Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!!   I’m so happy it’s the weekend.  We have a big weekend.  Ava is playing high school basketball again after being away in the Czech Republic last year.  I can’t wait to watch our girl play tonight!! 

Here are my favorites from the week

1.  It was back to the regular grind after being in Texas last week for Thanksgiving.  I’m so thankful I was able to go and spend time with my Dad and sister and her family.  We had the best time!  

2.  I’m the president of the garden club and we have been working hard all week making Christmas arrangements and wreaths for our greens sale tomorrow. Our members made 130 arrangements and 50 wreaths to sell tomorrow.  We are also having a luncheon and a bake sale.  It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year and it’s  always a great day.

3. I’m teaching two craft classes on Saturday with my friend Rachael for our business, Branch and Bloom.  We are teaching s wreath making class and a kissing ball class at our city’s Christmas festival.  We have been busy collecting greens all week.  We taught the wreath class last year and it was so much fun.  We have been gathering greens all week for our wreaths and kissing balls.  We are thankful for friends with lots of evergreen trees in their yards and property.  This pile is one of many that we collected for our classes.

4. Two years ago a tree from our yard was the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.  A lot of our friends and family went down with us to the city to see the tree get lit.  On Wednesday I invited some friends over to watch the tree lighting ceremony on TV.  I did this last year and it was really a really fun way to kick off all the holiday festivities.  You can see some pics from last year’s party here.

That’s it for me this week.  I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!!!

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {Holiday Market}

Saturday my friend Rachael and I hosted our 6th annual Holiday Market at our friend Stephanie’s kitchen design studio.   We invite all of our crafty friends to take over a kitchen and sell their crafts and holiday food items.  Admission the the Holiday Market was a canned food item for the local elementary schools’ backpack program.    We had so any people come and visit with us and shop that day. It was such a fun day!!!

We served champagne and cookies both were a big hit!

Here are Rachael and I before the Market started.  We are thrilled with how much our little Holiday Market has grown.  The first couple of years we held it at her house.  Now we get about 400 people that come through each year-it is just amazing!!

My friend Sabrina and I make similar stuff so we share a kitchen.  We got matching aprons this year to be extra festive! 

Stephanie,Sabrina and Rachael and I.

Here are some pics of some crafts Sabrina and I made. I had turquoise blue tags made at Vistaprint for the stuff that I made.  I loved making all my crafts this year but I am SO done with crafts for a while. I honestly don't know how people do more than one craft show a year.  It is SO much work. I always love our Holiday Market but I'm also glad when it's over!

Rachael always makes candles and body care products.  She always has a beautiful booth.  I just love the white candle holders that she used this year. 

Here are some pictures of things our other friends made.  We had wreaths, jewelry, succulent arrangements and so much more.  I just love the variety that we have at our Holiday Market.

It was a great day and I already have some ideas for what I'm going to make next year!

Happy Wednesday!
xoxo

Thanksgiving Week {Waco}

I spent the last week with my Dad and my sister Shelby and her family in Waco, TX.  It was hard being away from my own family during Thanksgiving but I loved spending time with my Dad and sister.  I flew in bright and early Last Sunday.  Shelby, my niece Ainsley  and my Dad picked me up at the airport in Dallas.  We had lunch and then we visited the Dealey Plaza and the sixth floor museum in Dallas.  The 55th anniversary of assassination of John F. Kennedy was actually on Thanksgiving Day so it was special to be there and see the museum this past week.  I have read a lot of books about JFK and have seen a lot of documentaries so it was very special for me to see the museum and Dealey plaza.  My Dad and I went together my sister and Ainsley stayed in a little cafe close by while we toured the museum.  The museum was full of pictures and artifacts about JFK’s time in office and from that awful day in Dallas.  While we went through the museum we listed to an audio recording (they gave each person an iPod) and it was so interesting. It was even more special seeing it with my Dad who remembers that day and watching it on TV. 

On Monday my sister had to work so my Dad, Ainsley and I did some sightseeing in Waco.  Our first stop was the national Mammoth National Monument in Waco.  

