Thanksgiving Table Top Specifics

Wow, I love all of your amazing responses to our Thanksgiving table. You guys sure know how to make a girl feel proud and loved, so thank you! As for some of the specifics for the table, here is the breakdown.

Tablecloth: Burlap. To cover our table and have an 8in. overhang on each side I got 7 1/2 yards of burlap. The burlap worked out so well because in order to have the 8in on each side of overhang, we needed the burlap to be 4 ft. wide. It was exactly that! So perfect, because that way the ends were already fused together! Hooray for less work!

While at SAS buying the burlap, I called J to make sure he agreed with my numbers of what I was getting, and he didn't. He thought the width needed to be at least 5 feet, meaning I needed to get double the amount of burlap, and then cut and sew a seam down the middle. A whole lot more work. I thought he was wrong, but normally when it comes to memory hes right, so I went with what he said and bought 15 yards of burlap! This is it about 1/2 unrolled in the house. Turns out I was right after all, thank goodness!

The easiest way for me to get the whole 7 1/2 yards ironed was to simply do it outside on one of the tables {with a towel underneath to protect the table}. Only problem? I started at about 5:30, and its dark by 6!

I used this awesome heat-n-bond that I got at SAS to create a nice crisp end to the tablecloth. That stuff is a miracle worker, and so easy to use!

This is what my work area looked like about 40 minutes in to the ironing and hemming:

Yes, thats my Flashlight iPhone app giving me just enough light to make sure I was ironing over the correct spots for the heat-n-bond to work! Boy was I glad when I was finished!

Up next, the pumpkins. I bought 10 mini pumpkins and used the same pumpkin we had for Halloween {since I was lazy and didn't carve it but painted it instead, remember?!}. I got this amazing tea light cutter from Ross for $7. It makes the perfect hole for tea lights in anything: pumpkins, apples, pears, etc. I loved having it because I didn't have to worry about creating these hideous un-even holes in everything. The only downfall was that the white pumpkins we had were seriously tough to carve in to, but no worries- I just got my hunk of a hubby to help:)

It gets a little messy:)

The wooden board was super easy. J just bought 2in.x12in.x10feet piece of lumber from Home Depot and lightly sanded and stained it. Nothing else, that easy!

We mixed the plates on the table. 1/2 were these beautiful antique plates that I got from a local antique store. I got a HUGE set which also included serving dishes for only $90. I love them. The rest were my favorite Crate and Barrel dishes. Same thing with the napkins, mainly used white, but some were brown. It would be nice to have sets of everything big enough to cover 20 people, but then again, is that really necessary? Probably not, just a spoiled girl problem;) The awesome Eames chairs were from Modern Manor. They were so perfect!!

Thats all friends! I am so glad you loved the look of it all, I had so much fun day dreaming about the day, and then finally seeing it unfold in front of me! Next up, hosting Christmas..JUST KIDDING! I'm leaving that to both of our moms!

<3,

Thanksgiving Re-cap

Thanksgiving was so great here! It does crack me up though no matter how much you plan ahead, that you always are running around like crazy the day of, and there are some things you just cant control. For instance, running to the grocery store right before people got there to get flowers and few other little things..well turns out everyone else thought the same idea and there were basically no flowers left, and the only ones that were there were ugly. Bummer #1. An even bigger bummer, we got the table completely set up {and it looked beautiful} and then right as my parents walked in the door, it started lightly raining. People- WE LIVE IN AZ. IT DOESNT RAIN HERE! And yet, on Thanksgiving day it did for about 30 minutes. We quickly ran outside, grabbed everything off the tables and put it inside and waited for the rain to stop. We also moved the tables to underneath our grapefruit trees, that way we would have some coverage incase it sprinkled again later. Luckily both J and I loved the way it looked under the trees even more than in the original spot.

The food was all incredible! I did a 24lb. turkey, candied coconut sweet potatoes, stuffing {only using one can of chicken broth instead}, gravy, whipped cream, and the butter moulds. Everyone else brought a million and one dishes, and I was in food coma heaven! We loved hosting it so much, and every else enjoyed it too, so much so that we are going to be the official hosts of Thanksgiving every year.

This was the original spot where the tables were going to go:

The drink station before people got there:

The drink station all broken in:

The table and how it ended up:

 Everyone wanting to steal their wine glasses, but I was 'that' girl that had to take photos of the table first! Whoops!

