Happy Thanksgiving Week!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving week has arrived! This year we are stepping a bit out of tradition and going out to dinner! Usually I do the Thanksgiving dinners and this year I am taking a much needed break from the kitchen. I've been busy trying to get all things listed on the website for the holidays & will spend much of this coming week doing just that. We started a newsletter on our site with an archive so you can read past issues at your convenience! If you haven't signed up for our newsletter you still have time! Between now & December 1st you will be automatically entered in our drawing to win a set of our Nostalgia Christmas Plaques! I just love these they remind me of simpler times! Click on the link below!

Sign Up For Our Newsletter & You Could Win These!

Tomorrow, I guess I should say today we are going to the Open House at the Hallmark Gold Crown Store to get one of those recordable storybooks, The Night Before Christmas for the grandchildren. I think this is a fun gift and there was a $10 off coupon for three of the books in the Parenting Magazine! I have already purchased my holiday cards & decided to get that out of the way early! I found a great idea for my mothers gift in my junk (snail) mail earlier in the year! I will definitely post a picture after she receives it! It was not your ordinary junk mail! Love You Mom!

We have a new contest that Shabby Shop Cottages has put together! It is the Pink Holiday Magic $100 Shopping Spree for this next week's Pinkalicious Christmas Party! The winner will be announced Wednesday November 25th at midnight! Click on the Pink Present below to enter & find out contest details! Better Hurry!

Sweetheart's Nest Pinkalicious Newsletter

Sweetheart's Nest Pinkalicious Newsletter

Halloween 2009 Bash

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! I had all these tremendous plans, like making the pumpkin patch cake, popcorn balls and decorated Halloween cookies with the boys. Sometimes you just run out of time! I figure with Christmas coming so quickly I can mark my calendar & plan the cookies closer to that holiday instead of trying to do everything at once. I ended up ordering a cake which I have pictured. I was really lucky because it matched all of my decor. I went with orange & black & spiders this year. We always purchase our cakes at Beaverton Bakery and I guess my cake was the talk of the day among customers & staff. My mom picked it up on the way over to our party & thought she would never make it out of the bakery.

The party started at 4 in the afternoon. I prepared Chili with all the fixing's and plenty of appetizers. One of the biggest hits was the Shore Is Good Seafood Dip by Paula Deen. I was serving it straight out of the oven as people arrived with Bagel Toast & assorted crackers. If you haven't tried any of her recipes you won't be disappointed. Just plan on taking a day off from your diet. I had one trick up my sleeve for the grandchildren. We were out shopping one evening and I love taking in all the Halloween decorations & bizarre candy and this year we came across a severed hand that Mr. Ford & I couldn't resist! It was made of gummy candy and crunchy candy to replicate the bones. I served it up on a plate with some added eyeballs & a spider. Our oldest grandson thought it was cool but our youngest thought the hand was real and couldn't understand why grandpa was cutting a finger and eating it! Needless to say neither of them dug in to this candy...

I thought I would throw in this picture of my appetizer bar. There was definitely plenty to eat and even though there was no formal dinner it just ended up that way. I had creepy crawling spiders & skeletons everywhere you turned. I fixed our Winter Wassail Spiced Apple Cider by Susan Winget in our 30 cup coffee maker. This drink is always a big hit during the holidays and we have plenty available in our store! All you do is add apple cider or juice & the mix does the rest. I filled up the thermoses before we headed out trick or treating with the boys. The weather cooperated and with the moon peaking through the clouds & the leaves scattering about us for the perfect Halloween setting...

Ethan dressed up as Batman & Tyler dressed up as Spiderman this year. They were the perfect little super heroes. We spoiled them well with party favors, gifts & of course candy! I'm just happy at the end of a long day they go home with their parents after all the cake & candy...