Happy Thanksgiving!

Today [and every day] I am thankful for my wonderful friends, amazing family AND MY FABULOUS FOLLOWERS! Thank you everyone for stopping in to see my blog!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day here in the United States!

Oh Deer! Puzzle Answers...

Here are the answers to the OH DEER puzzle from this post!

WAIT! If you haven't read the puzzle and want to try it... click the link above. You'll love it!
If you've read the puzzle and think you have the placement of the reindeer all figured out..... then here you go!

Here are the answers:






DASHER (BUCK) MAGENTA        COMET (DOE) CHARTREUSE

CUPID (BUCK) WHITE                  DANCER (DOE) MAROON

DONNER (BUCK) BLUE                VIXEN (DOE) ROSE

BLITZEN (DOES) OCHER              PRANCER (BUCK) CERISE

A Fun Christmas Game

My mom had my siblings and our spouses do this after our holiday dinner last night. It was so much fun to see who could figure it out first! I love puzzles like this. 

 Oh Deer!

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Can you find out where each deer fits in? With logical thought, you'll determine the answer and write down the color and place for each deer!

• Who's a buck?
• Who's a doe?
• Who's Comet?
• Who's Cupid?
• Where are Donner and Blitzen?
• Who's Dasher?
• Who's Dancer?
• Where are Vixen and Prancer?

'Twas the night before Christmas and at the North Pole, 
the last-minute planning was taking its toll. 
As Santa was hastily making a scheme
for placement of deer in his sleigh-pulling team,
the good Mrs. Claus was crocheting bright bows
to be worn by these reindeer - four bucks and four does.
The bows were colored in eight festive hues:
ocher, rose, cerise, chartruise, maroon, magenta, white, and blue.
These helped Santa keep track of who's who.
The deer pulled the toy-laden sleigh in four rows,
arranged so no row held two bucks or two does.
The order of pullers was changed year by year,
for Santa was thoroughly fair with his deer.
He summoned the elves and instructed them thus:
"Let's hitch up the reindeer with minimal fuss."
The bow on the buck behind Dasher is white,
while Blitzen, a doe, sees cerise to her right.
The blue bow is nearer the sleigh than is Dancer,
but nearer the front of my team than is Prancer.
The doe in Chartreuse gets a front-of-team honor,
but not on the same side as Cupid or Donner in blue.
Now, Comet stands two spots ahead of the rose.
And three deer of four on the right side are does.
The cerise bow is worn two in back of maroon,
one of which is beside the bright ocher festoon.
Vixen is girlish and behind Dancer.
Oh, Cupid in white is in front of a buck by the way.
That's how they line up for pulling the sleigh.


Good luck! 
I'll post the answers tomorrow!

Show me your Turkeys

In honor of our upcoming Thanksgiving holiday next week, show me your turkeys! Please link up to your specific blog post or shop item. Link up through Thanksgiving Day!

Zebra Cupcakes

I made some quick Zebra cupcakes to take along on my daughter's birthday weekend getaway.   We took the family and 3 of her friends to a resort with a water park, stayed overnight in a hotel, and then took the girls horseback riding the next day. It was so much fun!

I used my rolled buttercream recipe, found here, and rolled some out and cut circles the same size as the cupcake tops.

 But first, I spread a little layer of buttercream icing on the cupcake so that the ROLLED buttercream would stick to the top.

 Then I set the circle right on the cupcake!

 I used black icing with a flat basket weave tip (wrong side down) to make the zebra stripes.  I made some green and purple circles as well to add some color to the cupcakes. Yes, I know that there aren't really green and purple zebras, but the cupcakes sure were pretty!

Get Your SAMPLE Z BOX Now!

Have you heard of Zibbet? If you've been following my blog, I'm sure you've heard me mention it a time or two... or seen it on my sidebar --->

Zibbet Connects Buyers & Sellers of HANDMADE, FINE ART, VINTAGE & SUPPLIES! There's NO Listing Fees & NO Sales Fees when selling with Zibbet!

It's community is growing at a tremendous rate! I have been lucky to be a part of that community as a seller and helping them promote their site! With that, a group of sellers have come together to help promote by putting together sample boxes of all varieties of shops found on Zibbet! They are available starting TODAY!

You can find them HERE on Zibbet!

*You can find samples of my cupcake wrappers as well as a DISCOUNT CODE for your next purchase in this month's SAMPLE Z BOX!

There is a limited supply, so hurry over to get your sample box! If you don't get an opportunity to get November's box, no worries! Just check back each month to get that month's box with new great samples!

