Winter Wonderland Tablescape 2015

Last year we created a cozy warm burgundy Christmas decor to welcome home our Evie who had been in the hospital for 4 months. We wanted it warm and inviting as a big welcome home. This year we went in a completely different direction, creating a winter wonderland look full of frosty snowflakes and sparkling silver.

Both the table and the sideboard are decked out with pine bough garlands, with silver balls and snowflake accents. We spent forever polishing every piece of silver in the house so that everything would sparkle in our frosty wonderland.(Once again, please ignore the empty picture frames - two professional artists in the house and we have empty frames - yep- cuckoo birds!)

The snowflakes have been carefully placed to appear as though they have just randomly fallen from the sky and landed around the house.

Mr. and Mrs. Clause are a cherished family heirloom that come out every Christmas. This year they have taken center stage as our Christmas table centerpiece.

We placed a few Christmas balls in silver candlestick holders. An elf seems to have photo-bombed our decorating photo shoot! So fun! Such an awesome trick for taking ADORABLE pictures of your pets, kids, grand-kids or even some whimsical selfies. 

Check out how it's done here: 

Super Easy Photography Trick for adorable Christmas Pics!

These gorgeous silver ornaments are actually salt and pepper shakers. Its quite a rare delight when form and functionality meet like this.

Here's the table place settings with baroque silver charger plates and baroque silver candy dishes on top. The candy dishes will be filled with candy for Christmas day. 

Our sideboard/buffet has got a cascading sheer cover that has an embroidered lace pattern that subtly mimics snowflakes.

At night, this look really comes to life with white twinkle lights everywhere!



I've just realized there are no pictures that include the tree or any other parts of the house. More pictures to come!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and Joyous Season!

Here is a look at last year's cozy warm burgundy decor.


Last Christmas! Check out more pictures here:
Christmas 2014

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.

Birthday Party for Feather

A Very Merry Birthday Party for Feather!

We had a small birthday party for Feather on his birthday this Sunday. 

There are no pictures of the Birthday Boy, or the guests because we were able to keep the Paparazzi at bay for the entire event.

Sometimes it's nice to just live in the moment and see things through your own two eyes rather than on a tiny screen while you snap pictures!

In the afternoon we had a small family get together and had some delicious home-made 'mud pie' (his absolute favorite) -- my aunt makes this for him every year on his birthday.

This yummy pie is served with whipped cream piled high on top of it.

I didn't get any pictures of it topped with whipped cream because I know better than to stand between a hungry birthday boy and his chocolate puddin' pie!

After the party, once the guests had all gone home, we had a small dinner party with just the four of us.

Peggo made Veal Parmigiana for dinner (another one of Feather's top requests).

I personally have to suspend all thoughts of what Veal is, and even then I have a hard time getting through dinner -- but I kept that to myself!

After dinner we surprised him with his favorite Carvel Ice Cream Cake.

I don't know if it is a Long Island thing or just a Hickey family thing, but Carvel Ice Cream cake is like the official taste of birthdays. 

A million childhood memories of birthdays past flood into my mind when I see or taste a Carvel Birthday cake.

It seems like this frosty confection made an appearance at the birthday celebrations of just about every one of my family members -- nearly every year.

I can remember family members soaking knives in hot water just to be able to cut through the cake with a house packed full of family members just waiting to get their piece!

If you've never had a Carvel Ice cream cake, it's vanilla and chocolate ice cream with that signature Carvel crunchy chocolate cookie crumble between the layers (that I thought was coffee grounds when I was a small child).

You can buy these cakes in grocery stores nationwide now, but when I was a child we would get them straight from the Carvel Ice Cream Parlor, and they would write a personalized Happy Birthday message on the cake.

I loved that blue gel they used for writing, and always hoped I got a piece with some blue gel letters on it!

The party decorating was quite a mish-mosh of holidays. 

We are still all decked out for St Patrick's Day so there is lots of Irish green around. 

We swapped out a few pots of gold for birthday party decorations and we were set for a party.

Paper plates can actually go quite a long way in decorating for a birthday party!

Here we have a paper plate sandwiched between a gold charger plate and a clear glass plate so that it has the look and feel of a 'real' plate as opposed to a flimsy piece of cardboard (and oh boy do I have a lot of decorating plans for these clear plates!)

It was a day of family and fun with pie and cake and smiles all around.

That about sums up our celebration of Feather's 88th Birthday Celebration! 

We're looking forward to giving him many more birthday parties to come!

St Patricks Day - Decorating

A Leprechaun has come through our house and doused it with a healthy dose of green!

This looks a lot like the Valentine's Day pictures with a photo filter to change the red to green, but I promise it's not.

In the past, whenever I would try to decorate for St Patrick's Day, I would have a very hard time getting things to match. 

The look would come out as a sort of "Fifty Shades of Green" -- which I can only assume is the story of Christian Green, a kinky leprechaun who grants wishes, but only if your wishes are to be spanked by a kinky leprechaun -- so a slightly different story.

Good luck getting that image out of your mind. 

But back to the decorating -- we wanted a very bright cheery St Patty's Day green, but that color can be a bit intense, so we've made the green an accent on a mainly white foundation. 

We've also got the pots of gold which bring in a nice dark contrasting black and some sparkling gold.

Lots of decorating items being re-used here! Mardi Gras beads and Christmas gold as well as Halloween cauldrons. 

The crown on these beads is reminiscent of the Irish Claddagh (if it had a heart under it) so it still works as a St Patrick's decoration.

The Battenburg lace has made another appearance, this time with a green tablecloth underneath so the green peeks out of the open-work in the lace.

(secret tip: the green underneath is from the dollar store! Usually those plastic tablecloths look and feel awful, but under the lace it works perfectly to add the color!)









Last year after St.Patty's Day we caught a 90% off sale and I picked up these awesome St Patty's necklaces with giant shamrocks and Irish charms. I LOVE after holiday sales!

I knew they would bring some festive bling-bling to each place setting. 

I also scored these gorgeous green glass candy dishes in the exact green I was looking for.

The gold charger plates are back again and feel reminiscent of giant gold coins. 

I mixed in some green plastic plates because they are the perfect color, and when stacked in the white china they are working almost like a second layer of charger plates. 

The only green cloth napkins I had were a deep hunter-type green, so the lovely napkins shown here are actually paper napkins!

The centerpiece is a very real cauldron that I found at Savers. It weighs a TON and was clearly used many times by it's previous owner. 

I imagined it being used by a witch to boil eye of newt for Halloween, and I knew I had to have it for for my Halloween decor. 

When I realized it could come out again filled with gold coins for St Patrick's Day too, I was sold!










The buffet is covered in lace with a green tablecloth underneath and you can see the green coming through very subtly. (green plastic tablecloth to the rescue again!)











The lace pattern is small flowers, not shamrocks, but it gives the impression of clover and swirls, and in my decorating fantasies it is shamrocks.

Big green bows with shamrock shaped leprechaun buckles were found at the dollar store and I love them!

That pretty much covers our St Patrick's Day decorating. 

Now it is on to plan some green baking projects!








Thank you for stopping by!! 

Here's wishing that you find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!