• Celebrate - Uncategorized

    Star Spangled Seashore Celebration

    When summertime rolls around, we love to bring the beach and seashore into the decor — so for our Fourth of July theme, we went with a ‘Star Spangled Seashore’!     Sometimes it’s hard to part with a particular decor or theme and this year we really did not want to take down our cool summertime Oysters and Pearls: Seashore Celebration.    We couldn’t skip the fireworks and the Red White and Blue though, so we created a sort of patriotic seashore fusion.     Though there are quite a few similarities between this theme and the last, we…

  • Celebrate - Uncategorized

    Seashore Tablescape – Oysters and Pearls

    Oysters and Pearls : A Seashore Tablescape for Summer.   It’s not quite summer yet but most people see Memorial Day Weekend as the official start of summer fun and festivities.    So after a quick change from the red white and blue (that will all come back with extra sparkle for July 4th) we converted into a nice beachy summer at the seashore look.   Oyster shells and pearls are the theme this time and they are a perfect combo because pearls come from oysters!    We grabbed the pearl garlands from our Christmas decorations, and we have lots…

  • Celebrate

    Happy “Bird” Day Celebration – Our Evie Bird’s Birthday and Mother’s Day Celebration.

    Happy “Bird” Day Celebration – our Evie Bird’s Birthday Celebration.   You may have noticed that we love giving each other nicknames (Evie, Feather, Peggo, etc.). We also love personalizing every celebration and playing with words.  When we needed a theme for our little Evie Bird’s birthday, it just seemed natural that we would have a bird-day party instead of a birthday party!   As soon as we saw these beautiful plates covered in birds, lace, tea-cups and flowers we knew they would be perfect for her Springtime bird-day party, as well as Mother’s Day! The bird plates and napkins are…

  • Celebrate

    Cinco de Mayo

    Cinco de Mayo Celebration! Hola and Happy Cinco de Mayo! This is one of my favorite celebrations to decorate!  I just love all the bright bold festive colors.  We’ve been collecting pieces for this celebration all year long!  We scored a Mexican serape at Savers this winter for only $2.40.  We folded it and used it as a table runner that gives a bright festive pop of color to the whole table. We added the plates to our collection last May for Cinco de Mayo after admiring them for quite some time.  The China pattern is Mambo by Royal Norfolk.…

  • Celebrate - Recipe

    Amazing Pecan Mini-Pie Recipe for a Kentucky Derby Soiree

    This amazing Pecan Mini-Pie recipe is a family favorite that we have been making for at least 25 years.  Our traditional recipe uses Walnuts, but to celebrate the Kentucky Derby, we wanted to make mini pecan pies — so we swapped the walnuts for pecans. Some folks call these Tassies, others call them Tartlets but today we are calling them Mini Derby Pies because they are part of our Kentucky Derby Soiree! This amazing Pecan Mini-Pie recipe is a family favorite that we have been making for at least 25 years.  Read more about that here – where you’ll find lots…

  • Celebrate - Cooking - Food - Holidays - Recipe

    Insanely Yummy Benedictine Spread Recipe For A Kentucky Derby Soiree

    Benedictine Spread Recipe This Kentucky Derby staple was brand new to us, and it received rave reviews from all in attendance at our Kentucky Derby Soiree! I didn’t take any pictures of the process of making the spread or the canapes, but I’ll do my best to describe it all! The ingredients were just the basics: 1 block of Cream Cheese 1/4 cup of Sour Cream 1 whole Cucumber, finely grated 1/4 of a White Onion, finely minced The key to this recipe was the draining of the excess moisture from the Cucumber and the onion.  The way we accomplished this was by…

  • Celebrate

    Kentucky Hot Browns – Kentucky Derby Soiree

    Kentucky Derby Hot Brown Bake Recipe In our home, when we find a new event to celebrate we are always very excited.  We love all the research and exploration of the traditions or customs behind any event we are about to celebrate for the first time.  We love the decorating and all of the creative challenges that come along with it, but one of our family’s favorite parts of a new celebration is trying new foods. It feels so adventurous to try new things, even if it is from the safety of your very own dining room! At the same…

  • Celebrate

    A Kentucky Derby Soiree

    Kentucky Derby Festivities underway! Here in the Hickey home, we have never attended the Kentucky Derby, or a Kentucky Derby soiree, but with a little bit of research and creativity we have cobbled together our own little version of the festivities here at home. My fear was that it would end up looking too much like a Christmas party in May, but I think we actually pulled off a festive Derby look! The only things we knew would definitely be part of the table design would be lots of plaid, silver, horses and red roses.  We used some dollar tree…

  • Celebrate - Holidays

    Are you an Easter Feaster?

    Are you a Easter Feaster? Did you have an Easter Feast? We did! It is my sincerest hope that nothing I ever post on this blog ever comes across as bragging in any way. It is my wish that that the only thing this blog does is spread joy and serve as a reminder to celebrate every moment. I can clearly recall past Easters where life had not been so kind and we could not fit an Easter Feast into the budget or I had simply lost the ability to celebrate or appreciate much of anything — we just skipped…

  • Celebrate - Food

    Key Lime Rainbow Cupcakes

    Welcome Springtime!I am always up for a cupcake party, and the First Day of Spring is a perfect excuse for one!We had intended to make these cupcakes as a St Patrick’s Day treat — sort of an end-of -the-rainbow pot-of-gold Leprechaun thing — but the time got away from us and we didn’t make that deadline.Instead these cupcakes are in celebration of the first day of Spring (even if it does look like Springtime on the North Pole right now outside).They are Key Lime cake with a cloud of Vanilla frosting swirled high and a candy rainbow on top.The taste is light and…