Happy Thanksgiving + Turkey Bookmark

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

I was marveling yesterday that my mom used to do all her Thanksgiving cooking in a single day. I worked HARD yesterday and still have a ton to do today. 

I think the difference is probably focus. Although our telephone rang a lot, it's not the same level of distraction as going into my office to check on work, answer email, get texts, etc. I feel like my whole life is one big notification dot some days.

I think focus might actually be a blessing of the pandemic. Without all the activities we were doing before, maybe we've all been able to focus a little better. I know all the extra time in the kitchen has improved my skill!

So for my American friends, whatever today looks like for you, I hope it's happy and safe and peaceful and full of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes!

I have the cutest little bookmarks for you today. I made these on my Facebook live yesterday. I'm very grateful for smart people who put these things out in the world for us! This lady has the CUTEST patterns! The turkey one is free for now, but her paid patterns in her shop are adorable and I bought some you'll see below.

These little turkeys are a perfect activity if you are zooming with your grandchildren today - they are an easy kid craft. Just need scissors and a glue stick and you can both access the pattern for free here. 

I put mine on one of my mom's old cookbooks - The Gold Cookbook - first published in 1947. After watching the show Glen & Friends on YouTube, I'm becoming obsessed with old cookbooks. You can see SO much of the culture of the time in a cookbook. More so than any other kind of book, I think.

Listen to this intro to the hors d'ouvres section: "It is becoming the modish thing these days to preface even a simple family dinner with a cocktail and a few tasty snacks. The cocktail may be tomato juice, citrus fruit juice, sauerkraut juice, seafood juice or something of that nature, or again it may be the conventional alcoholic appetizer or a glass of sherry, Madeira or a dry wine. Service for this is usually in the living room, which gives the family and guests a chance to assemble for a few moments of conversational exchange. The living room service has another advantage, for the main course of the meal can then be brought to the table without the need of jumping up to remove the glasses and bring in the plates."

The fact that the intro to appetizers goes on for a page and a half is a wonder all in itself. The recipes are in paragraph style, not bulleted lists of ingredients and then instructions. A vast majority of the terms are French, which was heavily influencing food at that time. Imagine how hard it was in 1947 for that to even happen - French recipes and techniques to make their way over here. Now you have the entire world's cuisine available at a click.

This cookbook is a 1256 page low tech wonder. I was surprised to find a recipe for chicken waffles on page 807 - take that California! Well loved, it's falling apart now.

The quotes that precede each section are little cultural gems too - like this strange one: "Food never should be prepred in a dim light. Turn the brights on your salad, and see how it looks before your guest does." ~Oscar of the Waldorf

And holy Lord did they love their gelatin back then! The section entitled "How to use a refrigerator" amused me.

Anyway - on with the show!

Here are my turkeys on the prized cookbook! So cute. 

Then when I was poking around her adorable shop - I found these and had to buy the pattern.

Here are some sales for today! 

AND - the new and improved Mini MISTI is here! So the old one is on clearance and the Memory and accessories are on sale!

Happy Thanksgiving! Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES 

15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Scene Built Watercolor + Happy Thanksgiving + Black Friday Coupons

Happy Thanksgiving! Or Happy Thursday if it's not Thanksgiving where you are! Brace yourselves for pictures of food on the internet.

I'm headed to my mom's house - I'm making prime rib, which I'm super excited about. My post-turkey life is going well!

I made cranberry sauce anyway because I love it. Instead of regular orange juice, I used Evolution Fresh Defense Up juice, which has a touch of acerola cherry and the sauce is phenomenal! I just use a bag of cranberries, 8-10 ounces of orange juice, the zest of one orange, and 2 TBS brown sugar. I cook it until most of the berries have popped. I like mine VERY tart, so feel free to add more sugar.

Cranberries are miraculous - the way they gel is so fun. I wish all fruits did that - think how easy on the spot jams would be!

I bought a few new stamps that speak to my Santa Fe loving heart a few months ago and they've been sitting in my "to be used" bin waiting for my hectic fall travel to end. I like to keep new stamps together on my desk until I've used them before I file them away.

These are scene building stamps that work with other scene building stamps, so I bought the mountain set and the desert set. They work especially well with masking.

This is the order I did everything in.

