• Celebrate - Holidays - Uncategorized

    Pineapp-O-Lantern: A Tropic’alloween Treat

    Who says you can only make a Jack-O-Lantern out of a pumpkin?  Not me!  Allow me to introduce you to a frightfully fun Halloween treat that makes a great presentation when serving a fruit plate, or fruit and cheese platter or even an awesome Halloween breakfast! I’m calling it a Pineapp-O-Lantern: A Tropic’alloween Treat! It’s basically the same process as carving a Jack-O-Lantern, so I wont bore you with an in-depth how-to, but I will share some tips. I went the traditional route – cutting the top to make the ‘lid’ of the Jack-O-Lantern and then scooping out the contents, but I’ll definitely be…

  • 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 - 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

    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 - 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

    Chinese New Year Celebration

    Happy Chinese New Year!  Is it the year or the sheep? ram? goat?  Nobody knows! The Chinese word for all three of the above is “yang” which translates to ‘horned animal” so nobody is really sure which one it is!  That won’t stop us from celebrating the new year though.  Late last night the decorating fairy came through the house and transformed our Mardi Gras themed dining room into Chinese New Year!  There is something a bit odd about eating left-over King Cake for breakfast in China, but I guess this is what it would feel like to be a…

  • 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 - Holidays

    Valentines Day Celebration

      Wow, these winter holidays seem to be one after another with very little time between! We get to enjoy the Valentines decorations until the 14th but then Mardi Gras and Chinese New Year are right after – only days apart on February 17th and 19th! So little time to plan, prepare and decorate! Anyway, back to Valentines Day – the decorations are up and the house is looking a bit like a cupid sanctuary. We went with a white Battenburg lace tablecloth over a red tablecloth, so the red peeks through all the openwork in the lace. There are…

  • Art - Decorating - Food

    Superbowl Party!

    So, here’s an embarrassing confession. Up until a year or so ago, I had NO idea that people celebrate Superbowl Sunday!  I have made it my mission to celebrate every moment, so to discover a new ‘holiday’ was a jackpot for me! Last year was our first Superbowl Party. All we knew was that guacamole was the official snack of the Superbowl, so we bought guacamole and seven layer dip and called it a day. This year I amped it up a little bit. I decorated!  I imagine that the way I decorated is unusual and odd to most –…

  • Decorating - Holidays

    Holiday Home Tour 2014 – Better Late than never!

    As I mentioned in a previous post, home renovations and stressful events had delayed the start of our holiday decorating until mid-to-late December.We’ve got our Evie Bird home now after a nearly 4 month hospital stay. Though most people have taken down their Christmas decorations by now, we’ve extended the season a bit so that she can enjoy that home-for-the-holidays feel a bit before we move on to the next holiday.So, though it’s late for a holiday home tour, we’re on our own holiday schedule this year and it’s still Christmas at our house!With the snow coming down for Winter Storm…