Dinner on the Hudson

I have had this location scouted out for countless months, and have been obsessed with the idea of trying to channel some inner Jordan Ferney and pull off an intimate dinner in a unique outdoor location.  Of course there were details that I didn't get to....but, thanks to the help of my gourmet cook friend, Jean, we were able to pull it off.

Big thanks to West Point for providing such breathtaking scenery.  :)

We surprised Mark and Krissy with this dinner to celebrate the time we have had here together, their upcoming birthdays, and to look forward to future memories.  I can't believe that I didn't spill the beans over the last 9 months to Krissy as I have schemed all these 'pretend' parties in my mind! 

I had originally wanted to keep everyone out of the loop to make it a surprise for all, but it definitely wouldn't have happened without Jean.  I knew that if everything else went wrong, the food would still be out of this world.  And, it was.  Bravo to you, Jean!  As I have mentioned many times, I struggle with menu planning so much...and there was an added level of complexity since everything had to taste okay cold since we would prepare at home and then bring it all down to the river.

Here's what we landed on for the menu:

Appetizer:
Jalapenos stuffed with a cream cheese/honey/pecan mixture then wrapped in bacon and grilled.  (Sommer introduced us to these when she and her brother-in-law chef made them for Tim's welcome home party, and they have been our go-to appetizer ever since...thanks for sharing, Sommer!)

Meal - this was ALL Jean...
--Cold beef tenderloin with homemade horseradish sauce - a Mark/Krissy specialty and favorite.
--Zuchinni boats filled with mashed parsnips - YUM!  So gourmet :)
--Roasted tomatoes with garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar...and maybe a few other things I am forgetting.  I will never forget how delicious these were.  And, so beautiful!
--Rolls with the homemade honey butter than I attempted

Dessert:
--Decaf coffee, frothed, of course.
--Martha Stewart's Inside Out German Chocolate Cake (I made this years and years ago for Sean's bday - and I swear, it turned out okay that time.  This time around was disaster city.  The filling oozed everywhere, the cakes were overcooked...bascially a typical Meghan cake.)
--Chocolate covered strawberries (due to last minute panic that the cake may be terrible)

I must have some weird sickness as I had the best time making my list of everything that needed to be carted down to the river to pull this off.  I loved assembling the Rubbermaid containers full of glasses, plates, napkins, tablecloths, candles, etc. 

Jean and I obsessed over the weather all week, and ultimately, decided to go for it, even though it was going to be much colder than we had ever hoped for.  Mark and Krissy knew we were all having dinner that night, but that was all they knew.  That afternoon, I told them to dress warmly, and that they would be picked up at six.

And, I can't forget...special shout out to April for saving me at the last minute and letting me borrow her table since ours was MIA.  Also, huge thank you to my parents, who are my party wing-men.  They were a huge help assembling all the goods, delivering/setting up everything, and even brewing and delivering a steaming pot of decaf coffee!

I wish I would have captured more pictures of the evening, but here is what we got...

Look at those pretty silver bread plates...they belonged to Jean's grandmother.  Love it.

 the chef and master fire starter...

Guests of honor...I was getting teary eyed just thinking about them arriving. 

And, dinner is underway...

Scrumptious.  Jean hit this one out of the ballpark.

and...into the night :)

Thanks to all for such a memorable evening.  We will miss you, Brosnans.  Godspeed, Mark.

Open House

On Friday, March 12, we had an open house for the plebes that we sponsor and their families who were in town for Plebe Parent Weekend.  It was such a lovely group of people and we were so happy to have the opportunity to meet/see all of them.  One of our very favorite things about being here at West Point is sponsoring these cadets.

One of the dads mentioned to Sean how lucky we are to get to see their sons in an environment where they are able to just sit down and share their stories.  He was saying that they are always excited to have their son home, but that they usually get to see him when he first comes home, and then he is with friends, playing XBox, or whatever else kids do these days :).  It was a great reminder that it is a privilege to spend some nice quality time with these kids outside of the more regimented West Point life.

It was fun to get the open house together - thank goodness for our sweet babysitter, Kayla.  Sean wasn't there for the first hour and a half or so because he was wrapping up at his department's open house.  I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without Kayla.  To be honest, I am surprised I allowed anyone in the house with me before a gathering like that!  It seems that I am always scrambling until the first guest arrives (ok, maybe even sometimes AFTER they arrive ;)). 

