Christmas Tablescape - Part 2

Did anyone else have a crazy busy weekend?!  Ours was full of fun and merriment, and as it turns out it was totally exhausting!  In the best way, of course.  

After a LONG time of searching photo archives on my computer, social media, etc., I wasn't able to find quality pictures of some of my Christmas tables from years past.  I'm sure they are on some external hard drive tucked away in the back of a closet somewhere.  But I do have this year's table all set and ready to go, and I'm excited to share some photos.

This is the first year that I'm not using any red on my table.  It's a pretty look, and I think it is a little more sophisticated than some of our previous years.(which is odd, since we'll have three high chairs surrounding our table this year :) ). 

The Breakdown:

Tablecloth: Crate and Barrel

Runner: Burlap from JoAnn (didn't even hem it, just folded it over and ironed it)

Vases: JoAnn

Mirrored Christmas Tree: IKEA

Mercury Glass Votive Holders: West Elm

Chargers: Target

Dinner & Salad Plates:  Lennox from Macy's (a wedding gift)

Glitter Pine Cones: DIY

Place Cards; DIY

Happy {Fancy} Holiday to You!

I love holiday parties and I usually end up buying a new "Christmas dress" each year, whether I need one or not.  It's just one of those traditions from childhood that stuck.  I loved my dress from last year so I knew this year I wanted to go in a totally different direction.  Below are both looks, both under $250 each (not including last year's shoes).  I hope that you may get some fun ideas (or score great deals) for your holiday parties!

Last year's attire:

What I'm wearing:

Dress: Marshalls (yes, Marshalls!  It was kind of expensive for that type of store, but I found it later on a super expensive department store's website so it turns out it was a GREAT deal!)
Belt: H&M last season.
Hoisery: Back seam hoisery from Nordstrom, still available in store this year.
Shoes: Nine West from Nordstrom several years ago.
Headband:  DIY - all it took was a plastic headband from target, some ribbon and some hot glue.


This year's attire:

What I'm wearing:

Dress: Banana Republic - I happened to be in the store on a day when all dresses were 50% off, so it was another awesome find.
Hoisery: Black dots from Nordstrom.
Shoes: Target!  Another fun find at a great price.  I've been getting tons of compliments on these little treasures and they are decently comfortable.  Totally recommend giving them a try!  (They even have a zipper on the back!)
Headband: BP at Nordstrom, available in several colors.

Both these photos are from our friends' annual Christmas party.  My dear friend Sarah is an AMAZING cook, and her husband makes the most fun trivia.  We look forward to it every year!

Eggless Snowflake Donuts

No tutorial here, just a link to some delicious donuts for those of you with food allergies.  These can be vegan or just egg free depending on your needs.

Since we made these on a whim, we were relatively under-prepared.  A few substitutions:

1) I didn't have agave nectar, so I just used white sugar.
2) We don't have a donut pan so we made ours in our snowflake muffin pan.
3) I didn't want to dirty another bowl making icing, so I warmed some Pilsbury frosting I had in the fridge in a glass bowl and dipped each donut individually.

The donuts were decently healthy (read: not fried), tasted fantastic and disappeared quickly.  ;) Enjoy!

PS - You can still find the cute snowflake pan here!

17 Days 'Til Christmas!

Here's a little snapshot of our living room this Christmas.  I love turning on the tree, snuggling up on the couch, and enjoying the merriment of the season.  Wishing you a peaceful Advent season!

Christmas Craft for Little Kids

We have lots of out of town family that we don't get to spend Christmas with each year.  To let them know we are thinking of them, and to give them a little token to see how much M has grown, we decided to make homemade crafts to include with our Christmas card.

M is just two, and likes to be very involved.  Because of that, I had to chose a craft that didn't involve scissors, hot glue or anything potentially dangerous.  We landed on some fun holiday hand print projects, and I think they turned out looking pretty cute!

 I drew the reindeer outline and face by hand, then painted M's hands with a brush and helped her stamp them onto the page.  Then we found a water bottle cap and dipped it in red paint and stamped it on the face.  M insisted that her reindeer be a girl, so we added some eyelashes for good measure.

For this Christmas tree project, we used the same techniques as the antlers above.  It is important to do the star first, as the lighter colored paint won't stamp well over the green.

