Thanksgiving Celebrations 2013

I prepared for this special meal for weeks! And oh boy did it pay off. It was the BEST Thanksgiving we've ever had, and I'm not just saying that. It was an epic day, and this is going to be an EPIC blog post showing you all my favourite elements, displays & DELICIOUS food from our gathering. A little background story in dot points: 

• I lived in the USA for 1 year where I met hubby.
• He moved over here to Australia, we got married and this is where we live permanently.
• We decided from the beginning we didn't want to let his family Thanksgiving tradition die, so we started our own tradition. 
• Because there is no official holiday/day off for Thanksgiving in Australia, we just figure out a Saturday in November everyone in the family is free, this year it happened to be 2 days after the real Thanksgiving!
• We are getting better and better at it, and have mastered the traditional dishes! 

Now when I put on an event, I put a lot of effort into it. I think that anyone who has attended any event I have put on, can attest to that. I spend weeks making bits and pieces, planning dishes, planning decorations, making decorations, gathering supplies... I did lots of sneak peeks on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. It was funny, because for the most part everyone was ooooo-ing and aaaaaaah-ing over what I was getting up to, but there were a few comments that "not even American's go to that much effort"... Well, guess what? I'm not American, I'm a Franklin, and this is how Franklin's do Thanksgiving!!! Yeehaa!! 

So here it is. Sit back, get cosy, and be ready to scroll through some seriously large amounts of amazing photos!!! :) 

The decorations are so important to me. They create the mood, atmosphere & environment that contributes towards a successful event. The part I love most about these particular decorations is they only cost me $10. I was able to make the paper bunting using cardboard & DSP scraps from my stash. The majority of the table decorations were from nature. The spray paint I used on the pine cones was from my stash. The glass jars were from my cupboard. The ribbon from my stash. Mini pumpkin decorations from my stash.  So the $10 was spent on a set of beautiful white candles from Ikea... and that's it! 

I also didn't want to use a fabric tablecloth. Firstly because I don't have 2 matching ones, but secondly because I didn't want them to get stained or wrecked! So my next thought was brown paper. And I love how it looked. I taped it down and off I went with decorating.

Now for the table settings. I saw an idea on Pinterest where someone drew place settings with Nikko in a square and I loved it. I took it a step further and instead of just a square I drew little frames. My sister has the fabulous retired Silver Setting Stamp set which I stamped onto the brown paper using my Staz On Ink Pad (#101406). Then I was able to write people's names on the table so everyone knew where to sit! 

The napkin settings I made from scratch. I made up a little template which I'll be able to use again in the future. Decorated simply with some string, ribbon & twine in all different colours for a rustic look. The "Thanks" text was handstamped in individual ink colours using my Simply Serif Mini Alphabet Stamps (#126360).

Brown & white striped straws from Lille Parti. 

The food, oh my, the food. This is why Thanksgiving is important to us haha!! We only make these dishes once a year to keep them special and I have perfected recipe's over the years. I get my mum and sister to help with cooking each year. This year we had some extra friends join us so they were all given dishes to make also! Everyone did a superb job and everything was to die for delicious! 

I made all the little food signs using cardstock, ink pads, washi tape & some punchouts & die cut outs.

My brother Ben in the checked shirt & our friend Shem about to sit down at the end.

I love these two photos. It's not often I share photos of my niece and nephews on here, but even at 4 & 6 they know good food when they see it. My niece (Miss 4) likes to think she's an adult and uses her knife and fork together haha!! Then my nephew (Mr 6) is the fussiest eater you'll ever meet. So he had 2 platefuls of turkey and 2 bread rolls (he NEVER eats that much)! He sat next to me and was soooo cute. Every time he would finish using a utensil he would slot it back into the napkin holder. 

Now onto dessert....

Are you salivating? I am just looking at these pictures again! 

We had such a wonderful chat about all the things we are grateful for in this world and in our lives as we ate and it there was such a wonderful feeling in the room as we shared, laughed & cried together. So that is another year done & dusted. I can't wait until November rolls around again. 

Remember us over here at A Christy Production if you have an event coming up and need custom paper goods made to decorate with: paper bunting, cupcake/food toppers, food signs, place cards, napkin holders.... you name it, we can do it for you! 

Tropical Sunshine Sorbet in the Thermomix

As a lot of you would know if you are following along with me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, I got my Thermomix just over a week ago. I have done more cooking, baking & making in my kitchen in the past week than I have almost all year long haha!!! Slight exaggeration, but it's embarrassing how much I hate being in the kitchen!  Well, let me rephrase that... how much I hated being in the kitchen. Notice the past tense? That's because I've done a complete 360! I have been enjoying making food again thanks to how easy Thermomix cooking is. Hopefully I will keep this up, because I am enjoying all the deliciously healthy (and a couple not so healthy haha) meals! After lunch today I was feeling really hot and I thought I'd whip up a sorbet to cool me down.

