Everyday Celebrating

DIY: Strawberry tree in urn

Last week, I posted a picture of the strawberry tree centerpieces I had at my 2003 wedding.

This week, here's a different version of the strawberry tree.  Chocolate covered AND in an urn.  

Here's how you create it:

First, let me say that this is not a dessert that is easily transported.  This would be something you'd want to either serve at your home or assemble after you arrive at your destination.

You'll need:

 - one styrofoam cone.  Use styrofoam, not floral cone.  The floral oasis isn't as sturdy. 

 - toothpicks

 - 3 lbs of strawberries to cover a 9X4 cone

 - chocolate melt

 - a block of styrofoam

 - one urn

 - hot glue/gun

 - kale

You'll want to dip your strawberries first.  Wash and cut the green off each strawberry and dip it into melted chocolate.  Stick all the strawberries into the freezer so a) the chocolate can set and b) the strawberries get hard.  A harder strawberry is easier to work with in getting a secure fit.

Next, you'll want to fill up the urn.  You have two ways of achieving this. You can either get a larger cone that will go to the bottom of the urn (shaving off the sides to make it fit) or you can stick a piece of styrofoam in the bottom and glue the cone on top.

In the photo above, I filled the urn with styrofoam and newspaper. I then covered the entire top of the urn in kale.  I did this by using toothpicks and gluing the kale down.

From here, break toothpicks in half and start working your way up from the bottom.  You want to put your largest strawberries on the bottom and work your way up in sizes.  There may be places where the strawberries don't meet.  For those places, you can stick in a few pieces of kale or sprigs of mint to cover the styrofoam.

 

Finally, you can decorate your urn with a ribbon or other festive ornament.   Easy and makes a great centerpiece for your dessert table!

This dessert is great for other occasions too like July 4th, showers, Valentine's Day, etc.

Your favorite holiday tradition!

'Tis the season for traditions! I'd venture to say that Christmas holds the most traditions for families and for good reason!

I have a five year old son and as a family, we're just now starting our traditions. Having a child means some of your traditions and priorities shift like maybe in the early years making sure your home for Christmas so Santa can find you. ;)

Something that is emerging as a tradition for us is hosting two meals. We have a full Christmas Eve dinner. I like to serve Italian. Why? Well, I love it. And it's just different. I feel like we just had Thanksgiving and that type of food and it's nice to go a different route. So I make soup, salad and lasagna, etc.

Around mid-morning on Christmas Day, I make a large breakfast. This is after my son has opened his gifts and oohhed and ahhhed over Santa coming. This meal will include everything from biscuits to fruit to hashbrown casserole, muffins and plenty of hot coffee!

This works out nicely for our family. Usually with eating a large breakfast, we are full for several hours. The rest of the day is spent relaxing and watching my son play with his gifts and just being together. Later in the day, we'll eat snacks, but no other large meal is prepared.

What are YOUR favorite holiday traditions? Baking with family? Crafting?

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions expressed by me do not necessarily reflect the view of the International Delight Brand.

Printable Christmas Subway art

I ran across this free Christmas printable from It is what it is and loved the simplity and color scheme.

Not only can you frame it as shown above, but I love her ideas for using it in your holiday wrapping.

Simply print out and glue to a paper bag, add a simple ribbon.

or wrap around a bottle of nice wine....

The image is free for download and personal use.  Add an original piece of art to your holiday wrapping!

Display your holiday cards!

A super easy way to display all those beautiful cards you're getting.

All you need is a cabinet, ribbon and clothespins.

Just cut a long length of ribbon, wrap it around your cabinet door and tie the ends in the back.

Pin the cards on as you receive them.

A great and easy way to enjoy your cards all season!

Girls Night In!

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There's no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

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Now is the perfect time of year for a fun Girls' Night In!  The weather may be dreary or cold, but the Christmas lights are cheery so it's the perfect time to invite girlfriends over for a fun night of wrapping gifts!

Now is the time of year that everyone has some wrapping to do and why not invite a few friends over to share in the fun.

It doesn't take a lot to create this fun night.  Ask each person to bring a couple rolls of wrapping paper or ribbon/embellishments.  You supply the tape and scissors and refreshments.  Or, ask everyone to bring one roll of wrapping paper and a snack.

With everyone bringing wrapping paper, you're guaranteed an assortment of festive papers under the tree. Encourage others to bring inexpensive embellishments from the dollar store to share.

Then when guests arrive, turn on some holiday music or a Lifetime/Hallmark holiday movie as your background and enjoy the evening with friends while marking something off your holiday to do list.

Need suggestions on embellishments or unique wrapping tips?  Follow my Pinterest board called "creative wrapping" where you'll see tips like how to turn those wrapping paper scraps into bows like this:

 

So set a date, evite your friends and create an occasion!  It doesn't have to be formal or fancy!  Just a relaxed good time to get together with friends!

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Remember to check out Duncan Hines' website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

DIY: Christmas Present Tree Stand

Do you put up several Christmas trees?  Or are you not a fan of tree skirts?  

Looking for a unique way to hide the tree stand?

Hide your tree stand in a present!   

Here's how you do it:

1.  Find a box that is at least as big as your tree stand.  Also, make sure the box will clear the bottom of your tree.  I lucked out with this box!   Just happened to be in my garage.  You'll notice that I cut off two of the flaps.  I cut off two flaps so I wouldn't have to cut through 4 flaps when making the hole for the tree.

2.  Place the stand inside the box (like above).  Close the flaps and tape together.  Then cut a hole in the top of the box so it coordinates in placement with the hole in the stand inside.

