What I Have Been Up To This Past Month...part 1

In the middle of December, Phillip and I hosted our Annual Christmas Dinner. I can't be certain, but I think this was our 5th or 6th dinner. It has become my favorite holiday tradition. Phillip and I invite 12 or so people over for dinner. This is nice for us since we are usually by ourselves for the actual Christmas Holiday since we do not have any family nearby. It seems silly for Phillip and I to make a big holiday dinner for just the two of us. I had a lot more decorations than what I am posting, but unfortunately, I did not realize that I only took half of the pictures. I must have gotten distracted at the last minute doing some sort of hostess duty.

I love this Santa Claus picture that I got from Pottery Barn. I knew that it was big, but I did not realize that it would be quite as big as it was. I had to move my big mirror and artwork around just to find a wall he would fit on.

One of my favorite decorations was this little display I made with a Bambi cake topper and a little white tree in the apothecary jar. I love using the apothecary jars for various seasonal displays...especially little cutie "still life" displays. I had this in the entryway next to my little Christmas Cd's Phillip and I make every year. I like to give them to our guests as party favors.

The pictures of the table don't really give the table dressing justice. The colors were aqua, mint and silver...they really did sparkle nicely. I can't wait for next year...by then Phillip will have the family room completed and it will look so much more appealing.

Above is my YUMMY chocolate trifle dessert. I must say that I am quite proud of this. Not only did it look gorgeous, but it tasted delicious! I highly recommend this dessert if you want to make a big impact for a small effort. By the way, you don't need the trifle bowl. However, I think the proper bowl really does show off the dessert. I mean, just look at all of those yummy layers! I found the bowl at Crate and Barrel. It was much more difficult than I thought to find a proper trifle bowl.

I am sure you are all wondering about the pictures of my tree. Well, I am embarrassed to say that this year we did not get a tree. It was not my intention, but every time Phillip and I tried to go, either there was a snow storm going on or Parker was sick. Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve. So I did something I never thought I would do...I bought an artificial Christmas Tree at the after Christmas sales. It is a gorgeous 8 foot Noble (the only real type of Christmas tree in my opinion). The needles really feel real at first touch. Never again will I be without a Christmas tree.

Gothic Halloween Dinner Party

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, our Halloween Gothic Dinner Party was a hit! The food was yummy and the drinks were FANTASTIC (thanks Jess!). Conversation never slowed down. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of the guests once they showed up (I blame the yummy Dracula Kisses...very strong with lots of liquor!).




Guests were greeted by a creepy apothecary table set with party favors (home-made Devils Food cupcakes with cream cheese icing), a brain, zombie hand, and skull. Creeping on the wall was Bernice, my HUGE spider. She spun her web all over the house.

Guests were greeted with a specialty Halloween cocktail...Dracula's Kiss or Pumpkin Pie Martinis. Both were scrumptious and went down WAY TOO smooth. I lined all of the glasses with black sugar and found these adorable sugar glass clips at Target. We all enjoyed cocktails and appetizers for a while. I will be sure to write a separate post for some of the best recipes for this weekend's events. They were a real hit.

I am not a big fan of the whole orange and black Halloween decor. I favor a black and white color scheme. It is a little bit more elegant and unexpected for Halloween. The table was set with this beautiful velvet burnout rose fabric I found at Hancock's Fabric. It thought it was perfect to go over a plain white table cloth. I had so many more plans to dress the table (IE. fold the napkins into bones), but being sick for that week and a half really forced me to take things off of my "to do" list. Oh well...there is always next year. You can bet I all ready have so great ideas for next year's dinner!

Our house has this old built-in bar cabinet. It was perfect for our setting - just add spider webs and cheese cloth! You can't tell from the pictures, but I had all of the drinks and appetizers served on old, tarnished silver trays. Over the past years, I have gone to thrift stores and picked up various old silver trays for this very purpose. They look great and elegant, tarnished and creepy, and hardly cost a thing! They are more unexpected than serving things on paper plates or Halloween trays.

I made sure that the entire house was decked out...even the second floor (where the bathroom is).

Hector, the black owl, looked over everything to make sure no one was misbehavin' too much.