Monday, December 28, 2009

New Year's Eve Party Inspiration

I tend to think that New Year's Eve gets more hype than it deserves, but I will admit that I enjoy planning a fun gathering of friends to ring in the New Year.  Here are a few invitations from FineStationery.com  that could be tailored to fit an elegant soiree or a relaxed gathering with close friends.  I love the idea of a New Year's Day brunch as a way to celebrate with friends and family in a more toned-down way, in lieu of a blow-out party the night before.

This robin egg blue invite by Caspari gives a different twist to the typical black/silver/gold.


A black/copper color combination could also double as a unique color scheme for your New Year's party.


The Bubbly Bottle invite by Meri Meri could be dressed up or down.


I love this festive, chic invitation by Checkerboard at FineStationery.com


The Snowflake Invitation by Crane & Co from FineStationery.com would work for either a NYE or New Year's Day event

This year we are celebrating with friends at the cottage in Monteagle and then spending the weekend watching football and relaxing.  We will either cook dinner or eat from a spread of appetizers galore and desserts.  I should really start to figure out all of those details now that the parties and celebrations surrounding Christmas have passed.  More to come on our New Year's plans (and the menu that accompanies it).

Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas cocktail party

My hubby and I hosted our annual Christmas party for our friends last Saturday night.  We love entertaining in our home, but we have not been able to because things have been so busy.  In my free time (ha!) over the past couple of weeks, I've been brainstorming about fabulous food, delicious cocktails and unique decor for our Christmas party. I put together a fun menu of nibbles and sweets for everyone to enjoy. 


I believe that our guests enjoyed the food and drinks that we prepared, since there were hardly any leftovers!  Now that is what I consider a success. 

I received rave reviews about the poppy seed ham rolls, Christmas cream cheese olives, oreo balls, and kris kringle punch, so I am going to post those four recipes.


I setup one bar in the kitchen- kris kringle punch (on the right in the pitcher) was a big hit!

Friends!

Flower arrangement that I made for my dining room table.  I used white hydrangea, white tulips, spray roses, hypericum berries, and holly.


The spread of food: cream cheese olives, smoked salmon cucumber canapes, and pesto torte are pictured on the front side of the table.

2009 Christmas Party Recipes
click on each item below to see the recipe
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Poppy Seed Ham Rolls
Christmas Cream Cheese Olives

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Holiday decor, greenery and more


I just love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree inside of the house.  This year we began decorating much earlier than usual (we started the day after Thanksgiving!) simply because our December looked to be super busy and hectic.  Well, it's fair to say that December has proven to be both hectic and fun, and I am thrilled to have the house decorated inside and out. 

Starting with the outside of the house, my sweet husband hung a pine garland wrapped with lights around the outside of our front door and also put little white lights on the boxwoods at the bottom of the stairs. 

                                                
This year I opted to go with a square boxwood wreath on the front door to mix things up a little bit.  Recently I have gotten a kick of making my own big red bows. 




I think the key to making your own big bows is having really good quality wired ribbon.  It makes the whole process so forgiving, since the wire in the ribbon lets you adjust the bow once you are done making all the loops. Here are step by step instructions (with pictures) on how to make big bows.

This year, I decorated the tree with all of my favorite ornaments, which mainly consists of a lot of different gold, green, red and silver balls.  Over the past couple of years, I have acquired pine cone shaped ornaments of all kinds and a variety of Santa Claus ornaments as well. 


My favorite decoration, other than the Christmas tree, is the mailbox.  I know this might sound silly or strange, but growing up it was a big deal to have the mailbox decorated with pine fronds, loads of magnolia, pine cones, and of course a big red bow on either side.  The mothers (including my own mom) at my elementary school used to sell decorated mailboxes as a fundraiser for the school.  When my husband and I moved into our home a couple years ago, my mom came over and gave me a tutorial on how to decorate the mailbox.  This year was my 2nd time to decorate it on my own, and I think I have finally gotten the hang of it! 


Monday, December 14, 2009

And the winner is...


Congratulations to my friend, Hall, who was drawn as the winner of my first ever giveaway. We had a number of submissions, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your favorite holiday traditions. 

Hall's (the winner) favorite holiday tradition:

My favorite holiday tradition is celebrating Christmas Eve with our good family friends (instead of our family). They have adopted us as their cousins, and after all the adults go to bed, we get together at someone else's house and have "cousin time" until early in the morning on Christmas day.   - Hall from D.C. 
Here are couple of my other favorite submissions from the giveaway:
Probably my favorite Christmas tradition is baking sugar cookies with my sister, Mitchell. Even though we have lived in separate cities for the past few years, we are certain to make time for this special task together. We use an old sugar cookie recipe from my mom which calls for sour cream to make the cookies extra moist and gooey. After making the batter and letting it chill in the fridge for a few hours, we pull it out and the real fun begins.
We take over the entire kitchen counter and sprinkle it with flour (after cleaning it of course). Then we roll out the dough and use the same cookie cutters that my mom has had for over 30 years. We are constantly filling baking sheets and popping them in the oven, while new cookies are being rolled and cut. By the end we are both covered in flour and have ingested about 8 pounds of raw cookie dough. Once the cookies have cooled, we ice them with a mixture of powdered sugar and milk. The secret to this is not adding too much milk so that the icing isn't too runny. We also add food coloring to make green, red, and yellow icing. One of us is usually in charge of icing the cookies, while the other follows behind with sprinkles.

At the end of the night we are left with about 4 dozen brightly colored, delicious cookies that look like a couple of 3 year olds made. But what matters most are the memories that are made right along with them. - Christine from Nashville
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I will be going to my mother's Christmas dinner for the 58th time this year with my children who are 26 and 22 and they have spent their whole lives doing this, we meet at l2:00 and open gifts and eat the big turkey and trimmings on Albemarle Farm, an almost 200 yr. old home recognized by the Kentucky Historical Society and was on the home tour last year in Bourbon County!!   - Mary Louise from Lexington
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Decorating the Christmas Tree. We always decorate the Christmas Tree and listen to Aaron Neville's Christmas CD. My husband, David, always complains about listening to Aaron Neville. I however, believe that you have to be a little cheesed out when decorating the tree. - Brook from Murfreesboro
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the giveaway.  Hopefully this will be the first of many!  More to come later this week about decorating the home for the holidays and my upcoming Christmas cocktail party.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

'Tis the season for generosity - my first giveaway!

In the spirit of the holidays, I am hosting my first giveaway to my loyal readers. I have chosen to give away a set of 4 glass wine goblets by Alessi, courtesy of CSN, which has over 200 online stores, which sell pretty much anything and everything from counter stools to entertaining accessories and cool furniture. 


So here's how the giveaway will work. From now until Friday, December 11th at 11:59am (Central Standard Time), complete the form below then click the SUBMIT button (one entry per person).  Check back on Monday, December 14 to see who won.  I will use Random.org's integer generator to choose a random winner. Please note that I will draw a new winner if I don't hear from the original winner within a week of notification. 
 
UPDATE -12.12.09- Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.  The winner will be posted on Monday, December 14th at 8:00am!!!