What do Puppy dog cookies and a Thankful Tree have in common…..Nothing.  Except we made both today.

I am big on traditions and we are currently in the process of creating new traditions for our family.  The latest “new” tradition is the Thankful Tree.  The Thankful Tree is a paper tree that we add leaves to each day until Thanksgiving.  Every day we write what we are thankful for and tape it to the tree.  It really makes us focus on the blessings in our lives.

I added the Give Thanks for fun.  So right now our first leaf is up but this picture was taken before we added it.

The cookies were a little bit of a last second decision. I ordered a dog shaped cookie cutter and I really wanted to use it and well, you get the point.  I know it make seem sick to feed your dog cookies that are in the shape of a retriever but I thought it was a little funny.

Here are some things I have learned in the past weeks.

1.  The can telephone is not that great.  I made one with the boys the other day and it wasn’t everything I had imagined. And yes I had some pretty grandiose ideas.

2. The chalkboard door.  I love it and will keep it.  However, I have to redo it. I need to go back and sand off the chalkboard paint and the original gloss paint of the door.  After sanding off both paints I will primer it and reapply the chalkboard paint.  The reasoning behind not sanding it down originally is twofold.  The first, the canister of paint didn’t say it was required and the second, I was really lazy.

3. I really need to organize my projects and my supplies.  My supply/linen closet is a mess!  The bottom two shelves are packed with all my supplies and the top three have all our sheets and blankets.  UGH… any suggestions?

I am an amateur photographer. I am not brilliant but I occasionally catch a moment.  OCCASIONALLY…

My father is the one that actually encouraged me and taught me the basics of photography.  In fact, he passed down to me his projector, all his dark room supplies and his love of the art.   I can remember entire weekends in which my Dad and I would lock ourselves in our makeshift darkroom and develop our photos.  It is a wonderful memory and I believe the reason why I still have all the supplies for the darkroom, the love for black and white photos, and my complete stubbornness to throw out my “old” camera. 

So today we had some friends over and I took out the digital to satsify the photography craving.

Last June my husband installed a swing in our playroom.  When I say installed a swing I am not talking about a little swing that is easy taken apart. In fact he went into the attic and drilled through one of the supporting beams and hung it from the ceiling.  It was probably the best thing we have ever done for the boys.  This swing provides hours of entertainment and the boys love it so much they won’t dare hurt any of the walls for fear of it being removed. 

The seat of the swing is a plain piece of wood and I finally got around to painting it.