better late than never

I know Christmas was already a week ago, but I have finally found the time to update the blog. Between hosting Christmas (and the subsequent clean-up), working holiday retail, and D taking my car today because his was dead (so I am stuck at home), this was the perfect time for a new positing.

In hosting Christmas we decided to serve our own Italian favorites. Not only was it something different, but it was so much easier as several things could be prepared ahead. Unfortunately, in the chaos of everything, I didn't get the chance to take any pictures of the food - but here was the menu...

hors d'oeuvres
cold grilled vegetables
goat cheese w/ cranberries
Genoa salami

dinner
manicotti
meatballs
chicken saltimbocca
baked eggplant
antipasto salad (greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, Gorgonzola, sopressata and sweet vinaigrette)
garlic bread

dessert
tiramisu
spumoni
homemade cookies

The hors d'oeuvres and desserts were store bought. The dinner entrees, with the exception of the saltimbocca (courtesy of Mario Batali), were our own recipes.

Now on to the decorations!
Here is Family Room, including the tree.




Next to the fireplace, in the FR is our collection of hand carved Santas.


Tray of silver, hand blown and mercury glass ornaments, and crystal candle holders.


The buffet line gets set up on the dining room counter and the DR table moves to the living room; so to keep everyone from whacking their head on the chandelier, we put a small table underneath to force everyone around it. Remember the candle and plate I mentioned last week?


On the buffet counter is a little centerpiece to hide the ugly outlet (thanks mom!).




Also in the DR is my "new" sideboard. I have had not the opportunity to paint it yet, but here it is topped with mom's nativity - which she insisted we use.


Although the drink counter is not too exciting, I had to share this pic since I love the silver pieces. The pewter pitcher was given to us by my parent's as a wedding gift. My mom found the silver plated wine cooler at an antique store in the UP. It is actually from Pottery Barn and, although you cannot see it, has the letter "C" engraved on the front.


Now to the living room, which was transformed into a dining room...

On one of the tables is the dark red table runner we purchased in Dubai, the ornament filled apothecary jar, and our DIY candle log. On everyone's place we also included a small party favor ornament.




Last year while shopping at Crate & Barrel, I spotted this silver candle holder and immediately thought "we can make this"... so we did. Using a birch log, D cut off a piece to make a flat bottom; then using a 1" drill bit created holes for tealights. Finally I spray painted it silver and Voila. We have used it the last two years it's still holding up!
inspiration from Crate...


and our version...I love the organic feel it brings.


This is the other table, with a 2nd candle log.


Also in the modified dining room is our hall table. From left to right is our pillow covers (also from Dubai) and my repainted stool; $2 milk glass urn and free greens from Home Depot; rustic lantern; silver bowl (from a friend's wedding) with pine cones; $2 worth of old books from the g-town library sale, topped with a mercury glass finial ornament; gorgeous poinsettia they were getting rid of at work.


Also on the table is my grandpa's antique toolbox filled with pine cones, a few sprigs of greenery and vintage red/pink ornaments. I love the look of the rustic and shine.


I can hardly wait to use all the holiday decorations I bought after Christmas this year from Crate&Barrel! Here's a little preview...

adorable husband

I just want to say how cute the hubs is....
For Christmas we will have the buffet line in the Dining Room and have moved the DR table to the Living Room. We need something for under the chandelier in the DR so people are not walking into it, hitting their head, etc.; so yesterday I moved a small round table from our family room to the dining room. I had covered it with a table cloth, topped with a pewter charger, 3-wick candle and some leftover pine cones. I knew it needed more, but was not going to worry about it for a while. Then, earlier today, I had gotten some free cut-off boughs from Home Depot to put in my new $2 milk glass planter/urn from the local thrift store (picture below). While I was setting it up, I had seen D picking up the little pieces I had cut off. At first I thought how nice it was he was cleaning up for me. But then I realized, how did he know I was done? He must be up to something... and he was. He took it upon himself to complete the charger/candle centerpiece with a little greenery. I love it!



and the milk glass with greens....

mo' money, zwei

We officially have the money in it's home, and love it! I am so glad I made a last minute decision to change the mat from white to the tan color it is now. It really makes a great contrast and compliment to the colors in the monies.



I realize the picture is sideways, and unfortunately I cannot seem to do anything about it. The file is the right way up, but when it's uploaded to blogspot, it is magically rotated. Thinking I would be smart enough to trick the system, I uploaded one that was rotated in the hopes it would flip to right side up. I didn't.

mo' money

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been working on finally getting some things up on the walls. Around that time I was inspired by foreign currency artwork I had seen on art.com. It got me thinking that we could make our own, using currency from places we have been. Unfortunately we don't tend to keep paper money and mostly all we had were coins. So on the hunt we went. Through the help of friends, family and eBay, we were able to find everything we needed in just a few weeks.

I had originally started with only planning to have one piece, but becuase there was so much currency I wanted to include, we knew we had to go to two. However, we didn't think we had enough money for two frames, so we included Canada and Mexico as well. Each frame with 5 bills - one set from before we were married, and one set from after.

I found two frames from thrift stores and spray painted them black.

Here is the inspiration piece:

This was a very inexpensive piece of art. We spent about $10 for the two frames, $14 for the mat board, a few bucks for the spray paint and voila!


(I am going to try to get a better picture tonight, when there is not so much glare from the windows. )