Leaves, Grabbing and Paint

Well, that's an interesting title...whatever does it mean? It pretty much sums up my last few days. I have busy preparing for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Now that I am an adult, I think that Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. It's all about family, food and thankfulness. What could be better? You don't have to shop for a gift for anyone, just a turkey - and that's easy. I don't even think the food prep is anything scary. So, I can't wait....bring on the elastic pants!!

Anyway - I think I was channeling Martha Stewart when I thought of what I was going to do for place cards for our meal. I made some cute one's with card stock and fall colored flowers last year, and I would use them again....but BORING. So, this year I decided that I would use the 20+ multicolored leaves that we collected on our hike a few weeks ago. I was just going to put the names of everyone coming on them, but I went one better....

I put every body's picture on the leaves. I just happened to have a picture on file of everyone coming. I cropped each picture to a 1.5 inch square, printed it, cut it and adhered it to a leaf. I then wrote every body's name on the leaf with either a white or a black paint pen. I think it turned out pretty cute. And, everyone has their own individual keepsake to take home.

Paige has learned a new skill in the past few days - grabbing things with two hands. She has been grabbing fistfuls of my hair for awhile now, but she never really was doing it on purpose. Now she is actually playing with some of her toys. It's so cute. She is also grabbing things like my full cereal bowl (luckily I have fast reflexes), my arm, and my hair - again. She also has a strong grip - I have to pry things out of her hands.
And finally - something I NEVER thought we would be able to do....Paint the family room!!!! Well, with much complaining from my dear, darling husband, we did it. We had to rent a scaffold to reach the ridiculously high ceilings, but it is DONE!!!! Just so you know, I had nothing to do with the scaffold. Thank goodness my husband has no fear of heights - he did all the high work. He did describe building the scaffold as "terrifying", but he was diligent, and did it. Even Emily ended up on the scaffold with her daddy - we picked her up over the railing so she could be up high with Daddy. Surprisingly, she wasn't scared.

Now the room before: (this was taken right after we moved in)And after:I love the color - it's a yellowish green. Very warm, very not beige. Don't get me wrong - I love beige, but we already have a beige kitchen, and bedroom. We need some color in the room we use the most. I figured it would ward off the winter doldrums. You really can't appreciate how high the ceilings are in these pictures - it was daunting, but actually easier then we thought it would be. We started Friday night with taping, furniture moving and a little trim painting. Then on Saturday morning, I started rolling the bottom half of the room at 11am. Eric got the scaffold at 1pm and got it together by 3pm. We finished painting at 11:30pm. We did have to do some touch up this morning (Sunday), and it did take the better part of the day to get everything back in it's place - but it went much smoother then any of us anticipated. Yea for US!!

Sorry for the long post - I promise I will be better in the next weeks at updating. Have a great Monday everyone.