Hey Reno, mark your calendars ...

On Saturday, Dec. 12, I will be presenting a green giftwrapping class at EcoReno. We will be talking about how to upcycle materials you already have at home to make giftwrap, and everyone will make a bow out of a magazine page (as seen on How About Orange) ...

(Perhaps I shouldn't have posted the link ... now you know how to do it. But - I've already done half the work for you - and isn't it more fun to do together?)

We'll also turn a cereal box (or Kleenex box, or cracker box, or ....) into a giftwrap embellishment. You could also use it as an ornament!

Hope to see you there!

Thanksgiving

I really blew it on the Thanksgiving pictures. These four pictures are the only four I took. My excuse is that I was in charge of the bird, so I really should have put someone else in charge of the camera.

Our friends Erin and Sandor left for Atlanta for the holiday, and since Na was watching their dogs we commandeered their house for Thanksgiving dinner, seeing how they have a bigger dining room table and double ovens. (When I say commandeered, I'm actually pretty sure it was Erin's idea in the first place ... she even set the dining room table for us! It was very nice of her.)

So, we invited a few others over - Chris and I, Na, friends John, Julie and Dionne from work, and Will from my cohort at school. Here's Na, making the mashed potatoes ...

In addition to turkey and stuffing, I made a couple things that are starting to become a Thanksgiving tradition for us - my Nannie's cranberry loaf cake ...

And, some mulled wine ...

Julie made an apple crisp, Dionne brought a sweet potato pie (I'd never had one before and OMG it was delicious!), Na made a pumpkin pie and Will brought green beans. Everything was so yummy and it was nice to have such good company! We ate early, about 1:30 in the afternoon, so everyone who had to work could get there on time. Scoop and I spent the rest of the afternoon napping and trying to catch up on some Project Runway. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Ornament Exchange (Giving)

We started this blog as a way to keep our friends and family faraway updated on what's going on here with Team Gabel, but one of the surprise benefits that I've found is the greater blogging community that I have come to also think of as friends in a way. One of my favorite blogs is Just Something I Made because she always has such great craft ideas and creates many graphics that she shares for free with her readers (like the "e-mail me" button I added to our site). I also discovered on her blog a Bloggers Ornament Exchange (you may have also noticed that button over on the right there), hosted by Pampering Beki. More than 200 bloggers signed up! I thought it sounded like fun (like having a pen pal in elementary school!) and I decided to sign up. I was paired with Linda of LindaOma's Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts. It wasn't required to make the ornament, but I thought that would be more fun than buying one and I had a couple things I'd been wanting to try.

Soon after I signed up for the exchange I spotted a bunch of tiny pinecones outside the Journalism building at school so I gathered some up thinking they could be used somehow. I bought some clear glass ornaments at Target and, after breaking the stems on a few pinecones, finally managed to get this bunch in in one piece. I used craftwire to hold it in place, and added some red ribbon.

For the next ornament, I used some spray adhesive that I had from a past project and sprayed the inside of the ornament, and then poured in some gold glitter. The first one ended up in the garbage because there was basically a clump of glitter on the bottom, but the second time it seemed to coat the inside better. After pouring in the glitter (using a funnel fashioned from a magazine page) I twirled the ornament around to coat the inside, and then poured out the excess glitter.

I finished it by tying a bow with some ribbon I already had - the color match was perfect. (The bow seems to overwhelm the ornament in the picture, but I don't think it looks that way in person.)

I packaged them each in a white box, which I decorated using scraps of scrapbook paper and images off of a Starbucks cup. (Upcycled! Reusable!)

I hope Linda enjoys the ornaments - I sure had fun making them!

Giving Thanks

As Thanksgiving nears, I thought it would be appropriate to give thanks for some of my blessings ...

For a wonderful, supportive husband, who makes me laugh and keeps me grounded ...


For our little Scoop, who keeps us on our toes ...


For my sisters, who are also my friends ...
For my friends, who are also my sisters ...
For three sets of awesome parents ...
For our amazing extended families ...
For our health ...
For the opportunity to be in grad school ...
For so many more blessings than I could ever put in words ...
We are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday

Terri, Kelli, Kristin, Me, Melynda, Holly and Leia

The day after the reunion, we went to a barbecue at Daniel and Holly's beautiful new house. It was great to have a little extra time with everyone, especially since they weren't all at the reunion. The girls chatted and the boys watched football and the kiddos all played together.

I got to meet the famous baby Thomas (pictured here with his Tia Leia)


The older kids played dress-up ... note Gabriel's shoes


Abby, Addisen and McKenna

Abby giving Chris a manicure

Coincidentally, today is Abby's 3rd birthday ...

Happy Birthday Abby!

Exhibit E

After the reunion, we went over to Ernesto's parents' house to hang out a while longer. Ernesto made some sort of comment about not becoming a character like his dad. To this I said, "Are you saying you don't think you're already a character?" To which Ernesto replied, "Are you saying that I am a character?" To which I responded, "Yes, I believe that is what I'm saying." And to back up that statement, I offer this ...

Party like it's 1999

This is Chris, above, in his senior yearbook. How young does he look!? This weekend we made a really quick trip to Phoenix for the Marcos De Niza class of 1999's 10-year reunion. It was a small turnout for a class of more than 400, but it was really fun for us to get to see our friends we don't get to see often enough, and visit with the Gabels, too.

The reunion cake had the class picture on it

You can see the turnout was quite a bit smaller than the class ... but can you find Chris, Kyle, Ernesto, Melynda and Kelli?

Me, Melynda and Kelli

Team Gabel

Checking out their class picture