MacKenzie Child Traveling Tote in Whoville

There is a fun loving and gorgeous group of bloggers who love MacKenzie Childs and they have invited me to participate in their Tales of the Traveling Tote.

I have been watching them on blogs and Instagram, and thought it would be so fun to be a part of this group.
A few times a year the group does a post on the places their totes have been and offer a giveaway of a MacKenzie Child's gift.
Linda at Life and Linda and Sarah at Hyacinths for the Soul both encouraged me to join and then  searched out the large MacKenzie Child's tote for me, and voila -  Miss Madi K and I are traveling.
Before long, the mail man rang the doorbell and I received a surprise from Linda - these adorable MacKenzie Child's kitchen towels.  What a treat.  

What a sweetheart!

Well, off we went to try Miss Madi K out!

First we headed off to beautiful and sunny

St. George, Utah, about four hours

south of us.  While we are surrounded

with snow-capped mountains, St. George

has palm trees.  We have a place down here

and don't get there often enough.

I was surprised at how huge this tote is.  I can fill

it so full on a vacation, that I can't even lift it -

good thing hubby is willing to help!

We went to St. George for hubby's birthday,

and had a wonderful time, and he was so cute

in letting me stop and photograph Miss Madi K.

Those who follow me on Instagram heard me tell

of the St. George Temple.  It is a stunning building

and at the very top, back in the late 1800's, my

fourth great grandfather crafted the tin ball at

the top, and then promptly stood on his head

before the spire was placed on top.  He was a tinsmith

and the ball has since been replaced with a fiberglass

one, but we love that story.

We returned to St. George with Miss Madi K

filled to the brim for Thanksgiving with the

family and had a wonderful five days down there.

The weather was in the high 70's!  

But today's story is going to focus on our

shopping and preparing for our annual

Cheermeister Party that we hold for the

family - where we kick off Christmas and

give them money for their presents.  They

then have a few weeks to purchase their

presents and they bring them back to us

to wrap them.  By Christmas they have

often forgotten some of their gifts and we

add in a few surprises, but this has worked

great for us since they are all married now,

and as good as we are, we really wouldn't know

what to buy them.

Here is Miss Madi K filled with gifts, but before

that, she and I headed off to Hobby Lobby to

find some Grinch inspired goodies.  She is a

great shopping tote.

While we

were at the check out with our bright green and red

deco mesh to create table runners with, the sweet

lady who was ringing us up said that they had fun

Grinch signs and artwork.  So we headed right

back to the aisles and grabbed some great

Grinch artwork.

We had been calling ourselves the

Cheermeisters

for a few years for this event,

but we had planned a Young Single Adult

Dinner at our home for early December.

My husband is the Bishop of this group

of Young Single Adults, and I told him

I wanted to plan a party -

How The Grinch Found Christmas.

So the ball just got rolling, and that

sweet checker at Hobby Lobby helped!

Here is another of their cute signs that adorns

the kitchen counter.  A lot of deco mesh, some

curly picks, and some feather boas and we

had a very Grinchy Kitchen going.

One of my favorites were the striped candles

with a little bit of boa at the bottom - instant

Grinchville!

Miss Madi K and I were able to snatch two of

these darling canvases that we created deco mesh

wreaths for the door.  I glued on some bright green

boas to Grinchify them.

Plans just got bigger and better and I ordered

some yard art off Etsy.

Originally I had told hubby that I wanted the

Young Single Adult Party to be early in 

December so I could put up my regular

decor,

But we fell in love with the Grinchy theme

and took it throughout the house, except the

living room.

My sister in law is talented with woodworking,

so I told her I wanted a craft day where I 

could cut, paint and craft this fun sign. 

Tables were set,

for all the Whos down in Whoville,

even the small!

And a menu prepared,

and even the Grinch was found to be there.

Don't you agree that Miss Madi K

fits right in with Grinchy colors this year?

I love her touches of Grinchy green.

Even the rolls had a touch of the Grinch!

Some Who Girls waited patiently

while the Grinch carved the

Roast Beasts.

Even Grinchy Peppermint Ice Cream Macarons

with a wee Grinch heart.

The little Whos gathered round as we read

the story outloud, then danced to 

"You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch."

And at the end, Miss Madi K waltzed

in with Miss Martha May Whovier

who distributed the gifts to all the

Who's here in Whoville.

But all this fun is nothing compared to

the NYC trip the Traveling Totes had.

I can see many more travels and adventures

for Miss Madi K and I!  Definitely a trip to a

MacKenzie Childs store.

Now for the giveaway - leave a comment at

Pandora's Box to have a chance to win this

MacKenzie Childs Holly and Berry Glass Globe

Vase.  Winner will be announced Dec. 8th.