I bought a few yards of fabric to use as a tablecloth...

The menu...
Apps:

--Southwestern Egg Rolls with Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce (a new favorite of ours that Jamie introduced us to!)
--Potato Skins (does anyone have a good recipe?  I prepped these and froze the empty skins ahead of time...but I didn't think that they looked that great...would love to hear if anyone has a good recipe!)
--Taco Dip
--Caprese
--Pesto Breads
--Rosemary Cashews (Jean introduced us to these - they are addictive!)

Desserts:
Sour Cream Caramel Cakes
Chocolate covered strawberries
Lemon Bars

Paddy is one...decor

How pathetic is it that I am just posting this now?  It took me this long to have enough patience to upload these pics to blogger :)

In keeping with the 'keep cost down' theme, I really tried to use things that we already had for Paddy's 1st birthday (that was in NOVEMBER!)...

Banner Flags to drape on front of table - I cut the flags out of fabric scraps that I had and fabric glued them to this grosgrain ribbon. 

Large Balloons...I had ordered these for my maternity pictures, and then used another one for Paddy's photo shoot with Shea Halliburton.  I had three left.  I had planned to get them filled with helium, but because that is so expensive, I decided to copy an idea I had seen - probably on Party Perfect...and just string them across/above the food table.

Clipboards...I ordered 5x7 pics of some of my favorite pictures throughout the year from Walmart, and then taped them to cardstock and hung on the clipboards.

Flag toothpicks...I contemplated getting special sticks that would be longer than toothpicks, but decided that I couldn't beat free toothpicks and free fabric.  One night, I just sat down for a while and cut lots of fabric and then just fabric glued the pieces onto the toothpicks.  I would use these for the sausage cheese balls and carrot cake cupcakes.

Food tags...I designed these in PPT and then used double stick tape to stick these onto lollipop sticks.

Cake pop display...I needed a way to display the cake pops and the large chocolate covered marshmallows.  I wanted to have some on the food table and also have some cake pops near the door since these were pulling double duty...they were a dessert during the party, but they were also a 'favor'.  I ended up buying two 10 lb bags of sugar and filled my cylindrical hurricanes.  I picked sugar b/c I knew that I could use it after the party, so it wouldn't go to waste.

Splurge...I am such a straw girl.  I usually have one Diet Coke (usu. caff free) a day, and it is always with a straw.  I have been really wanting a reason to order these paper straws.  Since I had to pay the shipping, I figured I better get some blue, red and gray ones while I was at it :)

Games & Prizes - I have such fond memories of the little games that we would play at our birthday parties growing up.  My mom was a champ and took on the game responsibility and set up bozo buckets with the help of the Thompsons (thanks, again :)) as well as a clothes pin drop into a glass jar.  We were thankful that it was a beautiful day, so the older kids were able to be outside to play games.  I bought some gum and candy to match the color scheme.

 

 Party Hat - I wasn't very good at making this, but I just bought a sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper and added some ribbon to the top, and it stayed on for all of 2.2 seconds...

Happy 1st Birthday, Paddy Man - what a fun day!  Thanks again to my friend, Jennyjo, for snapping most of these pics!

Girl time

For Isabella's birthday, we decided it might be fun to have her over to hang out with us, have some girl time, and do something fun together.  We let her 'design' her own day from some suggestions we had, and she picked to have lunch with me, go to Michael's to pick out a craft, then have her friend over to our house to do the selected craft project, then have dinner and a sleepover with us.

It was so fun trying to get a few things ready to make the day feel special for Isabella.  She wanted brownies as her 'cake', so I just baked some brownies in cake pans and topped with ganache...

And set the table with my most feminine things - my mismatched teacups, delicate glasses that Krissy got me years and years ago, my silver candy server, and the napkin holders that hold fresh flowers (which I failed to get in time for the playdate!).

 
It was such a pleasure to have Isabella over for the day and have some great quality time with her - and A&T, too!  I mean what can be bad about a day with tacos for lunch, brownie cake in the afternoon, tacos again for dinner, and more brownie cake to follow?  We capped it off with the Crow family joining us for breakfast the next morning.  Fun times.  We feel so blessed to be at the same place as our dear friends.