After the Mammoth monument we headed to Magnolia Market to shop and look around at the Silos.  It was so beautiful and we took so many pictures.  Everyone was so nice and everything was 100% in the Joanna Gains signature Farmhouse style.  Our plan was to each lunch at one of the food trucks but it was so chilly that we went to a restaurant instead. 

After lunch we went to the Dr. Pepper museum which was a lot of fun.  We learned all about soda fountains and how Dr. Pepper got its start in Waco.  After the tour we had Dr. Peppers and ice cream floats in the little gift shop/soda fountain. 

Tuesday we went and visited my sister at work at Baylor.  I loved seeing where she works and meeting her coworkers.  I don’t know how my sister does it all.  She works full time as the Director of Retention and she is going back to school to get her PhD.   I am so proud of her. 

While we were visiting my sister at work Ainsley and I walked over to see the Baylor mascots.  Two bears named Joy and Lady.  They are kept in a habitat on campus.  Ainsley loves visiting them. 

I’ll do another post about the second half of my trip tomorrow.

I hope your Thanksgiving Week was full of family, friends and good food.

Xoxo

My weekend

My weekend can be summed up mostly in one word-crafts!!  

Friday night Rachael and I held our monthly craft night for our craft business Branch and Bloom.  This month we made two crafts.  We made leaf garlands and give thanks signs.  We used chalkboard vinyl for the signs which we have never used before but it worked great  I am going to do a full post on our craft night tomorrow but here is a sneak peak. 

Next weekend is my annual Holiday Market where  Rachael and I invite all of our crafty friends to bring what they make to our friends Stephanie's kitchen design store and we have a one day sale.  We have champagne and cookies and it's such a fun event!  I just love it.  I have been working on a ton of things for this year's Holiday Market.  Here are some of the things I've been working on.

I made a few of these signs to sell.  I've been seeing this sign a lot and actually one of my friends is also selling this sign at our Holiday Market. I actually just bought one of her signs with the saying :)  This is going to be my mantra for 2019.  I just love being cozy and comfortable at home and I want to stay home more in the upcoming year.    

I'm the President of the Garden Club in our town and our biggest fundraiser of the year is coming up the week after Thankgiving.  We have an annual Greens Sale and luncheon  to raise money for events and programs. Garden Club members spend the week after Thanksgiving putting together holiday arrangements, wreaths and swags to sell at our annual sale.  We also have a luncheon and a bake sale to bring in additional money on that day.  It's always a fun day but a ton of work!  We had a bow making workshop on Saturday to make bows for our arrangements and wreaths.  We were able to make 100 bows in about 2 hours.  Here I am with my friends Wendy (the Vice President) and Jenn.  It was a fun and productive morning!

Sunday morning my friends Julia, Sabrina, Vicki and I took our kids and went to Ommegang for brunch and bingo.   Ommegang is a Belgian brewery and they recently remodeled it.  I went to a couple of concerts last summer there but haven't been in their newly renovated space.  It was beautiful! 

Brunch and Bingo were fun.  I had a beermosa (beer with orange juice) which was surprisingly good!

Four people in our group won bingo including me! I won a t-shirt.   We took a picture on our way out.

Here is our big group all together.  It was a fun morning!  

Monday evening was our monthly garden club meeting.  It was my month to help with refreshments and my co-hostesses were the three sisters that we bought our summer house from. I just love these ladies.   We had a ton of Thanksgiving themed snacks. I made my stuffing balls and they were a big hit!

 Our speaker was a florist from Albany and she taught us tips and tricks for making the perfect arrangements.  She suggested that we use containers from around our house and I just love that idea! She also taught us about floral spray paint that you can put on succulents.  I am going to be looking into that.  She made so many beautiful arrangements and when she was done we raffled them off.  It was a a fun night and I learned so much.  

Spray painted succulent in gold.  I really want to use this!  Amazon did not have gold but they do have other colors including pink.  

 I hope you had a fabulous weekend!!

xoxo