Being Thankful

Are you feeling thankful?

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Sometimes it is the simplest of things. A handwritten note left on your desk saying exactly what you needed to hear at that moment ... a card in the mail from a dear friend ... encouraging words spoken kindly ...

A friend dropping by at just the right moment with a sweet gift and a listening ear ...

A beautiful flower greeting you in the early morning ...

Being thankful for the littlest of things is a good place to start. My ongoing prayer is that I will be reminded more of what I do have than what I do not. 

Being thankful is good for the soul. And so is pie! Wishing you a meaningful holiday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thank you

This year I want to be more conscious of what I have. We all have much to be thankful for ... and yet often, especially in this crazy design business I am in, we focus on what we don't have. Or what we wish we had. 

To experience real joy, I believe, begins with gratitude. Gratitude is what motivates my "thank-you" cards this year. 

Lisa Congdon - 365 days of Hand Lettering: Day 204

I purchased some Kate Spade notecards when I was buying my gold dotted paper for Christmas. I didn't have a plan for them ... but I decided they would make perfect thank you cards - the dots would go with my Christmas "dotted" theme.

I began to write the first note and I messed it up. I started to throw the ruined card away but then decided to save the top of it (with the dots) - it was too nice to throw away and so I cut the card in half. And it gave me an idea ...

What if I made a tag with the top half and wrote my notes on the bottom half - as two separate pieces.

I glued the dotted side of the card to the back of the quote. 

The "thank-you" tags were a free printable I found here.

My Christmas "thank-you" cards are done but I have one more "thank-you" to write ...

Thank YOU for coming along on this journey with me ... for reading my thoughts, looking at my work, and encouraging me with your comments, your emails and your Facebook messages. I am grateful for each one of you! Here's to a joy-filled year with a focus on gratitude! Happy 2014! xo Sherri

An early Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving a day early at our house so that we could all be together ... 

A dear friend dropped by with a gift of beautiful ceramic turkey napkin rings. They went perfect with our table. She bought them from a friend of hers who is a ceramic artist. She has an Etsy shop where you can see (and purchase) other treasures she has made if you are interested.

I used a gold pen to write our names on the pumpkins I had painted black. 

Everything else was pretty simple. I picked up some roses at Whole Foods while I was getting some last minute ingredients for our feast. They added just the perfect pop of color. I placed them in a new milk glass vase I found at an antique store in my daughter's small town last weekend. It was $8.00.

I wrote quotes and Bible verses on the black pots in chalk. My favorite quote was this one. So I framed it for our table. 

 I also used it for some gift tags ...

We made a couple of tarts, squash soup and a potato and brussel spout gratin to go with our turkey and the usual trimmings ...

Our menu this year was new - different from our usual foods ... and put together by my daughter who lives on the farm and myself. Everything we made was from organic ingredients and gluten free. It was fantastic! But the best treasure was just being together ... cooking, eating, and even a little dancing.

Instead of a thankful tree this year as we have done in the past, we made a paper chain filled with things we treasure that we are grateful for. We will hang the chain on our Christmas tree.

 I hope you have a wonderful day focusing on the things you treasure the most. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hey you, thanks!

I love getting packages from Etsy ... 

 They are always packaged so nice ...

And I love the sweet little notes they include.

You just know when you open it, it is going to be exactly what you wanted.

Can you tell that I am getting ready for Thanksgiving?

I purchased the chalk pots on clearance at West Elm today ... I have a little project for my Thanksgiving table in mind. And the beautiful illustration came from here. Thank you Jolie ... I love it!

The power of words

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary." - Margaret Cousins 

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." - Gladys Bronwyn Stern 

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

- William A. Ward

I received this lovely note and a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a client of mine yesterday. I recently helped her set up her psychology office (see the office here) and she wanted to thank me for all my help. 

The bouquet is absolutely gorgeous. It really touched me that she would go to all that trouble and expense just to thank me. And it made me think about the power of expressing thankfulness and gratitude. 

Have you ever made a list of everything that you are thankful for? Ann Voskamp did. She wrote a book about 1000 things she is thankful for (One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp). Focusing on what we are thankful for is powerful. Expressing that thankfulness whether to people or to God is a beautiful thing. Meister Eckhart said, "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."

So what are you thankful for?

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" 

- William A. Ward

"Give thanks to the LORD for he is good; His love endures forever" 

- Psalm 118:1

Thank you Elle for the gorgeous bouquet! I am touched by your thoughtfulness! xo