Halloween Grinch

I am a total Halloween Grinch...maybe that is what I should have dressed as for the party we went to on Saturday.  I love to blame it on my 6th grade Halloween when my friends and I had our candy stolen from some 'bullies'...one friend was even flipped to the ground.  Most of the girls just laughed it off...I was a little more shocked by the whole thing.  What?  Halloween bullies in Glen Ellyn?  How could that be?

That is an easy excuse, so I stick with it.  I am hoping that kids will make Halloween more fun again.  Or...maybe if Sean and I could ever come up with a good costume??  We try to think of good ideas, but come up short.  We were going to have one of us be a Chilean miner, and we would just have one of us stay in the basement all night with a pipe running downstairs.  Okay, not the most practical idea.

All that being said, we were invited to our neighbors for a party the other night.  I knew 'A' & 'B' would be all over the details, and 'A' blew every little detail out of the water.  She claims she copied everything (which is all I seem to do!), but just pulling together all these details in one party was definitely all 'A'.

They have these very detailed cut outs in their windows and the perfect lighting behind them...'B' did the cut outs himself, and he even incorporated a rat being dropped into a cauldron as a 'shout out' to our little rat issue.

So, 'A' is clearly the champion of themed parties...check out all the food and the perfectly coordinating names!

This 'spooky punch' was super tasty, and it had an ice skull floating in it!  I wish I would have gotten a better picture of that...

Mummy Marshmallow Treats...

Boo-tiful Brownies...

Spiderweb Eggs...a Martha idea...

Marinated Moons...little buffalo mozz balls marinated in yummy spices...

Guacamoldy with Jack-o-Lantern dippers ('A' cut out all those pumpkins from tortillas and then baked them...so yummy!)

Pina Ghouladas...notice the corn syrup/red food coloring mixture that mimics blood running down the glass...nice...

On the walls, they even blew up pictures of all the families that were at the party where they had 'photo-shopped' our pictures and placed us in front of haunted houses...adorable!

There were even more perfect details, but I didn't get great pictures, so I will stop here.  Thanks for the great time, 'A' & 'B'!

White Plates...to have or not to have?

So, for a long time, we have talked about buying some white plates in bulk for entertaining.  We finally buckled when we got here because after much shopping around, we were able to get 36 dinner and 36 salad plates from the Williams Sonoma Outlet for 50% off the outlet price.  Plus, we had a gift card...perfect.
 
We have had lots of hilarious late night chats while here at M&K's, and the plates came up.  I knew we would get grilled by M for making this purchase, so I tried to use my eco-friendly reasoning with him.  Being the 'green soul' that he is...I thought this was my only way to win this discussion.

The sad part is, I have even wondered at times if 36 was enough!!  (Okay, I am still wondering....)

Last night while reading about something completely unrelated on Apartment Therapy, I found this post about these people who bought 160 white plates!!!  Yeah, someone more crazy than us.  I love these people, and I love their rationale...and all the comments that follow.  I immediately announced this article to Sean and K who were in the room with me, and sent it to M, hoping he would read it when it popped up on his iPad upstairs!  M said it is just proof that you can always find something on the internet to back up what is not true....bottom line, I am still happy with my purchase.  Where do you stand?

Sommer's 30th Birthday

A couple of years ago, I hosted a party to celebrate Sommer's 30th birthday.  It was so much fun prepping for it.  I was an eBay fiend the month before the party, that is for sure.  We had a lot of fun at the party - even Sommer's mom was able to attend, all the way from Texas.

Onto the details...

The invitations...I wanted a cute picture of Sommer as a little girl so I enlisted Tim to help me.  It was so cute...he showed up at the door one day after work with some pictures that he had found...they were perfect!  I then assembled the three page invitation (vellum, photo, invitation details)...

The color scheme was red and black with silver accents. I threw together a table run from scraps of black fabric I had, and Brenda brought down lots of yummy smelling red candles.

The placecard tags -

to be tied onto bud vases with red roses...

 

Placemats...saw this in a magazine (can't remember which one)...just printed on 11x17 paper.

Menus...I liked the quote:

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." - Virginia Woolf

Mini milkshakes - scored these little silver cups on eBay.  Filled them with yummy Hardee's chocolate shakes...still one of my favorites. 

I made some CD mixes as favors (I know, I sound so 'old school', right?  Well, at least I didn't say 'tapes'...)

CD Jacket...

