Thankful Thursday | Delicious Food

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I kind of hope you aren't reading this post on Thanksgiving, but I also can understand needing a quick escape from rowdy football fans, loud family teasing, or smoking kitchens. I've been to all of those places. Either way, I won't be posting at all tomorrow, so hopefully this holds you over until Monday!

You had to know it was coming--today is all about how thankful I am for food! I really love food- it's quite amazing any day, and holiday food has always been a special way to bring my family together. I've lived away from home for four years now, but I've been able to visit for at least one holiday each year, so my mom has kindly saved all of her best foods for my visits. This is the first year I'm doing both Christmas and Thanksgiving away from my family (of course I'm very excited for my first Christmas with My Main Man and his family), which makes me especially thankful for the special food my mom makes for the holidays.

Here are some of my favorite traditional holiday foods in my family.

Twice-Baked Potatoes, Shrimp and Cocktail Sauce, Green Bean Casserold, Baby Quiche, Rhodes Rolls, Eggnog with Nutmeg, Stuffed Mushroom Caps, Sweet Potato Pie, Pumpkin Pie

Wipe that drool off your chin and get back to your family--you only get this quality time once a year, right?

Craft Confessions | Thanksgiving Decorations

Once Halloween passes, I'm basically straight into holiday mode. I blare the Christmas music, start planning gifts to give, and wait eagerly for snow to fall. The snow took its time this year (considering I live in Utah) but it managed to make an appearance only six days after Halloween, and I was thrilled! Since I generally imagine Thanksgiving as a precursor to Christmas festivities, I decided to keep my decorations simple and understated.

On our entryway table I arranged an urn of fall foliage, the patty-pan squash I used in my Halloween decorations, and a tall glass jar of spiced pine cones. The urn originally had a brown, distressed-looking shellac on it, but I felt like white was cleaner and brighter, so I painted it with acrylic paint and added a few streaks of dark wood stain. Also, the spiced pine cones were super affordable at Michael's because I bought them about a week before Halloween. All of the fall decorations were 50% or better to make room for Christmas decorations!   

During my trip to Michael's I also picked up a colorful strand of fall leaves. I looped it up twice around an existing wreath I had and secured it with some floral wire (I like temporary attachment like this to allow me to use the foliage in a different way next year). 

In our living room, I updated an existing banner to say "Thanks" in a very simple font. It matches the simple cut-out pattern I layered into my holiday-reserved picture frame and used as a tray on our coffee table. In the jar are pieces of pumpkin brittle I made for a Halloween party (it was supposed to be delicious pumpkin caramels, but I pretended I meant to overcook it and called it brittle). 

As I said before, simple and understated, but I love how it looks!

Thankful Thursday | Typography

To prevent this post from sounding absolutely shallow, I want to begin with the caveat that I am so grateful to have written language as part of my life. I often take for granted the ability to use language to effectively convey my ideas. In my studio, we are designing refugee housing and I was floored to realize that some refugees in Utah can't even read and write in their native tongue, let alone English. Aren't we blessed to have this tool at our disposal?

With that said, I think the words are beautiful. They are beautiful in English, German, Thai, Spanish, Russian, Tagalog. Words create beautiful songs, and are even more beautiful in print (in my humble opinion). The next time you write a big report, or thank you card, or love letter, think about the story your words tell. Beyond the known definition of a given word, typography creates greater impact with color, typeface, font, size, and orientation. I would really like to work on my typography skills. I think I'm going to create a few wedding invite mock-ups when I get some free time.

Real Simple, Uitnodiging, Wedding Invite, Saucetoberfest

Only one more week until Thanksgiving! I love this holiday so much.

Thankful Thursday | Textures

Before I start in on the main topic of this post, I'd like to comment about how thankful I am for some of the women in my life. I had the best weekend hearing that both my mom and mother-in-law have read this blog lately! It's really awesome to know they care to keep up on it and see what I've been up to. I absolutely got warm tingles hearing that :).

Today I'm thankful for textures. I rely so often on my eyes and ears to tell me how to navigate this crazy world, but when I take the time to stop and literally feel the world around me, I am always joyfully surprised at what I discover! Even when I'm simply drawing or painting, which are relatively 2D art forms, I have to pay attention to the 3D work that arises, like the faint riffs that come out of a paint stroke. Being in architecture school has taught me that it's not weird to just go up and feel things, run my hands across a wall, sit on a weird surface, put my cheek against a material to feel its temperature. Ok, maybe that does seem weird, but I'm totally comfortable feeling a building up (I sure hope it doesn't feel violated).

For those of you who don't understand my need to touch buildings, I'm sure you can identify with loving different clothing textures. Sometimes I wear certain clothes just for their textures. They can be cut really well and even have great detailing, but what is a great piece of clothing without an appropriate texture?

And as always, mother nature has this one down pat. The textures in nature are nothing short of completely incredible. Don't we live in a beautiful world?

I challenge you all to go feel one different thing today. It could be as simple as the tires on your car or bike, or as complex as feeling every item in your closet. Close your eyes, too; it makes for a completely different experience!

Also, keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow's post! I'll have a link to a guest post I've written for Sloanbook as well as a super nifty giveaway! 

Thankful Thursday | Femininity

Now that we've entered no-shave November (don't worry, I'm not participating), I'd like to focus on the treat of a holiday coming up. I love the concept of dedicating a day towards gratitude, but in all honesty I spend half of the day glued to the Macy's parade and the other scarfing down so-delicious-but-so-awful-for-you treats. That being said, I would love to talk about things I'm thankful for every Thursday this month--especially things related to the beauty of the world around us.

Today I'm thankful for femininity!

Since this is an art blog, I created a small collage of textures, colors, and materials that make me feel feminine from the exterior.

Too bad I can't afford half of those beautiful things. I guess that means more sewing adventures!

I love that being feminine can mean being sweet, sassy, spunky, and even strong when tough situations arise. Of course I know plenty of wonderful men, but I know that women have a special role that only we can fill just perfectly. My church's Relief Society has created this declaration that I think describes femininity perfectly:

We are beloved spirit daughters of God, and our lives have meaning, purpose, and direction.  As a worldwide sisterhood, we are united in our devotion to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Exemplar.  We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity who:

Increase our testimonies of Jesus Christ through prayer and scripture study.

Seek spiritual strength by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Dedicate ourselves to strengthening marriages, families, and homes.

Find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood.

Delight in service and good works.

Love life and learning.

Stand for truth and righteousness.

Sustain the priesthood as the authority of God on earth.

Rejoice in the blessings of the temple, understand our divine destiny, and strive for exaltation.

I think the world would have a lot of women think that if they can't balance a full-time job, running the PTA, raising perfect children, and dressing impeccably that she just isn't doing her job. Many amazing women, including my mother and close girlfriends, have shown me that women are special because we are nurturing, loving, intelligent, and charitable, and often imperfect. I am so far from mastering a lot of that list I just created, but I think they are all attributes worth working towards.

Women: What are you thankful for as women?
Men: How are you thankful for the women in your life? (or for the perks of being masculine?)