Author:Lori
Celebrate, Holidays

Year of the Rooster!

January 30
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We have a lot of family celebrations that have now become much anticipated traditions…Chinese New year is one of our favorites!  Even when our boys were little, they were pretty adventurous eaters so it was always easy to introduce new cuisines and celebrate with food!  I love all the opportunities to have meals around the table together…whether it’s big celebrations like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter…right down to our corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day,  a Mexican feast on Cinco DeMayo, or all the Asian choices for Chinese New Year!  Over the past several years we’ve invited friends over to enjoy the Chinese New Year with us.  It’s a fun celebration to get a little creative and since the theme changes with the zodiac calendar, each year is something new until the cycle repeats itself!  But this holiday we kept it simple and decided to celebrate with just the four of us and place a take-out order from one of our favorite Chinese restaurants!  And since I didn’t have to prepare any food…I had a little fun making our table just as festive as if we were having guests!  By recycling my supplies I saved a lot of time and money creating a simple but fun table!  If you think you missed out on the Chinese New Year celebrations, not to worry!  They’re not over for 15 days into the new year so you’ve got plenty of time to break out the chopsticks and still have some fun!

Celebrating the Chinese New Year!

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Create, Savor

Sending Sunshine!

January 27
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Each winter we receive a package on our doorstep…it’s a fun little box of sunshine!  My parents spend the winters in sunny Florida…wonderful for them and not so bad for us either since we always have a place to stay!  But while we wait for spring break to arrive we get that special treat in the mail…a little early taste of the sunshine state!  The special treat I’m talking about is some tiny loaves of carambola bread.  What’s carambola you might ask?  Well you might recognize it by its more familiar name “starfruit”.  That funny little yellow fruit that when sliced looks like tiny stars!  Not only is it wonderful to receive the sweet treat but the story behind its special delivery is equally as fun!  A friend of my parents has a carambola tree in her back yard.  For the last several years it was becoming too much for her to keep up with the prolific production of fruit it would bear!  So my parents stepped in, picked it until it was clean…then baked up a storm!  There have been so many loaves baked that my parents, their friend, and all the other neighbors just couldn’t eat it all…this is when the special deliveries began!  Sometimes, depending on how much fruit was produced, we would also receive more than we could eat…so I gave a couple away.  Now I have some friends hooked on the stuff!  The best part is that I too get to be a deliverer of some much anticipated “sunshine”!  Let me share with you the recipe and a fun & easy way to dress it up as a gift!

special delivery…

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Celebrate, Holidays

Love & Conversation!

January 25
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In addition to my love of celebrations, I also love to have simple conversations with my boys.  That seems easy enough but as kids get older it gets increasingly more difficult to have heart-to-hearts on a regular basis!  But fortunately, in my house, there’s a pretty simple solution…food!  It’s true that the best conversations happen around the dinner table…so why not the snack table as well!  It’s now paczki time, and if you’re not familiar to this Lenten season sweet treat…you should discover it–soon!  Pronounced pawnch-ki, or punch-key, they’re similar to a jelly or custard filled doughnuts and are only served up until the first day of Lent then vanish until next year.  So when we see them in the bakeries and grocery stores for the first time…it’s pretty exciting!  I decided to create a Valentine table filled with goodies for a family treat and an opportunity to savor some sugary favorites and open the door to some good conversation!  And since “conversation” was the intended goal, I used plenty of those sweet little candies to inspire the theme!  Let me share some easy ways to create something special that just might get the conversations flowing!

be mine    xoxo   let’s chat…

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Celebrate

Bubbly Bar

January 23
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Last week i had some friends in to celebrate the New Year!  You might be scratching your head a bit…I realize it’s a little late for a countdown party, but better late than never I say!  During all the festivities of the Christmas holiday I realized there just wasn’t time for me to squeeze in a New Year bash…but I rarely follow entertaining rules so I decided to go ahead and have a past-due “Girl’s Night In” gathering to not just celebrate the arrival of 2017, but our friendships as well!  And I even added a touch of early Valentine fun to this little event…nothing wrong with combining the best of both celebrations!  Another fun twist to this girly gathering…I invited everyone to show up in their sweats or jammies!  Girlfriends, pink drinks, sweet treats, & jammies…it doesn’t get better than that!  So have a peek at how simple it can be to have a special night in with friends!  It’s always fun when you serve up…

cupcakes & cocktails!

