The Perfect Al Fresco Dinner Party | Weekending

Well hello!  I haven't talked to you all since last year ;).  This weekend was supposed to be a full one.  We had my sister's 1st anniversary dinner planned, then a kids party to go to, and family pictures scheduled.  The kids ended up getting sick with a virus, so the kids party and family pictures were a no go - which was fine because the most important thing was my sister's dinner that thankfully they were still healthy for.


As you all know, I'm HUGE on party planning.  As soon as I have something to plan, I automatically get excited and start brainstorming ideas and getting on Pinterest for inspiration.  Since I wanted her dinner to be al fresco, I knew I wanted a bright color but also something that would be romantic - fuchsia was the winner!  I found this picture on Pinterest and fell in love and knew it was exactly the feel I wanted.

Luckily, Target had most of what I was looking for, since they already have their Valentines decor in stock. I found fuchsia bottles and these cute gold sequins XO's.  I knew that they would be perfect for the table and that I'd stick my wine bottle candelabras in the bottles for some elegance and candlelight - nothing screems romance more than candlelight, am I right?!

We had the party at my aunt's house.  Most of her backyard is screened in and her views of her lake are amazing.  We hung twinkle lights too, which added more of a romantic feel and looked so pretty lit, as did the candles.

Everything came out so pretty, and my sister loved it which is the most important thing.  We all had a great time talking, laughing and eating.  It couldn't have been a more perfect evening.

Have a great Monday!

Hosting A Dinner Party at Home | Easy Centerpiece Ideas

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was very busy, and ended with my husband's cousin's wedding on Sunday.  We had a great time, especially E who didn't get off of the dance floor the whole night!


One thing that we love to do is entertain at home.  Don't get me wrong, I love going out to eat, but there is something more relaxing about cooking up a nice meal and being at home.  I'm a firm believer in having candles lit and fresh flowers in the home, especially when people are coming over.  Lately I've been wanting to step it up a notch and also make the table we're going to eat at a little more "fancy".  I'm all about simplicity, so in my opinion a simply set and adorned table is best.

I've rounded out some of my favorite centerpieces.  Most of the things to create these centerpieces are things you probably have laying around your home.

 

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This picture was what I used as my inspiration picture for the table when we had family over this past weekend.  I thought it added a cute touch to the table and when the candles were lit it looked SO pretty.   I also made a wine bar for the dinner which worked out great.  Wine glasses, corkscrew,  cocktail napkins and of course a candle lit made the table look pretty and kept people out of the busy kitchen to refill their glasses.

Another one of my favorite centerpieces - that is easy to make is a simple flower arrangement with fruit pieces.  for this particular one, I used lemons and I thought it made the table look bright and happy!

Spray painting bottles is so much fun if you have a little extra time to do so.  They look elegant are are a fun spin on a traditional wine bottle.  They'd even be pretty spray painted with chalk paint! We spray painted bottles for our 10 year anniversary party and I loved the way they came out!  It's such an inexpensive way to dress up a table!

Speaking of wine bottles, I also love the look of candlesticks stuck in them with wax dripping down.  Simple, elegant and the candle light adds to the ambiance!

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Do you love to dress up your table when people come over too?  What are some things you've used?

Have a great day! xx

Superhero Bash Recap

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I had to take yesterday off because I was pretty pooped from the weekend and had a lot of catching up to do around the house!

Saturday was a success!  The kids had so much fun at the party.  They loved the bounce house and running around.  The parents enjoyed dressing up just as much as the kids I think - there were a lot of them dressed up and even my husband and I joined in the fun.  I channeled my inner Halle Berry and was Storm and he was Wolverine.  It was hard to get pictures of the balloons and the whole set up because it was SO windy, the balloons were flying everywhere!  I did still go with this look:

 Another fun thing was the photo booth my uncle built.  He stayed the whole party to take pictures of the kids with his fancy DSLR, I was so glad he was able to do do that for me so that I can treasure the pictures and memories for years to come. 

Until the next party!  Have a great Tuesday!

Superhero Bash!

My kids are very into superhero's, they love watching and playing with anything that has to do with them.  For months now the kids have been asking me to throw them a superhero party for them and their little friends and if you know me at all by now, you know that I love any reason to throw a party so we gave in to the idea, and in a couple of weeks the kids' dream will come to fruition.


