Winter Wonderland – A Simple White Table

Winter Wonderland – A Simple White Table

by | Dec 12, 2016 | I like Pretty Things, Parties + Events, Uncategorized

I don’t know about you, but I have been loving simplicity lately. I have enjoyed weekends at home with my family (although I have to admit that I go a little bit batty when I’ve been home for more than a day at a time), a tidy home, a calmer schedule and a paired down wardrobe. Simple is just nice for me right now.

As I watch the snow floating (blowing) by our windows I thought it would be a perfect time to post this beautifully simple table. There is something that just calms the world when it is covered in a white blanket of freshly fallen snow. I am always amazed by what a quality tablecloth and chair covers can do. I love the simple cleanness of the look.

I wanted to show how you could take many of the same main elements as in our rustic look (simple wreathes and garlands) to see what an impact adding the white tablecloth and chair covers made. I loved that simple table but I wanted to take it up another notch by adding some glittery elements! A little crystal on the garland, in martini glasses, and the charger plates made the white go glam! And I stand by the hand lettered place cards! They make everyone feel so special! I actually went to a party the other night and they had signs and bar menus made by Amy, and it added such an amazing element to the evening! Top Notch ladies!!

Now that the kiddos are getting bigger it’s more difficult to fit them at the adult table, and well…white linen just seems like a bad idea when it comes to littles so I thought they would appreciate a cute little set up all of their own! Most people have a coffee table that is a good height for children, and glow has little ottomans with lots if covers available that were just about the perfect size. I used snowflake decorations as the charger plate and then two colored plates stacked (another cute little touch that added another visual element) and then used a little silver pine-cone to finish the look.

Credits

Photography by : This is Photography

Super cute hand lettered place cards : Calligraphy by Amy

All greenery : Twig & Twine Floristry

Glow for White Tables :

Crystal Garland

White Swag Chair Covers

White Poly Tablecloth

White Matte Satin Napkins

Silver Rhinestone Charger Plates

Glow for the Children’s Table :

Red Ottomans

Silver Snowflake Decoration

White & Red Plastic Plates from our Solids Collection

Red Plastic Cutlery from our Solids Collection

Red/White Paper Straws

Silver Pine-cones

Table : Wicker Emporium

Chairs: Ikea

Let’s Finish Strong, the Year’s not Over Yet!

Let’s Finish Strong, the Year’s not Over Yet!

by | Dec 9, 2016 | Real Life. Real Thoughts., Tools for Awesome Living

“It’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it”

The pastor at my old church was known for using this saying a lot. And I am thankful for it! It’s one of those things that has stuck with me for years. I hear it when I am tired or feel like giving up or at times of the year where it seems like it would make sense to just coast.

It seems like the easy thing to do is just relax until 2016 wraps up and start fresh for 2017. But you know what? Three weeks (four when I started writing this!) is still a very long time, about a twelfth of the year. If we counted out the four weeks at the end of summer, and the four weeks at the end of school, well then we just gave up about a quarter of the year. I feel like I’d be pretty upset with myself if I just let this time go by without any focus. Maybe you’re focused ALL the time and need the holidays to be more relaxed. thats c

I am REALLY not into the “what’s your excuse” hub-bub. Actually it ticks me off. One of my pet peeves. “What’s your excuse” for not losing weight? Or working out every day? Oh my good gracious!!! Every time I see these posts I want to lose my mind! Here is the thing. Just because YOUR priority is to do these things right now, it doesn’t have to be everyone’s!

Excuse : a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.

Asking “what’s your excuse” means that you think that people are GUILTY of something. There is no fault in weight loss not being my primary focus! Yes, being healthy is good. Yes, taking care of your body is good. Yes, being at a healthy weight is good. A lot of other things are good as well.

Feeding the hungry.

Playing with your kids.

Giving money to the poor.

Creating.

Being there for friends.

Reading.

Studying.

So many good things. And we get to choose. People don’t often ask “what’s your excuse for not giving all of your money to those in need” but somehow it became acceptable to pressure people into feeling guilt of not putting their appearance first (yes, yes, health too, but often not the true focus).

And the funny thing is that I AM working at losing weight. I don’t think there is anything wrong with trying to be fit and healthy. I just remember feeling so angry when I saw those posts. It is so easy to judge someone when we don’t see what they are really going through. Be careful of that. So that was a rabbit trail of a rant….

