Happy Thanksgiving! now onto Christmas!

This was Gaston's first ever Thanksgiving! Here he is feasting away..I think he likes this holiday!

As for us human folk, we went for something a little more upscale. I made this delicious 4 layer pumpkin cake and some two bite pumpkin pies. YUM! It was so pretty, I had to take a picture !

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it's time to start getting ready for Christmas- my other favorite holiday! I painted these whimsical ornaments for the tree at work. The shop colors are lime green and purple so these fit right in!

There they are nestled into our fun little tree. Who doesn't love decorating the tree, I want to know? With some sweet Duke Ellington Christmas tunes in the background, pretty garlands and well, I , might have been dancing around while I was decorating...guilty.

After all that turkey, Gaston needed a bath to get all the gross turkey grease off his little precious face. He did not approve of this idea to say the least..haha, too bad Gaston!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, laughter, and love.

Cranberry White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Oh boy! Sound like too many good things all in one place? Only one way to find out! This recipe is what I'm thankful for this year ;)

Here's the recipe:
2 cp flour
1 1/4tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp ground ginger
1/8tsp ground cloves
2 eggs
1 1/4cp brown sugar (I cut mine with a no calorie sugar substitute by 1/2)
1/2cp oil
1tsp vanilla extract
1cp pumpkin
1cp dried cranberries
1cp white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F

 Whisk dry ingredients (flour-cloves) and set aside.
Combine eggs and sugar until well blended. Add oil, vanilla, and pumpkin.
Stir in dry mixture a little at a time.
Add cranberries and chocolate.
Drop cookies onto cookie sheet and bake 8 min.

They are like cloud cookies so light and fluffy. Bet you can't eat just one!

There's Steven Mitchell & Virginie Jensen teaching at the fabulous swing and blues dance workshops that kept me from my blog all weekend!

MacKenzie-Childs!!

I went out to visit my friend this weekend who had a four day weekend. Before starting out on our adventures, I made a nice seasonally appropriate breakfast of fluffy apple cider pancakes. MMMMMM.....

Naturally, we had to go dancing and Perpetual eMotion is one of the best contra dance bands. With only two incredibly talented members, this band makes incredible sounds! Among their many instruments are a fiddle, digeridoo (sp?), guitar, percussion (with their FEET!!!), and vocals. Here, Ed Howe wanders among the dancers while playing a waltz.

After the big dance events, we headed out to see MacKenzie-Childs studio, gift shop, and show house in Aurora, NY. This is the stunning victorian mansion that dates back to the 1800s! Sigh, one day I will live in beautiful house like this..

The inside of the house was even prettier than the outside! It is decorated, as to be expected, in MacKenzie-Childs style. I'm in love.

A chair in my favorite color!! and look at the footstool-it's a flower!!

and this amazing fireplace!

I love wicker furniture! and it's painted so beautifully. These colors are so perfect.

The first room you walk into upon entering the show house. 

This lamp is so cool!

Can you imagine going out and seeing this everyday? What an amazing trip! I didn't want to leave. If you haven't made it out there yet, this is a place worth seeing. Just be sure to leave plenty of time so you can see everything! We were there most of the day!

Easy Wrap Shirt

I made this shirt all by myself with no pattern or directions!
It is basically just a big rectangle, hemmed on all sides with a circle and a slit cut out of the middle plus a long strip sewn along the bottom of the back end to tie around the front.

I saw a vintage picture of a woman tying her shirt on and thought, I have to attempt this it looks so easy to make! and it was..

It even went dancing with me last weekend!