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Simple Lavender Inspired Centerpiece

Dinnerware, Entertaining, Tablescapes, Uncategorized ·

Create a Simple Lavender Inspired Centerpiece
I love entertaining and there is nothing better than a warm summer night in the Pacific Northwest and having my girlfriends over for an outdoor dinner party. I created this simple lavender inspired centerpiece for a dinner party I hosted in my backyard a few weeks back.

For this dinner party, we were celebrating my sweet friend Gina’s birthday. I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare so I kept this one simple and sweet. One way to keep it simple is to create a centerpiece out of potted plants that you can purchase at a grocery store.

Choose a Theme or Color Palette
I always choose a theme or pick a color palette based on something I see that inspires me. When I was planning this party, I had gone to Trader Joe’s to see what flowers they had and to shop for ingredients for the food I was planning to make. As soon as I saw these potted lavender plants and the smaller flowering plants in purple and lavender containers, I knew

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Hosting at Home for the Holidays #8 – Patriotic Tablescapes

Dinnerware, Entertaining, Holidays, Tablescapes, Uncategorized ·

Let’s up your holiday with these patriotic tablescapes and entertaining ideas for your upcoming Memorial Day and/or Fourth of July celebrations.

Hosting at Home for the Holidays #8 – Patriotic Tablescapes

It’s been a while since my friends Lory, To Have + To Host, and Holliday, Home With Holliday, and I have done a blog hop with our entertaining ideas and tablescapes. We met for the first time in Lory’s hometown of Phoneix, Arizona, last month and we had a wonderful time meeting in person and talking about our love of entertaining and hosting at home.

Together we created this stunning Anthropologie Inspired Outdoor Tablescape in Lory’s beautiful backyard. Lory then hosted us for a delicious dinner in her home with her lovely family.

We are so excited to share with you our eighth post in our blog hop series Holiday Hosting at Home!  Today we are sharing some inspirations for any patriotic parties you may be

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Pink Party Punch that Packs a Punch!

Beverages, Recipes, Uncategorized ·

Pink Party Punch perfect for any holiday gathering. It’s refreshing and packs a punch. Your guests will love this delicious drink!

This Pink Party Punch has been a staple at many of the parties I’ve thrown over the years. It’s simple to make and packs a punch (pardon the pun)! I’ve made this party punch for baby showers, bridal showers, summertime BBQs, family gatherings, birthdays, and more. It goes well with any occasion and is a great summertime poolside drink! Here, I made the pink party punch for a PIE-oneer Day Party I hosted for a Utah state holiday.

Summertime or Anytime Punch

Everyone that’s had this pink party punch at any of my gatherings has asked for the recipe, so I am finally getting around to sharing it. It’s very easy to make, and you can substitute a variety of things depending on what you have on hand or can buy at the store. I will share some of the variations

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Anthropologie-Inspired Outdoor Dinner Party

Dinnerware, Entertaining, Tablescapes, Uncategorized ·

Anthropologie-Inspired Outdoor Dinner Party
I’ve been so excited to share this Anthropologie-Inspired Outdoor Dinner Party tablescape and how it all came about! A few weeks back, I traveled to Phoenix to meet up with two lovely ladies who I met on Instagram. They are both entertaining bloggers and we all love dishes and the art of entertaining.

First I met the adorable Holliday “Holly” Johnson @homewithholliday. Our names are so similar as are the names of our blogs and Instagram accounts. We hit it off right away and became fast friends!

Then I met the lovely Lory Parson @tohave+tohost, who also loves to host and entertain. Before long the three of us were chatting away on conference calls and helping and supporting one another. We decided a retreat was in order so we made plans to meet up in Lory’s hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Three Peas in a Pod!
As soon as we met, we were talking a mile a minute and we were all so excited to meet each other in person. We had

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Strawberry Recipe Inspiration

Breakfast, Brunch, Desserts + Sweets, Recipes, Sides, Starters + Salads ·

The Utah weather we are experiencing right now may not look like we are nearing summer, but Memorial Day is right around the corner so why not start planning for the picnics and summer entertaining with a few homemade strawberry recipes?

This strawberry cream cheese pie is one of my family’s favorites! I’m hoping for delicious, fresh strawberries so we can have this for the holiday coming up!

 
More Strawberry Recipe Ideas
 

This strawberry spinach salad from my friend Beth of 111 Light Lane looks like it will quickly become a family favorite! I can’t wait to try it this summer!

These fresh strawberry muffins from Ashley at Modern Glam look like the perfect breakfast addition or mid morning snack. I’m all for adding in fresh strawberries wherever I can!

