Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are are getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving....full of family, friends and PIE!

If you're in the mood to whip up some cookies to take to the feast, here's a simple idea for you.  This turkey doesn't require a special cutter....it's a combination of a few shapes you probably have already...or can cut by hand. 

I used a flower cutter, a small circle, and hand-cut a small rectangle.  A video of the process of putting them all together is on University of Cookie.

This turkey shape idea came from Paper Glitter's free Thanksgiving printables. Printables and kids' coloring books are great places to look for cookie inspiration.

Make your cookies, break out the royal icing along with Americolor food colorings in Super Red, Orange, Chocolate Brown, Egg Yellow and Super Black.   Have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, you guys!  I am thankful for each and every one of you....except for you spammers, but other than that....each and every one. :)

Gobble, gobble!
{ps...to my cousin, Maura, currently in labor with her first little one...we are thinking of you! Can't wait to meet your little turkey!}

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Praline and Coconut-Pecan Crust

A slice of sweet vegan heaven. Chill this pie overnight for best texture.

I feel like I'm cheating. No, not cheating on my gluten-free diet. Cheating on my faithful Pumpkin Pie recipe. The one I've loved for years. It's so easy, after all. And reliable. And tasty. But you know how it is. You get that itch. You start to daydream. You flirt with a taste of vegan pumpkin pie at the West Hollywood Hugo's, and you start to fantasize about coconut crust. You imagine the buttery caramel taste of praline. And as always, in these matters, one thing leads to another. Next thing you know?

You've got a new love.

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Gluten-Free Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

Cider roasted vegetables- pair with polenta, rice or quinoa.

If, like me, you happen to be celebrating without the bird this Thanksgiving, here's a quick round-up of my favorite vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes to inspire you. Most of these recipes are actually vegan- a dairy-free plus for those of us gluten-free and casein-free. The few recipes garnished with cheese can be easily converted to dairy-free by using your favorite vegan cheese. Here's to a gentle Thanksgiving-

Peace!

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Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf

Need some gluten-free inspiration for your Thanksgiving feast? Have I got some side dishes for you. From Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf to Pomegranate Glazed Green Beans, from Sweet Potato Cornbread to Cranberry Applesauce and more, I've gathered together my favorite gluten-free side dish recipes. One glance at these offerings should convince even the most die hard skeptics that living gluten-free can be more than delicious.

It can be beautiful.


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Everyday Cricut Hostess Set with Thanksgiving Seasonal Cartridge

It's the third Saturday of the month and that means it is my day as the Saturday designer at Everyday Cricut!  Melanie and Joy have returned to Christmas holiday projects, but I wanted to share one last Thanksgiving project.  Besides I am doing a week of Thanksgiving projects here at Busy with the Cricky and I did not want to change my theme!

My featured project at Everyday Cricut is a four part Thanksgiving hostess set:  place cards, wine glass tags, decorative plate pumpkins, and Yudu printed napkins (previously featured here). 

Please head over to Everyday Cricut for more information and additional photos.   Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes & Tips 2010

Need a gluten-free pumpkin pie recipe? No problem. And it's vegan to boot.

The Big T. Thanksgiving. Nothing sends shivers of trepidation up a gluten-free or dairy-free girl's spine like the mental image of Grandma's sage pungent white bread dressing or shimmying slabs of Aunt Ida's pumpkin pie. It's a butter and wheat flour gorge fest with danger at every turn. The gruesome gut-twisting threat of thirty-six hours chugging Pepto Bismol is poised to strike on every holiday decorated plate- jovial forkfuls of tradition and conviviality aside.

It can be a nightmare.

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Hello Kitty Thanksgiving Layout Revisit

It's time for a look back at my favorite Thanksgiving project from 2009.  I really loved this Hello Kitty Happy Thanksgiving layout!  Kitty as a Pilgrim - Kitty as a Native American... Kitty's Thanksgiving feast!  How fun!

 I created this project for Custom Crops and it is still available for free through their on-line store.  There is an article that contains complete cutting and assembly instructions, materials needed and the CUT FILE (!!) - again all for free.

You will need four Cricut cartridges to create this layout - Hello Kitty Greetings, Paper Doll Dress Up, Plantin Schoolbook, and Opposite Attract.  Follow this link to Custom Crops for all of the details.

Thankful for the Little Things

Surprise!  Another Thanksgiving themed card - but this card is completely different.  Well yes, it does utilize the same Autumn Blessing stamp set, but also introduces some additional color to the fall palette!

