Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a Very Happy and Safe New Year!

I have some pretty exciting things happening in 2010 for Orange it Lovely and I can't wait to share it with you!

Pic is from one of my favorite Entertaining sites - The Hostess with the Mostess!

Merry Christmas to All

"The best gift around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other". ~ Burton Hollis

I'll be taking some time off to enjoy this time with my family...

I want to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from my family to yours.

See you in 2010!

Why I LOVE Christmas!

10 Reasons why I LOVE Christmas (in no particular order)

1. Spending a night (or 2) with the girls making cookies, brownies and chocolate dipped pretzels.
2. Wishing for snow, and having it come true (I will be careful for what I wish for from now on!)
3. The beauty of our Christmas tree lit up at night. Every year it still amazes me.
4. Planning Christmas breakfast. Its the same casserole every year, but it still makes them happy when they know it's going to be served.
5. Spending Christmas Eve alone with the hubby. We put the kids to bed and spend a few hours reflecting on "us". oh and opening gifts too!
6. Sitting around in our new jammies on Christmas day.
7. Taking the time to realize how very blessed I am.
8. Knowing we are not going anywhere on Christmas day and no one is coming over. It's just us, all day.
9. Seeing the smiles on my girls face when they open their gifts, and knowing if they only got half of what they just opened, they really would be that happy still.
10. Asking the girls why they love Christmas - and hearing them say "because it's just a happy day" - that makes me happy.

Loving this use for books

Isn't this idea so creative? If my 2 leather chairs stayed in one spot (I like to rearrange them), I would so definitely use this idea for a table between them. Creative and so unique. BHG.com

Our tree and a few of my favorite ornaments

A few of my favorite ornaments.... Do you remember my 10 year old's pinecones? Don't they look gorgeous on the tree?
I made this Glitter Peace sign ornament. I got the idea from the cover of the Pottery Barn catalog. I love how it came out and even gave it to a few of my friends in an ornament exchange. Gosh I hope those girls don't read this blog!! Next week I will show you how I made them!

Our tree - taken with a flash

Without

My dining room Holiday decor..

Just a few pictures from around my Dining/Family room.

Dining room centerpiece

The Chandelier over the Dining table

How I display my Holiday cards The opening between the kitchen and the dining roomand just some fun stuff

And more of that one room..

I promised last week I would share more pictures of my living room. Here are just a few of the entryway table. I just love how the blues and silvers sparkle. Can you see all the snowflakes I used throughout the decor?Do you remember the Faux Mercury Glass trees I made a few weeks ago? Here they are. Aren't they great?

all lit up at night..

Decorating - over the kitchen sink??

Remember Monday's post when I showed you this creative idea?

Well here is my version for over my kitchen sink

Supplies were purchased at Walmart (except the branch -that was mine) - Pretty cute isn't it?

I posted this at A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day... love this site.

Not a normal post - it's a bra post

I would like to interrupt my regularly styled posts for a "I love it" post. I LOVE this bra! I mean love! It's the Victoria's Secret - Body by Victoria Full Coverage bra. I can't remember the last time I got excited over a bra. This bra fits perfectly, and I mean PERFECTLY. Ok, that's all. Just thought I would share this great find!

Another Cocktail Contender

As you can tell probably tell, I put ALOT of thought into planning my parties. Too much so? Never! In my current issue of Country Living magazine, they had a great article on throwing a Holiday Party on a budget. It featured this drink - Tropical Bourbon Punch. I love the idea of having an adult punch that you serve in a punch bowl, plus it looks so tasty and festive. This is definitely a contender.

Creative Ideas for the Holidays

Christmas is 11 days away! Yikes! Do you still need some fun and creative ideas for decorating your home for the holidays? Here are a few that I just love and actually used in my own holiday decor. More pics of my home are coming...

A very busy weekend...

This weekend is going to be a cold one, so what better way to stay out of the cold then to enjoy the indoors and entertain? Tonight we plan to decorate the tree and then relax in front of the fireplace. Oh wait, I forgot that the 10 Year old and I are making chocolate covered pretzels and these delicious brownies (yum Bakerella) tonight. My waistline will NOT be happy with all the treat this weekend, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make for the sake of entertaining. Tomorrow night I am having my 2nd Annual Cookie Swap. I had contemplated on whether to even have it this year, but decided I just had too. It was too much fun last year. I decided to keep it small though, because it really is a lot of work with it being so close to Christmas and all. Especially with all the other holiday things that have to be done (by me). I'm looking forward to having some "girl" time with friends.

I'm outta here.. hope you have a great weekend!!!

