Making Room for a Crowd - My Thanksgiving Table

Happy November!  Recently, StyleBlueprint Louisville contacted me for some tips on successful holiday entertaining.  I thought what a great opportunity, as I recently had to dust off a folding table stored in our attic a couple of weekends ago, when we invited a few friends over very last minute for an impromptu dinner.

Aren't we all having to do the same thing?  Trying to accommodate a large number of guests or even last minute company during the holidays??

Below I share how to entertain for a crowd 'stylishly' this season using a folding table and mismatched chairs!  Hop over to StyleBlueprint Louisville to read more about this here.

To hide my ugly folding table I bought two yards of burlap fabric for under $10 from Joann's to act as the tablecloth and then layered my monogrammed linen hemstitch runner I already owned on top of it.  I almost always use chargers when it comes to setting my holiday tables (instead of placemats) as they always make for easy clean-up.  Besides, it mixes up your china which lightens the mood.

Another no-fail tip is to always use greenery as your centerpiece.  Here, I bought a couple of bunches of seeded eucalyptus from Trader Joe's for $3/bunch and combined it with a dozen of coral colored spray roses from Kroger.  The resin antlers holiday ornaments, I picked up from Digs Home and Garden for $15, make for a nice addition to my centerpiece.  I also picked up some fallen magnolia leaves (with sprigs of winterberries) from my backyard and used them as an embellishment on each of the guest's plates.

Lots of layers and texture!

Don't worry about mixing your chairs during the holidays.  Here I used my upholstered parson chairs (from Ikea) as the host and hostess chairs and then used my bamboo kitchen chairs for the rest of the seating around the table.  

Lighting is so important when decorating your table and setting the mood.  Candles and table lamps (instead of recessed canned lighting) make your home feel cozy and look more festive.  Use pillar, tapered and tea light candles.  Any vessel will work!  I love the look of mercury glass or iridescent votive candle holders when decorating for the holidays.  

I hope you enjoyed my thanksgiving table and tips on entertaining! Thank you to Styleblueprint Louisville for sharing my ideas!

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Wishful Gift Guides for the Home

I hope you all enjoyed your wonderful Thanksgiving.  Ours was relaxing because we didn't have to host this year and so we got quite a bit of down time to relax with family and do some fun winter activities.  I didn't start any Christmas decorations other than planting two dwarf evergreen trees in our planters flanking our front door.  I plan on cutting some magnolia branches to add to the planters as as well.

I did have some time to make up some 'wishful' guides the home!  Ha!  Priorities, right??  These are all things I love and would welcome as new additions to our home.

I've noticed over the year, when it comes to receiving/giving gifts, I much prefer to receive/give a gift for the home.  Personally, I don't want clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc.  I would much rather be gifted a piece for our home whether it's candles, a lamp, mirror, vase or throw.  

Mirror, Lamp, Throw, Vase, Stool, Accent Table, Bowl

I noticed a theme in my choices - lots of white with touches gold, blue, green and natural wood.

Art, Lantern, Ginger Jar, Rug, Ottoman

Over the break, I thought long and hard about our living room and kitchen which haven't been touched since we moved into our home.  Our living room still sits unfurnished with only a piano and just primed walls (no paint).  Many of these choices are influenced by those ideas - neutral base with touches of sky blue and sea foam green.

Hook, Pillow, Vase, Chair, Wine Bucket, Accent Table

Hope you enjoyed!  And, while these gift guides are fun - mostly dreaming on my part, I don't want to forget that yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent and the Advent season has begun.  :)

Our Christmas

It undoubtedly still feels like Christmas here.  The kids (albeit E having a virus and feeling under the weather) are still waking up earlier than normal to run downstairs and play with their new toys they received from Santa.  The toys sill lay scattered on our family room floor, decorations and our tree are still up and stockings are still hung.  We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our home.  That is our tradition - we like to kids to wake up and experience Christmas in their own home.

Christmas Eve mass was beautiful as expected.  It always makes me tear up and bring the true meaning of Christmas hit home.  We are so blessed.

This Christmas season seemed to go particularly fast, even though I felt more prepared this year than any other year.  You can see our house decorated for Christmas here.  The weeks leading up to Christmas, we baked cookies, roasted marshmallows in an outdoor fireplace, made a gingerbread house, attended Christmas concerts, sang carols at a nursing home, etc.  All the things that are so fun and magical for children and parents alike.  

We visited Joseph Hillenmeyer's annual Christmas store in Lexington and it was so beautiful!  There are more pictures on my instagram account, but the kids loved it here and I am thinking this will become an annual family tradition.  

