Category: Holidays

My Sister’s Baby Shower
I got to host my sister’s bridal shower a few years back, and now her baby shower too. Ashley and her husband Matt are going to be parents!

A huge thank you to both my mom and Matt’s, my co-hosts. We had even more people at this shower, but we did it! Everyone fit and a lovely time was had by all.

I’ve done enough entertaining (and enough photoshoots) over the years to have most of what we needed on hand — we just had to add food, drinks, and flowers.

My baby shower was at my sister-in-law’s house (I love big parties in someone’s home), and I was so charmed by the onesies hung up on a clothesline that I wanted to do my own take on it. I strung up paper party fans in various colors and patterns, then hung the striped onesies from Calvin’s monthly photos.

I made a little tag for each (0 months, 3 months, etc.), and also crafted a cake topper similar to this one from years back. I also drew the little baby illustration that I used to sell in my stationery shop! The bunting was strung with butcher’s twine and bamboo skewers, plus the cutest paper tassels for added sparkle and dimension.

Sugar Fixé made perhaps the best cake I’ve ever had. I’m not normally a huge cake fan (I love sweets, but not when they’re overly sugary), and theirs was lovely, on the sweetness scale more towards a scone. Am I describing it well? A food blogger, I am not, but it was delicious, and so pretty.

(Clearly, I need a taller cake dome. I didn’t do it until after everyone had left, but laying the leftover cake on its side felt a smidge wrong.)

We were only a couple of weeks out from Christmas, so the garland on the stairs stayed (as did the outdoor lights and garland). I tried to take it into “baby shower” territory with the addition of ribbon and flowers, and the added sparkle was nice. I think I’ll be doing the same thing when it comes time to decorate for the holidays next year!

The Christmas decoration came down everywhere else, and the fireplace is back to its everyday look with ginger jars and oversized vases. (If you are curious about sources, everything is always listed here.) I had enough letters in my banner kit to not only spell the baby’s name across the dining room sideboard, but also to add “welcome baby” across the mantel.

Yay for my Ashley and Matt, and we can’t wait to meet you, baby Ethan!

Entertaining Essentials

A few cake stands in differing sizes, a tiered serving tray, and paper fans in a variety of colors go a long way. You’ve seen these here before, and you’ll see them again in the future. The essentials below can be mixed and remixed to fit all kinds of schemes from kids’ birthday parties to a New Year’s celebration, to (of course) a bridal or baby shower!
1. Patisserie Glass Serving Stand, Ballard Designs (I also found a less expensive version, the Plaza Entertaining Stand from Pottery Barn.)
2. Gold Crushed Tinsel Tassels, Paper Source
3. Garden Party Rosette Paper Fans, Rifle Paper Co. at Paper Source
4. Garden Party Letter Banner, Rifle Paper Co. at Paper Source
5. Kenaf Table Runner, Pottery Barn
6. Grace Pressed Glass Cake Stand and Dome, Pottery Barn (I wish I’d also had this much larger dome so I wouldn’t have had to cut the cake and lie it on its side after the party! That thing was tall.)
7. Essential Serving Bowls, Crate & Barrel (We have four, and they get put to good use regularly.)
8. White Scalloped Cake Stand, Pier 1
9. Mosser Pink Glass Cake Stands, GOOP (Fishs Eddy usually carries these in various colors too.)
10. SMYCKA Eucalyptus Garland, IKEA (A great faux garland that can work year-round.)
11. Satin 1.5″ Ribbon, Amazon
12. Paper Party Fans, Oh Happy Day Party Shop (So many colors! I keep a big variety on hand, and they fold up to store in very little space.)
January 18, 2019
A Real-Life Epic Minecraft Fort

August turned seven this year, and he wanted a Minecraft-themed birthday party. We invited his friends for an afternoon at our house with pizza and cake, and an epic real-life Minecraft fort!

Full credit for this idea goes to Brandon, who ordered two dozen large, plain moving boxes and plastic tablecloths with a grass print to make Minecraft blocks. The best technique we found was to staple the tablecloth along the top four corners, then cut out a wavy hem to wrap around the top sides and secure with packing tape. Brandon also covered giant sheets of foamcore that we had on hand with the same pattern, and used one additional tablecloth with a wooden board design for ‘oak planks’. (Foamcore that large can be hard to find and/or expensive, FYI. Blankets would work just fine too.)

Stacking the boxes three high made the fort just the right size, and I have to admit it looked pretty magical if you were kid-sized to run through the twists and turns! I’m big on letting kids guide their own play, but we did want to make sure there was an engaging activity at the party so that guests weren’t feeling bored. We all worked together to set up the fort, they played, took a break in the middle for lunch and cake, and then we rearranged the fort for them to play some more until the party was done.

The kids loved the freestanding pet gate we brought out to serve as an entrance!

