With the Mice Away...

The cat did play!

Hunt left this past weekend to take Harper to visit his parents for a few days over his break, so Winnie and I found the house to ourselves.  I knew that I would be anxious about being away from Harper for that long (longest since she was born), but Hunt was totally up for the adventure of the daddy daughter trip, and by all assessments it seems like it was well worth it.  Once they got there safely, I definitely relaxed a bit and frankly really loved a few days of peace and quiet and not the usual hussle and bussle of our usual routines. It was really nice to be able to run around without a schedule and have a few days of not being needed for anything at all.

Knowing that I would get lonely with an empty house, though, I planned a lady's evening for some drinks and apps to commence after the neighbors were all done with their respective nighttime mommy duties.  On Saturday, we actually got a large snowfall so I was able to kind of just hole up in the house and be lazy while getting things ready to have people over which honestly felt like such a luxury.  I wanted it to be a low key and relaxed get together, but also was excited to have the excuse to do some holiday inspired Pinterest recipes.  It ended up being a super fun night with the girls!

Pretty much should be my motto.  Frankly, I'm not sure why I ever pretend to drink anything else since this is really all I ever want to have.

Reindeer Bubbles

A preparatory trip to Trader Joe's yielded the pomegranate seeds that the recipe called for so I didn't end up having to substitute raspberries as I had originally planned.  I did the rims with cookie decor supplies, and they turned out super cute!

Attempt at showing my new red lipstick.. This one is Bite- Rioja which is a very matte, very red color that I added some Clinique Very Cherry gloss over top

Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites

These were my new recipe attempt for the evening, which looked and sounded super simple, but I was a little skeptical that they might be like the Blue Cheese apricot bites from Thanksgiving that turned into such a thorn in my side.  Fortunately, these were a few steps of process but not labor intensive or frustrating.  The sparkling cranberries were a fun discovery that I will definitely pull out again for holiday parties.  The cranberry and brie combo was amazing.

http://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/sparkling-cranberry-brie-bites/

When I was searching for the recipe again, I just saw this version with the relish added and mint garnish- looks a little more polished and might be fun to try out for next time around!

http://www.yummymummykitchen.com/2011/11/sparkling-cranberry-brie-bites.html

I also did my usual Heath fruit dip, a spinach/artichoke dip and then got this ridiculously amazing Carmelized Onion dip from Trader Joe's that Melissa introduced us to on Thanksgiving. It literally is like the best thing ever, and paired with Kettle Maple Bacon chips was ahhhmmmazing.  We finished the entire bag and basically two containers of dip- I want to feel bad about that, but I really don't. 

When your bottles equal your guests, it was probably a good party.

The End of Skinny Pants

The time has finally come for Harper to refuse to wear a certain item of clothing. This age old process of mothers trying to convince their daughters to wear (or not) a particular thing is totally unappealing to me, and I actually really hope that Harper is not your typical "fussy" girl.  I do love to see her in cute outfits that look put together and fun, and I put some effort in to finding good deals on things that she can wear to school while saving a few select pieces for the weekends that I can enjoy.  This fall I bought several pairs of really cute skinny pants and jeans, fully knowing that Harper is not teeny tiny and obviously has the diaper to take into account, but thought they would be good alternatives to leggings and frankly they are just the most prevalent style everywhere.  Well, come to find out, Harper feels the same way about being shoved into tight pants that I do.. and very clearly expressed her opinion this week when she declared to Hunt and I that she was over the skinny pant.  If you ask her if she wants to wear them, she responds very promptly with a "Nooo, I don't want them" or sometimes just an emphatic "No skinny pant".  She is really into taking off her own pants right now, so I am sure that the confines of stick straight jeans is like torture.  Hunt had already complained about them when getting her dressed for school, and I had informed him that I send her to school in them because I don't like dealing with them either.  Needless to say, I got a quite look back from that comment, and did feel a bit shitty for a moment for making everyone else deal with them.  So, now that even the toddler is protesting, it would seem that they are officially out of the rotation, and it is back to wide stretchy pants for all at our house!

Some of the aforementioned skinnys

Holiday Prep 2013

Decorating for the holidays this year has been a staged approach, where little by little I have been pulling things out to place over the last two weekends.  Last year, I found that we really didn't have much in the way of decor for the house so I spent multiple hours and trips at various home good stores drowning in glitter debating over what would work/fit/look good. The end result after all the hustle and bustle was pretty cute and relatively basic.

This year, I really wanted to build on what we had to make things look a little more robust, especially with focus on the mantle. When we built the house, we purposefully upgraded the mantle and I was bummed last year that I didn't get stockings and do more with it, but I had already spent a good bit of money on other decorations to justify it.  Pinterest is obviously a wealth of ideas for holiday decorating, and I credit it for the inspiration to decorate the chandelier (which I did last year as well) and for the final mantle look.  I really loved the crystal focus from last year with phasing out even the plain white and going with all glass ornaments, and so I incorporated that into the chandelier with some new crystal bead garland under the greenery. While I hate that we still have the builder's chandelier up in this room, it actually is perfect for holding the decorations in.  Hunt usually does the lights for the ficus, but I wasn't patient enough and decided to do it myself- such a pain, but he looks cute with the added hanging ornaments.

