A Handmade Thanksgiving

This year, I decided to host Thanksgiving. Though we live in a close distance to both my Mother in Law and Father in Law - I decided that this year I would like to have everyone over to our house for a big family Thanksgiving.

Who knows how long we will be in Norfolk (probably not much longer) and when we will have this chance again.

Plus, next year I will have a two year old and a nine month old. So, who knows if I will be able to even function enough to remember to buy a turkey.

I kid, I kid.

As per usual when I decide to host an event, I got all these ideas in my head (thanks Pinterest!) about how perfect Thanksgiving could must look. I always get all these great ideas and then end up covered in hot glue and scrambling to get all.the.things.accomplished.

I started by falling in love with all the burlap ideas I was seeing everywhere and scoring 3 yards of it at JoAnn's on a 20% off military special day. I can make table runners! Yay!

I probably overdid it with the DIY in combination with the meal planning and cooking, but hey, it wouldn't be my normal hostess mode if that didn't happen.

Plus, what was I going to do with all that left over burlap once I bought it? Just toss it in with the rest of my fabric scraps? No way! Clearly, you make napkin rings with it.

I instagrammed a photo of those babies, if just to make the hot glue burns worth it.

...and you obviously can't just top that runner with any old vase with flowers in it! I SHUDDER AT THE THOUGHT. So clearly I needed to whip up those twine wrapped cans.

Oh, and some wine glass tags. Duh.

So here is my project list -

• Burlap Table Runners

I used these two tutorials. I made one No Sew and actually ran one through my sewing machine. The backing was some leftover muslin I had way back when from Evelyn's nursery so that it wouldn't fray beyond the fringe I wanted. I thought for sure the sewing one would be easier (I hate ironing and woo for all straight lines!), but surprise surprise, the No Sew one was way, way easier. And, I just used thin strips of No-Sew stuff at the edges, not the whole wide sheet recommended in the second tutorial. I will definitely keep both for next year. 

Cost? $12 - had thread, stitch witchery and muslin on hand, so this was merely the cost of the burlap, which was way more than I needed for two runners!

• Napkin Rings

I gathered a few tutorials together for this one and was initially just going to sew them, but THEN, I read online I could just cover Dollar Tree Napkin Rings and called it a day. But, when I headed to the Dollar Tree - two days before Turkey Day, naturally - they didn't have Napkin Rings! So, I snagged two containers of shower rings instead. They came 12 to a pack, and I just hot glued two in a "stack" if that makes sense, then wrapped the whole shebang in a strip of burlap using hot glue. I decided I liked the look of using the fringe, so I kept it. Then I used the easiest way to make fabric "flowers" ever (just a running stitch along the edge of a strip of fabric, and then scrunch it into a circle - took me about 10 minutes to make all 12 flowers) with some additional muslin and used some odds and ends buttons from my sewing kit to make them look extra adorable. 

Cost? $2 - I had the glue, the burlap (from above - still PLENTY left over for next year), the muslin and the buttons. So, just the shower rings.

• Twine wrapped tin cans

As seen here, though I used a dab of hot glue here and there as I wrapped since I didn't have any adhesive spray on hand.  

Cost? $0. Had all supplies on hand. Though I guess if you want to count the Baby's Breath that eventually went in them, the cost is $12.

• Wine glass tags

I wanted something different from the charm tags that I was gifted once upon a time, and as I was digging through my old crafty stuff, I came across these tags, originally for scrapbooking, and some stickers that would fit inside of them. I scrapped the sticky thing off the back and tied them on with some strings of burp left over from making my fringe. 

Cost? $0

• Candles 

This was another Pinterest inspired item. I had these glass tea light holders from our wedding (at our wedding I filled them with white [fake] pearls). But thanks to this post, I thought about popcorn being cute for the Thanksgiving table. I picked up tri-colored popcorn at  Whole Foods and used like a handful or so across all the containers. 

Cost? Ummm, like 50 cents? I ended up buying a whole pound of popcorn from the bulk section because I wanted to eat it later, but really a small amount would have made this look possible...and buying in 'bulk' means you only get what you want/need. 

The decor lasted all the way through the evening (read: pie time) beautifully, and I will actually keep it all for next year. I may even add some more burlap projects (like this) next year, as I still have a bunch left! Not a bad look for about $15 total.

The burlap goes so beautifully with my plain white plates. I threw in the Mason jars at the last minute as water glasses - I had them left from Evelyn's first birthday party. I love the neutral color palette, though you could really punch it up with some colorful flowers and all sorts of fun napkin/plate combos.

Hmmm, maybe next year!


Evelyn Rae is 16 months old, I am 29 (!!) weeks along with Baby Bump

...and phew. Next year this stuff is going out way further in advance than the day of Thanksgiving! I only got to enjoy it for a day before we changed out to my (favorite) Christmas stuff!