Let the Christmas Tree Shine

Happy Christmas Everybody! I have a new opinion on Christmas trees this year. I've decided to let the tree be the star, a little more sparse on the decorations, a little less matchy-matchy, and a little more natural looking. This year we only put up about 1/3 of our ornaments. While it is true we have a little one who helped decorate the tree, he is not the reason. Instead, I think there is something so beautiful about a real Christmas tree. Something magical about the smell and the look of the leaves, I didn't want to cover it up with hundreds of ornaments, garland, and tinsel. We did use a third strand of lights, and we did trim the bottom branches significantly, but the ornaments are far fewer which makes the ones we did put on more meaningful. We are going to make some ornaments as a family, salt dough kids hand prints, a Santa wish list, some apple cinnamon cookie cutouts, but for now, this is our tree.

Decorating your Tree with Fresh Flowers

Why is it that when I think I have an original idea... it turns out it was actually done during the Victorian era? Alas, there is nothing new under the sun. Nonetheless... new to me, this year we are adding fresh flowers to our Christmas tree decorations.

Now there are many ways to do this, you can buy those tiny water vials on Amazon for a few dollars and fill with Peruvian Lilies or orchids. They are long lasting, beautiful, and you will probably only need to change them out twice during the entire season. 

Or you can buy small live Poinsettias and using floral wire attach them to your tree branches. You must remember to water, occasionally, but since it is a live plant you don't have to worry about it wilting. I am using the about 6 mini plants inside my tree. I have always wanted to put flowers in my tree but, I find silk flowers sad. 

Egg Nog Shot

Traditionally Egg Nog is spiked with Brandy. Which is not unpleasant. However, I find a mix of vanilla vodka and Kahlua to be much more palatable.

So here you go:

2 parts Non-alcoholic Egg Nog
1 part Vanilla Vodka
1 part Kahlua or other Coffee Liquor
Nutmeg to garnish

I am going to serve these at my holiday cocktail party. Rather then offering people a signature drink option. Which is usually how I get around the costly hard liquor drink conundrum, this year, I will be offering a series of shots served every hour. 4 hour party, 4 shots... stand by for more recipes.

Happy Party!

Christmas Centerpiece

My Christmas centerpiece is relatively simple this year. I guess it always is. I have a table runner that is red and white tartan. I think I got it at Target, but I am sure it is relatively easy to find. My husband had two pewter, vintage and gorgeous candle sticks which I always try and incorporate, here with drip-less white tapers. I have 4 cheap metal candle sticks that I got from World Market aka Cost Plus for $1.99 a pop, that are also on the table. The clippings are from my yard, and the beads are from Micheal's Craft store. I got them on deep discount, but I think regularly they are only $4.99. I also took this picture with a red lantern on the table. The red lantern is now part of my out door decoration. But... nonetheless, I got it at Ikea for about $5. 

So there it is. My Christmas Centerpiece  It will stay on our dining room table through out the season. During our Holiday Cocktail Party I will probably elevate it and push it towards the back of the table. 

Happy Party!

Christmas Mantel

This year I decided to do something different with my mantel. For the last four years I have always had the nativity in the center, candles on pedestals on the left side and our advent calendar box on the right. I usually hung bunting along the mantel and down each side with some berry or ribbon garland.

But... with our dark accent wall behind the mantel it always seemed really dark. This year I wanted to lighten it up, but with old fashioned style Christmas, candles were my only means of adding light. So candles it was. I bought 12 candles at Ikea for about $20. The ivy topiaries are from Trader Joes at $7.99. The pine cones are cinnamon scented and I picked them from Whole Foods, I think they were $4.99. Half of which I made into a pine cone swag, I will share. The greenery is actually cuttings from my yard. So there you have it. My candle lit Christmas Mantel for under $35 bucks.

Happy Party!

Fall Decorations

I wanted to write a note to myself in the future, for next September when I am decorating for fall and trying really hard to remember what I did. Now, mind you my pinterest account will have many new temptations for me to attempt to complete, but just in case future me or you find this interesting... here is what I did. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures, because in my gusto to decorate for Christmas, I did not take pictures... however, I'll remember next year.