Rene's Baby Shower

Back in Columbus, Meg hosted a baby shower for Rene.  It was so much fun helping out.  Meg is the queen of breakfast.  She and her husband always talk about opening a B&B someday, and I can't wait to be one of their first guests.  What is more cool than just talking about opening one...Meg and Akim travel a lot, and they always try to stay at B&Bs, with the purpose of checking them out, learning about them, etc.  I love that.  Meg is always up for trying new recipes, she is an expert meal planner, she has a great sense of style, and puts on a good bash. 

Being that it was a small group of mostly local girls, I wanted to make a fun invitation that I may not have made if they had to be shipped.  So, Meg and I put together these diaper invitations and then packaged them in lime green takeout containers.

I printed the invitation details onto iron on transfer paper, and then we pressed them onto cloth diapers.  (This didn't go as smoothly as we had planned if I remember correctly...maybe we needed better transfer paper??).  It took us a while to find the diaper pins, but we were finally able to locate yellow ones.  Phew! 

 

We then folded them up with the invitation facing up and placed them into takeout containers.

I whipped up some name tags, and we tied them on with cute animal ribbon that we found to match our containers. 

Meg set a beautiful table. I remember asking about where to get flowers, and she was able to pick up these assorted roses for a steal, and I really felt like they pulled together her lime theme along with the bright fruit she served (notice the fruit was served in the martini glasses...very cute!) and her beautiful dining room.

For favors, we found little herb pots at Target in the $1 section.  Meg planted and tended to them before the shower, and I made name tags that I attached to lollipop sticks that we simply stuck in the pots.

The sweet treats...I made some of Paula Deen's sour cream caramel cakes and ordered the cute Petit Fours (I wish I had the patience to attempt a dessert like that!)

Some yummy Petit Fours in honor of Bobby!  From Columbus Corner Bakery

Meg was a wonderful hostess and the food was out of this world!  What a lovely day.

Brady's Square Root Bash

So, I am super excited today to have my dear friend, Sommer, as a guest blogger.  Recently, Sommer started a blog called A New Leaf.    You should definitely check out her blog for all things fashionable, crafty, organized and well designed.  I get SO happy every time she has a new post, and it makes me REALLY miss being neighbors.  (I have decided I may have to start up a Blogs Anonymous at some point, by the way.  I am obsessed.)

Sommer has been working on a fun and creative party for her son's first birthday.  Brady was a rare and special square root baby, being born on 3/3/09, so she decided to go with the square root theme...incorporating squares and roots into the party details.  Brilliant!  She indulged me and let me make some little party details for her to compliment her genius theme. 

As soon as Sommer told me about this party, I told her she was going to have to share every little detail.  Let me tell you, when I got her pictures, I couldn't stop drooling.  She crafted the most special party to celebrate Brady's big day.  I am thrilled that she agreed to share everything with us.

First, Sommer created a beautiful invitation for the party (she also did the beauties for the baby shower the girls had for us on Cape Cod!), setting the tone for a fun party to come!  

So, let's hear more about this great party...

M:  So, I know you had some wonderful food ideas for Brady's bash.  What did you end up having as the final menu? 

S:  So the final menu ended up being...Texas Caviar, Prosciutto cups with pear, goat cheese and thyme, Poblano and Cheddar mini burgers on Nonnie's Homemade Potato rolls, Shoestring fries with parsley and kosher salt, Sweet Potato Gratins, Fresh fruit, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Brenda's famous carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing, sweet tea, unsweet tea, bottled water, and an assortment of ROOT beer!

M:  You know how horrible I am about menu planning (almost as bad as my color-selecting skills).  After the party, was there anything that you would have changed or done differently with food?

S:  Okay so first I have to say that you are in fact one of the best party planners/throwers I know..and that includes the food you serve!  I think I stole at least two or three recipes from each party you threw in Columbus.  I was so wishing I had the Columbus gang around to help me cook and plan...but I digress.  Couple things I would have done differently were (1) would have made the carrot cake cupcakes the evening before instead of the morning of so I would have had a little more time for details and wouldn't have been as stressed.  (2) Also should have done a trial run on the sweet potato gratins a week or two before the party.. live and learn.

Oh yeah, I also had planned on having fruit on skewers and after stabbing myself in the hand with a skewer and running behind, I just threw it all into a bowl!  Of course I then realized after the party had started that I had set out no silverware because my menu had been planned around not needing it.. but that was back when the fruit was on a skewer... oops! (3) not food related, but I wanted to make some big paper flowers for decor and just ran out of time.