One more note.  We did our project in our kitchen.  We have black granite counter tops, so we didn't have to worry about paint stains.  If you don't have a dark surface to use, make sure that you cover your surface well.  The red paint can stain sometimes.  Have fun!

M painting away with her favorite color -- red!  She loves Christmas because everything is red, red, and more red.

Heel Help!

Weird title, I know.  But I need some help finding new black patent leather heels that are cute and (gulp, I'm getting so old) are comfortable!  I have a cheap-o pair that I love the look of, but my feet hurt within five minutes of putting them on, and I end up waddling around like a wayward duck when I wear them.

What is your favorite pair of heels?  I'd love your help finding a new pair before the next round of holiday parties!

And Presents Under the Tree

Pretty packages make me smile.  Each year, I try to be "wrapped and done by December 1" and this year I actually made it!  There are two great benefits to finishing our Christmas shopping early.  The first is that we get to relax and skip the stress and hustle of shopping during the busiest days of the year.  The second is that we (who am I kidding?  It's just me.) can enjoy looking at beautifully wrapped packages under the tree for a few extra weeks.

Each year, I try to keep all our gifts wrapped in one or two different types of paper.  Crazy, I know, but it makes me happier.  This year I branched out and decided to try something new: washi tape instead of traditional ribbon.  And, I did sticky bows.  If you had asked me two years ago if I would ever use sticky bows, I would have emphatically replied that they were practically against everything I believe in and that I would never use them.  My how times (and lack of time) has changed!  I actually love how the packages look and I'm glad I tried something new.  

I found this cute paper at Marshalls last year.  I bought two rolls, but I only ended up finding one so I had to buy extra.  Of course, like two days after finishing my wrapping I found the other roll.  Boo.

This pattern is from Target.  The paper is thinner, so it was more difficult to wrap with.  Next year, I'll stick with more quality paper.

I found the black and white and red washi tape rolls at Target, and layered them on top of each other. The sticky bows are also  from Target, and the gift tags are free printables I found on this blog!

Christmas Tablescape - Part 1

Happy December to you!  In Seattle, we got a fun sneak peek at winter, with a TINY snowfall on Saturday.  I love snow more than almost anything, so I woke up my 2-year-old and we marveled at the pretty white dusting before suiting up to play outside.  She is happy in any weather, so she willingly obliged my inner child.  It was a blast!

The beautiful snow also helped to get me in the mood for the holiday season.  In our family, Christmas is like a marathon event.  We celebrate on the 23rd with my immediate family, on the 24th with my extended family, on the 25th with my husband's family, and we wrap it all up with a day full of soccer and snacks on the 26th (my husband is a big English football fan, so Boxing Day is a sacred day for him ;) ).  It's busy, but we love it.

We have the opportunity to host my family on the 23rd, and it is something I love.  Every year I look forward to planning my table decorations, and try to come up with something new and creative each year.  Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing tablescapes from the past few years to give a little inspiration if you find yourself hosting any holiday dinner parties this month.

The vases are my favorite part of this table setting.  I ordered some vintage Christmas carol sheet music online, trimmed the music to size, and wrapped the vases with the music.  It was a one-time-use thing, but I loved the way they turned out.  My mom borrowed the arrangements the next day for her Christmas dinner, so they got some good use.

I'm still brainstorming this year's table, and I'm so excited to share more ideas with you!

Thanksgiving Pies

When I was a kid, the day before Thanksgiving was always a half day of school.  We would head home early, put on our aprons and help my mom make pies.  This was a big deal to my little seven-year-old self, because this was the one day of the year that my Mom had a marathon day of baking (something she didn't love doing, but was willing to do for the sake of her guests).  I always enjoyed baking as a kid, so I loved this day.

Fast forward twenty-some years later, and I still love the marathon day of baking.  I'm not sure there is anything more quintessentially "Thanksgiving" than the smell of apple pie baking in the oven.  Bring.it.on.

A few years ago, I went searching on allrecipes.com, and found the world's greatest apple pie recipe. It actually tastes like heaven.  My dear friend Sarah works at allrecipes.com, and she gave me the pointer of always reading the first three reviews before making a given recipe.  I found one review to be particularly helpful, so I'm including that below:

Courtesy of allrecipes.com

So let's get started.

