• Home
  • About Me
  • Projects
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact me

The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

Thanksgiving at our house

November 24, 2011

“The stockings are all hung by the chimney with care…” Whoops, sorry, wrong holiday! Smile  I was a little confused as my neighbor was hanging Christmas lights yesterday while I was spray painting pumpkins in the driveway and I was preparing and cooking Thanksgiving food while watching Christmas movies. Smile

But it was definitely Thanksgiving today with all the yummy food and fun with family to go around.  Thought I would share a little of our house all ready for Thanksgiving guests to arrive.

My newly painted/re-decorated dining room (more on that later) with the table all set ready for company!

DSC_1033

Love the candlelight . . .

DSC_1029

I showed you how I made my centerpiece here.  The placemats and orange napkins are from Kohl’s and the brown pumpkins are from the Dollar Tree last year.  The plates and glasses are my everyday dinnerware that I love. Smile

DSC_1036

I enjoyed hosting for the first time this year and preparing more Thanksgiving dishes (turkey, stuffing) than I normally do.  And everything turned out great!

DSC_1040

I have 2 nieces that would be coming for Thanksgiving (age 2 1/2 and 4) and I wanted to do a special kids table for them.  I found lots of inspiring ideas on Pinterest and took a little from a few of them.  I wanted to do more but just plain ran out of time. But there is always next year!    The “Thanksgiving banner” was a free printable from Paper Glitter.

DSC_0002

The “centerpiece” is some pumpkin teddy bears I picked up at the dollar store years ago along with a cornucopia with some fruit/pumpkins.  I printed some Thanksgiving coloring sheets and glued them on different color construction paper.

DSC_0015

My 2 nieces coloring their placemats – they were so excited when they saw the table just for them.

DSC_0016

They also colored handprint turkeys right on the table – so much fun! Smile  They already want to know if the next time they come to Aunt Nina’s house if they can color on the table again.  The paper on the table is just white newsprint and I have a huge roll so I am sure we will be doing this again sometime. Smile

DSC_0018

And for the rest of my fall/ Thanksgiving home décor…

I showed you how I made my “Give Thanks” banner last week (for FREE, by the way! 🙂

DSC_0955

I shared my spray painted mirror and fall mantel here.

DSC_0217

DSC_0295

And my magnolia wreath greeted my guests as they arrived.

magnolia wreath

And I can’t write a post about Thanksgiving without sharing the things I am thankful for:

  • My wonderful husband.  I can’t even imagine my life without him.  He is my best friend, a wonderful provider, a honest/devoted man and so much more.  I love him so much! 
  • My family – my husband’s and mine!  They both are precious to me and I love them dearly!
  • My home.  It is not perfect and is always a work in progress but I count my blessings to not only have a roof over my head but pretty decorations on the wall too! Smile
  • My friends.  My facebook friends that live far away, my local friends….  My blogging friends (Renee at Living, Laughing, and Loving; Christa at Brown Sugar Toast, Laine at Just Laine, and the list could do on and on.  (And for the blogs I love to read but have no idea that I exist – Thrifty Décor Chick, Young House Love, Beneath My Heart, and so many more!)
  • My husband’s job.  5 years ago he came home the Tuesday before Thanksgiving having just gotten laid off unexpectedly from his job.  It was a hard Christmas season that year but we still had food on the table, I was able to work extra hours for a few months, and he started the job he is at now after the new year.
  • My work at home job!  2 weeks ago I said goodbye to the office place and hello to my home as I now work from home!  It has been a lifelong desire to stay at home and I am truly thankful that the Lord granted me this “desire of my heart”.”
  • and most of all, I am thankful for my salvation and the many blessings my Heavenly Father bestows on us daily.  We sang this song the other day at our Thanksgiving Praise service and the next to the last phrase stuck out to me like I had never seen it before……Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
    Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
    Great is Thy faithfulness!
    …All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
    Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am off to catch a few minutes of sleep before heading out to hit the stores for some Black Friday sales. Smile  Anyone else skipping sleep tonight for shopping? Winking smile

15 Comments LABELS ~ Uncategorized

SHARE >>
« Guest posting over at BrownSugarToast today!
5 days of Christmas inspiration…. »

RELATED POSTS

  • Layered Farmhouse Style Fall Mantel
  • Fall Farmer’s Market Inspired Front Porch
  • Neutral and Simple Fall Mantel
  • LOVE… is in the air and on the mantel {Valentine’s Mantel}