M:  Were any of these new recipes that you would absolutely make again?  Any that you would like to share?

S:  The Sweet Potato Gratins were a new recipe.  They were good but I think I needed to layer more sweet potatoes into the muffin tins...but they have heavy cream and Gruyere cheese..so how bad can you mess that up, right? And a HUGE thanks to my mom-in-law for thinly slicing an enormous amount of sweet potatoes! The Prosciutto cups were new to me..a recipe suggested by you when I was stumped for another appetizer.  I have to say I loved them...they were probably my favorite food at the party (besides the cupcakes, of course!)

Sweet Potato Gratins:
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 ounces grated Gruyere
6 ounces heavy cream

1.Grease 6 cup muffin tin.
2.Put the potatoes in the cups in alternating layers with the salt, pepper, and most of the cheese.  Add 2 tbsp of the cream to each cup.  Cover the tin loosely with foil.
3. Bake in a 400F oven for 20 to 25 minutes.  Uncover and top with the remaining cheese.
4. Bake for 15 minutes more.

M:  Also, poblano cheddar burgers...YUMMMMMMM.  Could I get that recipe? 

S:  Yeah I wish I had it too... once again...HEB.  They will only make them as big burgers so we ordered them and then Tim cut them in half and manipulated them to make mini burgers.  They are to die for.  They cut chunks of poblano peppers and cheddar cheese and mix it in with ground chuck..but I am pretty sure they add some spices too and not sure what those are..I may have to try and bribe the meat market guys at HEB one day and I will let you know if I am successful...they are delicious!

M:  Look at those gorgeous chocolate covered strawberries!  Okay, so you have to share the secret - I have tried to drizzle white chocolate before and it was a total disaster.  How did you make these so perfect?  AND...I love the stems too!

S: I just dipped them in chocolate bark...and once they dried I used a tube of white decorative gel ...my new favorite find!!! Love it and it is so easy to work with.  I found it at the grocery store, but you can also get it at Michaels...comes in a few colors.  I actually got the strawberries at our local grocery store, HEB.  They don't always have them with the stems, but I lucked out this time!

M:  Do tell about every last little detail.  I know you made this so special for Brady and I want to envision every tiny special thing that you did.

S:  We chalked a Birthday message to B on the chalkboard in the dining room.  Got some fresh flowers and balloons... I was bummed about the balloons.  I waited until the morning of and when I went to get them, they were out of black, brown and white..huh????  Anyway, got some clear ones that were pretty enough.

Some little numbered spice jars from Anthropologie that I was crazy about went on sale for 1.95 so I got 3 3 0 9 and filled them with mini hydrangeas and put them on the table.  I had to exercise great restraint by not treating myself to one of every number!

Then I had the adorable food tags, flags and straws that you made for the party... so cute and creative.. I especially LOVED the little flags on the cupcakes!  You were then sweet enough to send me the file so I could cut and paste and make a few more things to match all the adorable stuff you had made..

Sommer found this cute 'S' sticker to place on the pitcher to differentiate between the sweet and unsweet tea.

I think my favorite thing to do was print out a black and white picture of Brady from each month of his life and put them in wine glasses along the window sill in the dining room.  I was able to make month tags with the stuff you sent me and then stuck them into the wine glasses filled with black beans and pinto beans.  It was fun reliving each of those moments over the last year (some more fun than others!)

For party favors, I found camo baskets at the dollar store..and made some tags for the front.  Inside were a few things "square" and "root" related including, a rubix cube (found them at the dollar bin at Michaels!), a homemade square butterscotch bar, a sack of root beer barrel candy, and a "plant me" potato with instructions on how to plant him and hopefully grow a potato.

I spy pretty chocolate/white bakers twine!  Sommer ordered it from the same place I did - I love the brown color - I don't remember seeing that one!  So cute!

M:  Of course, we need to hear about the cake.  Did you have a cake just for Brady and another for all the rest of the guests?  What kind of cake(s)?  How did Brady do with it?  

S:  Well it had to be Brenda's famous carrot cake cupcakes.. a household favorite!  Brady just got his individual cupcake and it was quite a sight.  At first he was a bit timid, but after a couple of bites he was ecstatic.  Everyone was standing around watching him and he would take a bite and then look at everyone and squeal loudly.  He did this between almost every bite..it was so funny to watch!  I kind of teared up a bit watching him because I just couldn't believe we were already at this milestone.  That memory will be one of those that is crystal clear in my mind and heart for as long as I live.