These personalized strawberry desserts by Sara of Twelve on Main are adorable! I always like the idea of having my own portion size pre-made for me so that I don’t have to worry about dishing up

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The Best Macaroni and Cheese Ever

holiday recipes, Main Course, Recipes, Sides, Uncategorized ·

I got this recipe years ago and it’s the best macaroni and cheese ever. I can’t remember where I found it or who gave it to me but one of my Instagram followers messaged me, (which I appreciate) and said this looked very similar to Giada De Laurentis’ Mac and Cheese recipe. I’m not sure of the origin of it but after reading mine and hers, they are almost the same so I’m crediting Giada for this wonderful take on Mac and Cheese! It’s been a family favorite ever since I made this for them the first time!

This yummy macaroni and cheese recipe is comfort food at its finest and can be your main dish or a side dish. This is my go to recipe when I’ve cooked a ham and have some leftovers! Ham is optional, but I’ve always made it with the ham. This is not your traditional macaroni and cheese recipe because it actually doesn’t have macaroni or cheddar cheese in it! I use egg noodles and a delicious mix of fontina, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses. I guess it should be called a different

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Refreshing My Master Bedroom for Spring

Home, Home Decor, Home Tour, My Home, Popular, Room Sources, Uncategorized ·

Refreshing the master bedroom for Spring can be a nice way to update your bedroom without spending a lot of money or time.

One thing I enjoy doing is refreshing the master bedroom every so often without having to buy a lot of new furniture. Because my furniture is still fairly new, I just changed up the duvet, linens, pillows, and throw blankets. This is an inexpensive way to freshen up your room and add some new colors into your decor. Your bedroom should be a warm and cozy space that you want to spend your time in.

The Bedding, Linens, and Pillows

For the bed, I bought an inexpensive sea salt colored duvet cover for the top blanket, a new quilt to go at the end of the bed, and new euro shams. I added a few new throw pillows and a light colored throw blanket on the chaise lounge chair. I am always on the lookout for inexpensive pillows and throw blankets.

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Pink and Gray Easter Tablescape

Entertaining, Holidays, Popular, Tablescapes, Uncategorized ·

Sharing how to put together a Beautiful Easter Tablescape with neutral pinks and grays for the table settings. Learn more here.

This Pink and Gray beautiful Easter Tablescape was so much fun!  Believe it or not, the inspiration behind this adorable table came from the bunny ear napkin rings and the gray easter bunnies.

Are these not the cutest napkin rings??!

The Place-Setting

For the place-setting I started with a gray and white round placemat. Next, I used off-white chargers, pink dinner plate, a white salad plate, and a smaller pink dessert plate.

For the napkin, I used a darker pink napkin with the bunny ear napkin ring and laid it sideways to showcase the napkin ring.

I chose gold rimmed glasses and gold flatware because the charger

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Shamrock Sugar Cookie Recipe

Desserts + Sweets, holiday recipes, Recipes, Uncategorized ·

This Sugar Cookie recipe is one of my favorites. It makes a large batch and both the cookie and the frosting are both so good! I got this recipe from my darling friend Rachel Parcell. She made these for Valentine’s Day, and so I thought it would be fun to make shamrocks for Saint Patrick’s Day after seeing her post and recipe. It’s a simple recipe to make and is fun for every season. I wanted to try different sizes of shamrock cookie cutters and different shades of green for the frosting.

I discovered that frosting shamrock shapes are much harder than hearts!  I tried frosting them the traditional way with a knife, but the frosting covered up the shape and I couldn’t tell what it was. There was a lot of experimenting to find a way to frost them and still be able to tell what shape they were.

After some trial and error, I tried piping the frosting using different-sized piping tips and that method worked the best. I experimented with the four different shades of green

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Saint Patricks Day Spring Decor

Home, Home Decor, Home Tour, My Home, Seasonal Home Tours, Uncategorized ·

I really enjoyed adding a few touches of green to my kitchen and dining room this year to celebrate Saint Patricks Day. I don’t usually go all out for the smaller holidays but I like adding a few decorations to brighten things up and St. Patricks Day is such a fun and colorful holiday to decorate for.

When I’m decorating my home for the different seasons, I try to create decor that can be used for that season and whatever holidays fall within that season. I start out by choosing a base color that mixes well with the colors in my home. I have a lot of blue decor so I try to mix in the seasonal colors with what I already have.
The Hot Cocoa Bar

I had this hot cocoa bar set up for my Galentines Day Brunch and I decided to keep it out for St. Patricks Day when I realized I had some mugs with shamrocks them. How could I not use these in the hot cocoa bar! I also had some gold chocolate coins that looked so cute in one of my milk glass compotes. I switched out the pink milk glass

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