A Kiss at Midnight: A New Year Celebration

Spending New Years Eve at home doesn't mean you can't celebrate and bring in the new year with style! 

We dressed the table in a lovely "Kiss at Midnight" theme complete with silver and gold accents, a clock plate at every place setting to count down to midnight, confetti streamers and of course, Hershey Kisses so that everyone gets a kiss at midnight!

Sparkling Cider or Champagne makes a great centerpiece. The non-alcoholic grape juice or apple juice versions mean you can bring this celebration into New Years Day for a lovely New Years Day brunch, or let the kids stay up late on New Years Eve and toast the new year with their own kid-friendly glass of bubbly! 

Pssst...Want to hear a secret? These lovely clock plates were made right here at home, and you can make them too. It's just a clock face printed, cut out and placed under a clear glass plate on top of silver charger plates. If you'd like to make these yourself, you can get the free printable below! Also check out some more great custom table settings you can make with clear plates here! (link coming soon)

Make sure you have some Hershey Kisses saved from the Christmas candy stash for your midnight kiss! I put aside some of the red and green ones as well - to find out why, look here!

..and just a few photos with only the warm glow of the Christmas lights.

Free Printable to use at your own New Year's Eve Party. Happy New Year!

Super Easy Trick: Adorable Christmas Pics

A Super Easy Trick for the Most Adorable Christmas Pictures!

I was photographing some Christmas decorating ideas when a little elf photobombed my pictures! The results were so adorable that I immediately knew I had to share the idea.

All you need is an adorable baby, an adorable child, adorable pet, or your adorable self and a shiny reflective Christmas ball for the cutest and silliest pictures or video you've ever seen.

The giggles will abound and the memories will last a lifetime.

SPECIAL TIPS! If the Christmas ball is on the tree you'll have a lovely pine background, but you can also place a Christmas ball in a candlestick holder making it easier to take the picture in the best selfie (or elfie) lighting!

If you have some antique heirloom ornaments this would be an even more sentimental picture. Taking these pictures every year as a family tradition would be a great alternative to a more serious family portrait, and they would look great on your own custom Christmas Cards!


Above: The Christmas ball is hanging on the tree.

Above: the Christmas ball is placed in a silver candlestick holder making it possible to take the picture in the best selfie (or elfie) lighting!

You can sneak the camera in over their shoulder and hide behind them for a solo portrait, or you can both squeeze into the shot together for a unique holiday couples portrait.

Have fun with it, and let me know how your pictures turned out in the comments section below!

Halloween 2015

This Halloween we wanted to create a spooky haunted forest but still keep it light and playful enough that it was still warm, inviting and not too gloomy.  

Some dead tree branches from the yard were perfect for making a huge impact - and the best part is that they cost NOTHING!

When you bring lots of natural elements into the decor everything falls into place. Sea shells, leaves, branches, pine cones and any other natural element can cover your decorating schemes for all the seasons and holidays.

"Creepy Cloth" is a very loose weave gauze-like fabric that can be draped from almost any surface to create a delightfully creepy look. Here we have draped it on our picture frames (two professional artists in the house and we have EMPTY picture frames....we're cuckoo!).

A simple branch in a flower pot with some floral foam and a centerpiece is born!

Birds perched in random places makes it feel as if they have landed there themselves, and that we are being quietly outnumbered by some spooky guests.

Orange and black is such a traditionally Halloween color scheme, but it can feel a bit tacky at times. With the right balance and some natural elements some Halloween elegance can be attained.

A bird and some silk leaves on each place setting helps tie the buffet decor to the table. We found our birds at Dollar Tree.

We like to bring out the ornate silver charger plates and accessories for a Halloween look because it feels like they could be right out of an old haunted mansion!

We found some lovely salad plates with a subtle embossed leaf pattern covering the entire surface of the plate. The natural leaf pattern makes them ideal for autumn decor and because they are plain white instead of fall colors they will fit in beautifully with Spring and Easter decor as well.

Here is a look back at last Halloween with our buffet in burgundy and black. 

As always, thanks for stopping by! Likes, shares, pins, follows and comments always greatly appreciated!

Return of the Light. Lessons from the Eclipse.

I don't mean to wax poetic about the waxing moon, but I just wanted to share a little moon moment.

One quick glimpse at social media and the flurry of blurry photos of light blobs on black backgrounds and you know that there was some sort of lunar event.

There was also ample warning leading up to the eclipse that made sure we all knew that there was yet another once-in-a-lifetime sight to see in the sky.

But imagine life before technology.

Imagine a time when instead of our little glowing phone screens, the only thing to light our night was that big comforting ball of cheese in the sky.

Imagine how terrifying it would have been when that big ole' cheese-ball suddenly and unexpectedly turned an ominous shade of crimson, and we had no idea why -- and we wondered if it was the end of the world.