Back at home decorating cookies and making gingerbread houses were the big hits of the season!  E is finally at an age where she can enjoy it and actively participate.  

My little helper below doing what she does best - licking the paddle and eventually the bowl!  

The day after Christmas we traveled to Michigan to visit Kevin's side of the family and spent Christmas again with 20 family members all gathered together under the same the roof - playing charades, opening up gifts, laughing and staying up late!  

I hope all of you had a wonderful, safe and happy Christmas.  Are you ready for 2015?  Let's go…..I'm excited to see where this little blog goes…..  

It's here….

Christmas season….Advent season….celebrating St. Nicholas….making ornaments with the kids that will get hung on the tree, a little (lot) of hot chocolate, hearing Luke play 'It's Christmas Time' on the piano, watching Charlie Brown's Christmas and reading our favorite Christmas books.

I started decorating our home this weekend.  Still have more to go.  I was lucky because my oldest was at an Advent retreat at our church Saturday afternoon (so it bought me 3 hours) and I was able to get a lot accomplished.  This year I used real Cedar in our home.  I used it on our banister, FP mantel and entry into the kitchen.  In the past,  I've either used artificial or a mix of pine and fir, but I am officially switching to Cedar.  I love the smell - heavenly!!

This is our kitchen and I kept it simple.  Trader Joe's mini wreaths on the windows ($5 each) with a simple ribbon on the bottom of the wreath.  I can't tie bows for the life of me.  A white poinsettia I picked up at Home Depot while picking up anchors to hang up our super heavy mirror in the entry.  You can also see bits of the cedar popping in the picture which I (I mean my husband) hung around our kitchen doorway (I plan on hanging our cards here).

This was the first year I attempted to put together planters for our front entry.  Ideally, I would love to have mini fir trees with lights, but they were pricey.  This was free!  I clipped branches off our Christmas tree as well as our magnolia tree out back and some berries I picked up at TJs (well, they cost  about $5).

We finally got our tree into the house, but no lights or ornaments just yet.  We focused on celebrating St. Nick and prepping for friends coming over this week to help make ornaments and cookies.

And, yesterday, I made Jenny Steffens Hobick's roasted pork tenderloin which is the easiest recipe in the world to make and tastes delicious (I always make it when we have guests).  ANd, the kids love it too which means its a keeper.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!  And, if you are on IG, I am sorry for the repeat of pictures and I loved seeing all of your Holiday pictures!!

Impromptu Pre-Thanksgiving Table Setting

This year we are traveling to Michigan for Thanksgiving and therefore, we won't be hosting dinner.  But, last Sunday, we had friends over for a rather last minute pre-Thanksgiving dinner.  It was fairly spur of the moment, but the table seemed to come together minutes before they arrived.

Everything I used I already had.  I scoured my fabric stash and used a yard of this outdoor/indoor fabric as the tablecloth.  It provided the perfect neutral backdrop.  I was particularly excited to use my Home Goods turkey plates that I purchased this past summer for about $3 each.

I also was happy to break out my pewter Match candlestick holders for the first time since we've moved into this house!  I didn't spend anytime on the centerpiece.  I would've loved to have spent more time, but there wasn't any.  A quick run to TJs for some winterberries always saves the day!  I plopped them in my vintage ironstone pitcher.

So, while this is a poor substitute for a full blow Thanksgiving spread, it was a fun and casual pre-Thanksgiving dinner with friends!  Sometimes, those last minute get togethers are the best.  Despite it not being the official Thanksgiving dinner, it made us realize how thankful we are.

I wish all of you a very Happy and safe Thanksgiving!  

God Bless!

Mother's Day and Miscellany

For all you mothers/grandmothers/moms-to-be, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I did - I received a card from my son with a coupon for "5 free chores"!  I can't complain about that!

On Mother's Day, we tend to think of our own moms and thank them for all that they sacrificed.  For as long as I could remember, my mother was always 'giving' - her love, time, gifts to others, her "shirt off her back", etc.  This year, I made a couple of lemon cakes and gave them to some of my favorite 'moms' here in Louisville.  In many ways, the act of giving reminded me of my mom.  I was very thankful.

In other news, right before we left for vacation, I spruced up our front entry and back deck with some small updates.  Nothing major.  For our front door, I spray painted two terra cotta containers black and planted mini boxwoods and got a new doormat.

I don't love the black pots, but they are fine for now.  In case you're wondering, my inspiration for our front is something like this….