Comments

  1. Amy says

    November 24, 2011 at 10:06 PM

    Hey! Happy Thanksgiving!! I loved your blog today! Loved the pictures and mostly your “What I am thankful for…”. It brought tears to my eyes..happy ones 🙂 I am very happy for you and your family. Delighted to hear about your continued faithfulness to our amazing God and Saviour through everything. You are such an inspiration. Be careful tomorrow and find some great deals!
    Amy

    Reply
    • Christina says

      November 29, 2011 at 12:07 AM

      Thanks, Amy! Your comment is so sweet. 🙂

      I did have fun on Black Friday too – did you go shopping?

      Reply
  2. Renee @ Living, Laughing, & Loving says

    November 26, 2011 at 8:47 PM

    Everything looks so pretty!!! Great job!!! Love the dining room redo… Looks fab!! That is such a good idea to have a draw on table cloth for the kiddies too!! I’m sure they loved it!!
    🙂

    Reply
    • Christina says

      November 28, 2011 at 11:45 PM

      thanks! 🙂 will post about the dining room soon 😉 still need to add a few more things to the walls (but need to find them secondhand which takes time) but it is about 90% finished. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Rae says

    November 28, 2011 at 7:07 PM

    What is the pattern name of your everyday dishes? What did you place the napkin across? It doesn’t look like a regular plate. I LOVE your dishes.

    Reply
    • Christina says

      November 28, 2011 at 11:43 PM

      My MIL has sold Princess House for years so I have a rather large collection of Princess House. 🙂 My dishes are Princess House Pavillion – http://www.princesshouse.com/products/product_cat.aspx?tp=coll&id=PAV

      The salad plates with that collection are square so that is the plate that the napkin is layered across.

      Another collection of white dishes that I love is the Chris Madden collection from JCPenney – http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6E.aspx?GrpTyp=ENS&ItemID=165c844&DeptID=70755&CatID=83487&SO=0&Ne=5+586+23+8+1031+904+18+949&NOffset=2&shopperType=G&N=4294930728&Nao=0&PSO=0&bcCat=3&CmCatId=70755|83487 🙂

      Hope that helps!

      Reply
  4. Laine chambers says

    December 3, 2011 at 12:07 PM

    Can you tell I’m playing catch up with my feed reader?? =) Your Thanksgiving table is so pretty and the kids table looked so fun! So happy for you that everything turned out well.

    Reply
    • Christina says

      December 5, 2011 at 1:14 AM

      I wondered if you were taking a day to yourself on the computer. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment.

      Thanksgiving was really good, I am so glad I got to host this year. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Summer Jo Brooks says

    October 30, 2012 at 10:05 AM

    I have been looking for placemats just like those… where did you get them???

    Reply
    • Christina says

      November 8, 2012 at 12:56 AM

      Kohls – Food Network brand. hope that helps!

      Reply
      • Summer Jo Brooks says

        November 8, 2012 at 9:30 AM

        Thanks! Looking online now!
        I never think to go to Kohls!

        Reply
        • Christina says

          November 9, 2012 at 9:51 PM

          Oh, I LOVE Kohl’s! they have a great selection of placemats, napkins and tableclothes too – larger than any other store around me. and they are always on sale 🙂

          Reply
  6. RStreck says

    November 22, 2013 at 9:37 AM

    I love, love, love, your style! You have great ideas. I will be incorporating them into my own home. Thanks a bunch.

    Reply
  7. music online blues says

    March 7, 2014 at 1:58 AM

    Everything is very open with a precise description of the challenges.
    It was truly informative. Your site is useful. Many thanks for sharing!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Before/After Dining Room Reveal | The Frugal Homemaker says:
    March 7, 2012 at 4:52 PM

    […] Ha!  Probably not since you already saw snippets of it in my coffee filter wreath post and Thanksgiving post, but everyone loves a good before/after picture so here goes.  (and excuse the bad before […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Christina Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow me:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

Recent Posts

  • Enjoying summer at home! (Essentials for entertaining or having a fun family night)
  • Simple build series: How to build a DIY centerpiece box
  • How to create a cozy outdoor space step-by-step
  • Spring DIY Projects
  • 2022 Word of the Year





THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS