time off for good behaviour
Have a great week!!
I’m doing pj’s till noon, afternoon movie double features, homemade mac & cheese for dinner, euchre evenings with neighbours.
Sometimes After Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! Enjoy!!
get ready, get set
Posted by Cobi on Monday December 21, 2009 at 06:00 AM
cobi's house • christmas • entertaining • Comments (3)
cobi's house • christmas • entertaining • Comments (3)
As a working mom for so many years, I’ve trained myself that the only way I can entertain is to plan and prepare ahead of time. For any relatively organized, ‘type A’ overachiever, it’s the only way to go.
With that in mind…I get my dishes out the weekend ahead of any special dinner to figure out the table and make sure everything is clean and polished - I know, it all sounds very ‘Martha’ - but, like mom, she’s often right.
Here are a few ideas for setting a special holiday table.
I bought 12 of these chargers a few years ago when I was doing a special winter dinner party for Bob’s 40th. It was a splurge at the time but I knew on the spot that I loved them. So classic and they look great at any winter dinner party but especially Christmas. I love their size ~ they catch all the mess! - and the four hunt traditional scenes. I don’t know the pattern, they just say Royal Staffordshire on the back.
I don’t have enough white plates of my regular pattern (Wedgewood Coalport Countryware) and so rather than just have a few spares of another pattern, I alternate them half and half with some lovely square white plates I bought from the Brian Gluckstein Home collection at Home Outfitters. It looks good alternating in a stack and on the table - like I’m doing it for fun rather than necessity - love that.
In memory of my Grandmother, we always serve tomato juice at Christmas dinner. I remember everyone sprinkling it with pepper and drinking it at the beginning of our dinner when I was a kid. I don’t have little crystal cornflower glasses as she did, but I do have these heavy bottomed, stemless, wine glasses I bought somewhere along the line and they work well (plus go in the dishwasher!).
Speaking of my Grandmother, I couldn’t set the table and not use some of the dishes she left me. She knew how much I loved them. It’s ambitious to use them for the whole meal because I just can’t bear to put them in the dishwasher, but I always use them for one course and I encourage you to do the same - salad, dessert, soup - 10 or 12 smaller plates or bowls are a breeze to wash up and seeing them out on the table brings back warm memories of those we love. I use her double handled soup bowls for shrimp cocktail.
My daughter Charlotte loves helping me with place-cards. I bought these cute balls at a Hallmark store a few years ago and add a clipping of boxwood from the garden. In fact, little clippings of boxwood look great added to bows on gifts too. So easy and a nice touch.
?Now I have to run and polish the silver and 99 other things on the list….
Have a wonderful holiday and no matter how much you have to do, take a moment to sit by the tree and count your many blessings and all the things that are good in your life.
it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
My place is not a show house at Christmas time. I tend to go the sentimental route rather than ‘show stopper’. It’s not that I don’t want it to be beautiful, I’m just too darned attached to things from the past and their stories, for me to move on without them. I always threaten to not open my dusty old boxes one year and instead go for drama and stylish new glam, but it never happens. And to be honest, it likely never will.
Anyway, here are a few little tidbits from my house to yours that I thought might get the juices flowing if you’re a little dry on decorating at the moment. After all, it’s the little things that count at this overblown time of year….
Some ornaments are heavy for the tree and so I like to put them in my many (too many!) glass or creamware compotes.
I found adorable myrtle topiary at the Chinese flower store in Toronto and topped the soil with cranberries. So sweet.
I tie ribbons around the necks of most of my table lamps. Just a little trick but looks festive.
I also tie bits of ribbon around any of my favourite feathered friends. They seem to like looking festive too.
Here is our Santa collection to date…kids love it.
Over the last few years I’ve bought some over sized mercury balls. They just seem to fill in the blanks so easily.
I load my best silver tray in the middle of my dining table with all things sparkly glass and silver. The felt snowflake placemats are my favourite find this year and you’ll never guess where I found them ~ Wallyworld! (that’s Walmart for short) ~ who’d a guessed it?? Two for $6.00 I think.
Merry Decorating!
it’s a wrap!
We need to focus on Christmas, people, and we need to do it fast!!
Here’s a unique and easy wrap (plus gift) idea to help the cause:
Use one of those great little reusable shopping bags that hold a ton and then neatly fold back up to keep in your purse or briefcase, as a gift bag. They’re available everywhere now and not a lot more expensive than really nice gift wrap.
The above shot is from the Envirosax website. I have a couple bags from the ‘Envirosax’ line in my purse at all times and the designs are great. Their site will shoot you to a short video on youtube that shows you how to wrap with one. It’s pretty straightforward but with the good tip of safety pinning the bottom points underneath your box so it looks a little neater. You can find Envirosax at tons of retailers or you can purchase them on their site, although I noticed they were a bit more $$ online.
This shot is from a line called RuMe Bags:
I also loooove a line called Baggu from the US because they do such great solid colours and their website is brilliant ~ literally!
I couldn’t help but grab a few images to show you…..
The site says they will ship to Canada for $7.00 and I love it that they offer not only single colours but 3 or 5 bags in a sac. Not cheap $22.00 and $35.00 US respectively, but so great for doing a full grocery shop and they last a long time….
Another great gift idea! One for you and five for me…. 