• Decorating

    Fireplace Fantasies

    Come on baby, light my fire. I’ve always wanted a fireplace. I’ll admit it, I use have a Christmas DVD of a fireplace, just so I can see and hear the warm glow of the yule log. A DVD pales in comparison to the real thing, but for a while it was as close as I could get! Then I found a faux fireplace that allows you to have a real flame fire! I bought it, and the fire fuel, several years ago, and have still not used it once! What is wrong with me? I’ve got a flickering flame…

  • Celebrate - Tablescapes

    Winter Wonderland Tablescape 2015

    Last year we created a cozy warm burgundy Christmas decor to welcome home our Evie who had been in the hospital for 4 months. We wanted it warm and inviting as a big welcome home. This year we went in a completely different direction, creating a winter wonderland look full of frosty snowflakes and sparkling silver. Both the table and the sideboard are decked out with pine bough garlands, with silver balls and snowflake accents. We spent forever polishing every piece of silver in the house so that everything would sparkle in our frosty wonderland.(Once again, please ignore the empty picture frames…

  • 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 - Decorating

    Birthday Party for Feather

    A Very Merry Birthday Party for Feather!We had a small birthday party for Feather on his birthday this Sunday. There are no pictures of the Birthday Boy, or the guests because we were able to keep the Paparazzi at bay for the entire event.Sometimes it’s nice to just live in the moment and see things through your own two eyes rather than on a tiny screen while you snap pictures! In the afternoon we had a small family get together and had some delicious home-made ‘mud pie’ (his absolute favorite) — my aunt makes this for him every year on his birthday.This yummy pie…

  • Celebrate - Decorating

    St Patricks Day – Decorating

    A Leprechaun has come through our house and doused it with a healthy dose of green!This looks a lot like the Valentine’s Day pictures with a photo filter to change the red to green, but I promise it’s not.In the past, whenever I would try to decorate for St Patrick’s Day, I would have a very hard time getting things to match. The look would come out as a sort of “Fifty Shades of Green” — which I can only assume is the story of Christian Green, a kinky leprechaun who grants wishes, but only if your wishes are to be spanked by a kinky…

  • Decorating - Food - Holidays

    St Patricks Day – Potato Soup

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day! With an Irish name like Hickey, people kind of expect us to celebrate good ole St. Patty’s Day. After discovering that the ‘traditional’ St. Patrick’s Day dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage may NOT even be a traditional Irish dish, we decided to explore the alternatives.

  • Celebrate - Decorating - Food - Holidays

    Mardi Gras Celebration – King Cake

    Happy Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras Celebration! I have to admit, I have never tasted King Cake. I don’t know what makes a King Cake good or bad.  I do know that I wanted a festive treat for Mardi Gras and King Cake is one of the most festive looking Mardi Gras treats around. Please look away now if you are from New Orleans, or have tasted the real King Cake, because I have made a quickie version of a King Cake-like treat that probably pales in comparison to the real thing. It’s a giant cinnamon bun twisted/ braided into…

  • Celebrate - Decorating

    Mardi Gras Celebration – Decorating

    Happy Mardi Gras! This is our first year celebrating Mardi Gras, so we’ve been doing some research! Mardi Gras already has its own signature colors of Purple Green and Gold, so the color palette is already set as far as decorating, and each color has a special meaning.  – Purple for Justice – Green for Faith  – Gold for Power. Purple can be a difficult color to work with. Finding the right shade is quite a task, and it can be nearly impossible to find other items to match! One way to get around this is to find items made by the…

  • Celebrate - Decorating

    Silver Freak

    I’m a silver freak, silver freak, I’m silver freak-ay!If you’ve spent any time at all here at my blog (THANK YOU!) you’ve probably noticed that I have a bit of an addiction to silver, especially in the baroque style.If you are wondering how a person can collect baroque silver without going broke (pronounce ‘broke’ as buh-roke, just this one time so it sounds like baroque) I am about to share my silver secrets with you. Lots of the silver in my silver collection is from…The Dollar Store.  *GASP*   Yes, $1.00 silver trays (like the ones pictured here) can really…

  • Decorating - Food - Holidays - Recipe

    Groundhog Day Celebration

    Happy Groundhog day!   This year is the first time we are attempting to ‘celebrate’ Groundhog day. So here we go! To start with, we made Coco Krispy Groundhogs! It’s just the standard Rice Krispy Treat recipe only we swapped out Rice Krispies for Coco Krispies so that our groundhogs would be brown. Here’s the recipe: —————————————— INGREDIENTS 3 tablespoons butter 1 package (10 oz., about 40) Marshmallows OR 4 cups Miniature Marshmallows 6 cups Coco Krispy Rice cereal DIRECTIONS 1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.  2.…