3.  From there, wrap the box like you would a present.  Depending on the size of the box and how much room the stand has to move or flip over, you may want to wrap the box without flipping it over like you would a normal present.  I wrapped this one by putting the seam on the top and back of the box.  This way, the front of the box would be smooth with no seam.  Also, make sure you add a bow or other embellishments before you install the tree. After you finish wrapping, cut the same hole in the wrapping paper, so the stand is visible from the outside of the wrapped box.

4.  You'll need help with the next step.  Have one person lower the tree into the box.  The other person will guide the tree into the stand inside the box.  If your box is much bigger than the stand, you may want to cut a larger hole so that one of your hands can move the stand if needed.

Done!  No more ugly stand!

A perfect addition to a decorative tree that you may not be using as your main tree.

 
Stay tuned ... lots more holiday decor ideas to come! 

DIY: Layered Ribbon tree

We all remember the coffee filter trees that were the craze last year.  Well... here's another fun DIY tree that you can make with ribbon.

These fab trees are from Sparkle and she gives a tutorial on how to create them. 

While she suggest uses styrofoam bases, remember that you can roll poster board for the same affect.  Styrofoam is expensive if you're creating several of these trees.  Here's where I talk about creating cones out of poster board.  2 sheets for $1 at the Dollar Tree and... you can create any size you need depending on how you cut/roll it.

 

New product: Live On!

Thank you to LiveOn for this sponsored opportunity to blog about storing and sharing my most important memories with those closest to me. Although story ideas were provided, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you again to LiveOn for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about storing and sharing your most special memories. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

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There is a huge new player in the field of shared online memories that I want to introduce you to - LiveOn.  I was thrilled to be one of the first to try it out because I'm a sucker for photos/video and memory keeping and they have created a new and exciting way to pass along memories for future generations.

While LiveOn does do the same things that other online media storage does, it also is unique in so many ways. One of my favorite features of it is that it creates a timeline of your memories.

It creates a visual horizontal timeline where you can add important moments like Wedding, Moved, Had our first child, etc.  Anything you want and it all shows up right on the timeline, marking the place in history.  You can surround those markers with video, photos, etc.

One of the other features I find interesting is that LiveOn will prompt you with questions.  You answer these life questions and LiveOn stores your answers. They "Live On" forever and those relatives added to your "tribe" (i.e. family/friends) will be able to see them forever. Similar to a virtual diary.  If you have a webcam, you can answer the questions through video, right from their site.

The theory behind LiveOn is that the memories you document on their site will be passed along for generations to come.  It's a virtual time capsule of your life.  LiveOn will save and store your documentation forever and in keeping up with changing technology.  No matter how technology changes, they'll continue to keep your memories safe.

I encourage you to check out this service. There is a wonderful video tutorial that will get you started in no time! It's interesting, engaging, fun and interactive. It's an easy to way to document your family's life for future generations with minimal effort!

 

Thank you again to LiveOnfor sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about storing and sharing your most special memories. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Giveaway! Hershey's Almond Pieces!

It's the most... wonderful time... of the year......!!!

Well, for more than one reason.  Thanksgiving is almost here and of course, Christmas is right around the corner.  Time to spend with family and friends.

And there's one more reason it's a wonderful time of year... the folks at Hershey's are introducing yet another new product.  Hershey's Almond Pieces!

The folks at Hershey's asked me to give them a go before they hit stores and hey, who am I to argue!

Here's the short and sweet of it.  You need some.  You need some at your house for the holidays, especially.  These are full sized almonds covered in the rich amazing chocolate that Hershey's is known for and then covered in a crunchy shell.

There is a mix of milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate in each bag.  Something for everyone!

I can tell you they are highly addicting and everything you'd expect from Hershey's!   They are larger and more decadent than almond M&Ms.  

These would be great to fill a candy dish during the holidays! 

While these fabulous treats don't hit stores until Dec. 2, I'm giving away THREE bags NOW!  

Three people will receive one bag each.  To enter, just leave a comment below.  I'll be drawing on Monday evening, November 21.

Good luck!

Holiday comforts!

 

This post is sponsored by Tempur-Pedic, the brand millions of owners trust to deliver their best night’s sleep every night. Enjoy our Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer now and give the gift of custom comfort to someone you love.

The holidays are approaching and even though we love them, they are HECTIC and can get crazy.  Lots to do in what feels like NO time.  Everyone has those special holiday comforts that they fall back on during the holidays.  Things that make the holidays special.   

Here are a few of mine:

1.  Special ornaments - While, as you may have guessed, I put up quite a bit of holiday decor, I still love taking a minute to look at special ornaments when decorating the tree.  Ornaments that my husband gave me when we were dating and especially our anniversary ornaments.  

2.  Warm, fuzzy socks - I love warm, fuzzy socks and I always buy new ones in December.  Just love them.  Usually in Christmas colors.  LOL

3.  Warm foods/warm drinks - soup, chili, hot chocolate... even fondue!

4.  Wrapping paper and all the trimmings - ok.. so it's not a comfort, but I love to wrap.  I love scouring the Dollar Tree and other stores for small embellishments.  

5.  Family - it's nice just to spend time together.  No where to go.  Just at home doing nothing really. I love when Christmas day dies down and all the excitement is over.  It's a great time for my husband and I to relax and watch my son play with his new toys.

6.  Big thick blankets and a warm bed!  'Nuff said!

Comfort is the perfect gift for everyone on your holiday gift list, so be sure to take advantage of Tempur-Pedic's Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.