The center image and border were stamped in a burnt brown on pumpkin colored cardstock.  The center image was colored with Copic markers and then cut with the oval nestie.  I decided to shake things up a bit with a green scalloped matting!  The nesties were affixed to an embossed white cardstock and mounted on fun fall print cardstocks.  I went with a pumpkin colored base card.

I think this is my favorite Thanksgiving card of the week.  I really like the green twill ribbon and the fun print cardstocks.  I also really like the sentiment because sometimes in the day to day routine of life we do forgot to remember to be thankful for the little things!  This card is a nice reminder!

Thankful for Fall

Here is another JustRite stamp Thanksgiving card.  I think this one is for my mom!  My mom lives about 5 hours away from where I live and she will be spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his family.  I will be staying home as my sons will be coming home from college and work in other cities.  My mom likes the fall color palette so this card should appeal to her.

This is another center and border stamp from the Autumn Blessings stamp set that I used yesterday.  All of the borders are interchangeable so it is easy to mix and match the centers and borders.  The JustRite stamps were designed to compliment Spellbinders Nestabilities. So far I only own circular and oval stamps, but they also come in rectangular shapes.

The stamped image and the scalloped matting were cut with oval nesties.  The print matting under the ovals was also cut with nesties - label number five.  The print label is affixed to two layers of matting which have been punched with the corner ticket punch.  Two layers of ribbon surround the mats and are tied with a two tone bow.  A strip of golden rod colored lace was added under the ribbon.  And under all of this is one more layer of print matting and a rust colored base card.  There are five amber gemstones accent the stamped image, bow and card corners.

I like how pretty and feminine this card seems, while still maintaining a fall feeling.  I will be back tomorrow with another Thanksgiving themed project. 

Gather Together Bountiful Card

I have a confession.  I have never sent out a Thanksgiving card.  And it has only been since I have been making cards that I have sent out Halloween cards.  But this year I will be mailing a few Thanksgiving cards to some family members.  Today's card is the first of my Thanksgiving themed cards.

The base card was cut in a fall print cardstock using Just Because Cards.  The three matting layers were cut with my 12 inch trimmer.  I used the Stampin' Up ticket punch on the corners of the matting.  And then I used my new obsession - PEEL OFFS!  I trimmed the top mat with peel offs and the main image is a peel off.

I found a great sheet of gold peel off fall leaves and I chose this two leaf flourish peel off for my card.  The peel off was affixed to orange metallic cardstock and then trimmed even with the edges of the peel off.   The leaves were then affixed to the matting layers.

The card was finished with orange organza ribbon and a cardstock sentiment.  I added a square of rust paper inside the card, topped with a square of white cardstock on which to write the greeting.  My family will be quite surprised with all of the cards coming their way!!

Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Maple Roasted Acorn Squash

Gluten-free cornbread stuffing in maple roasted acorn squash.

While we're all adjusting to turning the clocks back (yawn), I thought I'd reprise two Thanksgiving friendly recipes today. Both recipes are redolent with old fashioned autumnal goodness. Warm and subtle spices. Maple. Apple. It doesn't get any comfy-cozier.


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Thankful For So Many Things....

Happy Thanksgiving Week!  This is sure to be a busy, family focused week for many of us, myself included.  I am going to apologize right up front if I do not post again for several days.

Today's Bitten by the Bug challenge is to use the cornucopia from Paper Doll Dress Up.  I, of course, made a simple Thanksgiving themed card.  I used three cartridges to complete this card, PDDU, Plantin Schoolbook, and Winter Woodlands. 

I welded a rectangle from PSB to two cornucopias from PDDU (one flipped).  The word Thankful was cut using Winter Woodlands, my current favorite font.  I then cut two additional cornucopias and used pop dots to layer them on the front of the card.  I cut the fruit in three colors of cardstock.  I then used copic markers on the cornucopia and fruit.

Monday is my 28th wedding anniversary.  I will be going to Atlanta on Tuesday to pick up my younger son from college.  On Wednesday the older two children will come home. We may be having friends from work over on Thanksgiving... AND their new baby!!!  And at some point we may be seeing Crissie, Aaron's sweet, sweet girlfriend.  I am currently wrapping Christmas presents (to "hide" them in the office), and finalizing my menus for the week! And I am a sick, sick woman because I love it!!!  :-)

I hope that each of you has a lovely Thanksgiving!!!!!

Sweet Potato Pie

Gluten-free sweet potato pie- and vegan, too.

