Art Gallery

Kathy let me host an art gallery to display and sell her art!!! She has been doodling and painting a lot lately and her work is amazing, so I suggested we host a small gallery in our home.





The primary goal was to put herself out there (a huge step for any artist, or let's face it, any human person), and if she made any money, that would just be gravy.

Prior to the show, she opened a fortune cookie that said, "Everything will now come your way."



She had a lot of framed original watercolor pieces, some matted prints (next time we will do more but it's a lot of work!), and handmade cards.



It was a huge success; she felt like people were fighting over her paintings like it was Black Friday. Guests also purchased stuff that she was planning on throwing away. (Accordingly, we made a "sale" basket of odds and ends and people enjoyed sifting through it.)

She also received the compliment of many commissions and reproductions.

One of my favorites. My friend who purchased this for her aunt said she will make sure her aunt appreciates it, or else she will take it back ;P

We are so proud of our daughter and so thankful for the friends, family members, and mentors who came out so support her!

THANKSGIVING 2018

(Christine, this is silly but I am channeling you in my post title ;p)

I was so happy with my Thanksgiving tablescape this year that I had to post pictures.

I saw this a year or two ago and haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Since I recently learned some brush lettering (thank you Kathy!), I decided to attempt my own version of it this year.

I wasn't quite sure when/how I was going to get this all done, but in the back of my mind, decorating the table was my "fun extra" that wasn't critical to the day/meal, but that would be the one thing I really wanted to do for myself. (See Note To Self #6.) It was quite a tension for me to hold during the day: that I really, really wanted to do something I may not end up getting to do.

With little kids around, I couldn't set the table before lunch. And while Cori's naps aren't coordinated yet with Emi's, I still managed to get the decorating done in the afternoon, before dinner.

I started with laying out the paper (from a kid's roll of easel paper). I couldn't find my burlap fabric that I sometimes use as a runner, so I folded up a coffee bag in half lengthwise.



There isn't much non-evergreen greenery outside anymore, so I took a philodendron from the mantel and spread out the vines (?). I added candles and various pumpkins we had accumulated this fall.

I traced dinner plates with my Tombow brush pens and then brush lettered the names. Instead of drawing the utensils (which was super cute in my inspo pic), I simply set the table with utensils and napkins. For dinner service, we set the plates at the buffet.

I didn't have enough time to decorate the buffet as well as I would have liked to - the 6-foot folding table we used for it had become the temporary dining table (where the kiddos usually craft and play all day) so I couldn't claim that early enough. I prioritized the dinner table and chose to be satisfied with that. Later I realized I had a lot more pumpkins around (especially on the front porch), which I could have grabbed to make a display with greater impact.

It was fun to have a paper table cloth and perhaps it was the inspiration for others to do art after dinner.

In terms of the food, some highlights this year were that David smoked the turkey, and made a sweet potato pie with ginger. Other than that, my mom and I prepped our classic family dishes.

Past Thanksgivings:
Thanksgiving 2014 | Friendsgiving 2016

Friendsgiving 2016

I gotta put together a slap-bang post before Thanksgiving because sometimes done is better than perfect.

Although, perfect is: this beautiful sign that Kayla made for our Friendsgiving last Sunday with all the young families from church.

Less than perfect is: the quality of my pictures. I really need to clean off my phone from grubby hands. (You think I'm talking about my children, but I'm not.) (Although! Emilyn has been doing the cutest thing which is to put her play phone to her ear whenever we say, "Hello?")

The party was a huge success and I wanted to share some of aspects I thought made it so.

It was a potluck, and the Evite "What To Bring" section enabled us to guide people towards covering all the necessary components to a complete spread. 

I divvied food up into smaller "bites," if you will, so that people could pick and choose a couple things together if that was easier than tackling a big item. 

Asking someone to bring cider and a bag of ice guaranteed that our drinks would be cold, even if they wouldn't be refrigerated during church. I also separately requested a 1/2 lb decaf beans to be brought.

I'm learning to delegate, because even when it's a potluck, there can end up being a lot of last minute purchases that add expenses for the host. This way you have margin to splurge on other fun (or necessary) ideas that come up later.

David and I provided the turkey, and since this was a casual gathering, I felt the freedom to not have to present a beautiful (some have called it "stunt") turkey at the table. This would have been really challenging anyway, seeing as the function immediately followed service on Sunday.

So, we roasted the turkey on Friday (since David was off then but had to work on Saturday). I have never before made a turkey in such a relaxed ("not agitated" to be Earnest) manner. It was marvelous.

At 4 o'clock on a relaxed afternoon without any company expected, we got to eat the crispy skin off (ha) and then when it cooled, we sliced and refrigerated the meat to be warmed up in gluten-free (i.e., just corn starch, no flour) gravy in a crock pot on Sunday morning. Crock pot FTW again.

Pro-tip: multi-purposing cups as name cards.

The only other elements of "structure" (I really had to restrain myself here) were a Mad Lib and a brief sharing of everyone's highlight of the year and a challenge of the year.

decorations? activity? "agenda"?

There were four babies in the group that had been born within the last year so the majority of the answers to highlights and challenges was babies. (We laughed when we discovered repeatedly that so many people's "favorite activity" on the Mad Lib was sleeping.)

Kayla was an awesome co-host and I personally had a blast doing this with her. When everyone left (which was late, another good sign), I noticed that I felt so filled up, both literally and figuratively.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. If you need more, check out our 2014 Thanksgiving or revisit the letter I wrote mysef aboout hosting parties.