Holidays & Entertaining – Page 4

over-decking the halls

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

We were out tonight and while driving through a neighboring town, I was amazed by how nutso some people go with the Christmas decorations on the outside of their homes. I’m definitely a minimalist. White lights strung along the gutter. Candles in the windows (usually – though not this year because L. would be grabbing them). Our Christmas tree in view through a front window. And that’s about it.

Now, I know everyone has their own decorating tastes, but some people… well, I have to ask myself, What are they thinking??? And I’m not just talking about the inflatable decorations or the ancient light-up Frosty in front of the metal building you live in. There’s one house that has — I kid you not — a full, electric, light-up American flag in the middle-top of the house, a light-up Santa on the bottom right, and a light-up Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on the bottom left. All it needed was a “USA!” sign blinking in the center of it all. How about you pick either Santa or the nativity. It all just seems a bit much to me. Of course, I’m sure people drive by my house and think that it’s pathetic that I don’t go all out, LOL!

What about you — are you all about the expressive lawn art, the projected Christmas messages on your garage, the Clark Griswold experience? Or do you prefer to keep it simple?

2011 radio city christmas spectacular

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Carol — No Comments ↓

When I was a little girl, I’d watch the Rockettes in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and wish I could dance like they do. Alas, I am terribly uncoordinated and can’t really dance at all. So I simply hoped to see them live at Radio City Music Hall someday.

Back in 2008 we had the opportunity to take Jake (who was then in 1st grade) to see the show and I think I was more excited than he was! It was everything I hoped it would be. So this year I wondered if it would still be magical for me, having seen it so recently. Well let me tell you, it was even better and totally blew me away!

Before I get to the photos of the show, I just have to share this pic of the chandelier in the lobby. I asked Drew if we could get one like it for our dining room.

How beautiful! The entire theatre is gorgeous and makes me think of old-timey New York. Love it! The show itself is just bigger than life. At the risk of sounding super cheesy, it took my breath away. And being the sap that I am, I found myself getting teary randomly during the numbers. I don’t really know why, but yeah — I was one using her sleeve like a tissue because I forgot to take actual tissues.

The grand finale is the living nativity and it gave me chills and — yes — made me cry again. You don’t have to be Christian or even believe in God to get emotional during this last act. (At least in my opinion.) With the live animals (including camels!), the slow movement, the music, the lighting… it’s just breathtaking.

It’s not a cheap day out, I’ll be honest, but it is worth every penny. They boys loved it and to hear their ooohs and ahhs and see them riveted during certain scenes… well, you just can’t put a price on that. I’m already looking forward to Laura’s turn 🙂

rockefeller center tree and sak’s window display

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday! (Though I doubt anyone was really waiting for it, LOL!) It was just one of those days and we’ll leave it at that. Anyway, the next leg of our NYC trip was taking the boys to Rockefeller Center.

We were there on Tuesday and the tree wasn’t going to be lit until the next day, but since you can barely see the lights during the day it didn’t matter much. The tree this year is really fat. I have to say it looked prettier in some of the night time photos I’ve seen than it did when we were there. Nevertheless, it was very impressive!

The area was bustling with television techs getting the area ready for the lighting. I pretty much just tried to stay out of their way. Across the street we saw Radio City Music Hall. I love the neon any time of year, but it’s extra pretty with the lights and trees.

Sak’s Fifth Avenue is right there, too. Their window displays are always so inventive and, well, gorgeous! This year’s display tells the story of a little girl named Holly and a magical discovery of the Bubblemakers.

I was rushed through by some little old ladies, so my photos aren’t the greatest, but hopefully you get a hint of how beautiful it is this year!

I’ll conclude tomorrow (really I will) with the absolute highlight of the day: the Radio City Christmas Spectacular!

hartstrings black friday sale

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Do you guys remember the Hartstrings review I did a couple weeks ago? Well, the dress was a hit at the birthday party and held up well in the wash. I have since been eyeing an adorable Christmas dress for Laura. What do you think:

Obviously I love the traditional look for dressy outfits, but offers a variety of styles from classic to modern. And they are having an excellent — everything on their webiste (including sale items!) is an extra 20% off. If you hop over there you’ll notice that many outfits are already discounted, so you can get 20% off on top of that.

