Thanksgiving at Kelly's

We have just gotten a few new laminated cotton prints in and this one from Amy Butler is just perfect for my dining room. The name of the fabric is Couture Floral. I love, love, love it so I had the Junies make one last tablecloth before taking off for a long holiday weekend!! My family and I really like our Modern June elasticized tablecloths because the stay put and are so easy to clean up. See all our new laminated cotton swatches on flickr.

I layered on one of my chalk cloth runners on top of the table this year. We normally use runners on the sideboard and do a buffet line, something like this! But this year, it was just the four of us so we could keep things simple.

We all wrote down what we were thankful for much like Laura's family does, check our her pretty blog, Finding Home! 

You might have noticed over the years that I'm a last minute, fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. Thanksgiving is always done last minute since we're right in the middle of the holiday rush. Once the table was set I realized that I didn't have a set of coordinating napkins. OOPS!

Check out my quick cheater napkins, they are just fat quarters. Yep, just a simple piece of fabric squared off with pinking shears. Once I cut them I folded them back up like they were, that way I didn't have to pull out the iron. You have to love using your stash for things like this. Once they are all washed up, I'll use my new serger sewing machine and finish them off quickly with a rolled hem, this way they won't fray over time and heavy use.

Grocery store bouquets are always good in a pinch, I was just lucky enough to get out and shop for groceries on Wednesday. Don't you just love my fun new tray? It that was hand lettered by a fellow Country Living Fair vendor. I'll be sure to look up her contact info and share it with you all soon.

How sweet are these gorgeous chocolate turkeys? OMG, they cost way too much but I couldn't resist getting one for each of my kids. Fresh Market knows how to get all my $$. I'm hoping that Maddie and Aidan are nice enough to share.

We love us some pie!! Learn how to make chalk cloth chalkboard at my other blog Oilcloth Addict!

I hope you and yours had as nice of a Thanksgiving as we did. I am so thankful for all the kindness and support you all give me and my team of Junies over the years. I am truly blessed!!

Thanksgiving Tablecloth Deadline and Sale!

Photo Credit: Susie Baker 

It's that time of the year, time for being thankful for turkey, pie and much more!! 

Thanksgiving Tablecloth Deadline is November 11, 2013. 

Save 20% when you use the coupon code Turkey20 now through Monday, the 11th. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am so thankful for you and for prepared Thanksgiving dinner!! 

My family and I are spending the day cleaning up the house and decorating for Christmas. I couldn't be happier! I hope you and yours are well this holiday weekend. 

xoxoxo, 

Kelly

Thankgiving goodies and family time.

Thankgiving goodies and family time., originally uploaded by ModernJune.

Last Friday I found myself wandering around my house trying to figure out how to take a break from working 12 hour days. It's taken a few days but I am starting to get the hang of this housewife gig again!

Today the kids and I made a lot of little pilgrim hat pops. It's an easy no-bake treat!! I'm just glad that we still have a kitchen that we were able to use. We had a lot of fun, hanging out and joking around. We all sang the dradle song while we made this, I have no clue why, but it's something I won't soon forget!!

Tomorrow we are going to wrap some of these up in an apron for National Tie One On Day and walk it over to a neighbor that is in need of cheering up!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thankful...

I am thankful for my kids, my very cute hubby, my close friends and our homeschool community.

I am thankful for my Junies... Kathy, Nicole, Dawn, Ono, Amy, April, Suzanne, Karena and Anne Margret.

I am thankful for my crafty friends, the Richmond Craft Mafia, and my fabric junky friends.

I am thankful for a feature in Country Living magazine, getting to go both of the Country Living Fairs and for the folks at Country Living and Stella for asking me to come and chat at the Atlanta fair.

I am thankful for all the great shops that carry my loot and all the great people that buy it! It's an honor!

I am thankful for my editors Roxnane and Charlotte at Wiley for letting me write my book "Sewing with Oilcloth" and supporting me every step of the way. I am thankful for Stephanie, my literary agent, that helped guide me into new territory!

