Turkey Day Tablescape

 Thanksgiving this year was a little smaller than normal... kidding, kinda.  

In order to give the table a dynamic look without over cluttering it, the decision was made to alternate china patterns, and keep any additional adornments fairly simple. 

Once the food was on the table- photos were definitely not top of mind. 

Yum.

Even dogs take turkey naps

Home is where the hearth is... see what I did there ;-) 

I am exceptionally thankful to be surrounded by such amazing, brave, and loving family and friends. Knowing you has changed me for the better and I am proud to know each and every one of you.  

xoxox

Autumn Flowers Combat Hurricane Showers

I love flowers.

They can make me smile regardless of what happened two seconds ago, twenty minutes ago, two years ago, whatever, all is forgotten the second I see a bouquet. 

It's my worst quality: my disability to stay properly furious in the face of any posy.

Please ignore the assorted squash, most of them will be used in an upcoming soup recipe. 

I am a firm believer that flowers should not be special occasion things.  Nor should they cost you a fortune, so the only day of the year I'm ok with not getting flowers is Valentine's Day because frankly IMHO they're tainted with the abject consumerism of the holiday and mean a lot less than they do if they were given on any other day... end of tangent. 

Anyway, the flowers at your local bodega are available, just as beautiful, and with a little time and creativity are just as great as a bouquet ordered by a florist, oh they're also so, so, so, so, so much more affordable. 

Leo (the VERY kind little flower man who deals with my floral addiction patiently, with an indulgent smile as he generously pretends he doesn't realize how coo-coo I am for the blooms) sells a dozen roses for $10. I challenge anyone to go out and find a better deal than that. 

Today Leo had these crazy looking berry flowers which I wanted to play around with in the vase I got in the Hampton's this summer. 

I absolutely fell in love with the minimalist design and the simplicity of the vase. You can get your own at Stems Vases' website. 

Cutting them proved to be a little more challenging than I anticipated... 

Which brings me to another point, everyone should have a screw driver. 

I don't care if you are the least handy person in the world, honestly you can't be worse than I am. 

No, seriously. I am the worst. 

If I try to fix something I usually end up breaking it worse than it was before I tried, hence why whenever anyone can build, create, fix, install, manually assemble anything I am beyond impressed, we're talking bordering on fangirl admiration levels here people! 

That being said:  I FIXED SOMETHING TODAY!!!!! 

I'm bursting with pride. Can't you tell? 

Midway through cutting the stems my scissors broke, and instead of calling my "please fix this now and I'll make you cookies emergency contact" in a panic, I did it myself. 

If it wasn't as obnoxious as it would be, I would actually give myself a gold star for this one. 

Didn't even "strip the screw." Which is one of my many hidden talents, the ability to strip any screw. Even though I'm not sure exactly how I manage to do it as thoroughly as I do... WOW digression.   

Takeaway point: Buy a screwdriver.

Better yet, buy a multitool. 

But don't use the hammer part unless you actually know what you're doing, I made a hole in my wall with this thing trying to hang a picture by myself. 

It's getting chili out

It's been a while but I will be updating soon with new recipes, in the interim here's some snapshots from the chili I made last week... recipe to follow

Easter Tablescapes and Floral Arrangements

So this year we had Easter for our extended family and I was in charge of the tables, flowers, and general ambiance. I went a little overboard with the flowers I got from the supermarket but I had so much fun arranging them. 

It started out as a bit of a hot mess, 

but in the end it all came together quite nicely. 

I ended up making nine arrangements using hydrangea, roses, tea roses, wax flowers, tulips, snapdragons, hyacinths (which smell AMAZING), and some lilies. 

The formal "adult" table  I accented with nests I found at this adorable little boutique near us, which I filled with pears and Easter eggs. To keep the table from looking too formal and make it a little "sweeter" I left bunny butter cookies that I spruced up with a pink ribbon on each bread plate. 

I also found these adorable beeswax votive candles in the shape of an Easter chick. 

The other two tables were also decorated but primarily using pastels instead of the richer colors of the formal table. 

A hyacinth bouquet for the powder room. 

I was also in charge of the appetizers/antipasto but with all the running around I didn't take a moment to photograph it except for the hard boiled quail eggs that I prepared. They caught my eye in the supermarket and were so eye catching that I wanted to find a way to include them in the festivities. 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday!