The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Gearing up for the annual Christmas Cookie Baking Party held at my home every year.  It's so much fun getting together with family and friends, baking our holiday cookies all in one day.  Yes it is a lot of work, but so worth it in the end.  We bake from about 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM.  We do take a break for a very nice sit down luncheon that I prepare for everyone, then we get back up and start baking again.  We baked over 1000 cookies for all of us to share last year, everyone went home with a huge bundle of cookies.

This gathering every year started out small 9 years ago when I decided to do this, and has now grown to 12 people this year.  Everyone is asked to bring their own mixer and an assigned ingredient, usually butter, eggs, sugar or flour.  I provide all the sprinkles, flavorings, nuts and other baking ingredients.

We have a great time every year, we laugh sometimes to the point of crying, we share family stories and have girl time.  It's extra special for me this year, my youngest will be home from France and can join in on the fun. I haven't layed eyes on her since August!  I will be so happy when her feet come through the door.  The house will be "over the top" decorated this year in her honor, and her welcome home dinner may be Chinese takeout or Pizza.  Go figure, she is in one of the fanciest food places on earth and wants common food when she comes home, that's my girl!

I am still planning stages of the baking party, I tentatively set the menu, my table scape and party favors.  I did pick out all the cookies we will bake, my niece who is joining us for the first time is a professional baker, and she will decorate them.   Alot of new things going on with this party, I am so excited.

  I made initial tags for each place setting on the table that can also be used as a tree ornament or napkin ring, check them out, as well as some coordinating decorations I picked up along the way.  Stay tuned to this blog for more holiday decorating to come.  This is The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year for me! 

 I used my kids' old music books for the stars, the tags will match all the Christmas decor I will have in my dining room. 

 I traced the stars with a cookie cutter and then cut them out.

 I took a smaller star cutter and cut out the center stars, now I have 12 of each size star.

 For a stiffer backing I used Kraft stock paper.  I glued the paper stars onto the Kraft paper with a glue stick and then cut them out, leaving a small border of Kraft paper around the edges. I brushed a coat of Mod Podge on each star one at a time so it did not dry out, and sprinkled iridescent white glitter over the surface.

 Tap the excess glitter off and dry on a rack, make sure they do not touch each other or they will stick together.  Next I used glitter glue to write everyone's initial on each little star.  Let them dry completely before touching.  You can also use Elmer's glue and fine glitter for the initials as I did here with the green one.

 I found this beautiful, soft velvet ribbon at Marshall's last year, I snagged a bunch of these rolls in different colors, because it was so pretty I could not pass it up .  Each roll was 10 yards, alot of ribbon for $5.99.   I cut each strip of ribbon about 10 inches long for a hanger.

 My initial stars are dried and ready to be glued to the big star.  I snipped some cedar greens from bushes in my front garden, hit them with a dot of glue,  put a few dots of glue on the back of the small star, lay the small star on top of the greens and press so it sticks and dries.

 Fold ribbon over to make a loop and glue to the back of the star.  All done!  Cute little place cards made with things I already had in the house.  

Musical Note Merry Christmas Glittered Banner and Musical Note Burlap Ribbon  - Home Goods

Glittered Snowflakes with Red Satin Ribbons - Christmas Tree Shop

Christmas Dinner Table Scape

I hope you all had wonderful holidays filled with love, family and friends.  Our Christmas Eve was spent with my daughter and her boyfriend at their home, with lots of great food, family and friends.  Christmas day was celebrated at our home surrounded by our family, and again with great food.  We started the day off with a big breakfast, and as tradition follows, it was appetizer time.  They all look forward to the appetizers and pick all day until dinner.  As the day progressed, everyone played catch up and got intenseley involved with board games.  I served a fantastic dinner of Prime Rib with Bearnaise Sauce, Sauteed Portobello Mushrooms, Au Gratin Potatoes, Roasted Green Beans and warm rolls.  I also made a Ham Glazed with Pineapple, Brown Sugar, Orange Juice and Ginger Ale (the way my mom use to make it).  Next up, Dessert - Homemade Vanilla Bean Cake with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting, Lemon Meringue Pie and Brownies with Vanilla Ice Cream, and not to forget, all the homemade cookies and candies. Our house is an all day food fest!  Stuffed, yes we were, and if anyone went home hungry it was their own fault!

I spruced up my table scape (from the cookie party) and switched out a few things.  I set it with a pine green tablecloth, burlap and silver runner, red and silver chargers, Christmas china, red velvet ribbon, red napkins and party favors that I made up.  The party favors were little red and white striped boxes, tied with Joy, Noel and Star glitters tags, stuffed with green shred and 2 instant lottery tickets, so everyone had a little (non- food) treat when they sat down. And yes, we did have a few winners on those tickets!

