If you’re looking for a last minute Thanksgiving DIY, craft for the kids, or table place cards, we’ve got an idea for you to gobble up. You can put these DIY turkey pumpkins together with limited materials (you probably already have them in the art cart, or outside), and in less than 15 minutes. Get all the details here.
DIY Pumpkin Turkey: Thanksgiving Craft For The Whole Family
If you’re looking for a last minute Thanksgiving DIY, craft for the kids, or table place cards, we’ve got an idea for you to gobble up. You can put these DIY turkey pumpkins together with limited materials (you probably already have them in the art cart, or outside), and in less than 15 minutes.
Stay Gold DIY Pencil Pouch + Black Friday Deal
Happy Thanksgiving. May your heart be filled with gratitude today.
It’s that holiday time of year when gold is everywhere, so start throwing gold sparkles on everything. It’s also that time of year when Silhouette America has an amazing BLACK FRIDAY sale. We couldn’t have made this DIY Stay Gold pencil pouch {nor could we have made other amazing things this year like this, this or this} if it weren’t for our Silhouette cutting tool from Silhouette America.
Shop the Black Friday sale today through Dec. 4, 2015. The amazing machine bundles are as low as $99.00 including Silhouette Mint for $99.99, Portrait and Mint for $189.99, CAMEO for $199.99 and CAMEO and Portrait for $289.99. Plus, almost everything in the Silhouette America store is up to 40% off. Use code SORELLE when you check out. For 20% off Silhouette Design Store subscription, enter BLACK at checkout. Oh my goodness, free shipping available to the contiguous United States, too.
Once you receive your amazing electronic cutting tool that will change your life for the better, make this DIY pencil pouch.
When we spotted this gold pencil pouch during back to school shopping in August, we knew it would come in handy some day.
The reference of “Stay Gold” comes from the book, The Outsiders. The quote in the book stems from the famous poem by Robert Frost.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower,
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief.
So Dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.
This quote is powerful in our own lives. Our hope is that our children can remain young and innocent forever. As we age, our view of the world ‘hardens’ and we forget to play, imagine, and believe in the goodness in ourselves and people around us. We must always remember and teach our children to Stay Gold – stay good, and stay true!
DIY Stay Gold Pencil Pouch
Silhouette Vinyl
Gold Pencil Pouch, Target
Frog’s Tape
Credit Card or straight-edge
Directions:
Create a stay gold design on Silhouette software.
Print the vinyl according to package directions.
Remove the vinyl backing, and lay front side-down onto rows of Frog’s Tape {you can also use transfer paper, which we didn’t have handy}.
Use a credit card to make sure all bubbles are out, then pull the vinyl paper up. Your words should be face-down on the tape.
Pick up the tape, and place carefully on your pencil pouch. Your words should be legible now, right-side-up. Use a credit card to get out all the bubbles.
Carefully pull up each piece of tape. The vinyl should stay in place on the pencil pouch, and you’re done.
Now, eat some turkey and pie. Hug family and friends. Rest. Sleep. Wake up. Shop.
Reflection and Being Gratefeul Despite the Circumstances
We interrupt the usual DIY, cutesy post today to keep it real with y’all.
Just like everyone, life behind the scenes (or blog) is as real as everyone else in the world and we have good days and bad. With Thanksgiving coming up we’ve had time to reflect and feel like sharing. We hope you share your stories of gratitude {the loss and pain that go with it, too} with us, too. Send us an email at hello@jsorelle.com.
No one ever said life was easy. We just didn’t know it was going to be so hard.
As we look at the big picture, yes we are alive and life is good. We all have a place to call home, wonderful and supportive parents, beautiful children, 2 out of 3 amazing husbands, love and each other. At the end of the day, it’s those little things that matter.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t cried everyday, felt anxiety paralyze our bodies, mourned, felt like we were hit by a bus, prayed on our knees and worried until we lost sleep.
In just one year, we have mourned the loss of our grandma, come to grips with our grandpa’s Parkinson’s diagnosis, tried to make sense of a family member who we loved that lived a double life and deceived and hurt us beyond what our wildest dreams could have imagined, learned the pain and heartache of a divorce first-hand, been shocked by the loss of a dear friend and family member, and heard the stop-in-our-tracks, heartbreaking diagnosis of ‘childhood epilepsy’ of one of our own from a hospital room.
To be honest, some days it’s been hard not to hate and it feels impossible to forgive.
We are not complaining because we know there are stories of hardship and pain that are unfathomable, and for those of you who are in the midst of it, or through it, our hearts go out to you.
A wise friend once said, “When someone’s asks how I am, if I’m good, I say, I’m in between problems…because life has bumps in the road, and in between the bumps, life is good.” In between our ‘bumps’ this year, we have watched our children laugh and grow, witnessed the joy of a 1-year-old take his first steps, help our parents celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary, held each other close, felt the unconditional love of family by our side, laughed until we cried with friends and celebrated the pure joy of a pregnancy announcement (followed by morning sickness).
So are we grateful for his year? Yes. Do we wish it went down differently? Hell, yes. But we will take each breath, step and hope we can muster because at the end of the day, that’s all we have! We have grown closer to God this year and pray we’ve reached our heartbreak limit for the year.
After all this, what we know to be true is that everyday we have a choice. Do we wake up with anger in our hearts, scour at the world and the people who hurt us, hold on to life the way it was? Or, do we wake up with grateful hearts, accept life and who we are, choose to smile, remain humble and kind? We choose the latter {most days}, and that will save us. We will not take love for granted.
We’ve discovered that love, faith and family can get us through it…it doesn’t hurt to have awesome sisters by our side either.
We hope you find gratefulness in your heart this Thanksgiving. Lord knows we’ll be crying, praying and giving thanks as we go around and talk about what we’re grateful for at the table this year.
Keep us in your prayers, and we’ll do the same for you.
Thanks for listening.