I stamped the small cactus from the desert set first and masked it. Then I stamped the larger cactus on top of it. Leaving the small cactus masked, I stamped the house and masked that. Then I stamped the mesa from the mountain set three times, masking it twice. You can build endlessly long mountain ranges with these stamps, and angling them differently as I have done here with both the mountains and the cacti make them look like totally different stamps! I painted the sky in Ultramarine Blue, the mesa and ground with my favorite - Hematite burnt scarlet, and the house with Quinacridone deep gold. The cacti are a combo of Undersea Green and Quinacridone Purple.

I'm so glad I had time to paint this this week - I love this imagery. Makes me feel at home in my beloved desert. This whole line is on sale this week - there are some awesome Black Friday sales happening, so I'll list a few coupon codes below my card! You can pick up these and the Daniel Smith at Ellen Hutson's sale.

• Ellen Hutson - 20%-80% off
• Picket Fence Studios - 20% off storewide
• My Sweet Petunia - 25% off storewide
• Organize More - storewide sale.
• Simon Says Stamp - 30% off all Simon brand products - today only.
• Gina K - 25% off storewide
• Paper Smooches - 30% off storewide
• MFT - 35% off storewide
• Concord & 9th - 20% off storewide
• Kawaii Pen Shop - 10% off with code understandblue

I hope your Thanksgiving (or just your weekend) is safe and happy and filled with pie and stretchy pants!

Watercolor Desert, Art Impressions... [ ELH ] Watercolor Mountain, Art Impressions... [ ELH ] The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World... [ BLR ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -... [ ELH | SSS ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC | ELH ] Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round... [ UTR | BLIC | INK ] Fabriano Extra White Cold Press... [ BLIC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... [ BLIC ] My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook [ UTR ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | MFT ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] OrganizeMore! Craft storage made easy! [ ORG ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Picket Fence Studios - Stickers,... [ PFS ] Sumikko Gurashi Paper Stickers |... [ KWP ]

Happy Thanksgiving! Loveyameanitbye!

Paperphilia - A Confession

I have always loved paper.

I remember like it was YESTERDAY how excited I would get at the beginning of the school year when I got a package of brand spanking new college-ruled notebook paper. (Wide-ruled paper - why is that even a thing? So gross.) Or when, as an adult, I realized I could buy as many Post-It™ notes as I wanted, and no-one could stop me.

So paperphilia is real, and I've had it for as long as I can remember.

It's really no wonder I ended up here.

For many years, I was a patterned paper hoarder. I used to hate cutting into that beautiful paper, which I'm completely over now. It doesn't do you any good sitting in a drawer. Use it! Send someone a card!

So when I found this stunning new paper from Unity, I had plenty of room for it in my life. The style of the warm-colored florals made my heart go pitter pat. I think this would be awesome for Thanksgiving table decorations.

You know what else makes my heart go pitter pat? Simple, quick cards where the paper is the star of the show. I added just this layering hugs die and some sequins. BOOM.

In addition to what I consider their warm style, there are also brights for my brights-loving heart in this other floral pack. I used this layering thanks die and sequins again to finish.

Did I say brights? Yes, yes I did. There's a fun pack with bright colors and images like this, as well as ice cream cones. Same die in the opposite color order.

And the only thing better than ice cream is COFFEE. The cool blue is the perfect contrast for this pretty foofy coffee drink image. The whole package is in this color scheme. I used this sentiment and the beans in Acorn ink, and then added some clear dimensional glaze to the beans. I remember ages ago when I had my first coffee set and added glaze to the bean images and thought surely nothing can be more fun than this. Shiny, raised beans still make me extremely happy.

Autumn Dream {Paper Pack} - Unity... [ UNT ] Birch Press Design BIG HUGS SUGAR... [ SSS ] Pink & Blue Watercolored {Paper Pack}... [ UNT ] Birch Press Design BIG THANKS SUGAR... [ SSS ] Rainbow Vibes {Paper Pack} - Unity... [ UNT ] Coffee Lovers {Paper Pack} - Unity... [ UNT ] Coffee Blend BUNDLE - Concord & 9th [ C&9 | SSS ] Tonic CRYSTAL GLAZE Nuvo 947N at... [ SSS ] Tsukineko VersaFine Clair ACORN Ink... [ SSS ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

You'd have to work pretty hard to make all four of these cards take more than five minutes - I love it!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving if you're in the US? Do you decorate? What do you cook? Do you craft over that weekend? Nap? Watch football? Lay your traditions on me!

Loveyaasmuchaspapermeanitbye.