M:  Sommer found this wonderful newer version of the good old Polaroid.  It is a Fuji Instax Mini 7S.  She was going to use this to capture special moments at the party.  How did that go?  Would you recommend the camera?  

S:  hahaha... I absolutely LOVE the camera..it takes adorable credit card sized photos!  Now having said that..I totally forgot to use it!!  Not a good sales pitch huh?  No one told me that pregnancy brain doesn't end once the baby gets here..or even after he turns a year old.  Camera has been a lot of fun and have been finding cute little uses for it...would definitely recommend it for kicks!

M:  Sommer had the great idea to have a 'root beer bar' with a fun selection of root beers to go with the theme.  How did that turn out?  

S:  We did fill up the hungarian baby bath with an assortment of rootbeers... was a nice touch.. although, probably should have tested them all out before serving.  There was a Hawaiian one that was just plain gross.  But there was also one I am now a huge fan of... Henry Weinhard's Root Beer..delicious!


Sommer and I both bought these hungarian baby baths at Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta - I miss that place!

M:  Most importantly, how did Brady like his big day?  Did he get into it?  I hope he put a good dent in his cake!!

S:  He had so much fun.  He loved the cake and enjoyed all the attention.  He was good about opening his gifts and the neighbor kids helped him out. He had lots of fun playing with them.. they entertained him for much of the party! One quick, cute story- the day after the party, my mom-in-law sat down on the couch to eat a cupcake and B from across the living room let out a squeal and crawled as fast as he could to her..so it looks like Brenda's cupcakes have yet another fan!

Laurie's Shower

I had the honor of hosting my friend, Laurie's baby shower this past weekend. I had the best time getting ready for it. I wanted to make it an elegant and fun afternoon for Laurie.

I designed some simple invitations. Laurie has very cool, modern taste, so I wanted to try to create something that she would like. I wasn't sure about the yellow/gray color combo at first, but it totally grew on me, and I am starting to become obsessed.

Shower Prep...

A big thanks to Jamie as she helped me make the cake pops.  We couldn't find any gray candy melts (probably a good thing...these candy melt colors sometimes freak me out).  You just can't go wrong with Bakerella's cake pops!

Add tiny glassine bags, a cute tie (my new favorite, baker's twine), and a YUM sign, and they were all set!

I also made some little monogrammed flags to spruce up some of the food!

Then, I designed some tags and got them ready to wrap up the silverware...

All wrapped up...

I also made a strand of 'Caden' flags for the dining room...

Being that we are up on the second floor, I wanted to make sure everyone knew which door was ours...

The downstairs door window...

The entryway was a good spot for the favors - the cake pops, YUM.  I didn't want guests to forget to take one home!

 

 I like to place a coordinating piece of paper on top of the styrofoam b/c it is a lot prettier to look at!

I made some yarn poufs for the present wrapping...it always feels so good to use stuff that you have laying around the house, doesn't it?  Here is a tutorial on making the yarn poufs...

Onto the grub....

I was struggling with feeling like my ugly kitchen was going to ruin how cute I wanted the shower to be.  I tried to mask the ugliness, and thank goodness for the buffet Randy built us being in there (Randy/Brenda - it got compliments again :)).  I just had to hope that lots of food/drinks would distract everyone from the gray formica with blue detail.

Here was the menu:

DRINKS:
Coffee
OJ
Champagne
Mocktail - Sparkling Apple Juice with Raspberries
Lemonade

From the bar...a recent purchase that I am absolutely loving is this tiny carafe.  I actually bought 4 that are even smaller than this...Hungry Mother (that restaurant in Cambridge that we love) uses these itty bitty ones to bring cream out with coffee.  I ordered coffee just to have one of those tiny carafes bought to the table!  Yeah for China Fair! (Have you heard of China Fair?  They have EVERYTHING!)

My sweet husband helping me prep!  He was truly a huge help...