You'll Need:

• 2 pie crusts, 9" each.  I like Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee or you can use a store bought crust
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp flour (realizing as type this that I forgot the flour - fingers crossed it still turns out okay)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 4 granny smith apples, peeled cored and sliced
• 4 honeycrisp apples, peeled cored and sliced

Follow the instructions listed on the recipe and the review listed above to ensure success baking your masterpiece.  I love making sure that my pie looks as nice as it tastes, so I'm a bit meticulous when it comes to creating the lattice top.  Use a ruler to measure out each piece, cut using a fluted cutter (what are these actually called?!), and place them carefully on the top.  I also like to add a little decoration, so I added a little leaf shape around the perimeter.  I love how  beautifully it turned out, and it smells insanely good.  We can barely wait until dessert tomorrow!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my precious M has an egg allergy, so she is unable to have egg or any egg product at all.  Because pumpkin pie has egg in it, I figured she would need to stick with the apple pie.  But after a little research online, I found a recipe for no-egg pumpkin pie.  I cannot vouch for it yet, as I've never tasted it.  However, because I know so many of you have little ones with food allergies as well, I'm including a link to the recipe here, so you can give it a shot.  I'll be sure to report in on it's taste soon!

Happy baking :)

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year -- Thanksgiving week!  I love that it is a short work/school week, I love all the baking, and I love spending time with family.

If you are hosting Thanksgiving at your home on Thursday, good luck!  You're more brave than I am :)  I will be spending the holiday with my in-laws and my parents and sister (it's a marathon eating day, that is for sure!).  My humble contribution is pie, and I'll be blogging about my favorite apple pie on Wednesday, so be sure to check in for some last minute recipe goodness.

Until then, enjoy this free printable for your Thanksgiving decor.  Eat, drink and be thankful!

Work It

You GUYS.  I am lacking some serious motivation to get out and get stepping.  Exercise has never been my passion, but I do feel so much better when it is a regular part of my life.  But, lately I've been totally dragging my heels on getting started.  And, frankly the thought of running makes me do this:

I need some inspiration!  I'd love to  hear from you on what you do to exercise -- 30 minutes or more per day.  My rear end thanks you :)

Back to Life, Back to Reality

If you follow me on Instagram, you know.  This week was all about getting back to the routine, laundry and all.  In spite of the mundane, we had a ton of family time this weekend.  We love having my husband all to ourselves most weekends, and this one was extra fun because we had missed all the together time we enjoyed on vacation.

Our neighborhood nursery has a spectacular holiday display, with reindeer, a camel, a beautiful holiday shop, and a train set.  This year's train is "Frozen" themed, so I loved it that much more!

 My sweet peach saying hi to the reindeer.  For some reason, she always squats down super low when she talks to animals.  It's pretty adorable.

There she is admiring the train.  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Cheers to a great week!  I'm excited for some new DIY projects, just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Custom Holiday Wreath

We just got home from vacation, so today my beautiful life is all about post-trip laundry, clean up, and getting back to the grind.  After what felt like 17 loads of laundry, I decided to take a break to make a custom wreath for one of my best friends.  I love how it turned out!

If you're interested in a custom wreath this holiday season, shoot me an email!  Pricing starts at $45, including local delivery.

Multi-Use Christmas Banner

I know, I know.  It's only November.  But I love Christmas.  And I really love Christmas cards.  It is kind of my thing.  I love thinking of them, planning them, receiving them.  I just love them.  This is last year's card from our little family, and I love it.  We (trying to make it seem like my husband has any sort of interest) haven't chosen a design or photo for this year's card, but I love looking at this one for a couple of reasons.

1) My baby is so LITTLE!

2) I love that banner.

Maybe this is your family's year for a DIY banner card.  Here's a quick tutorial on how to make your own Merry Christmas banner for the holiday season.