If you haven’t already found holiday outfits for your children, Friday would be a great time!

on a rainy pre-thanksgiving day

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Carol — No Comments ↓

(Get this cute free printable ateighteen25)

So, is everyone ready for Thanksgiving Day tomorrow? I have been prepping like crazy all day (and putting the kids to work, as well). All that’s left, really, is setting the dining room table.

My mother-in-law is bringing the stuffing, which I feel is the most work-intensive part of the meal, so even though I am hosting and cooking most of the dishes, I still feel like I got off easy. I also adapted my brandied cranberry sauce recipe to be diabetic-friendly and experimented with a raspberry-lime cheesecake (sugar-free, low-carb of course). I used muffin tins instead of making the cheesecake in one big pan and I think it worked great! I also got to taste one of the “ugly” ones and I’m pretty happy with the result. I will post both recipes next week.

I’m not making either of the desserts I originally planned, but that’s OK. There’s always Christmas!

If you’re heading on the highways today or tomorrow, I wish you safe travels (it’s such a hassle to have to call roadside assistance on a holiday, no matter how grateful you are that they’ve come to help). I’m happy we’ll just be home with family coming to us! No matter how you celebrate, enjoy your day!

thanksgiving menu

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Carol — No Comments ↓

I’m going to be honest: Thanksgiving is stressing me out this year. It’s not because we have a ton of people coming over (actually, Drew’s mom and aunt will be our only guests, so it won’t be much different than a Sunday dinner). It’s because of the carb-fest potential.

I feel so conflicted about serving and eating certain foods, but I’m trying to let go and tell myself it’s a holiday. I’ve eaten crackers and stuffing and bread and pie for years. Am I being unreasonable to think that these foods are suddenly going to kill me just because I’ve read a few books* this year? Probably. One meal isn’t going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. And it’s not like I’m going to scarf down an entire sleeve of Ritz.

So, with that in mind (I suppose I feel like I have to justify the appearance of certain items on this menu, considering how I’ve been talking up a certain way of eating as of late), here’s what I’m planning for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Appetizers

shrimp cocktail

deviled eggs

crackers with homemade tomato jam and cream cheese

Dinner

roast turkey with pan gravy

cranberry-sausage stuffing (brought by my mother-in-law)

baked sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon

mashed potatoes (just a small amount per the kids’ request)

green beans

cranberry sauce

cornbread

green salad

Dessert

pumpkin pecan dessert (made diabetic-friendly)

sugar-free chocolate mousse

While I’m at it, I’m also breaking my rule about serving food in canning jars. I think the exception to the rule is the small 4 oz. jars, which I’ll be using for the desserts. Not only are they admittedly adorable, but making the desserts in the jar will simplify refrigerator storage (because you can’t stack pie plates, my friends) as well as save me the hassle of finding dessert plates.

Hopefully I will be able to relax a bit about the food and be able to just enjoy the day.

* Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, by Gary Taubes; The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf; Wheat Belly, by William Davis (OK, I haven’t read this entirely yet, but I’ve read excerpts and interviews to get the gist.)

holiday crafting

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

I thought I’d give you a peek into my crochet basket so you know what’s keeping me from blogging. Any guesses? Elf hats!

Last week a high school friend asked about knit newborn hats for photo sessions (he and his wife are photographers). After I hooked up this sample, I sent him a photo to get his thoughts:

He liked it and asked me to hook up nine (!) hats ASAP.

I’m 1/3 of the way done, which doesn’t sound like much but I think it’s pretty good since I’m not a fast crafter! Hopefully I can crank the rest out and get the lot mailed out early next week. After that I might put a few in my neglected Etsy shop. We’ll see.

father’s day weekend

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Playing catch-up here, so bear with me! I hope you all spoiled your dads on Father’s Day weekend. I hung out with Big Z on Friday and Saturday and had a great visit with my family. Drew had been camping with Jake and came home on Sunday morning. I’d been joking that he was going to get zumba dancing lessons as his gift, so he was relieved when the kids gave him his real gift. I’d ordered this copper guitar pick for him and he loved it! I also arranged to have our piano tuned. It is long, long, long overdue. He will finally enjoy playing the piano again 🙂

His mom and aunt came up for lunch and I whipped everything together pretty quick (since I myself got home at 9 a.m. from Massachusetts). I made a beef tenderloin, black bean salad (with the addition of spinach), scalloped potatoes, and creamy fruit salad (a recipe Lisanne gave me years ago — it is one of our favorites!)