What I was MEANING to talk about is that a lot can happen in three weeks. We all know that new year’s resolutions are pretty much crap, so why hold off on doing what we want until January 1st. We can start now. Not by setting lofty, nice sounding accolades, but my figuring out what you want out of life, and the steps that you can take to get there. Goal setting is where it’s at! I have great aspirations for 2017 but that doesn’t mean I am ready to close the book on 2016. There are lots of good and positive things that can still happen this year.

There are lots of parties and festivities (Both my husband and I’s birthdays are next week and my daughters is the week after Christmas….so I get that for sure!) but it doesn’t mean that I should write off the entire month/rest of the year. My personality loves goals and points and charts, so I created this healthy habits star chart for myself. Cheesy, yes. Helpful, also yes!

 

This may not work for you, but just because you didn’t meet ALL of your goals for 2016 doesn’t mean you have to give up now! There are probably some that you can still action. And if not, make some weekly SMART goals for the rest of the year. (but hey if you want to just relax and enjoy the rest of the year in indulgence, you will get no judgement from me!)

I just know that I love feeling like I have accomplished things, and when things are all over the place, busy, hectic and out of routine, I love being able to see that I still did healthy things for me, my family and my business. But maybe it’s simpler for you, eat one vegetable a day. Go for a 20 minute walk this week. Do something kind for a stranger. I don’t know what lines up with what your goals and values, but there’s likely something there!

I am excited to finish the year strong! Stronger than I started. Excited for what is to come and thankful for the rest of this year that is not yet done! (and to keep me accountable until the end, I will be sharing my star chart by Jan 3)

I will encourage you though, to start planning for your 2017. If you want next year to be different than this year was, you need to make it that way. Plan the things that you want! More on this in coming weeks!

I’d love to hear what you plan on doing to finish the year strong!

Gilmore Girls Revival Party

Gilmore Girls Revival Party

by | Dec 2, 2016 | Parties + Events

I am a huge Gilmore Girls fan. I don’t know if it was the struggles of Lorelai and Rory’s love stories, the relationship between mother and daughter or the love for all the food…but it was always a fun show with humor and lightness and all of the beautiful appreciation and small time charm.

I wasn’t a huge fan of how the series ended, but c’est la vie right? But when I heard about the Netlflix revival I was SO excited. I mean sadly excited. Maybe embarrassingly excited. I put out a little poll on “the Facebook” as my dad calls it, to see if anyone else might be interested in a viewing party. I think we can tell by now, hosting people is something I love, and that comes very honestly to me. I grew up in a hospitality home, cooking for people, entertaining, owning restaurants and always having something in the works. And I have learned that this type of creative outlet serves me really well.

SO people were in, and my mom, my beautiful Loralei (with the poise of Emily) offered to host the party at her house. I was determined to “keep things simple” so that I could really enjoy the evening. But then the ideas kind of got away with me.

A wedding planner years ago was sharing thoughts with a bride on a budget and mentioned that if you’re on a budget a good way to use your resources is to pick one or two things to invest in that will really create a “Wow”. It’s part of the reason I almost always create one vignette at a party that I host, and has always stuck with me. I decided that for this party the “wow” would be in the welcome. A hollywood style red carpet viewing arrival (where I knew that we would take pictures as well!)

The red carpet, drapes, and red ropes/stanchions and beautiful balloons all came from GLOW. The easel and mirror I borrowed from home and the prints were from Staples. (If you haven’t heard of this before you can get really big prints for a really good price by ordering engineering prints. I have used them for Finley’s birthday party background, my to do list smiley face trackers, the calendar I posted from Hand Lettering and both the Gilmore Girls Now Playing sign and Team Jess/Logan/Dean posters. They are a great option for something quick and are only available in black and white (so I wouldn’t recommend them for getting your wedding photos printed).

Oh and it can’t be a Gilmore Girls Party without all of the food! I opened it up and made some suggestions on what people could bring that Rory and Lorelei consumed on a regular basis. We had taquitos, french fries (the devil’s starchy fingers), pop tarts (I forgot how much I liked these), pizza, Chinese, donuts, “Mallomars” and “red vines” (Viva Puffs and Twizzlers…because we’re Canadian eh?) To drink we had Founder’s Day punch without the Punch, The Rory, and of course coffee coffee coffee.

