon through brad and out top of box and tied in a bow. Lined the interior of the box with pink cardstock.

The worship table

This is Shameka's super fun box (we both used flameless candles!)

Sophia behind her box and one of my boxes

Sue(bottom) and I hope for Peace

Kate's "outside the box" box-can't wait to see what grows!

This week I plan to make a Jack in the Box type box-it's already in my head-now to find the box!

Farmers Market and more!

Have you gotten tired of me saying it is a fabulous Saturday here in KY?  Well, sorry to bore you but, really, it was fabulous! Warm, sunny, just super!

And look at the colorful array of goods today!  It was really obvious that things are slowing down. Less than half of the usual farmers present. Oh....
I had my heart set on some carrots and nabbed some from Ivor along with a small cabbage. Headed down to Charles and got spaghetti squash and broccoli. Our usual cut flower folks had winterberry and I got a bunch of that to decorate with. Claire had greenery and it will become a swag for the front door when I get a ribbon this week.
We both had stone cut oats with cranberries, which were really delicious though I do miss my omelet. But, it was lovely and we sat at the table at the market to enjoy!

winterberry

Yumminess

my carrots!

Greenery-love the touch of blue and a side of winterberry!

I did a little Small Business Saturday shopping and found these Matryoska doll measuring cups for my niece and her new husband. A nice way to hide a money gift, too. Fell in love with the dolls when I visited Russia a couple of years ago. Very clever to use the nesting to create measuring cups.

Matryoska measuring cups

Hope you have had a great weekend.

Tomorrow- the beginning of advent at my creative church.

A Time of Thanks

Sometimes my heart is overflowing with thanksgiving. It's often in the little moments, a soft unexpected touch, a word of appreciation from no where, a look between two people that says more than words ever could. Tender sweetness that can bring me to tears.
Today I'm living in abundance of love for my family, near and far, for my sweet husband and his unconditional love, for my daughter and her partner who life has disappointed lately, for my son and daughter-in-law who's home was destroyed by fire just a month ago but who survived and will go on, for my sweet youngest son who makes me laugh and shares his talents in many ways, for my six sweet grandchildren, for my sisters, some of whom are living with health challenges, for my mom who's going strong at 83, for nieces and nephews, especially Ryan who is marrying this weekend and surrounded by family old and new in Savannah, for large family gatherings and small, for my work-the absolute joy of doing something I love, for my former church family and my new one, who has welcomed me warmly, for my faithful friends.
Sometimes my heart is overflowing with thanksgiving.

It's the Saturday report!

I can't believe it's time for Thanksgiving!  I didn't even know what I was doing to celebrate until this afternoon. My family is scattered this year and it left me, Jim and Brian.  Being a 20-something, Brian's plans are rarely in place much before the day before an event. But, he called today and wants to eat here. So, I am cooking and the turkey breast is bought and defrosting in the refrigerator. Side dishes to come.
The market was bustling because of Thanksgiving and because we took a leisurely approach to the shopping, I missed any little carrots that were there. Boo. But I did get a nice selection of fruits and veggies.
It was the last day for omelets for 26 weeks! Oh, what will I do?  But, I did enjoy every bite of the one I had and shared it with Jim since they ran out of oats before he got them. He got about a 1/4 cup for free. My omelet had a little sausage, garlic, onion, butternut squash, kale, potato, radish, egg, cheese, tomato and a little hot, sweet relish. Yummy! I will remember it fondly until next May.

Last day, boo.

Kale and Arkansas Black apples

forgot the name of these but they are a tart, sweet crunchy variety

more spaghetti squash for tonight's stir fry and some sweet potatoes

Delicata Squash. Who knows what it will become?

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm hoping to get a little crafting done. I'm behind on some round robin art, need to get my byhandartists 12 Days of Christmas gifts done, and some Christmas cards. Good ideas but limited time to execute!

What are you cooking and who are you spending Thanksgiving with?

It IS Saturday, therefore...

Farmers Market day!  And a big shout out of Happy Birthday to my DH, Jim, who is a gem! It is a spectacular day here in Louisville, 65 degrees, sunny and windy. Ah!

We headed out pretty early with the usual stop for coffee for the walk there. There were not many folks when we arrived and probably a third fewer venders now.

Sadly, we were reminded that there is only one more week for omelets. Boo.

But, the one today was yummy! Not a big fan of whatever cheese they used today- too strong for my taste, but the rest of the delicious goodness made up for it.

Surprise!  The flower guy was there after saying he wouldn't be!  He said the zinnia were so great this week he just had to come! Lucky us!

How about this dinosaur kale?  Isn't it too beautiful in texture for words?

These carrots looked so good I bought the bunch on the right!

Here's Jim post-oatmeal readying for the trek to the next FM-yep, two today!

These were at market number two and I really wanted to take them home, but didn't. We have so much to do in the yard. Planting is not in the picture.

Aren't these beautiful loaves of bread?  I bought one of the lavender loaves pictured just above.

The pretzel breads were tempting but I didn't get one.

Wasn't this just a lovely display of veggies? Below are the closeups of my haul today.

So delicious!

We are heading out to Gasthaus German Restaurant for dinner. Jim is hoping the Hossenfeffer is on the menu (rabbit). I'm hoping the hot mulled wine is. 

I love these grasses. It's time to take the big fake gerber daisies out of the glass urn and put something more fitting in!

See you next week, if not sooner!