Thanksgiving tablescape

Happy saturday!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was full of gratitude

and stomachs! 

I'm a bit late in posting this, but funny story here.

Well, funny, but not so funny.

This was my tablescape.

These are the favors I make for each place setting.

These are the little plastic domes I found on Amazon.

I filled each one with the Pumpkin Spice Jo Jo's from 

Trader Joes a few almonds, some pitstashio's and 

a small dark chocolate piece of candy. 

See all my dried plumes and grasses as the arrangement

in the middle of the table?  Notice all the little candles?

Well once we finished dinner and I started to clear the table,

I started to pick up the little plumes and one stuck to another and fell

onto the rest of the arrangement and BOOM! we had a fire! 

And I am not talking about a small flame, it rose, and it rose

and grew fast!  

I litterally screamed, fire! fire! fire! and the rest of the family

came runny over, my husband with a towel.  He proceeded

to throw it over the candles not realizing they were still lit

and they caught on fire!  We finally got it out as the fire

alarm went off and the house full of smoke.

We are so thankful it was what is was as it could

have been just horrible. 

So, you could say, my dinner went up in flames!

No seriously, it was delish, just ended pretty hot!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Friendsgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving!

There's something special as a parent to see our adult kids

carry on family tradition with friends.

Shae my youngest hosted a Friendsgiving, (the fourth)

at our home (her and her new husband's apartment wouldn't accomodate 15 guests) this weekend.

It was so fun to see her in her own element preparing and 

creating a welcoming space for her friends.

A creative in her own right (she works as a interior design associate as well as a wedding photographer).  She brought the outdoors in by cutting some gorgeous maple tree branches and securing them in little

frogs on the table.  She designed the menus on the plates and chose

a rich moody maroon tablescape.  So pretty! 

The fruits of her labor....

All the people who are dear to her, her amazing recipes that she made everything from scratch and the beautiful setting she created. 

So very proud of her!  Happy mama heart! 

so simple, yet so striking in colors.

You can see in this close up picture the little frog that she

secured the branches on.  Worked very well.

Her little menu, love her design.....

(that turkey and gravy was delish!)  

Everyone had an amazing day, they arrived at 3pm

and left after 10pm!  So thankful for friends and family!

I will be hosting a small crowd tomorrow so we will do it all over again on a smaller scale. 

Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Gingerbread door mats

This was a fun way to kick off the holiday spirit!

My girlfriend and her daughter hosted a gingerbread

mat painting night.  And what fun we had! 

Take a look at these doormats!

Such creativity! 

Which one is your favorite?

Would you make one of these?

We had sooo much fun! 

Power’s out!!!

Wonder why I’ve gone “dark”?

We’ve been in the “dark” the last two days in half.  We were hit hard by the bomb cyclone Tuesday night and the winds were insane!

See the picture above? 

That’s a power line down right at the entrance 

of our driveway.

The other pictures are 100 yards to the left of us where a massive tree fell and took out all the power lines all the way across the neighborhood.

The neighbors all banded together to cut the tree and do clean up, they also jimmied up the power line down at our house.

We are getting reports that we won’t have power til after Saturday. 

At this point it could be worse but right now we are sitting with no heat or power.

Hopefully I will be back in soon with some fun holiday ideas for you!

Happy weekend!!! 

Pumpkin pie hack

Happy monday!

I had so much fun this past week hosting two pie/coffee day, and wine/pie night with friends and Mom's and daughters. 

I literally was so busy I didn't get any pictures, I kid you not!

But, I did take pics of the pie idea I saw on Pinterest that I thought

I'd share.  I made mini pies for both events and they were a hit!

I feel like by the time Thanksgiving dinner is over I can rarely eat any 

of the desserts so why not host a pie party!

You are talking to someone who bakes her own pies, but once

I took a look at the Costco pumpkin pie price and size I caved.

It's a mere $5.99 for a large pie.

So start with the Costco pie and using a biscuit cutter cut little rounds of pie and put them into pie tins.

One of the get togethers I put them in tins, the other right

on the platter.  I also cut one of the pies with a bigger 

cutter and a smaller for the other party. 

I was able to get over 12 mini pieces cut from one pies with the smaller cutter.  Take all the left over pie from the cutting and mix and make cake pops with it.  Just mix it up, roll into balls and dip into either white or milk chocolate. 

I ordered these cute mini size 2.6" tins from Amazon,

 PIE TINS HERE

You can bake right in these tins too.  They make the cutest little pies.

Here they are without the tins....

And the different ones that I made...

These ones I made are pumpkin, apple-cranberry crisp,

and mixed berry pies. 

It was a fun time and so easy to eat these small portions

over pieces of pies. 

Christmas tags

It's time for a little holiday crafting!

Let's make some christmas tags.

Start with some kraft paper, white acrylic paint 

and a brush.

Take a small your brush and lightly dip into your paint,

making sure that you get very little paint.

Go to the paper and gently dry brush the paint right onto 

the paper, being sure to completely cover the entire

paper. 

Like you see here.....

I covered the whole sheet.

Let dry.

Take your sheet, and cut your into pieces of

tags that measure 2'x 4', the remaining small pieces

will be a bit smaller, you can still us them for tags

they won't be as long. 

Here is what I came up with for designs...

try looking through what you have to see

if any of your christmas stamps will work.

These little tags are sure cute!

And easy to make too~~

Count your blessings

It's time to count your blessings not your calories!

Here's a fun little card to make for t-day.

Start by using a scallop punch for the crust of the pie,

then a round punch for the filling of the pie, and a small

scallop of white for the whip cream. 

before assembling the pieces use a sponge dauber

to "brown" the crust. 

Now assemble the pie, isn't it cute! 

cut yourself a piece of pie before you attach

it to the card.

I added the greeting by using microsoft word

and printing it out on my computer. 

So fun! 

 

Candy wreath

These little treats will sure to sweetin up someone's day.

Grab yourself a package of the Lindor chocolate's.  You can use any flavor (color) you'd like to make these wreaths.  I chose the red for 

holiday colors. Let's get started.....

You'll need some chocolates, cello wrap, ribbon, tape and scissors.

Cut your cello long enough to hold five of the candies. 

Lay out all five of the candies. 

Roll up the candy and tape it on the ends and in the center.

Bring both ends together like in the picture below. 

Tie the two together with your ribbon into a bow. 

How cute is this!

You could add a little tag to gift someone too!