Cooking up a storm with my mom, and so proud that J carved the turkey this year. I know that may be totally cheesy of me, but I definitely think the man of the house should do the honor..agree?!

 The butter in the shapes of a turkey, leaf, and acorn:)

My love and I:

This is what I looked down and saw throughout the meal. It makes my heart so full seeing both of our families together laughing and sharing stories. Gosh, this is the good stuff. Seriously.

Honey during the day, still full of energy, then Honey and Boomer at night..done for!

Overall, the day was perfect. The next day... felt like I was hit by a bus! Haha, who knew hosting could take so much out of you?! I'll be back with a post of more of the table decor details! Hope you guys like how it all turned out. And I want to give a HUGE thanks to our best friends over at Modern Manor for supplying us with those beautiful orange Eames chairs. I feel like they totally made the table!

<3,

Design Inspiration Monday

via

via

via

via

via

via

via

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and weekend! I will be doing a re-cap of our festivities this week, so don't miss it!

<3,

14 Weeks Pregnant!

How far along: 14 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 1 lb. Feel like i've gained 1 million by the amount of growth this week- its crazy!
Maternity clothes: none yet
Stretch marks: none yet, and just bought some amazing {reportedly the best stuff out there} oil/cream for my tummy and chest! Tummy oil here, chest cream here
Sleep: great!
Best moment this week: Having mine and J's whole family over for Thanksgiving! It was so fun hosting that many people and being able to put our 'touch' on it all
Miss anything: just the obvious things, especially wine with all the holidays coming up
Movement: not yet, but am excited that i'm getting close to feeling some!
Food cravings: nothing really, still loving green and black olives though
Anything making you queasy or sick: nothing!
Have you started to show yet: definitely! Haven't filled out too much on the top of my stomach yet, but the bottom got MUCH bigger this week! Grow baby grow!
Gender: unknown, J thinks its a boy
Labor signs: none
Belly button in or out: in
Wedding rings on or off: on {on the days I actually wear it}
Happy or moody most of the time: very happy:)
Looking forward to: our doctors appointment next week with our new doctor, hearing the babys heartbeat again, and finally allowing myself to listen to Christmas music!

<3,

Busy Bee

Yesterday was crazy busy with finishing up a million and one projects. Lets just say I bought 15 yards of burlap. And moved heavy tables around all alone..and now am in pain. Maybe from here on out i'll actually follow some of those 'crazy pregnancy rules' like no heavy moving...

So sorry friends, no new projects or fun posts today. If you need me i'll be icing my lower back and marking more things off of the check list. Hope everyone else's projects and food prep are going great!

<3,

DIY Silverware Napkin Holders

These napkin holders that J and I made just might be my most favorite thing out of all of our Thanksgiving projects. They were super easy and turned out so cute. I'm just gonna throw it out there, i'm pretty frugal cheap. I am way to cheap to actually pay the normal prices for napkin rings that are out there. Are these stores out of their minds thinking that I want to pay $5 a ring. My napkins don't cost nearly even that much! So one day while pinteresting I found an incredible blog that made their own rings out of silverware. They took it one step further and hammered in words to the silverware, where as I went the lazy route and skipped that step..whoops. Anyways, we love them and are so excited that we now have 25 napkin rings that can totally be used for any occasion {much better than the strictly thanksgiving turkey style ones}. Heres how it all went down:

Start with a vice {which was my dads that was in his garage forever until he gave it to J, I love that it still has his old work bench attached to it!} a metal pipe, pliers with a piece of cloth, a rubber mallet, and vintage silverware {we got a huge bag of ours from a garage sale for $5- score!}:

We used a mixture of forks and spoons, and all different sizes

Start by putting your pipe in to the vice and clamping your silverware in the pliers:

We used a cloth over the silverware so that the pliers didn't mark it up 

Take your rubber mallet and being pounding the silverware over the pipe until it reaches {as close as you can get to} a circle:

*Don't worry at all if its not a full circle. Depending on how thick the silverware you are using us, you can even get it to this point below, and bend the rest with your hands:

 After much pounding, you end up with an adorable napkin ring that can hold napkins in any style you prefer. I seriously love love love how they turned out:

So what do you think? Do you love them as much as I do? I sure hope so- and I really hope some of you make them, if not for Thanksgiving, maybe another holiday or get-together! Oh and if you want to step it up a notch, you could hammer in the words like the original tutorial blog did- its such a great effect.

<3,