Myself and a few of the girls has custom shirts made from KoolT’s in Halifax, and I have to say that they can do almost anything and whipped these up for us in just a couple of days. Having shirts we all liked a lot means we can wear them again. I am wanting to be more “In Omnia Paratus” (ready for anything) so it’s a great fit for me (both literally and figuratively) and we got photos taken with our “teams”. Poor Dean. It’s not I don’t like him, just not as Rory’s love interest. BUT I have to say, at the end of the four new episodes I am not sure I would still be team Logan or Team Rory. Actually not very happy with those two at the moment. The end of the last episode had me frantically googling if Gilmore Girls was going to have a re-revival on Netflix. I didn’t find an answer, but if they do, you can expect a re-revival viewing party from me, because it was just so fun! Even if it wasn’t the best TV I have ever seen. Or hey, maybe a Gilmore Girls party just as an excuse to get together and have all the tasty treats!

Thanks to all the ladies who came, shared food, laughed and yelled at the TV with me (*ahem love you Stephanie**) and to Glow for hooking us up with such a cool Red Carpet welcome!

Create a Stunning + Stylish Holiday Table

Create a Stunning + Stylish Holiday Table

by | Dec 1, 2016 | Parties + Events, Uncategorized

I love all the pretty things. I often avoid Pinterest because I get pulled into the pretty. Instagram is the same way. There are so many beautiful things out there! So I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and show you my take on some simple (but awesome) Holiday tablescapes.

I like for my house to be beautiful but I am also wanting it to be more SIMPLE.  I am working on it for 2017, for my house to be clean and uncluttered. I have BIG goals in this arena, and the best part is that I can SEE it in my mind, I believe it’s actually going to happen. I know I am going to need to get my butt into gear (and I’ve already been talking to a life coach and a home design/organizer/stager, because this poop is gonna get done!) All that said,  I wanted to create pretty things for Christmas. I wanted to have pretty tables, and create pretty pictures without thinking I had to have ALL THE THINGS. You see, there are places that already have all the things. I am sure your city or town has them, and here in Halifax I have found GLOW. Yes. They have the things. And you can RENT them.

Yup, back in the day (***ahem*** last year***) I wouldn’t have rented. I would have said something along the lines of, well I could just BUY it for a little bit more (well usually two or three times more…) and then I HAVE it. Some things this legitimately works for, like the Christmas decorations I have up in my home for about 8 weeks, cake plates that I use at every single event I host. But those things you use for one fancy dinner? The extra large linens? I have come to learn, is that if you buy things so that you have them…then you HAVE them. Yup. I know, its rocket science! When you HAVE them, you HAVE them…in your home…taking up space… Maybe that’s not an issue for me, I didn’t realize it was for me until I started doing this learning on what it means for me to be well. I realized I wanted things more simple.

I’m trying to get rid of all the things ; to declutter, simplify, clean and organize. But when I have totes full of things that I “might use again someday” it kind of goes against that end goal. Definitely there are things worth investing in but if you don’t need to HAVE all the things, maybe you can rent some of the things and get the same look (or even better!) This is growth for me people.

For this little styled table I partnered with GLOW, Twig & Twine Floristry and Calligraphy by Amy. I was actually supposed to have friends over for dinner to show off this pretty set up, but fall sickness kicked that plan in the butt!

If you have never tried building a beautiful tablescape, I think you should give it a try. It’s another great way to let those creative juices flow. This table had the beautiful greenery as the base. I liked it plain with just the greenery, but it’s fun to keep building on it. Danielle (Twig and Twine) had hooked us up with some more spruce sprigs and magnolia (cool leaves!) to layer with the main garland table runner and then we layered on top and around that. We added candles of different styles (gold, tall tapers and wooden candleholders). And then we added the personalized hand lettered placecards for the finishing touch. I LOVE place cards. (and Amy is doing a Holiday special for up to 8 hand lettered place cards for just $20. I would recommend this for making the table extra special!) You can for sure put a place card right on a napkin, but the slicing into a pinecone or using the mini wreath added a little extra depth to the look! There are a million ways to place place cards, but I think these ones worked best for this look! 

I hope you like what we put together and that it inspires you to give holiday table styling a try! Stay tuned for turning this greenery into glam later this week! 

On a side note I would love to see your table stylings this Holiday season! Please comment with a link or tag us in a post so we can see what you’re up to!