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Create, Holidays

Hand Out Smiles!

January 20
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My boys are past the days of creating and handing out those adorable classroom Valentines…but that’s no reason to stop making some simple tokens of love for all the special people in your life!  I don’t make bunches of love notes anymore either, but I still create some fun little gifts for my family and a girlfriend or two!  I want to share a really fun DIY valentine that you could make for kids or adults…and with plenty of time to get your hands on the goodies I created them with!  Have a look at a whimsical way to make someone smile on Valentine’s Day!

#makesmesmile

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Favorite Things

Cupid Season…

January 18
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As you probably now know, one of my most favorite things to do is help my friend Amy at Alice-Louise Press change her displays for the seasons!  It’s such a fun day for me…I get to spend time with my pal, get a little creative, rearrange furniture, and check out first hand all the new goodies she gets in!  We’d already done a display “quick fix” after the Christmas season was over…but it was time to add a little Valentines joy AND start making room for wedding season!  So last Sunday afternoon we filled the hours changing it all up…

see what’s new…

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Create, Holidays

A Little Paper Love

January 16
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I had so much fun with all the paper hearts in custom colors for my sun room the other day…I actually went a little crazy customizing the rest of my home!  I LOVE decorating with paper so much because it’s really inexpensive and you can make a simple display look like a million with very little effort!  And since the papers for my raspberry and black sun room decor were from a scrapbook supply pack, I had plenty more patterns to choose from to create some Valentine joy for my living and dining rooms too!  The other day I bought an adorable garland of glitter arrows and hearts at the Target dollar spot…it’s so sweet but I was really hoping to use some spring inspired colors for the holiday this year.   So the purchased hearts became a template for all the pretty paper ones I cut from the pad!  Take a peek at how a little paper can add lots of love…

paper and strings make wonderful things…

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Create, Holidays

Friday DIY-Day!

January 13
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Happy Friday everyone!  Valentine’s Day is just over a month away…but it’s never too early to start thinking about fun holiday crafts!  I have a really easy project today that anyone can create…really!  I was inspired by some friends on Instagram who shared how to make a festive Valentine wreath…and I merely put my own twist on it.  I love to be motivated this way…in fact, we’re all inspired in one way or another by those we admire or creations we see on all the wonderful media outlets we have to gaze upon!  I hope you too can find some inspiration today to recreate this craft or change it up to make it just right for you! So take a look at this simple and seasonally festive DIY that will steal even Cupid’s heart!

shot through the heart!

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Decorate, Holidays

Customize It!

January 11
6 Comments

Have you ever wanted to create a holiday display with colors other than the traditional offerings in the stores?  I don’t know about you but I often want to mix it up a bit and coordinate holiday color to the hues in my everyday design.  I’ve also had color schemes in my home that just didn’t go well with the common colors of certain holidays…like red and green just didn’t mesh well with the canary-yellow walls of my living room!  It can be tough to seasonally decorate if your color loves just don’t fit in!  Now that my home is more on the neutral side it’s much easier to blend in traditional seasonal decor, but sometimes I just want something different!  If you can relate, or if you’ve avoided decorating for holidays because those particular shades just don’t work, I’d like to share a solution with you…make your own!  I DO understand that not everyone gets a little giddy when the the subject of DIY enters a conversation!  But let me tell you that this option today is so easy that you could have your kiddos do it for you if the thought of crafting turns your tummy!  But I hope once you see how simple it can be, you might find more inspiration for not just decorating for holidays but celebrations & occasions of all sorts!  take a peek…

make it your own!

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Celebrate

Baby it’s Cold Outside!

January 9
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The weather around here has been quite nippy lately…and it seems extraordinarily difficult to warm up when the temps are hoovering around the zero marker!  But no matter what the thermometer reads, or how strong the cold winds blow, you can always warm your bones with a piping hot cup of cocoa!  My son had a few friends stop by yesterday afternoon and it gave me the opportunity to serve up some hot chocolate for a chilly-day treat!  I had tucked away some adorable disposable cups that I’d ordered in December from my friend at Pink Poppy Party Shoppe!  (You should check out the link if you want to score some wonderful party supplies!)  This party set was so cute I was hoping to use it during the holidays but I literally ran out of time!  As it turns out, this “everyday” celebration was perfect for bringing a bunch of rambunctious boys to the table for some sweet treats and silly fun…and I got to make it look cute too!

cocoa, doughnuts, muffins…oh my!

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