We would love you to visit each

of the members of our group to see

where they have gone with their totes.

Come along and travel with:

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Katie with Miss Daisy @ Preppy Empty Nester

Linda with Miss Rosie @ More Fun Less Laundry

Linda with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul Visit us on Instagram #talesofthetravelingtote
Come back March 1, 2018 for another giveaway and see where our traveling totes take us.
I will be posting this with Tablescapes Thursday Share Your Cup Foodie Friday

Gold and Glittery Thanksgiving

Welcome to our craft group's Thanksgiving

dinner hosted at Karen's.  My last post

showed the Vintage Christmas Ornament Tree

we made after dinner.

Karen set the table with a neutral

cloth and topped it with a wrapping

paper runner in gold polka dot.

Wrapping paper makes for a great

table runner.  It comes in such fun

colors and designs.

The table was filled with beautiful gold

toned Thanksgiving decor.

I love how she elevated some of the items on

candlesticks.

Everything was softly lit with candlelight.

A turkey under glass was a clever

idea.  

There were glittered pumpkins

and leaves all over the table.

This one she had painted to match the table.

Each of us had this darling ornament

to take home with us.  I used mine

on my ornament tree as a reminder 

of the night.

Karen had recently redesigned this room to make

it a huge dining room to seat all of her children

and grandchildren, so she sat us at one end and

continued the runner the rest of the way down

in preparation for her family Thanksgiving dinner.

As always, we felt spoiled.

I will be posting this with

Share Your Cup

and

Tablescapes Thursday

DIY Vintage Ornament Tree

The house is all decorated and I have this

gorgeous new vintage ornament tree

that I made with my craft group.  For

the moment it is here on my coffee table,

but hubby is very worried about children

breaking it.  I love it that he cares!!

We saw this one at Joanne's house last

year and all decided we wanted to make one.

Joanne said it would take around 100

ornaments.  Needless to say, I didn't

have more than one vintage ornament.

It was my aunt's and I didn't want to be

gluing it to a tree.  

Vintage style ornaments can be found at 

a lot of stores, but even half off, this tree

was going to be way too expensive.

So this summer I got on eBay - helps to

do it before anyone else is thinking about

Christmas and I big on lots of glass vintage

ornaments.  I am sure not all of them

are actually vintage, but I got them for

an average of $1.50 to $2.00 each, so

that made it possible for me to be able

to make the tree for a somewhat 

reasonable price.

We all gathered at Karen's house with

various trees to glue our ornaments on.

Notice Karen's in the background - it is

being placed in an urn and is a smaller

tree, so that makes it more reasonable.

My cone tree came from Home Goods

last year, on sale, but it was really large.

This is later in the evening.  Brenda's tree which

is in the front is the only one that got finished

that night.  I ran out of ornaments, if you can 

believe it.  Mine is the behemoth to the left.

We each placed our trees on a plate or platter

so that we could move them.  You would want

to do this, as you wouldn't want to be picking the

tree up by the ornaments.

This project requires a hot glue gun

and lots of glue, but it is really easy.

I got to work right away the next morning

after I ran to Hobby Lobby to get some

more small ornaments for the top.

The pink convertible is one I picked up.

Karen had given me the pink camper

that night.  I picked up another one

to replace it for her.  

I got two vintage pickle ornaments

in the lots I bought off of eBay.

The indented pink one at the top of the picture

are like ones my parents had.  I wonder who

ended up with our old ornaments.  Karen

had some of these indented ones, and

she told the story how she used to poke the

inside out, so she included one of those

broken ones on her tree.  She had

quite a few of her parent's and her in-law's

ornaments, which made her tree really special.

This vintage tree topper was found on

eBay too, but it reminds me of ornaments

that my parents had when I was growing up.

I was lucky to get so many fabulous

ornaments - this tree with a heart for a

base was one of my favorites.

I love the fire engine with Santa's hat

on it too, as my SIL went to fireman/paramedic

school.  

Santa on a rocking horse and one

on a motorcycle were real finds,

as well as this darling

 pink VW Bug.  

This was one of the funnest crafts we

have done.  Thank you Joanne for inspiring

and teaching us, and thank you Karen for hosting

at your place.  It isn't a cheap craft if you have

to start from scratch like I did, but if you have

lots of vintage glass ornaments around the

house, it could be practically free.

The best part was how my husband gasped

with delight when I walked through 

the door with it late that night.

Go visit Jann's to see her 

tree and post at

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

I will be posting at 

Share Your Cup

Pink Saturday

Dishing it and Digging it

and

Foodie Fridays