So here it is, my very first Thermomix recipe! Made by little old me. 

Tropical Sunshine Sorbet

80g* raw sugar

200g fresh mango (or thereabouts)

100g fresh pineapple

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 egg white

700g ice cubes

Put sugar into bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 9.

Add in fresh fruit, coconut oil, egg white & 350g ice cubes and blend 20 sec/speed 10, gradually increasing your speed from 1 through to speed 10 throughout that 20 seconds.  

Add the rest of the ice and blend for 1 min/speed 10. You will need to use your spatula to move the ice about so it all gets blended up! 

This recipe serves 4.

*You can adjust the sugar amount to taste. The amount is often determined by how sweet your fruit is, and how sweet you like your sorbet.

Project Organise Craft Desk: Complete!

The organisation of my craft desk has been evolving for quite some years now. There have been many different ideas, storage items, boxes, baskets, tubs, drawers, racks & caddy's! 

The biggest turning point in my organisation began when I bought my big desk! It is 1m x 2m and it has given me a nice and large space to work with. I don't need too much actual work space, and it is probably best that way so I don't spread out too much mess! I needed a large desk so I could store lots of goodies on it!

A couple of months ago I bought my 4x2 Expedit shelf from Ikea to sit on my desk. It was to replace the hutch shelf I used to have on there. It wasn't able to hold very much so it just got in the way in the end and needed to be replaced with something more functional!

After the Expedit shelf arrived, I got myself some drawers & baskets to hold the awkward items, and arranged them in the cubby's.

All that was left to organise was my cardstock & ribbon. And that is where Colcraft comes in! Col makes custom designed craft storage units. You tell him what you want, and he can make it for you. And for an EXCELLENT price too folks. 

Col made my A4 cardstock units & my ribbon holders. They match in beautifully with my Expedit!!

All that is now left to do organisation wise my in craft room is to sort out my drawers a little better. I tend to be messy with drawers so if I can find a better solution I can see myself going for it! 

So if you need some help with your craft desk organisation, duck over to Colcraft and scroll through the albums to get some ideas flowing!

And now, I'm about to pull out all my bits and bobs and make a mess of my desk and create some beautiful things! :)

Retrospect

I have had a busy day today and haven't had time to work on today's blog post until now. The good thing about that is, I have had the whole day to be thinking about what I could blog about. There aren't any new promotions or specials or sales to tell you about at the moment, so I was thinking about what I've been working on, and what I could share with you. I was thinking about events in the future, Christmas projects, decorating projects... there were so many option to choose from. But the one thing that stood out in my mind was thinking back to where I started.

Made on: 23rd May 2010.

I started to craft when I was engaged. We had a very very small budget to pull off two engagement parties (one in the USA & one in Australia), so I decided to make my own decorations. And that is how it all really got started. This is what got my fingers itching to do more. Not long after getting married a friend invited me to her Stampin' Up! workshop (she is a demonstrator, and is my upline). This was my first exposure to card making & paper crafting and before I knew it I was buying bits and pieces off her, and picking up craft supplies from the store. Fast forward a couple of months and I was papercrafting at home in my free time and I was attending & hosting workshops in my home (trying to earn free products mostly hehe).

Made on: 28th September 2010.

Fast forward again another month or two, and I was ready to try my hand at selling what I was making. At that time, I was really nervous about selling my work. But with the assurance of my husband and my family & friends who all were impressed at what I was making, I gave it a go and started to advertise selling cards here on this exact blog just over 4 years ago! Things went well, and I sold the majority of cards I was making. As time passed I bought more and more products: ink pads, stamp sets, designer papers, cardstock, embellishments, ribbons... My craft stash literally EXPLODED from a desk to a room.  Whoops..... 

Now to the point of what I was thinking about today. 

I HAVE COME SO FAR! It's so easy to get caught up in the now. Caught up in the disappointments, in the could have's, in the should have's, in the I thought that would have gone differently's, and in the I wish it happened the way I planned's.... (I love making up words). I still get disappointed, I still wish things went differently, I still wish I had more exposure & more customers & more sales. But you know what, I've done pretty darn well for myself, and I'm proud of myself.

Made on: 3rd April 2012.

I've accomplished so many things. I have established myself in the social media world in such a huge way. I have a great blog, and I have lots of beautiful followers & readers. I have a great following on my Facebook page and enjoy interacting with people on there. I am having a great time in Instagram & Twitter also!

Made on: 18 November 2013.

I still have so far to go to reach my goals, and I will always strive to achieve bigger and better things, but today as I've thought back over the past few years I have been able to see my growth & accomplishments, I've been able to look back on lessons I've learnt through trial and error, and know that I can achieve my goals. It can only get better from here!! 

Thank you for all you do to support me in my business! :)