We decided to do it as a costume party because, is there anything cuter than seeing kids dressed up?  I have so many cute ideas for the party and am getting excited myself!

I want to keep the decor simple and also don't want to overdo it with superhero's everywhere, so this is how I envision the decor.  With that being said, do you know where I can find big 36 inch balloons?

crappy picture, but you get the idea

I ordered these invitations.  I'm HUGE on cute invitations for any party - I think it sets the tone for the party early on.

There will also be a photo-booth for the kids to pose with their costumes on - it's going to look something like this:

Then I plan to do touches around like these:

 

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I think the kids will love it and have tons of fun.  There will also be a bounce house so that they sleep well that night, and a cotton candy machine!

Have any of you thrown a superhero party before?  Any ideas of anything else I can do?

Weekend Scenes

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We did - so much so that I was too tired to post about it yesterday!

Friday we went to our friend's house for dinner and so that all the kids can play.  We had 5 kids playing and surprisingly, they all played well.  Our friends just had a baby girl - she is the cutest little thing, and every time I see her I get baby fever and then quickly snap out of it when I get home, haha.


Saturday, we went to a country chic anniversary party.  We had so much fun dancing and talking with our friends.  The decorations were so pretty and my friend (whose anniversary it was) took her wedding dress and had it cut and made into the prettiest shabby chic dress!  I thought it was such a cute idea!

Sunday my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I decided to take the drive and go to Naples for the day.  We brought E with us and had the best time.  We walked the Naples Pier, did some shopping, ate ice cream before dinner, and ate a fancy restaurant.  It was so much fun and so relaxing - the west coast has the best beaches! It's my favorite place to go to when I feel like getting away, you feel like you're in a totally different place!

How was your weekend?

2014 In Review

Crazy that this is my last post of 2014, where did the year go?!  I'm convinced that time does go by faster as we get older - do you remember years taking forever when we were kids?  Now it seems like it was just New Years day last year!

I thought it would be fun to review my year.  It's definitely been a busy one for our family with TWO weddings in our immediate families!

January 

It was a pretty quiet month, we had some family in town and played tourist in our area. We went to where they film Gator Boys on Animal planet and took a tour of the Everglades on an air boat ride and saw an alligator show.

We also took our first Disney trip of the year.

 

February

This was an exciting month - my sister got engaged!!  I was so happy to be part of that moment and glad I got to witness it happening.

 

We also took our family pictures - these may have been my favorite yet.

 

March

In March, I got nominated for the Liebster award, which was fun - it's nice to know that people out there like reading your blog enough to nominate you for something. 

I also started brainstorming for my Brother/Sister-In-Law's hot air balloon bridal shower and we took the kids to Disney on Ice.

April

April was a pretty low key month.  I went to the John Legend concert with my mom and enjoyed our first full day at the beach since the water and weather warmed up.

 

 

May

We took the kids on another Disney trip, and stayed at one of my favorite hotels of theirs Coronado Springs.

 Kids and Cabernet had it's first linkup Wino Wednesday - I so love this linkup and reading everyone's favorite wines.

We also had the first bridal shower of the year for my brother-in-law, which turned out beautiful!

I also did one of my favorite (and very simple) DYI's to date and made our Rake Wine Glass Holder

June

We spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying summer and had a Girl's Night Out for my sister-in-law to be.

 

July

July marked the first wedding of the year.  Everything was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

I shared six habits to a happy home (at least that work for us ;))

August

I stared brainstorming for our 10 year anniversary party - gold everywhere! eShatki also sent me a beautiful dress that I was able to review, which I loved!

 

September

September marked our 10 year anniversary, and a party to celebrate it, which was a blast having our closest friends and family together in one room.

 

October

We had another low key month with a lot of family time and crafting with the kids - which is always good in my book!

November

One of my favorite months this year - we went on a trip to Punta Cana with our best friends and had the best time and made some amazing memories!

 

December

Another favorite.  December was all about my sister's and her wedding (which I'll recap soon).  I threw her the cutest Lingerie Shower Tea Party and a few days ago celebrated her big day!

It was a great year filled with lots of memories and special times. Can't wait to see what memories are made in 2015.