Sneak peak into my Holiday decor ... so far

So last week I had a bunch of projects that I decided I needed to do in the midst of holiday preparations. Yes, they all had to be done last week. See I like to give myself time lines. Time lines are my friend. I laid out everything that I already had on hand, prrinted all my favorite ideas that I had seen on blogs and ripped out pages of ideas I had from magazines. Then I tried to come up with a game plan for decorating one room. Yes 1 room, but not any room, the first room you see when you walk into in my home. Here is what I came up with so far.

The mantle

More pics to come next week.. of yes, still this same room.

Cocktail Party worthy?

I think I found the perfect cocktail for my Christmas Eve get together ~ Pomegranate-Key Lime Vodka Cocktail from myrecipes.com. Hmmmm maybe I'll try it out for the ladies this weekend at my little get together.

Faux Mercury Glass Christmas Trees

While browsing around blogland I came across this WONDERFUL blog - Under the Table and Dreaming. I just loved her idea on taking a $1 store glass tree and making it look so much more expensive. I love the look of Mercury but boy can it get pricey. This project was pretty easy to do. I LOVE how mine turned out. The one on the left is fauxed and the one is the right is original. Its hard to take pictures of mirrored objects, but I think you get the idea. I'll show you pics of the finished products on display next week. Check out her blog for full instructions. I followed them to the "T"!

Empanadas ala AC

I have a little chef in the house, my 10 year old, oh so talented daughter. A few weeks ago we decided to make emapanadas. She did it almost ALL the work herself and they turned out delicious. I'm so proud. Here is 'our" recipe.

Beef and Potato Beef Empanadas
1 lb. ground beef
2 medium potato, diced small
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small can chopped green chilis
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp Cumin
1 tbsp Chili powder
1 tsp Paprika
1 cup salsa
sea salt & pepper
2 boxes Pillsbury pie dough - 3-4 inch round template (we used clear chinese plastic container)

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add a little oil (about 1 tbs. or more) when hot. Add potato and season with cumin and chili powder, sea salt and pepper. Sautee. Add lid to cook the potatoes through (about 10 minutes). Add garlic and saute for a few more minutes (2). Add ground beef and saute until browned. Sprinkle beef with paprika and maybe more salt and pepper to taste. Add salsa and chilis. Cook with beef mixture for a couple minutes. Make sure to taste!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dust clean counter with flour. Unroll the pie pastry and roll a little thinner with a rolling pin to your liking. Cut out rounds (I got 10 -12 rounds out of one pie crust). Fill each empanada with a tablespoon of filling. Encase filling with dough by folding over the dough and pressing the dough closed at the edges. Take a fork tine and press down along to the edges to seal. Place on a slightly greased cookie sheet. Repeat with 2nd pie dough sheet. Make sure to poke a couple air holes in the tops of the empanadas. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Serve warm and ENJOY! Delicious!

before
after

Cocktail attire for Christmas Eve

This year I decided instead of a formal sit down dinner, I am going to throw an "Open House" for Christmas Eve. Seriously, it's just another way of saying partaaay. I will do just about anything to get dressed up. Seriously -Anything. With this now festive occasion happening, it means I must have a cocktail attire. I have one piece of my outfit- the hat, but not just ANY hat - A black sequined beret. I saw a black sequined beret at Nordstrom's and I tried it on. It was over! I knew this was going to be part of my outfit. The price wasn't what I wanted to I picked up my beret at Mandee's for $14. So French. So glamorous. So me on Christmas Eve. Now to find the rest of my outfit.

beret from fredflare.com

Oh I <3 Stuart Weitzman

How utterly delicious are these shooties?? I want...

Fun with Pinecones

I just love the idea of using pine cones as decoration during the holidays. So much so that my 10 year old and I made our own pinecones ornaments last night. This project was pretty simple actually. 1st she used Mod Podge and applied it where she wanted the glitter to stick to the pinecones. Then I cut little ribbons (she picked the Tiffany blue color to match the tree) and made bows. Then we both used the hot glue gun to secure the loops and bows to the pinecones. You can't tell from my pic but they are covered in a gorgeous opal-ly glitter. Didn't she do a great job? Our version will hang on our Christmas tree, but how about hanging these in a window (like below), or clustered together on your front door? Oh or how about over a mantle? There are so many possibilities!

pics from myhomeideas and countryliving

My outside wreath

This wreath was so simple to make - I mean seriously easy. It took me all about 15 minutes to make, but this simple wreath adds so much to my entry way! I just love it.

Supplies

$2.00 wreath from AC Moore. I had already started stringing the lights when I took the pic.

Final product. I decided against the berry clusters.

Isn't it great?