The afternoon sun is spinning the seaside air that particular autumn gold, burnished and warm and chilly all at once. Delicious. And gone too soon. The sun will officially set tonight at 4:50. I feel as if I am running out of time. There is so much I want to do- and never get done. I surrender my expectations day after day. The pile of choices snipped free by my dwindling energy is gathering a bulk and momentum akin to the dirty laundry (I’m still waiting for the post-menopausal zest promised by Margaret Mead).

But Santa Monica does not fade after dark. Her charms only deepen. So we walk after dinner to the Third Street Promenade and listen to the brave souls who risk their ego and their artistry (the unkind among us might quip, questionable talent) crooning songs or plucking violins or juggling. Palm readers and skateboarding bulldogs aside, it takes guts to stand in public and offer up a tune or a dance.

I come home inspired.

I am thinking a lot about my life these days. And what I want to do with the rest of it. Moving here is a new beginning (well, yeah, obviously). I am reinventing the woman I used to be. Spinning my own autumn magic from bits of bone and history.

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Thankful Layout - Gypsy & DS hybrid

My latest layout, Thankful, is yet another design for Thanksgiving. I have four scrapbooks that require pages for every family event/holiday - a page for each child's book and one for my book. I use similar photos for each layout, but I mix up the layouts to keep the scrapping fresh.

This layout is going into my book - because I am thankful for each of the people who will be featured on this layout!!! Also, I really like how this layout looks.

The layout was created using both DS and Gypsy. I cut the fabulous double layer leaves using the Gypsy's Gypsy Wanderings cartridge. The remaining elements were cut using DS. I used DS because I had already designed the title and squares in DS. I added the leaves to complete the layout.

Home Safe and Sound

Wow, what a weekend! A group of friends and I (my friends Kathy, Toby, Suzanne, Pat, Beth, and Sally) joined a larger group of extended friends at a scrapbooking retreat in GA. this weekend. Our adventures began on Thursday afternoon and we arrived home safely tonight (Sunday). I managed to scrap 38 pages (beating last year's total by 2 pages), as well as make a card for a future BBtB challenge.

I am not going to post all 38 pages, but I will give a you a little peek into my weekend. First, Bethany's room in Charleston, where she is in college:

Ian and some friends celebrating his 18th birthday:

For Ian's senior year album - History being made:

For the Family Book, Thanksgiving time:

Bethany with Grandma Edwards, at Granny's after Christmas, and on Christmas morning:

Same Thanksgiving photos scrapped for Bethany's book:

And finally, page one of Ian's two page layout from the Flashback concert:

Turkey & Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Gluten-free turkey and sweet potato enchiladas.

This Friday is just like any other out here in the New Mexico hinterland. There were big-eared rabbits eating breakfast (nibbling spare tufts of grass). A chickadee or two in the junipers. Pink light on the distant mesas. And as far as I know, no scary crush of shoppers at the Espanola Walmart. At least I haven't heard any sirens off in the distance. Truth be told I haven't budged from my casita (and I have no plans to). Nope. It's just another day here, call it what you want. Black Friday is quiet as an empty nest. So I thought I'd share a recipe for leftover turkey and sweet potatoes- a surprisingly tasty combo.

As always, make it as mild or as spicy as your little heart desires.

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Finally, fall

It's is finally feeling like fall around here. As I type, it is 48 degrees outside and the high is expected to only reach 55!!! This is what I love....bring on the sweaters, jackets and boots! To go with our fall-like weather, we have some fall cookies! I made two versions of acorns and leaves...dotty and with GOLD sparkling sugar. I was in desperate need to update my acorns. You can see here...years ago, the first and only time I made them (with apples)...blah. I think my cookies turn out better if I try not to be so literal with them. Know what I mean? The dots make them fun...to me at least. Here's more info on applying dots. This gold sparkling sugar is so pretty. I found it online at sugarcraft.com. It comes in silver, too. I bought it for Christmas cookies, but couldn't wait to dig into it. I think these would be pretty with a monogram on the leaves for a fall wedding.Our dining room table was half covered in cookies (I have a hard time making one batch of cookies). A box went to our contest winner, a box to my nephew, 4 boxes with my husband for customers and one to the volunteers at the food pantry where my son & I work every Thursday. Someday, I'd like to do this. Lydia at The Perfect Pantry is the woman behind this wonderful idea!

Happy fall, everyone! I'm off to enjoy this weather while it lasts!