Check out these links to find out more about ZIBBET & SAMPLE Z BOX:

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Sample Z Box
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Yummy Cuppy Crafts on Zibbet

2010 White House Ornaments

As some of you may already know, my husband is a pilot in the Marine Corps. We've had a great week this week celebrating the 235th birthday of the Marine Corps as well as honoring all our veterans on Veterans Day!  

My husband is attached to HMX-1, the helicopter squadron responsible for transporting the President of the United States, Vice President, cabinet members, and other VIPs. When the President is aboard, the Marine helicopter uses the call sign "Marine One". 

My husband is the pilot looking out the window of the cockpit! 

*squeal* I'm so proud of him!

Our HMX-1 Spouses Club is selling the gorgeous 2010 White House Ornaments! If you'd like to purchase an ornament for your collection, or gift them to friends and family, you can purchase them here from my blog for $20.00.  Ornament comes in beautiful collectors box with inserts explaining the ornaments details and images! This price includes shipping! Ornaments will be shipped out within 24 hours!

            $20.00

   (includes shipping) 

 

The 2010 White House Christmas ornament honors the twenty-fifth president of the United States, William McKinley, and celebrates the role of music in the traditions of the White House. The McKinley administration (1897–1901) is remembered as a time when the nation moved beyond its continental boundaries to become an international power. The American people idolized McKinley during his presidency, so suddenly cut short by an assassin’s bullets six months into his second term.

In celebration of the nation’s patriotic mood as the century turned, the illustrations commissioned for the 2010 ornament feature festive, colorful scenes from the annual Army Navy Reception at the White House in 1900. The front face of the ornament depicts members of the United States Marine Band performing on the snow covered North Drive as arriving guests disembark from their carriages. The reverse side of the ornament shows the band playing patriotic airs for President and Mrs. McKinley and their party in the flag bedecked splendor of the East Room. It was in this High Victorian East Room that the McKinleys began the era of “musicales” (receptions with music as the leading feature) at the White House, a tradition that continues to this day.

Enter to win an iPad!

Zibbet, THE place to buy unique, handmade products from the maker, is currently having a HUGE promotion! Crafters and artists, if you sign up for a yearly premium account, (which comes out to be less than $6/month--- FOR LIFE), you will have a chance to win 1 of 3 iPad giveaways!

But the opportunity won't last long! They are only offering 1,000 new accounts at this awesome price! And at the time of this post, only 342 accounts need to be set up before the 1st iPad is given away!

Here's how the iPads will be given away:

1. The 1st iPad will be drawn when they hit 500 accounts sold (you'll be eligible to win in the 2nd and 3rd round too!)
2. The 2nd iPad will be drawn when they hit 1000 accounts sold
3. The 3rd iPad will be drawn if they reach their goal of selling 1000 Yearly accounts before Christmas day! All 'active' sellers will be entered into this round (active = at least 1 active item listed).

If you aren't sure if you are ready to jump on this, then sign up for a basic account. It's totally free! No listing fees & no sales fees! You get 100% of your sales! That's the way it should be! Try it out, and see if you like it.

*If you have an Etsy or Artfire shop, Zibbet has an importer that makes it easy to import ALL (or just a selected amount) of your items directly to your new shop! So it would take MINUTES to set up your Zibbet shop!

Click on any of the Zibbet banners on this post to go to Zibbet's website and sign up for your Yearly Premium Account! Who wouldn't want to win an iPad!!! I know I want one!!!

You can check out my Zibbet shop here:

Please help get the word out about this amazing promotion by "sharing" this post by clicking on the share buttons at the bottom of this post: Email to a friend, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, & Google Buzz.

Let me know when you join Zibbet! I'd love to help promote your new shop!
Leave me a comment or email me at: the5turners [at] gmail [dot] com.

Feathered Rosette Clips

I'm an Iowa Hawkeye fan, born and raised!

So I couldn't help but make some lovelies to wear in support of my beloved Hawkeyes!

They can be worn in your hair, on a headband, clip them to your shirt, a bag, your beads...

And while trying to be fair, I also made some lovelies for our poor struggling Cyclones! If we can't win 'em, let's at least look good cheering them on, right!?

 

Want to look good cheering on your team? Go here.

Tie Dye Swirl Cake

I did a cake order for a sweet 16 party over Halloween.  The birthday girl was doing Halloween colors with polka dots.  I thought I'd add a little element of surprise when they cut into the top layer of white cake by dying the batter different colors.

First, I separated the batter into 3 different bowl, and left 1/4 white in the original bow.  I added drops of food coloring...

 Mixed it up...

 Then started dropping spoonfuls of the colored batter randomly in the cake pans.

 I took a knife and swirled the batter around in the cake pan just a little before  baking.
 And this is what it looked like after it was all baked and leveled...

 

This was the cake all decorated...

 *This coloring effect can also be done with cupcakes!