Friday, December 26, 2008

Plans for New Years Eve

Looking for little inspiration for your decor...Martha has some great and simple ideas:



These are my favs:




I am just cleaning up from Christmas cooking...so I will post more about that later...I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Setting the scene for an easy Christmas Morning

So, all is done in our home...It is just my husband and I tonight...I am making us a nice steak dinner...no drinking though, Paul wants to go to midnight mass completely sober for once! haha but seriously...

I actually cooked our steaks in my Breville panini press, THANKS VIVI!!







For tomorrow morning, I made Martha's Canadian Bacon Strata:


I added some frozen country style hasbrowns and some chives to the recipe...just to change it up a bit.




I just popped it in the oven this morning for breakfast...we also had mimosas.




This breakfast is very light! So yummy! We have lots of left overs, and it keeps nicely like a quiche...great at room temperature.

I am going to start to make a berry tart for dessert tonight...we are going to our good friends home tonight...Joan and Wayne. It is always a blast over there. She is really one of the main reasons I love to entertain. She always puts out a spread, and makes me feel so special and loved...I LOVE HER!!! I will try to post more pics later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

New Toys!

So...for working really hard on the Decades parties I told you about a few weeks ago...I got a very generous gift from my company. It was actually a gift card to our mall...and I was so exicted, because I could shop to my hearts content at the Crate and Barrel and Williams Sonoma...does anyone else feel like I do? :)

So, WS had a sale, 20% off of EVERYTHING in the store. They don't normally discount their wares like that, so I felt it was the right opportunity to use some of my card cash...

I picked up this beautiful All-Clad stainless steel 14" fry pan. It is so lovely! I feel like such a serious cook now! :)



Look at my pathetic old pan...SO SMALL! And it had the seperate bottom, that has been warped forever...my all clad is all one piece and I never have to worry about it seperating. It is a major investment, but it has a LIFETIME warranty...so it is well worth it! And it was a gift,so my husband won't have a fit when I tell him I spent almost $200 on a fry pan! haha. After the sale, the pan was only $132...a GREAT deal!


I also picked up this pretty little tart pan...looking for a good fruit tart recipe now to make for tomorrow, and a new microplane.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Card Making

I have a craft room...filled with papers and pens, stamps and punches...anything and everything a paercrafter would need to make beautiful things. I don't think I have been in there all year! It is super sad...so one of my resolutions is to take more time out for me...to do the things that I like to do. To get a little inspiration, I have found some fun papercrafting vids that I wanted to share:

This vid is a super easy craft...but I just loved the video...


Here is a link to their Etsy store.

This little clip is from Kristina Werner, I just think she is adorable...and these gift tags are beautiful:


See more of Kristina on her blog.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Centerpieces by Colin Cowie

Colin Cowie on the CBS Early Show and easy Christmas Centerpieces:


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

More and More like Christmas

I think I am finally done decorating our house...I love coming home to the glow of christmas lights, so I put them everywhere. You saw my front door, and my kitchen and tree, here are a few more shots of the decor...

This is the view from the head of my dinner table...my seat actually. I love how the lights look thru the sheer curtains...
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Here are some close ups of the centerpiece I created this year:

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This is a wall vinyl that I picked up at Kohl's. It looks much bigger on the box...but cute none the less. It doesn't stick very well to my textured walls...but I like it. It was hard to get on too...I don't think I would recommend it. They do however come off of the wall very easliy, but I don't think they are reusable:

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This is a greeting tree...they are about $40 in the Pottery Barn catalog, but I picked this one up after Christmas last year for under $5...my kind of deal!  Oh, and you can see my fabulous brother's handmade cards in this shot...the ones with the cute snowmen...

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Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Home for Christmas

I put my tree up on Thanksgiving, but I didn't decorate it until last weekend...because I have been a little crazed...so, now my tree is done, and I am ready to share. Here is my tree

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

It is LOADED with oranments...but I love it!

Christmas Decor 2008

I bought this tree skirt on clearance at Home Goods, for under $10 dollars...and my friend Dena embroidered it for me..just like Pottery Barn, 1/4 of the price!

I don't have lots of surfaces to decorate, so I do what I can...here is the spot under my tv...I tried grouping like with like items to give them more impact:

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

I have an obsession with cake plates...so I decided to use them in my decor....I took ornaments and filled them, again with a like color...they look much better in person:

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

Christmas Decor 2008

I still have the banister, dinner table and my bar and buffet to finish...I better get to it soon...It's the most wonderful time of the year and I am running out of time!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Pomtinis

One of my favorite cocktails is a martini (thanks to my dear friend Joan, who showed me how to drink right!) I love a good Pomegranate Martini and when Martha showed this recipe and I had to try it.

The recipe calls for orange peel as garnish, but I used Pomegranate seeds instead. Martha has showed how to remove the seeds from a pomegranate and it works like a charm...this is how you do it:

Score the pomegranate into quarters from end to end, without cutting all the way thru, then stick the knife into one end and pry the fruit open.

Pomtinis

Then take one of the pieces and hold it over a bowl like this:

Pomtinis

Use a wooden spoon, and whack the back of the fruit, and the seeds will just fall into the bowl:

Pomtinis

and there you go, a bowl full of pomegranate seeds, no mess, simple:

Pomtinis

Now make the cocktail:

Makes 1 cocktail
1 ounce freshly squeezed pomegranate juice
1 1/2 ounces vodka
1 1/2 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
Ice cubes
Orange peel, for garnish
Directions

In a cocktail shaker, combine pomegranate juice, vodka, grapefruit juice, lime juice, simple syrup, and ice; shake until well combined. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Twist orange peel over cocktail and add to glass; serve.

I used the seeds and a slice of lime to garnish my drinks:

Pomtinis

Aren't they lovely!? Perfect cocktail for your holiday parties! The color is so beautiful!

Pomtinis

You can watch a video of the recipe on the Martha site.