Sources

GLOW

Wood Slabs

Wood Lanterns

Silver & Gold Candle Holders

Crossback Chairs

Vintage Wood Boxes

Twig & Twine

Wreaths

Mini Wreaths

Greenery/Magnolias/Garland Table Runner

Calligraphy by Amy – Hand Lettered Place Cards

Tapered Candle Holders – Value Village

Table & Bench – Wicker Emporium

Wooden Tealight Holders – Gift from my Dad – Unknown Source

Linen Napkins – Homesense

Weight Watchers – Two Lies and a Truth

Weight Watchers – Two Lies and a Truth

by | Nov 23, 2016 | Tasty Food + Recipes, Tools for Awesome Living

Weight Watchers. It works. As I am sure a lot of other things work, it’s all about balance and consistency. I am sure if you consistently do Beachbody, or Aitkins or whatever you decide, it will work. But what I love about Weight Watchers is the ability to treat yourself. It means that most of the time I don’t feel deprived. It means I can create fun foods I like and work on recipes using point math (yes, I actually enjoy this, except when I calculate that the cake I want is 200 pts and I only have 3 left for the day…)

I sit at my desk writing this post, way too late and hungry. Looking at these pictures I cannot imagine why on earth today I have been not wanting to stick to this. The food looks great. And it WAS great. But today I was having a little “I want to eat all the things” pity party. Maybe it is all the Gilmore Girls trivia studying and party planning. How do those beautiful women eat all of the bad foods and look so good. Oh RIGHT, its TV, not real life!

But here are some of my favorite finds in my first 4 weeks back on the Weight Watchers train (and down 10.4 lbs, YAY)

I haven’t eaten any of my FIT POINTS to date, but I have a goal of earning 100 points knowing that I will want some extra treats at the gilmore girls viewing party this Friday (stay tuned for more!!)

On week one back on track I really wanted to go to Darrell’s  (if you haven’t eaten there before…you should try it! Consistently tasty, never dissapoints. Wraps, burgers and the most amazing Darrel Fries!) But on week one I was feeling very “stay on track” and so I decided to make my own diner-esque meal.

I made burgers from extra lean ground beef. Weighed them and added SO MANY VEGGIES, a thin cheese slice and sauted mushrooms (with just a tiny spray of non stick spray) I used a sprouted grain english muffin as the bun and just a tad of BBQ sauce, ketchup and mustard. The sweet potato fries I made with only a TSP of extra virgin olive oil. The key to these turning out well is my pampered chef baking stone cookie sheets! Awesome! But the REAL winner is the garlic curry “aoili”.  2 TBSP non fat plain greek yogurt, a pinch of sea salt, curry powder and Epicure garlic aoili spice. Stir and let sit in the fridge 10 minutes or more. 0 spts – maybe 1. But when I put it in it was 0. The sweet potato fries are somewhere between 4-6pts. I have plugged it in on the app a few different ways, but it lands somewhere there.

All together, Burger fries and aioli a 16pt dinner. Well worth it for the tasty diner inspired meal.

I promise I will always be honest with my weight watchers/healthy meals and their quality/taste. I remember when I did weight watcher many moons ago and I had one friend who SWORE that cocoa powder and cottage cheese blended up tasted JUST like chocolate mousse. LIES I tell you. LIES.

I have been trying new things, experimenting with flavors , trying to health up some recipes and I can tell you that cauliflower pizza crust is NOT the same same as regular crust. I can also tell you that frozen banana whip is NOT the same as ice cream, it’s actually not bad if you are looking for a sweet treat.

But so far my win has been spaghetti squash. Now, it’s not the exact same as pasta, because well to do that it would have to actually be pasta! But if you add flavour or sauce it seems just like angel hair! And best part of all…. its NO POINTS. Zip Zilch Nadda! I have it almost every other day. WIth sauted chicken veggies and garlic, a “Creamy” alfredo style sauce or homemade marinara (Also no points!) and meatballs. So many options for a pasta lover for me!

The quickest way to get perfect spaghetti squash is to cut it in half the long way, then cut out the seeds and “innerds”. Place flat side down on a plate and pour some water on it (about a quarter of a cup) and microwave 12-14 minutes. Take out and shred the squash with a fork. Maybe I’ll do a step by step next time!

Which “pasta” recipe would you like to have first?