The biggest Thanksgiving ever!

Well, the holidays kicked my butt yet again this year but they were, as always, completely amazing. I had tons of work to do between WSPS and WCM this year, as well as getting ready for the RAC's holiday fair (which went REALLY well, photos to come), hence the posting drought. But, as part of my new year's resolution I'm going to focus more on my own business and crafting, as well as a huge project I've had in the works since last year, and as part of that I'm continuing to play catchup on here. Anywho, on to the holiday at hand: Thanksgiving!

As some of you may know I host a Thanksgiving dinner every year and invite all my friends who can't make it home to visit their families. I started it 3 years ago when my parents decided they didn't feel like celebrating it anymore. The original had 7 people, then there were 12, and this year there were 18 in all! It was so big I couldn't host it at my place anymore, but my best friend Karol offered to have it at his new place, since it has a huge dining room. He had been meaning to make his house fancier for a while, and having a deadline really helped. It was a mostly vegan and gluten-free potluck, and everything was delicious. The party lasted well into the wee hours and a lovely time was had by all. The only thing that would have made it better was if my new boyfriend, Johnny, could have attended, but alas he had family obligations. Here's some of my favorite photos taken by Karol, Vanessa, and me, and there's more on my flickr here.

I made little favor boxes as place cards for everyone. These are made to hold a single truffle and are only about an inch and a half square, and I'll be selling them soon! They're filled with an assortment of seed money from Leafcutter Designs.

My sister had just done the decorations for a birthday party and had some silver balloons left over, so we carted them to Karol's house and bought silver cups and napkins to match. Karol got this banquette especially for the occasion and I think it looked so elegant. After cooking I made silverware bundles with napkins and twine...

... And Karol grabbed mint sprigs from his garden to finish each place setting. Everything came out so nice!

I just had to toss in this pic of my lovely sister, and look! She's wearing one of the fascinators I made! I wore one too with big pheasant feathers on it, which you can kind of see below:

Karol carved the turkey and we ate delicious food and drank wine until we couldn't move, then had a fire pit in the back yard...

... And then we did a LOT of dishes! Best. Thanksgiving. Ever!