Tablescape Tuesday - Week 2 - 2016

One of my favorite things to do here in our house, is our tables. I always say the tables and our dinner parties are my creative outlet. Some people knit, scrapbook or make wreaths, I like to set our tables, come up with the perfect guest list and the perfect menu for a dinner party. That is my creative outlet.  Last week we had planned on having six for dinner, but two had to cancel at the last minute, so we moved dinner from the dining room to the eat in kitchen for a more intimate dinner setting. The holidays just seem to fly by, so right after the holidays was the perfect opportunity to get together and catch up with our neighbors.  I had remembered from last year, that right after Christmas, our Super Target had their standing rib roast on super sale. And it was again this year. Then on top of their sale price, the Target Cartwheel app had another 20% off! Great time to pick up a great roast for a nice dinner!
Here are some of my tables from this holiday season. 

Christmas Decor 2013 - A Little Late

We finally got all of our holiday decor down this past weekend. The house feels so empty and lonely, I am probably the only one that feels that way, but I just love the twinkle of the Christmas lights and the tree. I know I didn't get to post our holiday decor during the holidays, but I like to have it documented so that I can look back on past years and remember what we did. We did change things up a little this year, and we also got rid of a ton of stuff. 

In the dining room we kept things kind of simple with mercury glass candle holders and one of my new favorite things that I found at Home Goods this year was were these silver ice skates, so fun!

I added some decor to the two shelves in the dining room as well. Now I have to figure what to put on them going forward, I know we have a couple of water globes. 

Our photo wall got lots of use throughout the season. Between neighbors, family and friends, we had a lot of fun posing with the lights, it was very festive and I will definitely be doing this again. 

This is Stella's tree. At least that is what we call it. I found some red and white pom pom garland this year and had a cute red and white tree skirt. The vase I bought on clearance at the end of the season at Target last year. I love the cable sweater look and just added some gold ornamental seasonal flowers. 

The tree before my sister and her family got to our house with their presents.

This was one of my favorite things I did this year. I found the basket at Home Goods and added the birch bark logs, the white LED lights and the greenery with berries. It looks so pretty all lit up in the sitting room. I think I will keep it through the winter, but just change the bow. 

I love my Snowbabies, and my collection seems to grow a little each year. I just love the way they look in the built ins with the white trees. My parents gave me three or four more for Christmas this year. We have quite a few ornaments on the tree as well. 

On the other side, we have some vintage items as well as some other favorite Christmas decorations. I have lights throughout so that they can be back lit. 

Love our tree!

Merry Christmas

Unfortunately the crud has just gotten worse and I will be home in bed. Bummed to miss out on family fun. Here is wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my favorite things! Link Up!

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I am linking up for a Favorite Things Christmas 2013 Link up party with Cheers Y'all and The Dearmore's! You know I love a good list!

1. I really would like to do a theme tree this year. I just love the clean consistent look with color. I am thinking silver and gold. We have a ton of really special ornaments, but I am just feeling something different this year. 2. I am trying to plan our appetizers for our annual holiday party, SO many delicious options! 3. Busy planning our Thanksgiving table. We will have two tables of six, but I am thinking of going very simple and serene, but we have some great options so we will have to see how I mix it up. 4. I love this Christmas decorating tip. I am thinking of streamlining and using more of my year round decorations to do my decorating this year. I am sure it will be hard once I actually start pulling everything out, but I love this idea. 5. I have been spending so much time in our sitting room. The light and curtains went up this past weekend, so it is almost time for a reveal. We are all really enjoying it. 6. I have been planning my holiday outfits and these shoes will definitely be part of quite a few of them. 7. A good black cashmere turtleneck is a wardrobe staple that I find myself replacing every other year because it gets so much wear. With jeans and a vest or with a black skirt and pearls, it is just so versatile. 

Have you started a list yet this year?

On the Menu Monday (MPM) - Week 52 - Last menu of the year!

So, I started this post on Monday, wish I would have gotten it finished. I love the holidays. The decorations, spending time with friends and family, gifts, the food, pretty much all of it. I think I actually go through a funk after the holidays, the let-down.

We had an awesome weekend. I started Friday with lunch with a former co-worker I had not seen in over two years, and then I let current client know that I would be transitioning from them onto a new client over the next two weeks. While I am really going to miss my current team, I am excited for a new challenge and not to have to travel anymore! Even if it is just once a month, it can be a pain.  Friday we had dinner out, terrible place, we won't be back, but we tried somewhere new. Saturday was so much fun. We went and got my parents new iPhone's and added to my plan as well as added my sister and upgraded her phone. I don't have an iPhone, or an iTouch or anything like that. I do have a 7 year old iPod, but I am just not familiar with all of the lingo, so it has been a bit of a challenge to get my parents up and running, but so far they are both loving it. Sprint had a great deal too where if you transferred lines they got free iPhone 4s and it is only $20 extra per line to add them. We have unlimited data, text and minutes so it only makes sense. Kinda fun to watch them having fun with a new toy too. After, my sister, my niece and my mom and I, went to lunch and then to see Annie at the local community theater. It was a ton of fun and a really good performance.

Saturday night, our friend J had a group of us over for a fabulous dinner, it was so much fun and we had a caviar tasting. We tasted three different caviar's  all delicious! It was really fun to learn about each one as well. We did this last year as well, so we decided to make it a yearly tradition.