For the front door: I had 3 mums lining the stair case. I also had a pumpkin, or two depending on the squirrels. We did carve a pumpkin for Halloween, but I will save that for the Halloween Post. I had no wreathe this year. But on the inside of the door I had cinnamon pine cones attached to ribbons cascading from one big bow.

In the foyer, I had a pear spice candle burning and the a great blue vase filled with eucalyptus.

On the table I had the brown and orange table runner with a green candelabra filled with cream colored candles.

On the mantel, I had a large brown vase filled with dried brown and orange flowers. One pumpkin on the mantel and three candles on wooden pedestal. In a large basket I had cinnamon scented pine cones, mini pumpkin in orange and white, and a larger pumpkin.

Well... those are my notes... hopefully they will be of use to someone :)

Freddy's Birthday Party - We Survived, He is 1!

So let me start off this post, fully cognizant of the fact that I have gone over board. Yes, I do know that he is 1, and therefore will not remember this party. Yes, I do know that he would be totally happy with a pudding cup and his favorite video of "Your baby can read." Nonetheless, I am more than ecstatic, and I cannot help but channel all of the excitement and joy into party planning.

So... as you can see above this is the mod board. We are doing an ice cream party. Mostly, because I couldn't figure out how I could feed a bunch of babies with only two high chairs, and a relatively small town house. However, this will not dampen the festivities.

The invitation, which I sent out today, was done on shutterfly. The ice cream picture, is actually gelato, but that is all semantics actually I believe it is the fat content of the dairy product, but whatever. The back of the invite promised bibs... which will be an interesting craft project. I will either be sewing ice cream cones or ironing on depending on the material.

So once we decided on the theme and the place (our house) I figured out the menu...

Inside

• Custard of the day, Vanilla, and Chocolate custard
• 3 Sorbets
• Fruit Pops
• Cones sugar with sprinkles, and cake cones
• Assorted toping: sprinkles, red, blue, chocolate, strawberries, blue berries, strawberry sauce, coconut, chocolate chips,, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, caramel, whip cream, cherries, chocolate covered pretzel pieces, candied hot peppers
• Strawberry and Blueberry Cups
• Chocolate Cake with a 1 smash cake
• Cupcakes in cones
• Number "1" cookies
• Cookie sandwiches in wax bags

Outside

• Sippy Cups with Water and Apple Juice
• Strawberry Lemonade in mason jars with optional vodka
• Waterbottles
• Soda for Floats
• Guiness
• Prosecco

Craft projects are occuring daily, so I will be sure to post. Tomorrow night my sister and I will be ordering pizza, watching chick flicks, and probably hot glued to the table downstairs. I would like to say, I married a very giving and patient husband to sacrifice his man cave to his wife's DIY insanity. Wow, to think how successful I would be if I channeled this energy productively :)

Happy Crafting!

Stationery card

Finally One Blue Birthday Invitation

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Canvas Print

  Canvas Print

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Baby Egg Hunt and Easter Lunch

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Yesterday was Freddy's first Easter. I have always wanted to celebrate Easter. Growing up Orthodox, we went to midnight mass and had a big meal at 1am. But now that we have a little one, I wanted lots of family and friends around for lovely time of laughs, sunlight, and sweets.

The Baby Easter Hunt was hilarious. At one point Freddy was rolling on the couch in absolute rapture, banging eggs together, rolling on them, and chewing on his plastic eggs. Darling Isla wearing a gorgeous cherry dress had both baskets and walking around the garden getting all of the eggs. It was wonderful just to be out there with family and friends, laughing and watching the children play. I used plastic eggs and filled them with non-edibles, bubbles, chalk, and barrettes (for Isla). I also color coded the eggs. Pink smaller ones for Isla. Blue larger ones for Freddy. Seeing they are so young there wasn't much I could fill the eggs with, but my friend Leslie said her sister-in-law's mother filled them with puffs. Which I thought was brilliant.

My good friend Blythe made a Pizza Rustica, classic Italian Easter tradition. Which was wonderful! I will get the recipe and post it. My good friend Meg made a great salad of mixed baby greens, apple, cheese, and walnuts with a balsamic dressing. Leslie and I made an excellent orzo, peas, and asparagus pasta salad, that I will have to make again. And as per our tradition, ham and biscuits. Oh how I love ham and biscuits on Easter.

