November is Here!

I think November 1st (and yes, I am aware today is actually November 2nd...) is one of my favorite days of the year. I am not a big Halloween fan, although I have to say watching Lillie and Lola's excitement over dressing up and the way they have been obsessing over their candy is winning me over a teeny tiny bit. Lillie has been sorting hers for two days and playing endless games of waitress with it but oddly enough just finally had her first piece of chocolate today, and only ate a tiny piece of it. Lola on the other hand has been carrying her basket with her at all times. Literally, she has not let it out of her sight and only sets it down when she absolutely has to use that arm for something. I've taken about 30 pictures in the last two days just of her carrying upstairs, downstairs, into bed (don't worry, we didn't let her sleep with it!), in the car, etc. Trying to get her dressed and undressed while switching it from one arm to the other is entertaining. Fortunately she can't get most of the wrappers open so she hasn't had nearly as many pieces of candy as she would like to have had by now. So, although I am not much of a Halloween fan, I have been quite entertained these past few days.

The reason I love November 1st so much is that for me it is what I consider the beginning of the holiday season - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Oh how I love Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything they entail! It gets me giddy just thinking about it!

Anyway, enough rambling. I just wanted to pop in remind everyone of our free downloads and let you know about two new items in our shop, as well as introduce a new sponsor.

First, here is our FREE November Download from last year by one of my favorite author's L.M. Montgomery (click on the image to bring you to our website where you can download the full PDF file):

Second, we wanted to let you know that our new blade arrived earlier this week and our Maple Leaf Cutouts are now available for purchase. They are sold in sets of six. You can punch a hole in them and string them to make a "give thanks" tree where you write something you are thankful on each leaf. Or you can use them for on cards, labels, or just about anything else you would like.

One of our best-selling items this season has been our Drummer Boy Cutout in Cream Set. We have been cutting away like crazy and still can't keep up. We will continue to be making the ivory (and will be adding a larger size as well!) and also thought we would introduce them in black today! And possibly in red later this month. They can be used for a multitude of things. You can frame them, hang them on your tree, accent gifts with them, etc. They will be available in two sizes. The smaller size which is available now and a larger size that will be available next week.

Here you can see the cream ones shown on a Christmas Tree:

And now, I want to tell you a bit about our November donation. For this month we are going to do something a little bit different. We will be giving a portion of each sale to a family but this time it is going to be related to Christmas and we are going to have you all write in to nominate a family. We still need to iron out a few details, though, so I will post more information once we get all of the details figured out, hopefully at some point this coming week.

I also wanted to introduce you all to one of our new sponsors,