Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Finding reasons to be thankful

Ever notice that if you're having a bad day and someone asks you "what's the best thing that happened to you today?" or heaven forbid, "what are you thankful for today?" your first response is a snarky "NOTHING"....or maybe I'm the only one that feels like that on a bad day! Well, even if you are one big ball of sunshine, this post still applies to you! 

I've been really trying to get a hold of negative thinking lately, to capture the thought immediately and think, is that ACTUALLY true? It's SO easy to stew about the crap in life or the negative things people have said, or the negative things you feel, but in the end where does it get you?......feeling REALLY negative. Now the secrets out! you now know that I am not some freakishly happy, chipper person all the time!! ; ) It's really amazing and quite remarkable though, how immediately evaluating negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones has been changing my perspective on life. I am so much happier! I have so much, so much to be thankful for. And that made me think of a craft...how very Martha Stewart of me. Haha : )

This is what's been sitting in the entrance way of our home the last few weeks, and will stay there until thanksgiving. 



At Christmas I usually have tiny little ornaments hanging from the branches, which was kind of the inspiration for this. I just thought it would be fun to take note of some of the things we have to be thankful for, big and small and write them down. 



I thought the entrance way would be a good spot for it, and that way people that come into our home are able to add some too! I cut a bunch of circles out of orange scrap booking paper (I contemplated cutting out leaves...but that quickly passed!) and used Christmas ornament hooks to hang them on the branches. Nothing crazy or fancy, but kind cute right? Even the branches are leftover from a friends wedding, pulled out from our Christmas decs. Being creative with what you have is the name of the game here folks! The letters are from Dollarama and the vase is filled with acorns I collected and brushed with leftover gold paint.

I just stacked a bunch of random black books together, but I love how His Needs Her Needs is
 right on top of Frankenstein ; )


We've been slowly filling the tree as we think of things. It's amazing how many things you have to be thankful for if you take a moment. Now, before you go thinking my life's all awesome and perfect which is why I can find a million things to be thankful for, it's not. It's not perfect, it's a little bumpy at times, we've had major disappointments, we struggle...but I do have a ton to be thankful for!! The majority of the things we have hanging on this tree aren't huge I-was-just-given-a-million-bucks kind of things, they are the everyday things we overlook. It's about appreciating life. 

Just noticed now there are two baby ones in this shot.  It IS baby season!! my goodness


We're having fun doing it (it's always fun to see what the other person wrote) and I think we will make it a yearly tradition. How fun would it be to save all of the circles in a little ziplock bag each year, and then reminisce about the past years (and laugh I am sure) when you read the old ones? It will be fun when there are kids and "I'm thankful for my little peeing pony" makes it on the tree ; )

How about you? Have any thanksgiving traditions that you've started with your family? 


3 comments:

  1. LOVE THIS idea!!! I will do something like this up high where Alex can't pull it down... and I think it will be easy to fill them up at this time of year! Just being outside makes me feel so thankful! (I love the little nephew pic! :) Your tree is beautiful! And, you can add to your tree that Liv, Alex and me are thankful for you and your creativity! We love uncle Sarah!

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  2. What a great idea! I'm definitely going to have to look into this! :)

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  3. It's been a long time since you posted!

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