Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Lights! Lights! Lights!
The Plaza Lights Kansas City, Missouri (My Hometown)
Callaway Gardens "Fantasy of Lights"Pine Mountain, Georgia
Lake Lanier Islands Resort " Magical Nights of Lights"
Lake lanier Islands, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
I love the to take my family and go see all the pretty christmas lights! It's a tradition in our family to go every year. Here I have a few places I personally enjoy! Go take you family out to see the lights this year. Have a Merry Christmas!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Thanksgiving Candle Decor ~
Sources:
http://www.hgtv.com/holidays-occasions/lentil-banded-pumpkins-and-candles/index.html
http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/thanksgiving-table-1107
www.insidesocal.com/bargain/holidays/
www.goodhousekeeping.com/food/holidays/thanks...
These are some really cute candles! Have fun decorating your home this Thanksgiving...
Have a Sweet day~
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Thanksgiving is Coming!
Things You'll Need:
Place settings
Centerpieces
Thanksgiving foods
Decorating
Party invitations
Invite Guests
Step 1
Send invitations to your Thanksgiving guests. You can purchase a wide variety of pre-made invitations, or you can make your own with simple cut-out shapes like turkeys, pilgrim heads and cornucopias.
Step 2
Communicate with your guests directly by calling them and inviting them to your Thanksgiving party. This is a good method to use if your party is potluck style, so you can coordinate what dish each guest will bring.
Step 3
Use Evite to send your guests online invitations to your party. Evite's Web site offers different designs for invitations, spaces for entering pertinent party information, automatic updates and places to view your guests' responses (see Resources below).
Choose Decorations
Step 1
Decorate your home with symbols and colors of Thanksgiving. Turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans, cornucopias, gourds, pumpkins and fall leaves are all appropriate Thanksgiving images, done up in shades of brown, red, orange, yellow and green. Incorporate these themes into banners, wall hangings, place cards and centerpieces.
Step 2
Set a perfect Thanksgiving table to welcome your guests to your home. Use festively decorated place cards and napkin rings and linens in autumn colors. Thanksgiving is also the time to pull out your best silver, china and serving dishes and make each place-setting immaculate.
Step 3
Use centerpieces as the focal point of your Thanksgiving table. They should be dramatic and representative of the season, but low enough that your guests can easily see each other and converse. A straw cornucopia filled with fruits or an arrangement of gourds and candles are great options.
Plan a Menu
Step 1
Start with a light salad to whet your guests' appetites. Salads featuring fruit and nuts like cranberries, apples and walnuts are a great way to incorporate seasonal themes of harvest and plenty into your menu.
Step 2
Center your meal around a classic main course. Turkey with gravy is the most obvious main course, but you can also offer a baked ham as an alternative. Purchase both of these items at least a week before Thanksgiving so you are ensured a good selection.
Step 3
Choose several traditional side dishes to compliment your meal. Bread dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans and dinner rolls are all typical Thanksgiving dishes, but different cultures have different traditions, so serve whatever feels comfortable to you and your guests.
Step 4
Don't forget dessert! Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a selection of delicious pies. Go for favorites like pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, sweet potato pie, apple pie, pecan pie, or branch out with a chocolate mousse or lemon meringue pie.
Hope this helps you get ready for the Thanksgiving!
Have a Sweet day~
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Halloween Party Inspirations~
It’s Amy Belle Isle, from stem parties, and I promise that no paper lanterns were harmed or even used in this guest blog post. (If you’ve seen any parties I’ve done that Jenn has posted, you know how hard that was for me.) In fact, this guest post was almost an entire post about ways to use those bad boys. Instead, I’m keeping it seasonal and featuring a few ways to work with the controversial Candy Vegetable of the Gods: Candy Corn.Love it or hate it, there’s no denying it looks festive! Here are just a few ideas:
***
Serving TraysThe two versions of serving trays pictured a use inexpensive acrylic box frames, candy corn, tape and ribbon. That’s it!
The cupcake tray is simply one frame filled with candy and topped off with the party food of your choice. This could work for anything that is in an individual dish or wrapper. Shot glasses filled with chilled pumpkin soup, anyone?
The drink tray could be used to give some height and pizzazz to anything you’re serving. I’d steer clear of anything too hot on the surface though. Simply take two acrylic box frames, fill one with candy, line the edges of the other one on top of it, put a few pieces of double-sided tape to secure the two together and then run ribbon of your choice along the tape to “hide” the seam. Voila!
