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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Easy Centerpieces

Posted in Christmas, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays, tagged , , , on December 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If you are looking for a stunning centerpiece and are short on time or money, sometimes simple really is best.

Try one single beautiful poinsettia plant surrounded by white tea lights. Go for a plant that looks healthy with lots of flowers. If you are feeling adventurous, choose one of the funky new colors rather than traditional red.

Use a wicker basket and fill of pincones. Tie a tartan plaid bow on the handle of the basket and this says “country christmas” loud and clear.

Fill a pretty footed glass bowl with Christmas balls. Choose silver and gold for an elegant statement or go with colors that tie into your decorating theme like red and white or silver and blue.

If you have two or three cake pedestals of varying heights, stack them together and put either a selection of edible treats on them or place a nice candle on top and wrap holly garland around the other sections.

Wrap three to five boxes of various sizes and pile them casually in the center of the table. Again, stick to silver or gold for elegant, plaid for traditional or go with something that ties in to your decorating scheme.

Whatever you do, have fun with it and remember to focus on your guests a enjoy your time together!

She Who Loves Holiday Parties

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Christmas Tree Decorating Tips

Posted in Christmas, Entertaining at Home, tagged , , , on December 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Here are some quick and easy tips for streamlining your tree decorating process!

If you have an artificial tree, pull on a pair of gloves before you ever pick up an artificial branch. If you are like me, those branches can be really rough on your hands. Mine usually end up looking like I’ve wrestled with a wild cat by the time I get done. I used my rose-pruning gloves and they worked like a charm.

For live trees, put down a plastic tablecloth before you bring in the tree. This will keep any spills, drips or leaks from soaking into your floor. It also provides a convenient way to trap the loose needles and get them outside the house.

Make sure you have plenty of lights for the tree. Instead of winding strands of lights around the tree, weave them back and froth in branches going from the base to the tips. This creates a whole new level of depth to your tree as the lights shine from within and without. Instead of taking light strands around the tree, I take them around back, then loop back toward the front. When you are ready to remove it goes a lot faster and easier.

Hang small, fragile, light-weight ornaments at the top with mid-size ornaments in the middle and the heavy ornaments toward the bottom. If you have little ones or pets that can’t stay out of the tree, make sure your ornaments around the bottom are the non-breakable variety.

Use a big enough tree stand for live trees. If you don’t, you could be subject to the nightmare of your tree tipping over. Believe me when I say the sound of glass balls shattering in the middle of the night is not one to give you visions of sugarplums.

Keep live trees watered so they stay fresh as long as possible. Check the water level every few days.

My last piece of wisdom is to have fun with your decorating. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect – let the kids enjoy their time decorating.

She Who Loves the Scent of Fresh Cut Trees

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How to Choose a Fragrance

Posted in Christmas, Holidays, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

During the hectic holiday season it seems there are more opportunities to get all dressed up for a festive party or night out.

For me, I don’t feel completely “gussied up” unless I’m wearing my favorite perfume.While the scent of roses is one of my most favorite things on the planet, wearing perfume that smells like roses makes me choke and I don’t like it as a home fragrance either.

So how do you find that perfect scent for you?

Here are a few ideas:

• Try the scent two ways. First on a paper tester. If you like the scent of it on paper, test it on your inner wrist. Scents interact with skin’s chemistry and smell different on every one. Take off any jewelry and your watch before spraying because they can alter the scent.

• Limit the sample. Sniffing too many different fragrances will give you sensory overload (and quite possibly a pounding headache!). Limit your testing to four or five paper samples and no more than two wrist tests during any given shopping trip.

• Take a breather. Wait a few minutes between sampling fragrances to give your nose a chance to recover. A good tip is to bring along a plain, unscented facial tissue to sniff between samples. The neutral scent will help clear your sense of smell and get you ready for the next fragrance sample.

• Wear it awhile. You smelled a scent you love, but wait before you buy it. The first 15 minutes you wear a scent, you are just getting the top notes of the fragrance. The heart of it will show up after about 15 minutes and that is the smell you need to love because it is the one that will stick with you all day.

• Tune out distractions. The sense of smell works best in a dark, quiet environment – about the polar opposite of a perfume counter during the holiday season. So try to block out as much of the light and noise as possible. Close your eyes and savor the scent to get the full effect.

One tip I’ve relied on for years that has served me well is that once you find a perfume that is “yours” you won’t be able to smell it because it blends so well with your body’s own chemistry. I have found two that fit this bill nicely and wearing them always make me feel dressed up an special. Just remember less is more with perfume!

Happy Fragrance Shopping

She Who Loves Her Perfume

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Holiday Baking Tips

Posted in Christmas, Entertaining at Home, Holidays, Success Tips, tagged , , , on December 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been up since way too early this morning working on my holiday baking. So far, I’ve turned four pounds of butter into chocolate peppermint kisses, gingerbread brownies, Russian teacakes, sugar cookies and seven layer bars.

As I’ve hustled through the baking, I thought of a few tips I wanted to share with you that make the process go so much easier.

• Invest in some good quality baking sheets. It honest-to-goodness makes a big difference.

• Make baking parchment and Pam your friend (as in non-stick cooking spray.) Spray your baking sheets with a light coating of Pam, line with a piece of parchment cut to fit and then give it a quick coating of Pam. Words don’t describe how much easier this makes my life. Just try it, you’ll see what I mean.

• Use Pam on your measuring cups if you will be measuring out something sticky, like molasses. A quick spray and the molasses just rolled right out of the cup like nobody’s business.

• Invest in a cooling rack or two. If you’ve got pans and pans of hot cookies coming out of the oven, cooling racks can be worth their weight in gold. They give your cookies a chance to cool down appropriately and that really does effect the finished product. Also, if you can find stands that stack, they free up tons of counter space while still providing circulation around those sweet treats.

• Clean as you go. If you are doing a marathon day of baking (like your truly) clean up as you go. At the end of the your baking spree you’ll be glad you did when you have just a few things to wash instead of a huge sink full of sticky, dirty dishes.

• Measure accurately. Seriously, measure accurately. This can make or break your baked goods. Don’t eyeball it. If the recipe says 1 1/4 cups then measure out exactly 1 1/4 cups.

• Follow directions. If you want your baked goods to turn out like the recipe intended, follow the directions carefully and completely.

•Gather your ingredients before you start. Before I start making a recipe, I read through it, gather all the ingredients and have in mind the order of the recipe. If I try and bake by grabbing the ingredients as I go, I will guaranteed forget to put something in. If you’ve got all the necessary ingredients laid out in front of you, it is harder to miss something.

• Use the right ingredients. If a recipe calls for butter and sour cream, don’t substitute margarine and applesauce and think you’ll wind up with a recipe that turns out correctly.

• Enlist help! Put your significant other, the kids or any warm body who happens into your home during a baking frenzy to work. They can cut out sugar cookies, cream butter and sugars, wash dishes, frost cookies. Turn it into a fun activity that you all can enjoy!

She Who Better Get Back To Her Baking

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