We still have a couple of days left in October, but I’m already looking forward to Thanksgiving. This will be the first year we go through the holidays without my grandmother, but I am so glad that I have a lot of her recipes to keep her memory alive. Today I’m sharing an entire American Thanksgiving meal with you. 🙂

I’m linking to Share a Meal Monday

Appetizers:
Put out a few pickles, some cheese cubes, crackers, nuts, and grapes

Entree:
Turkey (duh)
Click here if for good directions

Sides:
Mommom’s Sausage Stuffing
From the kitchen of Ruth Wilkins (that was my Mommom)

1 onion
3 celery stalks
Bread cubes
Italian sausage
1 Egg

Sauté 1 small onion and 2 or 3 chopped celery sticks in butter. In a large bowl, mix 1 large bag of bread cubes, 1 egg, onion and celery, and 1 lb of spicy Italian sausage. Bake at 350 for 1 hour, covered. For a crispy top uncover for the last 15 minutes.
For moist stuffing, add 1 cup of chicken stock prior to baking.

Mashed Potatoes:
Peal and chop 1 pound of potatoes per person. (to ensure left-overs ;p)
Boil potatoes until fork tender
Add milk and butter and smash with a potato masher or hand blender

Sweet Potato Casserole
Peel and chop about 5 pounds of sweet potatoes
Boil until fork tender
Add milk and butter whip with hand mixer until smooth
Transfer to large casserole dish.
Add 1/2 a bag of fresh cranberries, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cinamon, and fold
Cover top with mini marshmallows
Bake at 350 until marshmallows brown lightly

Help from the store:
frozen or refrigerated rolls or croissants
Canned corn
Canned green beans (add cream of mushroom soup and top with fried onions to make a casserole)

Dessert:
Apple or pumpkin pie & vanilla ice cream
Click here for Paula Dean’s Pumpkin Pie recipe
or take help from the store 🙂

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am obsessed with children’s books. OBSESSED! I started collecting them with serious purpose when I was in high school and thinking I might want to eventually be a teacher. Then I did become a teacher and a mom and now the collection is pretty much out of control and possibly on the verge of hoarding. In all seriousness the collection in boxes in our basement and garage (the ones that my kids aren’t old enough to be interested in just yet) probably rivals some of the children’s sections in public libraries.

And speaking of libraries…

Every year our local library hosts a used book sale fundraiser. People from the community donate books they no longer use or need and the library sets up tables in the mall, sells the books, and gets to keep the proceeds.

Today we met a friend for lunch at the mall and strolled (literally since we were both pushing double strollers) down to check out the book sale.

Awesome!!

I got 21 books for $8! That’s like $0.38 each.

A few of my treasures…

Christmas gifts for my little Star Wars loving cousins (They are 3 and 5 and last year they were Yoda and Luke Skywalker for Halloween. The older one even has a Star Wars bedroom.) The book on the right is a pop-up book.

365 ways to keep a three-year-old busy? Yes please!

I am familiar with this book. LOVE it. I did a lot of graduate research on African American children’s literature. This book is one of my favorites.

First edition Bobbsey Twins

Two based on Eddie’s favorite childhood movies

Two stories our Mommom used to read to me and my sister. I’m giving these to my sister for Christmas. Amazon has the one on the right priced as high as $54!

A gift for my 14-year-old brother.

Plus tons more including a bunch of other Disney classics, Dora the Explorer, a Country Inn cookbook that will be a hostess gift for my aunt (she collects cookbooks) when we go to visit her next month, and one that was actually for me.

Have you found any second-hand treasures this week?

I’m soooo excited about this deal I just had to share it with you. I’m not being compensated by this company, I just think it’s awesome.

Canvas People are giving away a FREE 8×10 canvas print of your photos. If you’ve ever priced these things you know they can easily run $100.

I ordered 4. That kind of feels like cheating, but there is no limit posted on their website and they let me do it, so I’m assuming it’s cool with them. Just close the browser and go back to the website each time to place a new order. You will have to pay a separate $15 each time for shipping, and even though that’s a little pricey for shipping it’s way cheaper than any other deal you’ll find on these.