I also planted two containers/planters (that I bought in CT for a steal) and planted them with my favorite flower - geraniums.  My mom always had red geraniums planted in containers during spring time.  I love geraniums and lavender.

I SO want to paint our deck gray, but it isn't high on our priority list of things to do right now.  Our old house (in CT), the side deck was painted gray and I loved it.   See below.

I love the color combination of honey brown with gray and touches of either green or powder blue.  Rene, from Cottage and Vine, just painted her deck gray and it is lovely!

Ok, I know this post is all over the place so I'll stop while I am ahead.  I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!!

Easter

I hope your Easter was lovely!  Our day started off bright and early!  I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of our first Easter in Louisville.

It was a small Easter this year, as just last week we had a house full of family in town for Luke's birthday (more on that in another post).

A perfect day for egg hunting.  Still in their PJs, the kids ran around the backyard trying to find all the easter eggs that the Easter bunny hid.

After egg hunting, we had had a nice breakfast of mostly jelly beans, scrambled eggs and cinnamon buns.  Nothing like dosing the kids up on sugar before we head to Mass.  After Mass, we strolled a bit through Cherokee Park and took some pictures.

Here, the kids are saying, "Mom, why are you taking the picture so the sun is directly in our eyes?"  Or Luke is thinking, "Mom, when can we go home so I can get out of my church clothes?"

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home playing, relaxing and cooking!  We had a nice family Easter dinner and Luke's favorite dessert - lemon pound cake.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter and celebrated it with the ones you love and hold dear to your heart.

Hello 2014!

I can't believe you are here.  And yet, here you are, another Christmas (sadly) behind us.  

The end of 2013 was wonderful!  It was the best Christmas yet for our little family.  The kind of one that you (as parents) can't seem to push pause long enough to savor all the many magical moments.  Our hearts are full with love and gratitude.  Luke, now 6, completely and utterly gets excited about every tiny thing Christmas has to offer and Elizabeth, 2, was eager and ready to experience the joy.

This is the first time I am not working and am staying home.  I was so completely grateful to experience Christmas every minute through my little ones eyes.  It was the first time Christmas did not feel rushed, hurried, or stressful.  There were many cozy days at home baking cookies, reading Christmas books, working on our daily Advent tasks, witnessing Luke lose both of his two front teeth right before Christmas day, playing games, building legos and playing dolly.  I watched how much my two children really love each other and do selfless acts for one another (unprompted).

I was so happy to capture this moment

But, most importantly, this Christmas seemed special in that both my children seemed to understand the real meaning of Christmas and focused on the birth of Jesus.  

Luke with his Godmother.  See his toothless grin!

This Advent season, Luke did tasks/acts for others.  We received the book, Angela and the Baby Jesus, as a gift for Christmas and I read it to my children and had to fight hard to hold back the tears of joy.  

Thank you Maria!

It is by far now my favorite Christmas book. And, so my friends, I am finding it very hard to start the New Year with a bang or a cheer.  I am afraid to let go of Christmas because I know this time next year, my little ones will be another year older (and so will we)!  And, that just makes me kind of sad because we all know how fast our little ones grow up.  

Our tree

I know this week I will have to take down our decorations and I am kind of dreading it.  Our family room will feel a little lonely and bare without our tree.  I just hope that spring is waiting around the corner, because these freezing temperatures are not what I expected moving to KY!  

Happy New Year to all of you!!! 

Prepping for Easter

Even though snow still covers most of our front and back yard, it hasn't stopped us getting ready for Easter.  We spent this past weekend taking out our Easter decorations and getting the house ready for this weekend!

I bought these hand painted eggs while in Vienna last year.  They are so beautiful.  I so vividly remember this time last year; boy, do I miss Vienna.

When I was younger, my mom always had an easter tree with pussy willows.  I have followed suit and I love how my viennese eggs look with my mom's easter decorations. Luke and I decorated our Easter tree (below).

Our first Easter in our new home!  Yeah!

Some of our paper-mache eggs in a ceramic egg crate.

Big Y, our local grocery store, had a buy one, get one free on mini daffodil plants.  I bought two and planted them in my white enamel mini buckets (that I use for everything).  Easy peasy and it only cost me $5.99.

We used some fresh farm brown and blue eggs this weekend to make soft boiled eggs for breakfast and...

lamb meatballs for dinner.

And, Luke finished his Easter cards.  He was so proud of them.  And, he worked so hard remembering the importance of Easter.

Luke 24:5