Harper's tree.. How funny that she is almost taller than it this year. I decided to bring it downstairs and use it for Santa presents. She will have no idea what this whole Santa thing is about this year still, but I am excited for what he is bringing her!

Not so much related to the holidays per se, but in house news, we finally have a rug under the kitchen table! I've wanted one for a really long time, but it's been hard to justify the expense. I knew that it would make a big difference, and I got a great price from Joss and Main on this one. The color has just a touch more lilac in the "silver" undertone that I was expecting so depending upon the light it looks a little purple which was not my intention, but it is still really pretty.  Slowly, but surely we are making some progress on the main floor.

Look at that adorable puppy face

It was literally 15 degrees when we went to get the tree on Saturday and Harper has super runny nose/cough so it wasn't a very extensive search, but we ended up with a beautiful tree. We waited until Sunday to do the decorations, and I made some hot chocolate and cookies with HG and we had Christmas music playing so it was a fun morning. I am very excited with the end result too!  The new addition to our tree this year is the ivory fur skirt.  The one I really wanted from Pottery Barn sold out super fast and was twice as expensive as this one that I got from West Elm.. only downside is that this one is a little smaller than I would have liked, but is the right idea at least. I'm curious to see how long it takes to look disgusting, though, with all the tree water and needles near it.

Harper's 2013 Radko

Christmas puppy

And finally, the mantle- which I am SO delighted with. These garlands were actually put into the chandelier last year, but I decided to move them over and they are a nice fit here. The letters came from ETSY, of course, and I had her tweak the colors to shades of gray to match our decor better.  It was looking pretty cute, and then the Starry Lights arrived and WAHLA- my vision realized!  These lights are so cool- again a find from Pinterest and ordered from Amazon. I debated back and forth on what color to get since these have a copper wire and warm light, versus the silver wire but the more aggressive lighting. This was definitely the right pick for the lighting and once weaved into the decor, so festive and great. I'm still waiting on the ivory fur stockings for Winnie and HG, but should have them up this week and then I think I will be situated for this year.  I am excited to be getting things that can be incorporated and built upon each year.. Next year I want to put a little more effort into the front of the house, and our banister.  Once I get more holiday cards, I will take some pics of the banister for this year-- I am hanging the cards from ribbons and it's going to look cute when it's more filled in. I've got to find a way to get away from all the glitter stuff, though. It's so cute in theory, but such a mess to deal with!

I love finding the little things to do with the apothecaries!

Giving Thanks

A little late on the post, but I finally got a chance to import some pics using our computer. We spent Thanksgiving this year with Melissa, Jeff, CeCe and James at their house and it was honestly one of the most fun holidays that I can remember in a long time.  I have this love/hate thing with the holidays, usually where I have these really high expectations that are hard to meet, and for a variety of reasons come away let down on the back end.  With Hunt being in London the whole week before Thanksgiving this year, there was just really no practical way to do anything but a super low key day and it happened to work out wonderfully that we could do it at Melissa's house.  We spent the entire day totally relaxed and casual.. Harper originally in pj's, which then peeled down into just a shirt/diaper by the afternoon, and we literally just hung out with the kids running around playing, watching the parade, and eating.  It was no stress, no fuss, and just so incredibly pleasant.  I grew up with Thanksgiving being definitely a more formal production, and I have to say that after doing one in slippers we may very well have set the new yearly tradition for the Mayo household!

Here is my attempt at food photography :-)  I made these little apricots with blue cheese and hazelnuts.. super simple recipe and I thought I was just going to throw them together- what a joke!  Trying to spread onto a tiny apricot, add the herbs, etc was super cumbersome. In retrospect it would have been easier to put the cheese mixture into a bag and piped it onto the apricot, but still we're talking professional grade hassles here. They turned out beautiful and very really good, but such a pain in the ass. Note to self- don't do this to yourself again!

When Melissa said "casual", we went full pj's.  I originally showed up in clothes and actually went home and put on lounge wear because I felt over dressed.

I'm so obsessed with this robe

The girls having breakfast.. the first of their three meals together that day

I thought it might be fun to have a holiday "craft" to do with the kids.. CeCe and James definitely get into doing fun things.  James was obsessed with eating the icing and the green died everything that it touched.  Harper's and my tree was pretty funny in completion with gobs of icing and some randomly placed candies.

Should Melissa's bloody mary have it's own post?  I am not a big drinker, but I am totally obsessed with these things, and actually get random cravings for them.. Like right now.  The secret is Zing Zangs mix and using some pickle juice.  Yummmm.

Dinner time! This pic gives the illusion that the kids actually ate their dinner, which in fact did not happen at all

No shirt, no pants, no problem. You know you are casual when this is what your dinner guests look like

The aftermath. Not going to lie- was super glad that wasn't my kitchen this year.

No naps caught up with the little guys after dinner.