For dessert, Drew’s mom brought a cheesecake. It was super yummy! (In fact, there is still a little left in the fridge and I intend to have a piece tonight!)

I tried to give my guy a nice, relaxing day, even though he still had to put away all that camping gear! Did you do anything special?

two!!!

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Today my baby is two years old! I can hardly believe it. Lulu is still such a peanut that she still seems like a little baby to me, and as my last she probably will always seem that way.

We had her party on Sunday afternoon and I think it went well. Although it was quite hot, the deck was comfortable with the umbrellas and the breeze from the woods. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and honestly prep was super easy. Here are a few photos of the way everything turned out.

We have a tremendous amount of Cub Scout popcorn that we need to eat before sales start again in the fall (argh!), so I decided to give bags away as favors. Why not, right? I made tags that said “Thanks for popping in!” which Drew thought was cheesy, but I didn’t care.

I kept the favors for the kids really simple. I wanted to avoid giving candy, and didn’t want to unload more junk on the other kids’ parents, so I put a silly straw, a clown nose, and a box of animal crackers inside a plastic popcorn box. Even though it didn’t seem like much, the kids all thought they were great.

I ended up hanging my banner on the hutch so there was some kind of decoration around the food table. I found a red and white checkered table cloth at Christmas Tree Shops (it was a steal!), so I used that and then I actually had an old light blue valance that I added toward the front of the table because it had a pretty scalloped edge.

Cooking the hot dogs in the Crock Pot was the perfect solution. They tasted great, I didn’t have to turn on the grill, and they were all ready at the same time. We ended up grilling an extra London Broil the night before, just to have a “grown up” option on the table. The popcorn looked adorable in the vintage-style bags I’d purchased and I arranged them all in a vintage picnic basket Drew’s aunt gave me years ago. Most people took a bag for the ride home instead of eating it with their meal.

I never did make the antipasto skewers for appetizers. I just served chips and salsa and bruschetta with baguette slices I toasted myself.

I was so pleased with the cake bunting! I’d seen several variations on Pinterest and was afraid that just one row wouldn’t be enough. But I think it was perfect. This was easy to do with ribbon. I know I promised a tutorial and I have not forgotten!

The red, white, and blue fit in well with Memorial Day weekend, too — an added bonus!

red and blue vintage circus bunting tutorial (sort of)

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Yesterday I completed the one project I wasn’t sure I’d complete in time for Laura’s birthday party — a fabric pennant/bunting/whatever you want to call it. These have been all over the web for a while now, and on my “to do” list since spring. I kind of made up the instructions as I went along. All I knew was it had to meet these requirements:

Easy to do. I do not have the time right now to be all fussy with things like this.
Look old and vintage-y. Fraying? No problem. Uneven lines? Hey, that’s okay! It just makes it look more handmade.
Be multi-purpose. I need to use this for more than just one event.

So, the color scheme I’m using, as you know, is turquoise and red. Well, it’s lapsed into various shades of blue and red which is perfect since the party is also Memorial Day weekend. I will be able to use this bunting for years on the 4th of July as well, so I will definitely get a lot of use out of it.

First, I chose my fabrics. I just bought a bunch of fat quarters in patterns that I liked. Then I ironed them flat, then folded each in half the long way (with right sides facing each other) and ironed it again. I used this template from Cicada Daydream to trace triangles on the wrong side of the fabric. Because I wasn’t going to be turning my triangles inside-out, I cut out my triangle pattern on the dotted (sew) line. I used pinking shears because I like that look. It looks old. It also makes me think of my grandmother 🙂 Then, I sewed a straight stitch around the two long sides of each triangle. I didn’t go across the top.

Then I took some navy blue bias tape that I had in my stash, snugged a triangle up inside, and sewed it. Repeat until you run out of triangles or the bunting is as long as you want it. And let me warn you: if you decide to have a little glass of Tia Maria and milk while you sew up your second bunting, chances are you will mess up a few triangles and then your husband will ask why you’re cursing so much. 😉

In hindsight, a smarter thing to do would have been to take fabric glue (personally, I like Fabri-Tac) and glue each triangle into place on the bias tape, and then sew one single line across. It would look a lot neater and save some time. But I’m still happy with the way this came out. I’ll be sure to take a photo of it “in action” at the party on Sunday!