Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I am extremely thankful to all of you who are following along on my wacky life journey! I hope you are surrounded by loved ones and delicious food today, which are basically just two of the best and only things you really need.

Okay, there is also SHOPPING, and, yes, there will be a Black Friday sale at the Yummy You shop. Stay tuned for magical codes!! Check in with the Yummy You Facebook page to keep up to date, since Selina will probably post it there before I do it here. I will not be having a sale in my Etsy shop this year. You guys are awesome, and I’m already getting quite a few orders in there, and I want to be able to deliver everything in a timely manner for the holidays.

But I do hope to have time to post some new patterns and items in the next few weeks 🙂

Don’t forget that Ruth and I are teaching our beginner’s crochet class at Urban Bazaar in SF on Tuesday night at 7:00pm!! Last chance to hang out with us before the holidays. I would love to see you there!

Hello, lucky readers! Heidi and Amanda from A Very Merry Advent have kindly given you a discount code for $2 off their interactive e-guide! Use code twinkie2off during checkout!

There are a TON of ideas packed into this little e-book, ranging from outdoor activities to craft projects to recipes for holiday yumyums. You get free downloads for print-outs, like an advent calendar page for you to plan your activities, and there are even instructional videos embedded in this thing! It’s pretty cool!

If you are anything like me and have been fangirling over Heidi of My Paper Crane for years, marveling at all her holiday ideas and execution, you are in for a pretty big treat! I signed up early on a mailing list for this before I even knew what it was. I’m just that much of a dork. When they announced their website, I purchased immediately!

Projects that get me particularly excited: baking a yule log cake, printing and cutting out her cute gift tags, and making butter mints!

Helloooooo! I cooked again! Thank you so much for leaving me links and recipes. There is lots I definitely want to try to make! However, I became obsessed with the idea of making a tater tot casserole for the “Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner” that Manda and I went to, and HERE SHE IS!

(That photo is pre-oven-ating. And I forgot to take a photo of post-oven-ating, since were kinda in a rush to leave.) I googled around for some recipes, and a lot of them included BEEF, which I didn’t want to cook. So I found and used THIS recipe from The Village Cook.

I have a slight fascination with super kitschy “American” casserole hot dish type things. I was really excited to make my first one. Hairy made a face like this was going to be the grossest adventure ever, espesh after I said, “ranch dressing.”

The recipe that I used does not call for french cut green beans, but I wanted to add, you know, “NUTRITION” to my casserole, cuz IDGAF. So I layered my tots on the bottom, then poured over the liquids, then packed on about 3/4 can of green beans, and then a good handful of fried onions, and then I packed on way more than 1/2 cup cheese, cuz, CHEESE.

I started this project with about an hour to work with before Manda was swinging by the house, so I didn’t have time to defrost my tater tots. I just put them in there frozen. I’ve seen other recipes which say to just leave the casserole in for 20 more minutes more if your tots are frozen, but I didn’t have an extra 20 minutes either. It will remain a mystery to me, whether my casserole actually cooked in the middle, because someone actually took the rest home, CUZ IT WAS SO DURN GOOD!!!! People were like, “WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THIS TATER TOT CASSEROLE!?” I was like, “If it’s gross, I had nothing to do with it.” But they thought it was the greatest thing ever. They thought it was so great, that it had a story, like, a history. So if you have a T-Day pot luck to go to (or any pot luck, really), I think you could be the star by making this bad boy. It was easy and yummy! The most work you have to put in it is chopping up parsley and chives. I decided, I do not like chopping, as it is time-consuming and I might lose a finger, but, hey, anything for you, tater tot casserole!

The pre-Thanksgiving party was fun and mostly populated by people we didn’t know. I tried birthday cake or cupcake vodka for the first time. I also got into a small fight with someone over whether Chicken in a Biskit exists (it exists, OBVIOUSLY, don’t argue with me about SNACKS), but other than that, thumbs up!

How I wish this were actually a WIWT post! I am dying for so many pieces in the Meadham Kirchoff for TopShop collection! I realize it may look a hot mess to many people, but, I need sparkly green monster booties like I need oxygen. Too bad they are already sold out…. and the collection just launched today!

There are 60+ pieces on the TopShop site, although I thought I read somewhere that there were 80 pieces. The small sample I picked represents only a taste of what they have. While I’m drawn to the pastels, there are also other color stories, including this bright red and aqua frilly PVC jumper,  and this granny square dress!

I woke up today wanting to feel 100%c comfy and cozy! So I threw on this sweatshirt dress that I bought from the girls department at Target. I can SOMETIMES fit into the XL there, but I always test first if my arms will fit in the arm holes. This one was a winner.

This photo was sort of an accident. I wasn’t quite ready for the timer to go off on my camera, and I sort of spazzed and lept in front of the camera and did THIS. You can see me holding my remote button thingie. Oddly, it’s the only sort-of close-up that I got before my camera ran out of juice!

It’s hard to see here, but there’s a sequin detail at the bottom of the dress. Very sweet! The sequins are kinda scratchy, though, so just don’t touch that part of the dress or wear it inside out ….haha.

The cowl I’m wearing is from one of my wonderful blog sponsors this month: the Pink Samurai. Her shop is full of all kinds of colorful cozies, and you can also win one of her cowls in my current giveaway.

I love outfits that feel like pajamas. Okay, so this one really does kinda look like pajamas, but I still felt cute while running around to the post office and to ImagiKnit. I also met up with Australian blogger/crafter  Ruby Velour and her man at the tail end of their U.S. vacation! We had chowder in bread bowls, watched the sea lions at Pier 39 hoot and howl into the night, and had a nice coffee and pie at the Grove. A very productive and relaxing and nice day!

Dear iPhone flash: you’re fired.

Dress: Cherokee Girls from Target, Leggings: Uniqlo, Boots: Forever21, Necklace: AthinaLaBella, Coat: from Macy’s a few years ago and needs to be retired because it looks like a 50 year old stuffed animal.