A little laughter...

It's another crazy day for me. Not much to post about since I worked some long hours lately. But here's some humor to make you smile today.

Blessings

My favorite songs for Thanksgiving

Christmas at Dixie

We get off the holiday season at Dixie Stampede this past Wednesday with our Christmas show. The first few days we had 2 shows a day. Today kicks off the craziness with a four show day and next Saturday will be a five show day. Can we say exhausting? But I love my job. I get to greet the groups that come, then greet everyone at the doors at showtime. I spend 90% of my day just being a social butterfly and helping people have a great time on their vacation. I wouldn't have it any other way. Someday's it gets tiring and some nights I come home and fall right in bed when I get home. But the next morning, I am up and excited to do it all again. Just seeing Dixie all lit up when I leave at night makes me feel like it was a day well spent and a job well done. Here's some of the pretty lights we have outside. 

Defogging

I am on the search for something....a way to defog my car windows easier. With temps that keep going from one extreme to the other, my windows get foggy and I have to wait for the car to heat up some nights when I leave work. After an 8 or 10 hour day of up and down steps and greeting people all day, last thing I want is to set in my car with it running for it to heat up enough that my windows won't fog.

I had to take Shelby to school this morning for my daughter and the windows were a tad foggy. Now, Shelby is only 9 years old but she is a HUGE fan of 5 Minute Crafts on You Tube (takes her me on that topic). So she informed me today, that according to a You Tube video she watched on that channel, the silica gel packs you find in new purses are moisture absorbing and can be placed in your car window to pull moisture from the inside of the car and prevent fogging up. Who knew? 

Obviously, I went online to research. You have all kinds of "easy" fixes. Two popular ones were

1. Wipe your inside windshield and windows with vinegar - Um, no. I hate the smell and sure don't want to dry around all day with it. Plus, you would have to do it on a regular basis which sounds like a lot of work.

2. Barbasol shaving cream - Again, no. Too labor intensive to maintain and how will I know when I need to do another coat except for it to be fogged up just when I need it to be clear.

So, then I checked out her silica gel video which let me to other research about silica gel and weather you could buy it and put it in something larger than having to collect a ton of packets from purses to make it work. You can purchase the packets in quantities but then you would have to lay them across your dash and take them down or they would slide when you drive. But that was when I stumbled on the cat litter sock video. I hit pay dirt. You take a sock and wrap the top around a shipping tape roll or something like that (jar ring, anything to hold it open). Then fill it with the silicon gel cat litter (which you can get at Walmart for around $5-$6 a bag.

Once filled, removed whatever you used to hold it open, tie it off and fold the top down. Place in your windshield and it will keep them from fogging up. 

There are several brands out their and they do recommend you use only 100% silica gel. And they recommend that if it has color changing crystals only get the kind that goes from clear to orange. Do not get any that turns blue or is already blue.

I read many sites about this and watch several videos. As with everything you have a ton of nay-sayers and negative Nellies. But for the most part, people say it works. The main video I watched is from a guy who is an engineer with NASA and he posted his studies and samples of his testing on his video. Then I read another site that explained why some people say it is worthless. The guy from NASA is quoted a lot. It does work because the cat litter does absorb moisture. What they don't say is that it is good for about a month because by then, the crystals have retained so much moisture they are not long effective and you simply open the sock, toss the crystals, wash and dry the sock and pour in fresh litter. Your $5 bag is enough to last for many, many, many months of this. So I am going to go to Walmart and get a sock and do this. One video that swore by the NASA guys hack says that he has been doing this three years and he tosses one in each side of his windshield and one under each seat. He said it has worked perfect for him. So off to sock shop I go. I'll let you know if it works. 

Some fun ideas and sweet memories

I was looking online for some ideas for a craft project to start working on for the holidays. This would be really cute to make for Children's church for Thanksgiving. If we could keep them from eating the candy instead of filling the turkey. 

I also loved these little refrigerator magnets we made with subway art I printed out.

We are studying Giving Thanks in our Children's church this month. This was the bible verse we kicked it off with last Sunday. I need to print this and put it on our wall. 

Check out these cute ideas for decor for Thanksgiving.

I love the smell of cinnamon at the holidays. This is so cute and you could put a fragrant candle in the jar.....maybe vanilla or orange. That would smell great. Talk about easy to make.

Don't like working with raffia? Just use burlap and jute.

Or even easier is just wrap it up with jute.

One thing I meant to do last year and never got a chance was to make some of these little elves. How adorable are they? And looks very easy.

Another clothespin craft I want to do is this one. It is so easy it's embarrassing that I didn't do it the first time I posted it. 

I am going to buy a wooden B at Hobby Lobby or AC Moore and do this. I love it.  

I had so much fun making these little wreaths last year. I am going to do some more this year. They were cute to put on packages to my friends.

If I'm going to craft, I need to get busy. Especially any of my Thanksgiving ideas. It will be here before you know it. Before I leave you today, I want to share this little humor.

Goodbye October, Hello November

I have really enjoyed posting pics of fall and Halloween. So as we say goodbye to October, here are some cute snacks my niece Emili and her friend Brittany made.

I especially love these. So adorable.

Their doggies were even festive for the holidays.

And that did some last minute pumpkin faces. This girls are both talented and love to craft.

While meanwhile back at Mamaw's Place, I have been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving decor. I can't believe I actually had it out and ready to go on November 1st. It usually takes me until I can get a day off, but I had one yesterday so I went right to work. I kept out a lot of my fall, put away my Halloween and then incorporated some of my Thanksgiving into what fall was still out. I changed up the coffee table some by replacing acorns with a pumpkin and candle and changing out my table runner. This is another of the no-sew ones I made.

Just replaced some things on my place mat on the kitchen table.  

Got out my little Give Thanks and put it with my other word art.

Mommy crocheted me this ripple afghan in 1981 when my living room was in these colors. I get it out every fall.

Just a little display on one of the end tables.

Now to the fun stuff (you know I am happy when I use Pyrex to decorate.) This is the Harvest Wheat pattern that I wanted for years. The last vacation Hubby and I took together before he passed away was to Panama City Beach. We went antiquing one day and he found me these. A set of three bowls is normally around $49 - $69 for the set. He bought me this entire set for right around $25. I cherish them because they were the last Pyrex he ever bought me and it was on the best vacation we ever had. I made the little turkey no-sew runner they are sitting on.

This is another of the primitive stitchery dish towels my mom made. I just love the turkey.

My favorite Thanksgiving pieces are my little chipmunk salt and pepper shakers. Bought these at a yard sale and I think they were about .50 cents for the pair. I absolutely adore them and can't wait to get them out every November.

My little rock I've had for many years. 

Put it all together with some of my fall bowls I already had out and you have my favorite area for decorating for the holidays.

Have a happy November 1st!

Sunday's song

One of my favorite songs ever. We are so blessed and sometimes we don't even realize it.  The songwriter asks "What if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?" We have days we are on top of the mountain and days we are sunk down in the valley below. I have often wondered if we didn't have any valleys to go through, how would we ever appreciate those God moments that put us on the mountain top and bring us pure joy. Please take the time to listen carefully to the words of this song. They are beautiful.