Autumn Splendor........

Autumn truly is a wonderful time of color.  The leaves rustling, changing to a palette of shades in red, gold, brown and orange, that make a beautiful backdrop against the sky.  These are some of my favorite colors, the harvest colors, I show them all through my home during the time of Fall.  Here are a few of the ways I use them.

I made this grapevine wreath for the front door last year.  This year I hung the metal Crow's Nest sign on it.  Rust and Yellow colored mums with Fountain grass.  TIP:  A great way to store all of your wreaths is to cover them with a trash bag that fits over the wreath and hang in the garage.  Mine hang off of a ceiling beam in my garage, up and away from everything so they don't get smashed or dirty.  I write what wreath it is on the trash bags so I know what is inside.

The berry wreath I've had for a number of years.  I found this cute ribbon with scarecrows and pumpkins on it at Michael's and made a bow, it hangs on the inside of the door.  Rooster grass, Kale and Mums.

 This little pine cone wreath I found in a gift shop a while ago. I just added a bow, it hangs inside the house in the foyer.  I switched out the lemons and hydrangeas, that decorated the rooster for Summer, for pumpkins, apples, pears, leaves, pine cones and acorns for Fall.

Found this box years ago at a farm gift shop and I stuff it with pumpkins, gourds, apples, pears, leaves and bittersweet.  I added the burlap bow this year.  It sits on the floor in my foyer.

The downstairs bathroom gets decorated too!  Metal cart with scarecrows, hay bales, pine cones and pumpkins.  Living room coffee table - I had the floral arrangement and added the feather's, also had the pumpkins and the lantern.

 Family Room coffee table candle basket - leaves, books, stars, pumpkins, acorns and paper flowers.

The picture frame and picture are from IKEA.  I spray painted the mat so it would match the picture. Spray paint is your friend! Remember that one.

 Kitchen window - Tied Fall ribbon around the topiaries.  The cabbages (4) were on clearance at Target.  The little wreath I made.

 This is what the cabbages look like up close.

A Shopping I will Go....

Who doesn't love to shop?  I can shop and not even buy anything.  I like to compare prices, when I am out and about, to get the best deal I can.  Always buy discount when you can.

 I was looking for an insulated bag, to keep in the back of my car, for shopping trips far away from home and days at the beach.  I was in Home Goods (they had many different patterns) and found this cute one with lobsters on it.  The handle folds down and has a foam rubber sleeve on it for comfort when carrying.  It is very sturdy, the top unzips like a picnic basket on both sides.  The size is 18 " x 13" x 10.

  The cost - $16.99.

It's insulated and padded inside.  So throw some of those freezer packs in the bottom (you can get at Dollar Tree) and off you go, no worries about anything spoiling while you're out or at the beach.

The straps have velcro on the metal frame so it's removable and you can throw into the washer when it gets dirty.

I have alot of get togethers over the summer so when I make a homemade drink, flavored tea, lemonade or cocktails, I wanted something nice to put it in.  I found this beverage dispenser at Big Lots for $10.00.  It holds 1.3 gallons. And how cute is that - It's shaped like a bee skep!

These cute patriotic paper plates (8 pkg) and napkins (20 pkg) were $1.00 each, and the blue straws (96 pkg) $2.99, I found all at The Christmas Tree Shop.  If you haven't been there - get there! It's a fun place to shop.   The red straws (18 pk) I found at Marshalls for $1.00 on clearance.  I always shop sale or discount, so when I see items like these, I buy them, so I have on hand when I need them.

Party treat bags/cookie bags - pink (24 pkg) $4.99 at Home Goods and the silver (12 pkg) $1.00 at  Marshall's.

I am going to teach myself how to make jelly this summer. It's something I always wanted to do and now I have the time to do it.  I was in WalMart and found all of these canning items on the clearance rack. Decorative fabric lid covers 12  - $2.27, 12 gift tags  - $1.50 and 36 ft of  ribbon - $2.50. I had my eye on all of them for awhile but thought when am I going to make jelly?  Well, now that I got them on clearance, I will be turning out jelly this summer!

These wood carved pencils I found at Marshall's.  They came in a set of 10 for $4.99.  They also had them in colors. I use these to tie on gift packages as an interesting little something extra.  You can add them to some stationery for a great teacher gift or a friend.

Went to Ikea today and found these king size pillowcases to go on my new king size bed.  The price, drum roll please, 99¢ for 2 pillowcases!