Today, I am grateful for Jeff Dunham...the dude cracks me up! (fair warning...it can be a little crude)

Did you know that November is our 8 year anniversary?  Hard to believe we've been around so long...oh my!  To celebrate, we've decided to have the Wednesday Make-n-Take be free this week.  Yep, free!  Now you only get to make one...but we'll show you how to make more on your own...just in time for Thanksgiving.  (the card slides in & out of the band...perfect as a book mark...a party favor...a place setting...anything, really!)

First of all, this photo has nothing to do with my gratitude for this post.  It's a lovely photo of a spider who spent the summer living among my tomato plants.  He picked the same exact spot for the whole summer.  I could find him any time I wanted.  And now that I think about it, he is living in my tomatoes, which are really healthy...so there's the connection!

Sitting here this morning, I was thinking about what I'm grateful for today.  Lots of things.  But it needs to start with an H today so that poses some dilemmas.  Then it occurred to me.  I am grateful for my health.  The health of my parents.  Of my family.  Of my friends.  It's something most of us take for granted until something goes wrong.  And you never think it'll happen to you...but you know, sometimes it does. 

Overall, I'm a healthy gal.  I'm sure my doctor will gasp when she sees how much weight I've put on this year, but other than that, I'm healthy.  Two times in my life I've had a brush with death...both health related.  (That's a story for another day...or maybe not.) And both times I thought "wow, this should be life changing...I should appreciate life more...be nicer...not care about little things...not take things for granted...take better care of myself."  But as with all else, life comes racing back in & you forget what you almost lost.  And as I sit here thinking about how I'm going to justify my weight gain to my doctor today, I realize that I have no excuse for not taking better care of myself.  And that today is the first day of the rest of my life.  And it's going to be a long & healthy life!

Honestly, I am grateful for this challenge.  Someone recently told me that you should wake up & think of what you're looking forward to in the day ahead & when you go to bed you should make a mental list of five things you're grateful for.  I found that to be really hard! I didn't want to be grateful for anything lame...it needed to be something significant.  So I was making it way more work than it needed to be & I couldn't think of anything "worthy".  (Sounds like a running theme in my life...) And then my friend Kim told me that you can be grateful for anything...big...small...anything.  Like you're grateful for a wonderful cup of coffee...or you're grateful for not losing your temper...or you're grateful for the sun coming up.  Little things matter.  And what I found was that when I started allowing that the little things were not lame, it opened my eyes to some bigger things I'm grateful for...which I'm sharing with you every day...for 26 days...so I'll not spoil the surprise now :)

And now this book is on my nightstand...I've been obsessed with getting it since before I went to Oregon but couldn't find it locally.  It just arrived from Amazon...

I heard the author talking about her journey & her book on Martha Stewart Radio (which I love, by the way...it's Sirius 112).  I'll let you know what I think when I'm done...I'm very excited to read it!

Today I'm grateful for family.   This is my husband's side of the family.  And I am truly grateful for each and every one of them.

I love Etsy.com.  It is full of the most wonderful, handmade & vintage treasures a girl could hope for.  Audra introduced it to me last year when she gave me a hand felted bear ornament.  I thought I had better check this place out...& now I'm totally addicted.  It's kinda like ebay for crafters, but you don't bid...you pay what they list the price as.  And there are such treasures to be found!  Here are a few of mine over the past year:

The little birdie ended up being from the UK.  One of the cool things about Etsy is that these treasures are from all over the world.  And I had no idea until my little deer arrived from Turkey...yep, Turkey...and she is my most favorite thing ever.  And then there's the vintage butterfly that I got from my friend Rachel's Esty shop which I totally love.  Oh, and my signed Kelly Rae Roberts wall canvas...love that too! 

Audra & I were listing our Esty purchases & realized that we quite enjoy purchasing from Etsy.  And I personally, love receiving gifts from it, too!  I have a beautiful camera strap, a quaint little bowl & some fabulous little blue felted acorns...oh my!

It's a site full of inspiration!  

PS...now I am eyeing this

I am grateful for my Dad.  I am one of those gals that needs her family to be close...really close...as in living in the city where I Iive.  So I breathed a huge sigh of relief when my dad moved to Flagstaff.  And he's a great guy, too!  He'd do anything for me...paint my house, fix my windows, bring me buckets & buckets of horse pooh for my garden...and he's my go-to guy for business & financial advice (although I don't always listen...much to his dismay).  I am the luckiest girl alive to have my Dad.

(And Dad, I have this photo of us at the store for you, so come on by!  I love you!)