Getting Ready for the Holidays

No matter what Holiday you celebrate in December, most likely you will be planning for the big days or days ahead. Here are some free planning tools that I thought would be useful.

Ann's Amazing Holiday Planner
While it says it would cost $20 to get all the supplies to put it together, you might be able to do it for less. Plus all the forms are free to download and print. They range from a December Countdown, to Holiday Card List, to Holiday Gift List, to Holiday Recipes.

geoGreeting! Happy Thanksgiving!

Not sure how I found this site, but it is cool! Check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Violet Daydreams

Purple

ThanksGiving Places Please...

I always loved place cards. Here are some cute ones that I found...

Amazingly these are from Reader's Digest. In addition to the place card there is a matching menu.


These Pumpkin place cards are from Familyfun.com



Ben & Jerry's has some cute place cards

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Putting leftovers away can be a pain, but these labels will add a little delight to the painful task. To me what is more painful, is looking in the fridge the next day wondering what is in all the containers.

Thanksgiving Downloads

Here are some downloads that I found for Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoy them as much I as do.

Pretty Thanksgiving Invite from Real Simple


Found this great label by Kolette Hall



You can always count on Martha Stewart for good downloads. Here is one for Thanksgiving.


Here is a cure Thanksgiving alphabet from Activity Village in the UK.


Found these cute Fall/Thanksgiving tags. The author of the blog lives in Texas and does not say where she is originally from. However she calls these tags "tards". Has anyone ever heard this term used for tags before?

Do Not Leave Unattended!

I happened upon this interesting blog where the author sends out notebooks and asks people to draw or write whatever they want and then send it back to the author. Here is one of my favorite pages (if you click on it, it will enlarge):

Origami from Canon Creative Park

I found this awesome site through one of my favorite blogs. The site has amazing paper crafts you can do using your color inkjet printer. One of the crafts I would love to try is Origami. They provide some amazing patterns to print out to make their items. Click on the picture to go to the original page.






















I think some of the following Origami items would look cool with the patterns above. Click on the picture to go to the pattern download page.
















I love this origami craft. You could change it up by using one of the papers above for the dolls dress.

COLOURlover

So I went from this:

















(Image Copyright: How About Orange)

To this:














To These:













How?
The author of one of my favorite blogs How About Orange created the fabric painting. I then went to the amazing website called COLOURlovers and created a palette of colors using the fabric painting as inspiration. Then you can make a pattern from the palette. This website is a lot of fun and allows you to be creative with color - which I love! Go to this page to see my other creations.

Something Purple for the Computer

These are just some of the amazing purple wallpapers out there. I will post more in future posts. (To download, click on the picture and it will take you to the original download page.)






Beach Bottle Beauty by Irene's Dreams









MikeLevin.com Photography












Darkspace Graphics











PerplexCity The Board Game

SwitchRing

I have know about these rings for a while but did not have a forum to write about them. Now I do!! They are called SwitchRings. The only downside is that their sizing is very limited. Small is a size 5, medium is size 6.5 and large is a size 8. I wish they would make them in x-large , size 9 so I could wear them. They have started making necklaces that are cool. But to me not as cool as the ring, but at least I can wear the necklaces.

Something Purple for your Walls

While looking for purple things to write about, I came across this cool vinyl flower from INLuxuryDesign. (What is even cooler is that the designers went to Emerson College - where I went for grad school.) I think it would look great in a contemporary dining room or office. As I was looking for where to by it, one of the sites has fantastic purple wallpaper. Showing is one of my favorites.

Purple Veggies

There a few purple veggies out there such as eggplant, purple onions and cabbage but cauliflower? I could not believe my eyes when I saw these cauliflowers.

They were developed by Syngenta - a world-leading agri-business committed to sustainable agriculture through innovative research & technology.

The colors are not food dye but came after decades of traditional selective breeding. The orange color comes from high concentration of beta carotene, a form of vitamin A that encourages healthy skin. The purple color comes from anthocyanin, which may help prevent heart disease by slowing blood clotting. The green comes from chlorophyll that is also found in broccoli.

I am not a huge veggie fan but I would not mind trying these since I do like cauliflower. You may have already seen the green variety in the grocery store. The other colors are being sold in Britain. Hopefully they will be coming our way soon.

Purple on the 4th

I like the 4th of July not only for the day off but I also like the fireworks and being patriotic. But I thought to my self with all this red, white and blue around is there any room for purple? Turns out there is in the form of blackberries. Click on the recipe name for the how-to.


Blackberry and Lemon Swirl Sorbet

Recipe Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar, plus 3 tablespoons
• 2 cups water, plus 1 tablespoon
• 2 cups lemon juice
• 1 half-pint blackberries

Fresh Blackberry Crisp

Recipe Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons flour, plus 1/2 cup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick butter

Purple Passion

Recipe Ingredients

• 1 cup blackberries, plus a few for garnish
• 1 ice cube
• 2/3 cup milk, plus more if needed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 or 2 drops vanilla extract
• Vanilla ice cream or vanilla frozen yogurt
• Plain or lemon-flavored seltzer (optional)

Something Purple for Kitty

As I was browsing the web, I found this site Online Pet Store by Conny. It has some amazing pet items. Of course I looked to see if they had something purple and they did! I think the picture speaks for itself.


(Photo: Copyrighted © 2006 Online Pet Store by Conny)

Purple.com

A few weeks ago I decided to Google "purple". And to my amazement, someone decided to create a webpage that is just the color purple. What is even funnier, for just a simple webpage, the creator has gotten many comments over the years but decided to only post the "best" ones. I think the FAQ probably summarizes well the many comments he has received. I keep saying over the years because the page was created in 1994.

Jewelry Favorites

I am a big fan of overstock.com and they have some great jewelry. Pictured are a few of my favorites.

I think the rings to the right would make a great wedding set if you are heading to a fun destination & don't want to wear your expensive jewelry.

This tanzanite and amethyst bracelet is amazing. My husband got me something similar for Christmas a couple of years ago.


This watch is way out of my price range but I had to share.




These amethyst and CZ hoop earrings are so elegant.








I bought a ring like this on a cruise some time ago. This one is sterling silver with created opal and purple CZ.

If you want more info about any of the jewelry pictured, click on the picture of the one (or ones) you like.