 

 

BRUNCH:
-Aunt Noella's coffee cake
-Banana Chocolate Chip Bread (Rene's recipe)
-Sausage Cheese Balls (Does anyone have a favorite recipe for these?  I always google one, and never use the same one...I want a good one that I can use time and time again!)
-Bacon
-Fruit with Yogurt Dip 
-Chili Puffed Eggs (Mom's recipe...this is our FAVORITE egg bake)
-Cheesy Hashbrown Bake

 

 

DESSERT:
-Sour Cream Caramel Cakes (Paula Deen's recipe)
-Cheesecake with raspberries (I overcooked it by accident! ...Krissy's Grandma's recipe)
-Homemade Turtles (thanks to Jamie's recipe!)
-Cake Pops

It was so much fun to meet all of Laurie's wonderful friends and have a nice afternoon to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Caden Lee.  We can't wait to meet the newest little Hoosier, Laurie and Brian!!

Charming Details of the Baby Shower

We had the most lovely long weekend out on Cape Cod. Hallie was able to secure the most beautiful house for us to stay in that had views of the water from all around. It was so great to get my "fix" of such wonderful friends, their husbands, and new babies too! I was sad to see the weekend end, but hopefully we can make it a recurring event :) Sean and I can't thank everyone enough for all the travel that was done to get here and all the effort that was put in to make it such a relaxing and fun time.

When I entered the house on Sunday for the shower, I blown away by all the beautiful decor and detail. It is amazing how Hallie, Sommer and Brenda were able to plan all of the details from hundreds of miles apart, and have it all come together so seamlessly and beautifully. Everything was gorgeous. I wanted to share some of the beautiful details. I was extremely humbled by all the thought and effort that was put into the day.

I wanted to share some of the precious details...if only my photos could capture the full beauty!

The beautiful table that I saw when I entered the door...notice the fabric runners, the unique bottles for placecards, the breathtaking roses, and look at those pinwheels - amazing!!


Closer view of the pinwheels that Brenda figured out how to make...

Look at these adorable placecards! Brenda found the unique bottles, Sommer made the placecards, and Brenda also put a lovely quote inside each bottle which we all read to each other, and she also made us necklaces out of a New Zealand shell, Paua...each necklace is draped on the bottle!
look at the lovely fabric banner, balloons and yummy spread!!


I love how Sidekick has been incorporated into our showers - so fun. I feel like we really need to name him Sidekick now :) Notice the pretty seashells that they scattered about.
I just adore these - I got to bring them all home and I am currently trying to find the perfect spot in the nursery - I know these will be some serious entertainment for Sidekick, and they just look so cool in the meantime!
Sommer made these pretty votives...I just adored their color scheme - great work, ladies!

Some sparkling cider with raspberries - YUM! It may not be the same as our French Martinis or Champagne cocktails, but it was just as beautiful, and really tasted great :)
The woman who lent us her home also prepared a gourmet feast for us at the shower - it was all SO tasty!
Hallie and I have loved fabric banners for a long time, so it was so much fun to see this when I walked in...
the gorgeous lemon cake - I heart the swiss dots, and the shells that the girls added to the top made it look so perfect!!
the spread....YUM. You can believe I went back for seconds!
Balloons all around :)

What a lucky lady I am to be surrounded by this amazing group of women. Thank you all for the most beautiful day!

Shower details

Hallie's shower weekend was such a blast. Being that it was at Phila's, I should have known there was not a thing to worry about! Phila was a wonderful hostess as always, and I would definitely recommend her place to anyone who is looking for a relaxing getaway in the Nashville area (Hachland Hall Vineyard).

The decorations, placecard/favors, guest book, and art activity all went very well. It was a wonderful group of friends and family that attended. The meal was delicious, presents went smoothly, and Brenda's idea to have guests paint on canvases to make a mural for the nursery was a huge hit...it probably helped that Hallie has a lot of creative friends.

There weren't many decorations, but we had fun with what we did do. If you are interested in details...here you go...

I made some pom poms after learning how on here. I would absolutely use these for a party again...they were so much fun! I had a little trouble separating them/getting them to look like perfect spheres, so I will have to try to figure out how to fix that next time. I folded the tissue and put the wire around the middle ahead of time, and the night before the shower, several of us poofed them. I wasn't sure if they would retain their shape well for Saturday, but they did.


After we poofed the pom poms on Friday night...


Voila! We hung them with fishing line and clear thumb tacks...and we didn't really even need any decorations with a beautiful backdrop like Phila has outside her windows!

Brenda had a great idea to use rubber ducks as a placecard/favor. I don't know HOW many conversations we had about rubber ducks and how to incorporate names, etc., but we knew it would be fun if they could be floating in water, and we had to have everyone's name on them. Brenda found some bowls that worked great, and I made some life preservers out of sheets of foam I purchased at a craft store. We weren't sure how it would all come together, but we were very pleased with the outcome.