What you'll need:

• 1/3 yard of burlap
• 1 spool of twine
• Merry Christmas (or desired phrase) printed out on card stock in your desired font
• Hot glue gun and refill glue sticks

Step 1: Cut out rectangles for your pennants.  Mine were 4" x 6" before the triangle cut out at the bottom.
Step 2: Make a triangle template, and trace it on the bottom of each flag.
Step 3: Cut out the triangles to make a pennant shape.
Step 4: Cut out card stock letters.  You may even be able to find them pre-cut at a craft store.
Step 5: Hot glue letters onto the flags
Step 6: Hot glue flags onto the twine.

When we were done with this banner for our Christmas card, I re-glued it into two sections and we used it as a decoration in our house.  Fun bonus!

Front Porch Makeover

Last week my friend Jenny was gracious enough to let me have some fun revamping her front porch for fall.  She and her family have an adorable home with a cute front porch, and it was the perfect spot to work some magic!

We started with a clean slate -- just a wreath (a fun project from last spring!), so there were plenty of opportunities to infuse some fall touches.

Jenny gave me a budget of $100, but all in the project cost $83.36 and I am totally pleased with how it turned out.  

Here's the scoop on where I snagged these cute finds:

Wreath: JoAnn Fabrics

Wooden Crate: JoAnn Fabrics

"B" Pumpkin: JoAnn Fabrics; I hand lettered the "B" on the front

Baskets: Free!  Found them in my parents gardening pile and they said they didn't want them, so I scooped them up!

Hurricane Vases: Target

Pumpkin/Gourd/Pinecone Vase Filler: Grocery store for the pumpkins and gourds, found the pinecones on walks with my daughter (A great distraction for a 2 year old!).

Tree Branches: My yard

It looks so cozy and inviting.  Thanks Jenny for the opportunity to be a part of your beautiful life!

Thursday Threads

It was "Pumpkin Patch" weekend in our family.  But, we're city folk so we take a stroll down the block to our neighborhood plant nursery to enjoy their Harvest Festival, instead of trucking our two-year-old to the country to visit an actual pumpkin patch.  I'm sure she'll twist our arm someday, but for now we are enjoying the short walk and the lack of mud.  Everywhere.

It was a crazy weather day on Saturday, but we lucked out with only a little drizzle.  And little M could have gone on that hay ride about 30 times.  Success!

Here's what I wore to the festivities:

Shirt: J. Crew Factory Store (you can find it here.)
Vest: Marshalls - I bought it for my sister, but I borrowed it this weekend.  What a convenient gift ;)
Skinny jeans: Old Navy
Boots: GoJane.com

Not-So-Spooky Halloween Party

Confession: I don't like Halloween.  I hate all things creepy/spooky/gory.  But, it's so fun for kids to dress up and eat treats, so I don't want to be a total downer about it.  So, my husband and I thought a great solution would be to throw our own party to do Halloween our way.  Our daughter adores her cousins, so we invited family over for a good old fashioned party, complete with games for the big kids.  We all had a blast, and can't wait to do it again next year!

 Kids' party favors

 A little "trick or treating" for the adults.

 This picture turned out bad.  The sign was cuter, I swear :)

My oldest nephews during our bobbing for apples competition.  They rocked it!

In case you haven't noticed yet from the pictures, this party was in our GARAGE!  My side of the family has 22 people in it, so we need all the space we can get.  Our two car garage converts perfectly into a party room with an L shaped table (three folding tables) and a couple of tables for a buffet.  We kept things super easy with pizza, salad, fruit and dessert.  

A few tips and tricks:

1)  Plan your party with guests in mind.  We had kids ranging from 10 years to 10 months, so I planned four activities -- and prizes -- for the older kids and gathered some toys and fun snacks for the younger kids.  My family is also a big gift-giving family, so all the kids walked away with quite a haul.

2) Avoid candy.  I know this sounds crazy, but kids will be getting TONS of candy on actual Halloween, so we went with Target 1 Spot toys and party favors instead.  

3)  Keep it simple.  When you're doing a kids' party, they don't care about fancy serving dishes or recipes from the foodie blog you follow.  They care about fun!  We kept things fun with lots of activities, as well easy clean up foods and tables.

A few suggestions for party activities:

- Best costume competition

- Halloween Mad Libs

- Pumpkin painting (WAY cleaner than pumpkin carving, and no knives!)

- Bobbing for apples

- Make your own caramel apples

Happy Not-So-Spooky Halloween!!