You can hot glue the two frames together but I like to encourage tape so you can reuse them. Just think of all the ways and themes in which you can use this idea by changing the items you place inside!
***
Party Favors:
I love the look of acrylic obviously. It just makes everything look a little more modern. Even though I don’t love candy corn in my mouth on its own, I do love it mixed with peanuts. Give me salty-sweet any day. Am I right, ladies? Fill the boxes with the mixture, tie with ribbon, add a tag and let your guests know that you’re glad they took time out of the busy holiday season to join you.***
Floral AccentsThe simple arrangement I made here is made by placing a small cylinder vase inside a larger one and then adding candy corn in the gap between the two. Fill the smaller vase with water, pick the flowers of your choice and add a few twigs to give it an extra touch of autumn. I’ve adorned this one with some ribbon for that extra touch.
Candle AccentsShy of buying these adorable candles from Plum Party, nothing could be easier than filling various sizes and shapes of candle holders and vases with some candy corn and placing a candle inside. Give it a glow!***
Invitations{pictured at top} How cute are these Classic Candies party invitations (starring our treat of choice!), and Candy Corn Halloween Cards from tiny prints?!
***
Not enough ideas yet?• Fill various sizes of cylinder or square vases with candy corn for a simple and chic display.• Completely cover inexpensive frames of all shapes and sizes with glued on candy corn and make a seasonal focal wall with them.• Use branches from your yard or the craft store and cover the branches with glued on candy corn. Place inside a vase to make an interesting centerpiece.• Hang clusters of orange, white and yellow paper lanterns all around the party space. (I almost made it. So close.)
***
Source:
www.hostessblog.com/.../
www.hostessblog.com/.../
I thought these ideas were cute! Have a Sweet Day!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Halloween Drinks
What can you do when you're in the mood for homemade pumpkin pie, but you're squashed for time? Whip up a batch of these thick and tasty pumpkin smoothies.Recipe Ingredients
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk or vanilla yogurt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. brown sugar4 ice cubes
Directions
Combine ingredients in blender and puree until smooth.
Pour the smoothies into small glasses (this drink is rich) and garnish each with a dollop of vanilla yogurt or whipped topping. For a fun touch, add a pinch of cinnamon or a few colored sprinkles. Serves 2 or 3.
Most kids won't eat a worm unless that worm is gummy. So we put them in this "rotten" punch to make it extra yummy.Ingredients
Apple cider (adjust the amount for the number of people you plan to serve; we suggest at least 1 gallon)
Five 1/2-cup containers (we used Pyrex glass dishes; other small containers or cups will also work)
Red and green food coloring
10 to 15 gummy worms
Punch bowl
Instructions
Pour apple cider into all 5 small dishes, stopping about 1/2 inch from the top. Add 2 drops of red and 1 drop of green food coloring to each dish and stir until the colors have blended.
Hang 2 or 3 gummy worms around the edge of each dish and place the dishes in the freezer. If you use more than 3 worms, the rotten apples won't float as well. Freeze until the rotten apples are solid.
Just before serving, slip the frozen wormy apples out of the dishes by setting them briefly in a few inches of warm water in your sink.
Float the rotten apples in a large punch bowl filled with untinted cider. For added creepiness, drape the gummy worms over the edges of your serving bowl.
Tip: Do steps 1 and 2 the day before serving the punch.
Filled with gummy creatures and fish eggs made from tapioca pearls, this sweet, bubbly drink looks like something scooped up from a deep, dark bog. Try making a batch for a Halloween gathering or as a spooky after-dinner treat.Ingredients
FOR 8 SERVINGS:
1/2 cup small tapioca pearls (found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores)
Food coloring
4 tablespoons sugar
8 gummy fish
Seltzer water
Lemonade
8 gummy worms
Instructions
MAKE THE EGGS: Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add the tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat slightly and boil the pearls, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes.
COLOR THE EGGS: Divide the pearls, with the remaining water, between two bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring (we used 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green in one bowl, and 4 drops of blue in the other) and 2 tablespoons of sugar to each bowl. Stir the mixtures, then allow them to sit uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls with cold water.
ASSEMBLE THE DRINK: Spoon 2 tablespoons of pearls into each glass and drop in a gummy fish. Fill the glasses with seltzer water, then add a splash of lemonade. Place a gummy worm around a spoon as shown.
Source:
Halloween is COMING and I thought these drinks were pretty neat! Maybe you can try one at your Halloween party!
Have a Sweet day!
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