“Pixel” tools and weapons (these and these) were the props that extended the fun of the fort. We also added a big plush cube TNT pillow (a present that doubled as party decor), and I whipped up a quick wrapper to make a few smaller TNT boxes from red jumbo kids’ building blocks.

The worst part of hosting a party at home is typically the clean-up, but this wasn’t too bad! Stack the boxes up again, and the majority of the mess was taken care of. I’m on a big cleaning and clearing out kick, so we’ll reuse the boxes to gather up donations. They’d be handy for storage too, and there are always families looking for moving boxes that could use them.

If you have a Minecraft-loving kid and need a birthday party activity, this is a great one!

March 14, 2018
A Fun Take on a Traditional Christmas Table
This post is sponsored by CarefulPeach and Juliska.

CarefulPeach is one of my favorite shops here in Oak Park, and they have a beautiful display wall of plates and serving pieces from Juliska right inside the front door. (You can see it in my 2014 post on local independent shopping.)

We’ve teamed up to bring you a Christmas table setting that mixes formal and informal, traditional and modern, and of course a bit of pink.

And yes, this is the first setting in my newly redone office! I love having the marble table as an alternative shooting space to the dining room. I’ve been bringing my lunch up here sometimes just because it’s so pretty.

I’m all for setting a proper table, but I broke the rules a bit by placing the butter knife on the napkin with the forks. I liked the way the details of the Berry and Thread flatware showed up against the red plaid! I also liked that it broke the formality of some of the pieces.

The pewter dinner plates and chargers are a popular choice in wedding registries at CarefulPeach. They mix well with everything from plain plates to patterned, and look equally good with silver and gold. (And they aren’t really pewter, in case you’re wondering. The name refers to the color and finish — they’re stoneware, as easy to care for and throw in the dishwasher as any other plate. They’re also oven-to-table and microwave safe.)

The Berry and Thread Snowfall Plates on top come in a set of four and the pattern on each plate is different. That little scalloped edge detail is awfully cute.

There’s a matching Snowfall Platter, too.

And this lovely Berry and Thread Hors d’oeuvres Board. I propped it up like a cutting board in an all-white kitchen like the cool kids do on Instagram, but clearly it deserves some yummy cheeses on top.

The white Christmas trees and oversized silver ornaments (plastic, but I assumed they were glass until I picked one up!) are also from the shop. They have tons of holiday decorations in to choose from but I liked these to brighten up the dark wood tones.

And those pink swirly glasses! Be still my heart. I’ve used the footed goblet and tumbler, but there’s a highball glass in pink too.

They’re my favorite part of the table, but of course I’m biased toward anything pink. They work for Christmas with the red plaid napkins, but I want to do an Easter table with them! Valentine’s Day! My birthday! Everyday is a good day for pretty pink glasses, really.

The beauty of everything is that it can all be mixed and matched together and with what you might already own. The Snowfall plates and plaid say Christmas and they can easily bring a little holiday cheer to a standard set of white plates, or add some of the pewter collection to your table for a different look. It’s all very merry.

Shop the Post
I’ve linked to everything from the post above, but you can also call or stop by CarefulPeach and they’d be happy to help you in person!
December 11, 2017
The Double Parlor, Decorated for Christmas

These two rooms, the living room and the library, are at their best at Christmas.

Our Christmas tree is 9′ tall and it takes up a fair amount of space, so we scoot the black and white sofa over in front of the bookshelves to make room.

I do like to change things up, but we don’t do a completely new theme each year for the tree. It’s a mix of ornaments from years ago plus a few new ones, plenty from the kids, and everything on the lower third is nonbreakable.

Why, yes. That is a Millennium Falcon ornament. It lights up!

Looking toward the living room, I added faux red amaryllis and berries above the secretary desk, along with the Mr. and Mrs. Claus mice (made by Brandon’s grandmother).

In the living room, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. They’re new this year, from a reader I met this summer. She asked if she could send me a stocking and I was expecting one, not one for each of us! They’re so sweet.

These rooms (like most of the house) are ever changing. Little tweaks here and there, all leading toward an overall vision that just takes time to arrive at. I’m enjoying it along the way, especially in this season.

The vintage brass deer on the fireplace mantel are in a forest of greenery and pottery, new and old.

It all feels so calm right now. These rooms will be filled with friends and family over the next few days! The kids are especially excited, but I am too. I love gathering everyone together.

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

December 22, 2016
Upgrading Faux-Fresh Christmas Garland

This post is sponsored by Dunkin’ Donuts. Every espresso at Dunkin’ Donuts is freshly ground and brewed for each drink and combined with steamed milk and foam in each of Dunkin’s espresso beverages. As I put a lot of thought and care into decorating for the holidays, it’s nice to know that the macchiatos from Dunkin’ that I drink as I work on the house are crafted with the same care!

Popping in today with a quick tip for making your faux garland look more lush and real. I kept thinking that I needed a new garland to get the look I wanted, when really I just needed to take the time to make the one I have work.

I bought a bunch of inexpensive faux-spruce garland strands years ago. They were pretty thin so I tripled them up and added lights before draping the garland along our stairs, but I wasn’t thrilled with how skimpy it looked. I mean, it wasn’t a big deal — it still looked really pretty, but I knew it could be better.

We had fresh garland for our HGTV Christmas issue shoot, but we didn’t get to enjoy it for the holidays because the shoot was done in April! And in the short time that we did have the garland on the stairway, it had made a huge mess. With a cat, a dog, and three kids going up and down those stairs multiple times a day, anything that goes there is going to get jostled. Faux-greenery is far more hardy, so I took our so-so 30-foot garland that looked great but a little thin, and made it into something I feel really good about decorating with.

I already had most of what I needed on hand: our faux-spruce garland, florist wire, clear Christmas lights, and gold ribbon. I picked up some supplementary faux-fresh pine garland (that looks more like cypress to me, but I like it) and stopped off at Dunkin’ Donuts for a mocha macchiato before heading home to get to work.

I took the 100-light strand of Christmas lights off of our spruce garland and laid the whole thing out on the floor to determine spacing for the new pine garland. It was an improvement, but we still had more of the faux-spruce and I liked the added fullness it brought. I wired everything together, starting at one end and spacing the connections about 12″ apart. I then added the lights back in, wrapping them in around the center of the garland a bit more tightly and using an additional 50-light strand.

I used coated picture wire to secure the garland to the stair railing, then added decorative gold ribbon. I also added a huge blue and white oversized ginger jar to hide the cords. Terrible placement with the aforementioned three kids? Possibly. It hasn’t been much of a draw yet — fingers crossed, that continues to be the case.

Once you’ve got the base of the garland right, you can change it up. I had a few ornaments in there before, but I like the simplicity of just greens with clear lights. I may change it up from year to year though. It would be pretty with Christmas picks other greenery, winterberry sprigs, pine cones, or ornaments.

December 13, 2016
Decorating for Both Christmas and New Year’s Eve
This post is sponsored by Lowe’s. While this was a paid opportunity from Lowe’s, all content and opinions expressed here are my own.

The Christmas to New Year’s transition: it can be done! I cleared the sideboard in our recently finished front entry to create two holiday looks, keeping the same base for both — silvery faux-birch allen + roth candles and white cotton ball ornaments that look like snowballs. Then I made a few easy changes.

I was eager to decorate the entry since we had just worked on the space, but these looks would work equally well for a fireplace mantel, console table, or even down the center of a dining room table.

Christmas

A green wreath and red flowers bring in traditional Christmas color, and the rest of the decorations are in a palette of white, silver, and gold. The neutral base helped ease the transition to the other look.

Small allen + roth gold votive holders are standing in as vases, and I mixed in a few Holiday Living gold plaid ornaments to add more shine. A trio of silver Christmas trees add height, and their texture plays well with the faux-birch candles.

Those candles have such a nice glow. They have a realistic flicker too — my little guy likes to pretend to blow them out and then we have to time the off switch so he thinks he was successful.

New Year’s Eve

Gone are the flowers and the wreath, along with the Christmas tree trio and the plaid ornaments. The most obvious addition is the backdrop of paper pinwheels.

I used two packs of pinwheels for a more full look. I also added a few more of the snowball ornaments to replace the plaid ones. There are two types in the mix — some made from cotton, and these Holiday Living white ball ornaments. They both look like snow and I like the variance in size and texture.

The simple wreath would have still worked for the New Year’s Eve style too, but allen + roth dots and stripes pinwheels are always so fun to break out for a party. They come with double-sided tape to stick them open, but we know the trick of using a paper clip instead so they’ll be reusable, yes? (If you didn’t, now you do.)

You can grab everything for these Christmas and New Year’s Eve looks from Lowe’s.

The base:
For Christmas, add:
For New Year’s Eve, add:
- allen + roth Dots and Stripes Tableware Paper Pinwheels
Christmas Decorating, Simplified

Bonus look number three!

I would do something like the above for a party, or if this was a purely decorative spot like the fireplace mantel, but here’s a quick shot of a pared back everyday version. We keep a tray on the sideboard to catch mail (because without it, paper will pile up and accumulate on any other available horizontal surface). The candles are going to be put to use elsewhere, the plaid ornaments will go on the Christmas tree, and the paper pinwheels are going into my party supply drawer.

This is how the front entry looks for us now, minus the stack of catalogs and other assorted mail that arrives daily. Simplified, but still festive.
November 29, 2016