Sunday we had our annual holiday get together with my mom's friends and their kids, and kids' kids. Santa came, we did a fun gift exchange, it was a lot of fun.

Since I was supposed to post this Monday, and then Tuesday, I will include these days in the re-cap. We have an annual Christmas eve tradition of getting together with my family, having soup and snack and exchanging gifts. Everyone got some really nice gifts and we had a lot of fun. Both my mom and my nephew got tablets, now of course I really want one :). I am still not sure what kind I want though. We had some really good soup and awesome sandwiches though, a nice fire and watched Brave while cuddled under blankets.

Tuesday we had brunch and did stockings at my parents, then I made meatballs and sauce and we took them over to my sisters for a wonderful Christmas dinner. I love making homemade meatballs and sauce, there was barely a bit left! We had some wonderful garlic bread and a nice big green salad to go with it. This was the first year in a while that the boy and I did the family dinner on Christmas day, the last couple of years we have done dinner on our own, but this year we decided to relax and enjoy dinner at my sisters. We are having lunch with the boys parents on Sunday.

Here is what the rest of the week looks like.

Wednesday
Plans - A little shopping, a little work, home and some cleaning.
Dinner - Friend J is stopping over, I am going to cook up some steaks, purple and gold cauliflower, mushrooms and baked potatoes.

Thursday
Plans - Some more cleaning at home, maybe some cards with the girls or a movie with the boy.
Dinner - Salmon and rice

Friday
Plans - A date with the boy
Dinner - Out with the boy

Saturday
Plans - Hopefully some errands and shopping and then out to friends C & M for a little belated boxing day celebration!
Dinner - Lots of good stuff!

Sunday
Plans - Christmas with the boys parents, watching the Vikings vs. Packers game, GO VIKES!
Dinner - The boys favorite, Sammy's

For more meal plans and links to other recipes, check out the Orgjunkie or Stone Gable.

Working on Cards. . . .

Stationery card

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Decorating

Stella has her own tree. She thinks she gets to decorate it too. . .

Holiday Cards

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Decorating for the Holidays

This post comes a little late, but I am sure there is no big surprise there. Realistically, the tree was not even decorated until Christmas Eve, and my mom told me a few times to just relax and understand that this year is unique, and next year everything will be in a different place and I just need to go with the flow. Here is what we kind of haphazardly slapped together this year. You will notice I don't think I have one picture of the dining room table, we didn't use it but I did set it. . . once. This is the eat in kitchen table, and I threw together the centerpiece. Which was promptly eaten by two adorable little twins.

The Scottie dog plates and bowls are a new addition this year. I found them after Christmas at Home Goods last year, I just love them. I only found two bowls though, and six small plates. I found where I can order them online, so I am thinking I will order 4 more bowls for next year.

I found the inspiration for this somewhere else, I can't remember where, but I thought it would be pretty simple to put together and would look nice on the buffet. It was pretty easy to put together.

I found the boot at Home Goods with my niece after Thanksgiving. Shiny sparkly, love it. 

The Reindeer is from Home Goods after Christmas last year. 

 I wanted to do something down the railing, but I wasn't sure what. Found the garland and the berries at Michael's and thought it would work. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

 This is in our entryway. The mirror we had, not really sure from where. The boy painted it, but I am not sure of the color yet. I think it depends on how we decide to do the entryway. The little telephone table and bench I just love it.  This is from an estate sale and he redid it. I thought the basket would be a great place to keep Christmas cards as they came in. It worked out pretty well. I wanted a mirror here because the coat closet is there with our hats in it, and I usually need to check things out once I put a hat on.

 This is one of the builtins next to the fireplace and big rock wall that I am not loving, but we are not sure what to do with yet. We don't have a mantle, so it was nice to at least have the builtins. I am sure this will be completely different come next year.

 This is the one to the left of the rock wall.

My dad said I should find something called rice lights with white cords, he thought that might look better. I also thought maybe some of that fake snow would look good too. 

 Love my Snowbabies. Someone said that they think they look creepy. I think they are too CUTE!

 This will always be one of my favorites. Santa's coat and pants are pink and green. And I just love the little girl. I will always remember buying this at an estate sale with my mom right when I moved into my own place in Minneapolis.

 This is another one of my favorite things. The boy and I found this at an estate sale and I just fell in love with this piece. Someone definitely made this, and each part  is so intricate.

Here is the entryway to the house. I love having luminaries. I found these in the dollar section at Target this year. So fun and festive.

 My mom brought the sled to me, I added the skates, so sweet.

 I have no idea where this piece is going. We might try it down in the basement, not sure yet. But since we didn't have a mantle this year, it held our stockings.

 I love the pom poms on the bottom of the little tablecloth.

 This is on a little table that we had brought from the boys house and it was put here in the bay window of the eat in kitchen area, and it just kind of stayed. I had this tree that I had picked up after Christmas last year at Target for 90% off, I think I paid .49. Same with the little garland.

 I thought this was a good place to hang my Christmas aprons in the kitchen.

 I wish I would have had time to have posted this little tour before Christmas but there just did not seem to be enough time. We really did enjoy Christmas in our new home, and we are looking forward to 2011 here as well! Can't wait to get to some of these projects. Now it is on to decorating for January!