I am so very thankful to the people that believe in me and Modern June, I couldn't do it with out you all.

xoxox, Kelly

Thanksgiving Table

I've been thinking about my first Thanksgiving that I hosted, way back 1996. Don and I were newly-wedded-love-birds and I was working on the set of the movie Contact. What was I thinking? I was working six 14-hour days per week.  But I did it. I pulled it off. I stressed over that meal for weeks, every detail carefully planned out.

Boy, how things have changed. I may still work 14-hour days, but extensively planning a meal is long gone. Heck, I didn't even buy a turkey or my fix-ins until late Wednesday. Despite my "I've got no turkey" mantra, the lack of a turkey really didn't bother me that much. I have a very picky family, so as long as I stick to the status quo, I'm okay. The hard part was finding time to get to the grocery.

But what I do love to fret over is the Thanksgiving Table. I love a good tablescape! What was I thinking? I had nothing for this year's table pre-prepped. Well, nothing except a mind full of ideas, and thankfully a studio full of fabric.

You may remember that I'd wanted to make myself a new oilcloth tablecloth for the occasion, but time and materials got away from me. After making more than a dozen tablecloths for Modern June holiday orders, I just didn't have it in me to make one for myself. So, Wednesday evening I finally got started on something for our holiday. The rules were simple... NO SHOPPING and NO SEWING!

My inspiration was a page from the November issue of Country Living, but instead of craft paper I went with Chalk Cloth. The minute I saw the photo in the article, I was reminded of an idea I had been meaning to do for over a year. It was such an easy-peasy project, I really did love making it! And, it only took me 30 minute to complete. Sweet, right? Check out the step-by-step instructions at my Oilcloth Addict Blog.

The morning of Thanksgiving, I started setting the table and I realized that all my napkins were less than pretty. What to do... what to do? Make some of course! Within my fabric stash I found some lime, yellow and orange polka dot cottons that I then cut into 18" squares using my crimped rotary cutter.   A set of 8 napkins in less than 45 minutes! Can't beat that! Nothing fancy here, just fun!

Around mid-morning I took some time to dig out my chalk cloth table runner, and I was able to plan out all the food placement in advance (and it looked really cute too!). This made enlisting help with delivering the food from the kitchen to the dining room even easier, because everyone knew exactly where to put each dish. 

I have to say that the causal Thanksgiving Setting befuddled my In-Laws at first. I really wanted to make the point that this was a no-stress holiday, and we were all going to let go of the silly stuffiness that comes with this time of year. Once everyone knew that the "black stuff" on the table wasn't a tablecloth pad that I had forgotten to top off with a crisp white linen, they all came 'round, and we all spent over an hour scribbling away. Now, that's a Thanksgiving we will never forget, and that is what it is all about, isn't it? Making happy memories!

  

Let's Talk Turkey

There are 28 days to Thanksgiving Day and I need help. We need to talk turkey!  I don't know about you but this fact really shocked me on Monday as I was flipping through Bon Appetite in a doctors waiting room.  One of my favorite things to so is to gaze at the delicious recipes in all the glossy magazines but truth be told I am not the worlds best cook and my family is so picky that even if I could pull it off no one would eat it.  So I don't have to worry about what to cook for thanksgiving, plain and simple food is all that is required.  But give me a tablescape to plan I am golden!

This year I am for sure using my new Chalk Cloth Table Runner, at 72" it now hangs over the edge of my dining room table but once I put the table leaves in it will make a nice long centerpiece for a casual or elegant  Turkey Day Dinner.

That about a new oilcloth tablecloth just for me, hmmmm?   Lime Dots would be fun and would work well with my Fiesta Ware and the upcoming Christmas season decor as well.  Or, I could go a bit more elegant and make a Brown Lace Tablecloth, this way I could bring down my mother in-laws china!

So, I need help deciding, fun lime dots or elegant brown lace oilcloth?  Please leave a comment with your choice.  And don't forget it isn't too late to order your own custom tablecloth,  deadline is November 1st!