Christmas Entertaining Essentials

With Christmas right around the corner you may be thinking about holiday entertaining. Hosting friends and family is one of my favorite things to do. I love getting festive plates, cups, and bowls. I've rounded up some of my favorites from Target. 

I love all of these different glasses. Stemless wine, mugs, or moscow mule shot glasses, all of these are perfect for a holiday party. 

This Christmas tree platter is a favorite. It's simple but festive. It's not too busy and is perfect for serving cookies on. I also love these gold dessert plates. I would use them as appetizer plates as well. They go perfectly with the gold mugs above. 

I have an obsession with target's dip bowls. I have quite a few that I use year round but these Christmas ones are a must have. The designs are simple and classic and would go well with any of the other items I've listed. I love these bowls.  

You can't have a holiday party without desserts right? These dessert trays are the best. I love the tiered tray with the simple garland design. It's classic Christmas. And this covered dessert plate is a great find. I love the car with the Christmas tree on top. The cover is perfect for keeping a cake or cookies fresh. 

Lastly I found some linens. I love table runners and these two are no exception. This kitchen towel is a must have as well. I love the simple design and holiday colors. It would bring Christmas to any kitchen. 

I hope this gave you some inspiration for your next holiday party. All of these items are from Target and they would all go very nicely together. They are perfect for a festive holiday party. 

Thanks for reading!

Thanksgiving Essentials

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! It snowed here in Ohio for the first time Saturday and I'm so excited! I love this time of year. It's getting colder and cozier and I know I am in the minority when I say I love snow, but I do! This time of year is so fun with the holidays and spending time with family. What's not to love?

With Thanksgiving a few days away, I want to share some of my tips for hosting a beautiful holiday gathering.

I love a simple white plate set. It goes with everything and can be used for any occasion. With your plate as a blank canvas, you can add festivity through other parts of the table setting. I also love this other plate with an autumn leaf design. The colors are perfect for fall and Thanksgiving, but it is still simple. Either of these plates would look beautiful at the dinner table. 

I love table runners and how they add a layer of texture to the table. I prefer runners over tablecloths because you can see that layer of the runner over the table. This adds interest and design. The runner you choose depends on which plates you have. If you have solid colored plates, like the white one I have above, then you can go with a runner that has more of a pattern. If your plates already have a pattern to them, I would go with a solid colored runner. You don't want too many patterns going on and fighting with each other. The middle runner goes with the patterned plate above. In this case having them both be patterned would work. They go together and are both very simple. 

I love adding little details and you can get really creative with them. For a dinner party you can add placecards for where people will be sitting. I love the idea of using leaves and writing people's names on them. You can place one at each place set if you want to have the seating pre planned. For a more casual dinner, an alternative to placecards would be to have something similar to this second picture. A place for people to write what they're thankful for is perfect for a Thanksgiving dinner. It's personalized but more laid back than having pre planned seating. The details are where I have the most fun. 

Finally, the centerpiece. This is where you can really get creative. You can use flowers or pumpkins or even candles. The possibilities are endless. My one tip would be not to make the centerpiece too big. If it's too big people won't be able to see across the table. I love the use of fresh fruit, like the oranges in the first picture. Adding in some greenery is a nice way to bring some of the outdoors inside. Both pictures also are using candlesticks at different heights which I love. Pumpkins are great to use for this time of year, and don't think you have to only use orange pumpkins. White ones are beautiful too. You could get even more creative and paint them gold or silver for a more elegant feel. Play around with this part. It's a lot of fun to come up with different combinations and designs. 

I hope these tips helped you gain some Thanksgiving inspiration!

It's a lot fun playing with the design of your table and making it look festive, but don't forget to enjoy sharing the holiday with friends and family. That's what this time of year is all about! 

Thanks for reading and have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Tea Party!

My sister, mom, grandma, and I love to have tea parties. We love to have them at our houses or go to Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina. Yesterday was my turn to host and I loved it! I love planning parties so this was so much fun for me. 

It all starts with the menu. I wanted to keep it girly and special. I made homemade chicken salad, deviled eggs, fruit salad, and lemon bread. My mom helped me with the desserts and we had brownie shortbread bites, lemon tarts, mini cupcakes, and I made almond cookies. It was all delicious! 

Now, you can't have a tea party without pretty tea cups and tea pots. My mom and I found these really pretty tea cups and saucers at Marshall's. We also found adorable mini pedestals there as well. They worked perfectly! I also made lemonade so we had mason jars with paper straws I got from an antique store in California. They were the perfect addition. 

For the centerpiece I used my glass jar vases from T.J. Maxx with carnations in them. The pink in the flowers went really well with our tea cups. 

As for the tea, we got some unique flavors from the Vintage and Craft Fest in the Medina square. We had root beer, s'mores, pear, and caramel. They were delicious and all so different. 

Tea parties with the girls are one of my favorite things to do. I can't wait for our next one! 

Thanks for reading! 

Housewarming Party!

We are finally moved in, the paint has dried, most of our boxes are unpacked, so of course the next step is to have a party! I love planning events and hosting get togethers so I was so excited to finally be able to host a party in our NEW HOUSE! 

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Planning a party can be pretty stressful, especially when you are trying to make your house look presentable all at the same time. It's important to remember that your house doesn't have to be 100% the way you want it. Each room doesn't have to be completely renovated and picture perfect. This was something I had to remind myself of often. 

Other than stressing over the appearance of your house, the first thing to consider when planning a housewarming party is the guest list. You need to decide who you want to invite. Do you want to keep it to family only, or do you want to have both friends and family? We decided to have two separate parties, one for family and one for friends. The party we had this weekend was family only. This was the invitation we chose from zazzle. I prefer sending out invitations over sending a text message. I love picking out cute designs and personalizing them. Plus, who doesn't love getting mail?

Once you have decided on the guest list, the next step is to start thinking about the food. What kind of food do you want to serve? Do you want a theme? Do you want it to be a meal or just light snacks? We invited around 65 people so we decided to make the party an open house, and with an open house it is easier to not have a full meal because people will be arriving at different times.

For the food we had shredded chicken and BBQ beef sliders, a cheese tray, crackers and dips, different chips and dips, a fruit tray and a veggie tray, and a variety of different desserts. I wanted to make sure all the food we had was easy to eat without the need to sit down at a table, so I wanted the menu to consist of finger foods. I had these really cute chalkboard signs that I got from Kohl's and Hobby Lobby that I used to label all the food. I also used cake stands to help with the presentation of the food. Having food displayed at different heights adds interest to your table. 

For drinks I made lemonade and iced tea and displayed them on the back porch in glass dispensers. We also had pop and water in our metal bin John and I redid. 

We had tables and tents set up outside, which was great because it ended up raining. The rain didn't stop us all from enjoying the day! We had the best time with our families and are so happy they could celebrate our new home with us!

I can't wait to start planning our next party!

Thanks for reading!