Now we've got google and iflscience to light our way and explain these mysteries to us, so it isn't scary. We know our beloved cheeseball is safe and sound and playing hide and seek in our shadow -- it will be right back and as bright and beautiful as it ever was.

If only all of life was that simple.

For me, this eclipse was a little reminder lesson about when we enter the dark moments in our lives. We have no control, and we don't know if the light will ever return.

We don't have a magical website that explains the reasons behind the dark and scary moments in our lives --we don't know how long they will last. We don't have that same reassurance that like the eclipse, it is natural and normal and everything is going to be alright. We don't know for sure that it is not the end of the world until we start to see the return of the light.

Above is the picture I took as the September 2015 Blood Moon eclipse event was coming to a close. The moon was just beginning to free itself from the darkness. 

Don't worry 'bout a thing, because every little thing is gonna be alright.

It is the return of the light.

Hang in there... 

I took this picture (above) of a 'supermoon' in its full glory a year or two ago.

Star Spangled Seashore Celebration

When summertime rolls around, we love to bring the beach and seashore into the decor -- so for our Fourth of July theme, we went with a 'Star Spangled Seashore'!

Sometimes it's hard to part with a particular decor or theme and this year we really did not want to take down our cool summertime Oysters and Pearls: Seashore Celebration. 

We couldn't skip the fireworks and the Red White and Blue though, so we created a sort of patriotic seashore fusion.

Though there are quite a few similarities between this theme and the last, we don't mind because we are using many of our most favorite things.

Making their return are the silver charger plates and matching silver nut dishes in both baroque and seashell shapes. Also the pearls, fishing nets, lantern and seashells are back. 

New to the table is a gorgeous navy blue blanket being used as a tablecloth topper. Also new to the table are some lovely red salad plates and some Navy blue napkins.

We've got our patriotic red white and blue 'fire'Cracker Jacks ready as a nostalgic summertime treat. We added red white and blue striped ribbon just to make them extra special. 

With a name tag or note attached to the ribbon they would make an awesome place card or party favor as well.

We've also got our Pop Rocks, because they are like having a fireworks show in your mouth!

The sideboard is all gussied up with red white and blue bunting and other patriotic  themed items. 

We found these sparkly balloon weights from Dollar Tree. They certainly are not a statement of understated elegance, and they may be a bit gaudy, but they feel like a fireworks launch! 

If you can't add a little over-the-top sparkly glitz and glam for the 4th of July, when can you?



We'll be adding some of our favorite patriotic recipes and entertaining ideas soon -- until then, here are some pictures from last year's 4th of July celebration, and a few more from this year.

Happy "Bird" Day Celebration - Our Evie Bird's Birthday and Mother's Day Celebration.

Happy "Bird" Day Celebration - our Evie Bird's Birthday Celebration.

You may have noticed that we love giving each other nicknames (Evie, Feather, Peggo, etc.).

We also love personalizing every celebration and playing with words. 

When we needed a theme for our little Evie Bird's birthday, it just seemed natural that we would have a bird-day party instead of a birthday party!

As soon as we saw these beautiful plates covered in birds, lace, tea-cups and flowers we knew they would be perfect for her Springtime bird-day party, as well as Mother's Day!

The bird plates and napkins are paper (from Dollar Tree), so we pressed the paper plate between a silver charger plate and a clear glass plate. 

This is our new favorite way to dress up a place setting and create a custom looking party theme. We did this for Feather's birthday party as well. 

We added a grapevine wreath on top to give each place-setting its own little "nest." 

The table was decked out in a pink tablecloth with a white lace overlay and silver candlesticks wrapped in delicate spring blossoms. 

We added a lovely antique bird cage as the centerpiece.

Of course this birthday party would not be complete if we didn't serve all of the birthday girl's favorite treats(no matter how peculiar a collection of food items they may be!). 

We whipped up one of her favorites -- Rice Crispy Treats!

We made a batch of our family recipe for macaroni salad. 

Our family recipe brings me right back to so very many childhood memories. 

We used to have family gatherings so large that we would make the family macaroni salad and potato salad in such large quantities that we made them directly in the crisper drawers of our fridge!

Of course we had a birthday cake for blowing out candles and making birthday wishes. (I didn't get any pictures of the delicious Chocolate Sundae cake before it was cut, because we all gobbled it up before I could snap a single picture! Here is picture of the very last piece)

We also picked up some fresh ripe strawberries, shortcake and whipped cream for making strawberry shortcakes. 

Evie often tells the story of how she would have strawberry shortcake on her birthday when she was a child, and how it was extra special because strawberries were not available year-round like they are now. 

Strawberries were a springtime treat that always made her childhood birthdays extra sweet!















So there you have it --  Evie's 88th Bird-day party full of birds, berries, blossoms and blessings.

Happy Bird-day to you Evie!