For the guest book, we did the old photo guest book idea. I got a plain small binder (the size of a half page), I cut pages of cardstock for the inside, and we took Polaroids of Hallie with each guest, and had them write a message to her. Hallie's niece helped orchestrate all that getting done which was a huge help!

We served mimosas when guests arrived, and Brenda had bought these gorgeous cupcakes (more like "works of art", I should say!) and we ended up saving those for dessert that evening because Phila's lunch was so filling!



All in all, it was a beautiful day with new friends and old!!

Baby Shower Invitations

So, now that Hallie's baby shower invitations have been sent & hopefully received, I thought I would post a few pictures. I knew I wanted to use fabric & do some sewing. I had initially thought about doing a flower, but then I saw these adorable invitations done by Anna Maria Horner, so I copied her idea!

Side note: Can I just tell you that one of my biggest fears is sending out invitations and not having them get to the intended person? This happened once with Allie's baby shower invitations, and it is the WORST feeling. My fingers are crossed that all of Hallie's arrived safe and sound.

Green Baby Shower

I was able to attend my dear friend, Krissy's "green" baby shower last week up at West Point. It was so much fun to see everyone's creativity with gifts, hostessing, etc.

Here were some of the ideas...

--The hostess used plates that she had left over from other showers she had given or you can use your everyday plates instead of paper
--As gifts for the games, the hostess gave cute re-usable totes with a bottle of earth friendly house cleaner
--Pass on a baby item from your child that is still in good condition i.e. high chair, activity mat
--Put gift in a cute reusable bag
--Use newspaper as tissue paper
--Give organic clothes
--Give BPA free products
--Re-use old cards you have around the house and re-purpose for baby shower (one girl even found an old card from her grandma when she was pregnant, and she crossed out the message, and wrote Krissy a new message!)

After learning from Mark and Krissy's great example of living a very "green" life, and after attending the shower, Sean and I are finding ourselves even more motivated to recycle more, and figure out other ways to be better stewards to our fragile planet.

Baby Showers!

I have been working on invitations for Hallie's baby shower in June which has been so fun! I am excited to post some pics once they have been sent/received. As I have been working on them, it keeps reminding me of Sommer's shower back in November at our house in Columbus. You know those days that you just have such a great time? We had this amazing group of girls down there, and I miss them all so much. We had such a great time laughing, chatting, and being excited for Sommer that we spent a good portion of the day together.

I had fun obsessing over the details for the day! I am so happy to have Hallie's shower to look forward to!!


Invitation idea copied from my personal favorite blogger - Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day!

Good ol' lemonheads...don't these bring you back to childhood?



The top of the box has the guest's name, and the bottom of the box had a quote about motherhood...

I love that the shower was a team effort...I was so lucky to have such great cooks/bakers as friends...

Favors...texas cornbread mix with a mini-whisk...

Of course we had to have champagne cocktails, and Sommer had been craving root beer...

Cupcake pops from another favorite blog, Bakerella!


The most creative and funny gift of the day, by Hallie...Sommer was having an issue with stinky smells, and so Hallie made she and Tim some nose plugs for the bad dirty diapers...love the creativity!

I love you girls and miss you so much...why can't we still be on Slade? :)

Finally...dining alfresco.

I didn't realize how much I would miss the warm southern weather when we came up to the NE. I terribly miss our backyard. I miss the flowers, the plants, the birds, the outdoor entertaining area, the lounge chairs, the herbs, the lanterns, the globe lights...cocktails, dining, friends, music, relaxing, memories.

I have been waiting for the warm weather to hit Boston, and today, it has. I had lunch with a friend and we were able to sit outside...yeah! I am determined to take advantage of the shorter outdoor dining season we will have here.

We are fortunate to have a very teeny 3rd floor porch here that I hope to have some plants/flowers on. Maybe I will be adventurous and serve our dinner up there tonight!

One of my favorite outdoor dining experiences was on the Jenny Jack farm in GA this past fall. It was to benefit some organic farmers, Chris and Jenny, as they prepared to travel to Italy to represent GA at a food conference. These pictures don't do any of it justice, but it was so charming...150 people seated at one long table with a backdrop of a beautiful field of zinnias. The details, the meal, the whole evening...breathtaking!