Tag Archives: oranges

Holiday Centerpieces [on a budget]

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I had the pleasure of hosting a casual family get together over Thanksgiving. Nothing too fancy- chili, macaroni and cheese and some spirits. No need for place settings but I wanted to have the house feel like the holidays without having to decorate for Christmas just yet. I’m like Nordstrom: you will not see Christmas here until Thanksgiving. Obviously due to the holiday I had time restrictions and I’m always looking to be budget friendly. So I scoured the grocery store earlier in the week for a little inspiration.

What I got:

4 bags of cranberries at $1.50 each

2 large naval oranges at 99 cents a pound

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I started by finding some of my favorite vases with broad or straight sides. And of course my favorite mason jar. Then I thinly sliced the oranges (a mandolin is helpful here if you aren’t a great slicer) and discarded the smaller slices and the ones without the star burst pattern. I set them aside to make a little pot of stove top scent (Psst: Toss orange slices, 5 whole cloves, a splash of vanilla and a couple of cinnamon sticks in with 2 cups of water and simmer for a holiday scent that fills the house and lasts all day!).

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I lined the sides of my vases with the orange slices and filled them with cranberries. Then I filled each vase with water until the cranberries were just slightly afloat.

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I placed each vase around the house and had intended to run to get fresh white flowers (hydrangeas? roses?) to completely the centerpiece vibe. But I really liked how simple and cheery they were without flowers so I saved myself the trip and left them as they were. I grabbed a little beverage chalkboard I had and made a quick “Give Thanks” sign.

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These were complimented all night! I especially like that they are appropriate for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas and New Years. Oh, and the fact that I made 5 centerpieces for less than $8 is pretty awesome too.

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Easy, inexpensive and quite darling if I may say.

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Per family tradition, we spent some of the weekend decorating for Christmas, putting up the tree, making gingerbread houses, baking blue berry muffins and listening to the Michael Buble Holiday Pandora station. Here’s a peak:

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We rearranged the family room to accommodate for a tree in the window. O had a ball hanging ornaments all over however she pleased. She would occasionally step back and say “It looks beautiful!”

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We made a batch of my famous “Real Blueberry Muffins” from scratch. O has become quite enthusiastic about baking and insists on helping in almost every kitchen activity. Aprons are her new favorite “dress up”.

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I got a Wilton Gingerbread house on sale at Michael’s the other day for $9. Total impulse purchase but O has been asking to make it every single day since we bought it. I finally caved… she was so excited (below is her actual “excited” face). Mom note: this was a great excuse to use extra Halloween candy or undesirable candies left over.

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While I’m at it… I have to tell you a life changing secret that I only discovered a few years ago. Bold and italic there, friends. Truly a life saver. It saves tons of time and even more stress if you assemble the  gingerbread house frame using hot glue rather than the icing provided in the kit.

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I use mine on high but I think any setting will do. I just put hot glue on the seams that I want to attach and hold in place for a few seconds. Repeat for all the sides and do the roof pieces last. Hot glue… what can’t it do?

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Then O and I developed a little rhythm. I’d make a “blob”, she’d choose a candy to place there. Almost all of the design choices here are hers. I did make the door, windows, wreath and bow. But she made the roof with me, sidewalk, sides of the house and all. I just kept piping icing and she kept sticking candy there. You know, between stuffing her face with m&m’s. I cheated and did the bow and Dum Dum trees with hot glue as well.

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Pinterest Challenge: Winter 2013

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I decided to partake on ANOTHER blog challenge. This time it is a Pinterest challenge. Basically: Pin something and actually do it. How many times have you actually done something you pinned? Be honest. (you can see some of my other pinterest inspired posts here here and here and The YHL Macklemore $20 Thrift Shop Challenge here)

20130224-173020.jpgThe inspiration or pinspiration I should say can be found on my “kitchen” pin board. I kept seeing all this silverware art. There was everything from a painting of a spoon to a chandelier made of silverware. I remember doing a studio study on silverware in art school… it was very hard to duplicate the shapes and reflections of a spoon or fork. As much as I loved the idea of a silverware painting I didn’t have the money to buy the Pottery Barn wall art or have the time to duplicate such a cool piece. What I did have was a collection of yours-mine-and-ours silverware. I chose a spoon and fork from our drawer. Nobody knows where the spoon came from and we have no matching counterparts so it was a natural choice. The fork is one of many from an inexpensive set. It won’t be missed.

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Next I had to figure out what I wanted to hang my silverware on. A plate? Straight onto the wall? I found a small unused canvas in my art supplies. I considered wrapping the canvas in fabric but the scraps that I had were either too busy or not enough contrast. I finally settled on black paint. I have tons of it, black was a fantastic backdrop for silver and it was neutral enough to go just about anywhere I would decide to hang the canvas.

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Now for the hard part: paint the canvas. Obviously it was not that hard. To be honest anyone could do this. Imagine having your kids mix a couple colors and gluing the fork and spoon on. Cute kid kitchen art. Unfortunately O is far too young for such a thing. She’d lick the paint, I’d call poison control. It would be a whole thing that I just don’t want to deal with. Ah, one day.

Anywho, after the paint dried I used superglue to secure the fork and spoon in place. And I was finished!

Total time: 15 minutes. Total cost: $0! Don’t hate.

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The finished project. Simple. Kinda “mod”. Somewhat bold. FREE and recycled. Me likey.

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I decided to hang my new art in our kitchen in the void space next to our new shelves. If you recall, we decided to center the shelves over the peninsula, which isn’t centered on the wall.  We ended up with more wall space to the right of the shelves than the left. I prefer symmetry so the whole fiasco frustrated me. The silverware art is my sort of “band-aid” to the situation.

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While I was at it I hung these two small fruit canvases I had painted ages ago. They are on the small wall near the back door and ad a little “pop” where I hadn’t realized it was needed. By the way, who likes the soft ocean glass green for the kitchen? Its taped on the wall for us to visualized with the floors and slate backsplash along with the strange torn wall paper under the chair rail.