For dessert, Bella (my sister) and I made carrot cupcakes and white chocolate sugar cookies. Which my mom decorated, and went a little overboard on the sprinkles, too cute. I also assembled candies from Trader Joes and mini desserts from Whole Foods.

For drinks we put together a citrus bar. Orange and Grapefruit Juice, Prosecco Frizzante Secola, Vodka, and Pellegrino. I really liked doing the bar this way, because there was a lot of variety with very few ingredients. A greyhound which is vodka and grapefruit juice is my choice drink these days, but there was plenty to choose from. A little grapefruit juice and sparkling water is refreshing and tasty. I think next time, I would put a pitcher of water and I would put out garnishes as well. Carl added a blackberry to his greyhound and it looked great.

Next year will be at Blythe's house, and I can't wait already. Palm Sunday used to be my favorite holiday, but I think Easter is my new favorite.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy celebrating.

What a perfect day.

Easter Card!

Wreath Of Wishes Easter Card

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I will admit, I mocked women that sent out pictures of their children at every holiday. And it is true, there is an element of this process that feels like shameless self promotion. None the less, I only send the pictures to family, god-mothers, and close friends that would actually want a picture of Freddy. All that aside, I love these cards from Shutterfly. So, if you are looking to do a little shameless self promotion of your darling little ones, I recomend Shutterfly. And did you know, they can send the cards for you! Amazing. I did all of my Easter cards in 10 minutes. I couldn't stamp 36 cards in 10 minutes... I heart technology.

Meg's Baby Shower: Birds and the Bees Theme

One of my dearest friend's Meg is having twins. And to celebrate two more little ladies joing our wonderful happy family, we decided to throw her a darling Birds and the Bees Baby Shower. Her sister, Jillian, Meg's Mom Mrs. Geiss, and I started working on the theme.

Here is my inspirational idea board...

After that I designed the invitation and some other stationary to go along with the event.

Jillian had a wonderful idea to give Meg cards of encouragement and advice.

We had a small party, 15 ladies, 4 children and 4 husbands came. We tried to strategically time it between nap times and dinner.

For the entrance we created a welcome sign with the same stationary design and added wooden bird houses on the railing. The wreath was wooden rossettes which matched the color scheme from Target. I added potted tulips and daffodils from Trader Joes.

 I thought the BABY wooden letters were just darling. I bought the wooden letters from Micheals and wrapped them in color coordinated yarn. I loved the clothes line with color coordinated onesies. Jillian and her mom put that together, and one day the girls will wear them.

I found the cutest felt bee clothespins and baskets at World Market. We used the clothespins on everything from the signs to the napkins. We used the basket to hold the completed cards of encouragement and advice for Meg.

I love any excuse to use a cake mold, and this bee hive cake was super cute. We had a large cheese platter, a fruit tray, and various deserts including a honey bee cake recipe which was just so cute.

I try to be as local and seasonal as possible. For the centerpieces, I purchased daffodil plants from Trader Joes, they were $4.99 and now I get to replant the bulbs in the garden. I also bought the cutest little ceramic birds and little bird houses at Micheals for $1.99. They now adorn my garden.

Jillian came up with two darling games. One was guess the circumfrence of the Meg's bump. Which she had pink ribbon and everyone in the room got to guess. The other game was a list of personal characteristics from Meg and Brad and guess which one Meg wanted the children to inherit. It was so much fun and the personal stories about tire changes and getting lost in front of their house was hilarious.

For favors, I made little white chocolate bee hives. I melted white chocolate chips and let them cool in the fridge using a bee hive candy mold. Let them completely cool before you take them out. I wrapped them in cling wrap, and took simple mesh bags from walmart and imprinted them with regular ink with Welcome Baby and Merci stamps.  We hung up a peice of wrapping paper from PaperSource and using brown satin ribbon and clothes pins hung the favors on the door.

It was a wonderful time, and a incredibly joyous occasion. I think the only thing I would do differently was I would have had a citrus punch and perhaps balloons, but hind site is 20/20. All in all it was a perfect day.

As always, much love, many blessings, and happy celebrating.