I upgraded the first one to an 11×14 for $9.99. The second time around I realized that if you tell them you want an 8×10 and then continue with the order a little pop-up screen will offer you the upgrade at an even cheaper price. So the second one I upgraded for $6.99. (After that the pop-up screen didn’t come up any more)

They also charge for black and white and sepia, but I was able to do that myself in Picnik. Is that cheating too? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I was able to steal this picture from our friend’s Facebook page

and enlarge it in Picnik (You have to enlarge it because the regular resolution if a facebook photo isn’t good enough to be transferred to the canvas. In Picnik go to edit, resize, then type 1200 in the first box, then it will be large enough for the 8×10 and 11×11 sizes. Just be careful not to enlarge it too much or it will start to get distorted.) and turn it into this

which I think is going to make a great housewarming gift as a canvas now that their house is finished and they’re moving in next week. (I don’t think they read my blog, but if they do…SURPRISE!)

I also turned this picture of my sister with Nicholas

Into this, which I think is going to make some awesome personalized artwork that’s (I hope) hip enough for my trendy little sis once it’s on canvas. Her birthday is in a few weeks and I think she will LOVE this. (and I know she doesn’t read my blog, so no worries there)

You simply must get in on this!

**You do need to make sure that the faces aren’t too close to the edge because the sides will wrap around the canvas. It will show you exactly how much will be cut off once you upload your photo to the website. **

Remember this u.g.l.y dresser?

(Ok, not this actual one, I stole this picture from ebay, but it’s the exact same dresser I bought from ReSource York, except mine didn’t come with the hutch.)

This was the best before picture I could get of our actual dresser in the awful light in our garage.

I wanted to turn it into a kitchen island like I saw Jonni do at House of Johns.

Eddie wanted to make it a little more elaborate so that it looked as much like a piece of kitchen cabinetry as possible.

That’s my handy man at work 🙂

He added bead board to the back and a little overhang/bar area (The top is two pine board panels from Lowes glued together with liquid nails and trimmed out with decorative molding, doing it that way was half the price of buying butcher block from Ikea plus we didn’t have to rip it down like we would have the Ikea top.) and I sanded and stained and primed and painted my little heart out and a month later we now have…

Still sitting in the garage waiting for the last few steps to be completed, but once we break out the drill for new holes for hardware in the top drawers (they are spaced differently than the lower drawers, bummer) and put a coat of polyurethane on top, she is done!!

The total came in around $300, which is more than I thought I would spend (and was due in large part to the fact that I splurged on really expensive hardware) but totally worth it.

Estimated costs break down:
dresser & delivery fee: $75
paint: $30 I bought a gallon because I’m going to use the rest for something else, you really only need a quart. You can get a quart of Oops paint for $2.50
beadboard: $20
decorative posts: $60 not really necessary, but I love them
Top:$70 You could cut that in half by just buying one panel, but I wanted the height so that island was the same height as the other kitchen counters.
Hardware: $65 again, not really necessary, I could have spray painted the old ones, but I splurged and I LOVE the new ones
Stain, sandpaper, nails, trim, caulk, primer: already on hand $0

Total: $315 (ish)

I’m SO excited to get it into the kitchen this weekend!!

Update: DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Click here to see it in the kitchen and see how we used Craigslist to remodel the whole room.

Tips if you want to try this yourself:
1. Try to find a dresser with a combination of wide and narrow drawers. The wide ones are great for things like baking sheets and table linens. The narrow ones are good for cookbooks and cooking utensils.
2. Check the height of your counters. I know that my counters hit me right at my hip bone so when I was out looking for dressers it was easy to tell if they were going to be a good counter top height even if I didn’t have a tape measure.
3. Paint. Don’t try to stain anything but the top because it is made of so many different kinds of materials by the time it all comes together paint is the best bet. 2 coats of primer and 3 or 4 coats of a semi-gloss. Maybe even a clear coat on top of that. (Don’t forget to sand first!)
4. If you can find a dresser with a door in it scoop it up! I really think this helps it look less like a dresser and more like a piece intended for a kitchen. That was the main reason I chose this piece. (plus it’s a great place to keep a mixer or a bread machine)

Let me know if you try it!