Entertaining 101: Building your entertaining supply closet

Several years ago I chronicled my favorite entertaining essentials. Four years later, I still love and use them all just as much. This is a good example of how if you invest in great pieces, they will never go out to style and you can easily pair them with something new for an entirely different feel. Here they are.

The difference between the sexes

For a couple years now I have been eyeing adirondack chairs. I love the shape, the bright colors and the general happiness I feel when I look upon one. Last week, I made the executive decision to purchase a couple and bring them home. I thought this was a brilliant decision until I stood maneuvering them back and forth in the parking lot trying to make them fit in our car. Oh, how I could have used a second set of hands. Upon placing them onto our deck and adding throw pillows I declared to myself how our deck looked a million times more inviting and happy. A couple days later Cameron and I were sitting on them and I turned to him and said, "Haven't these chairs changed your life?" Without hesitation he pronounced. "No, not really"

Stitch by stitch

The second horizontal strip quilt.

Quilts have become symbolic of certain periods of time in my life. My first quilting project was undertaken long before anyone ever knew I was pregnant. My thought was this: I am having a baby, why not make a quilt. When most people find out they are expecting they start calling their loved ones, I took a different approach and headed to the fabric store. I enlisted the help of my friend and together we toiled on a quilt with an unknown recipient. How exciting it was to tell her one day the recipient was someone growing inside of me. She had her suspicions, but had never been brave enough to ask.

Flash forward five months and I had already purchased fabric to make another quilt because I worried the first would be a little too feminine for my little guy. After Asher passed away the first project I wanted to undertake was commencing my second quilt. Days after he had pass away I remembering emailing my friend to tell her I wanted to start on the second quilt. I asked her if my response was weird and being the devoted friend she was she responded with a resounding 'no, not at all'. Less than one week after he passed away that same friend and I started to piece together the second quilt, much like I was piecing back together my life. Just recently the second quilt has been completed and while the first quilt was made for the hope and excitement of my new life, the second quilt was made for healing.

The first chevron quilt.

The more birthdays the merrier

I have made it a tradition of throwing a little party for Cameron's birthday the past several years. We not only embark on a long stretch without too many birthdays around here, but I like to take the opportunity to exhibit my appreciation for having him in my life. While making the invite list I noticed that several of the attendees either will have or have just had their birthday. I thought it would be fun to celebrate all the birthdays with a rousing round of happy birthday and the cake. Here I present five wonderful people, five birthdays and one great excuse to get together.

Christmas day

Christmas day was simultaneously tough and wonderful. It was great to spend time with my family, but my heart could not help but ache for how I thought this Christmas was going to be. My parents spent countless hours decorating their home, making delicious food and creating a Christmas scene like something straight out of a movie. Santa brought us endless games and we tried our hand at almost all of them.

O Christmas Tree

The adorable little Christmas tree gracing our front porch has been with us for a couple years now. We have moved with it, and kept it both outside and inside at various points in time. This little tree has endured rain, sleet, snow, wind, drought and near death. At one point it started to loose a lot of it needles and I almost wanted to cry. I love this little tree and it has been exciting to see its continual growth over the past couple of years. I have realized when you work hard to keep something alive it makes it all the more special. I like to think it is happy and standing proud adorned with its red Christmas balls this holiday season.

December 2010

October 2011

January 2012

Pie Party

We hosted our Third Annual Pie Party last week. Each year the competition gets more fierce and the entries more delectable. We had a spectacular array of pies and each one was delicious in its own right. We enjoyed two different berry pies, strawberry pie, pumpkin cheesecake pie, cinnamon pie, chocolate pie, grasshopper pie, peanut butter pie, pecan pie and key lime pie. I think it is safe to say, everyone went home a little stuffed full of pie and I am reminded what awesome bakers our friends are.

Labor of love

I just recently finished my first quilt and I am very happy with the results. I knew how I hoped it would turn out, but it turned out even better than I had imagined. Between not using a pattern and this being my first time making a quilt, it was quite an adventure to make. I would have never been able to make this without the help of my very patient friend. Quilting reminds me a lot of scrapbooking; selecting all the different patterns and colors and finding a way to tie them all together.

Individual Pot Pies

With Fall approaching I find myself more inspired to spend time in the kitchen. In the Summer, it is a combination of the sunshine and warm weather which makes me adopt "there are plenty of other things I want to do than be inside making dinner" attitude. As the temperatures cool back down I like to make plenty of soup, pot pies and possibly a galette or two or three. The other evening I substituted the chicken in my homemade pot pie recipe with salmon and aside from the lingering fish smell in the house, it was fantastic.

The ingredients are simple and usually all things I have on hand: onion, carrot, peas, flour, milk and chicken or in this case I used salmon. In my meals I like my meat/fish eaten sparingly with a healthy amount of vegetables. 

My little sister gave me these fantastic individual footed ramekins and they are the perfect item to elevate your meal from the mundane to the fancy.

Work in Progress

Long before I told anyone I was pregnant I started making a baby quilt. I have been to enough baby showers and seen enough nurseries to know what color palette I wanted regardless of our baby's gender. I am an organized person by nature, so perpetual progress toward my end goal was necessary to make the weeks click by. Each quilt shop I visited in search of fabric, I quietly revealed my secret to strangers. It was a special time and while we enjoyed keeping our secret amongst ourselves I quickly started falling in love with the process of quilt making. I am now to the hand stitching part of my quilt and since I am only 24 weeks pregnant I am confident I will have finished this long before Fall comes, let alone our winter baby.

After seven years things start to wear out

Standing at the cash register at Crate and Barrel the sales clerk asks, "Is this a gift?" "No, it is for me.........but after seven years things start to wear out." When I got married, I was luckily enough to have a mother who filled in the gaps for the domestic goods necessary to fill a home. She outfitted me with muffin pans, a kitchen timer, mixing bowls you name it. Now seven years later it was high time to purchase a new muffin pan and I was certainly eager to put it to good use.

I used this recipe, but substituted half the flour for wheat flour and replaced the blueberries with black berries instead. Word to the wise, purchase demerara sugar, it will change your life...well maybe not, but it will dress up your baked goods.

Snow in March???

A couple days ago, we awoke to a light dusting of snow. Snow in March.....crazy huh? Just when we thought it is starting to warm up the cold weather comes and slaps us back into reality. The early morning light is the one of the prettiest times of day, don't you think?

The view from our bathroom's skylight.

Cold nights are the perfect time to warm up inside with homemade Peanut Butter chocolate chip cookies.

The details

I love to track the weekly progress of my flowers, it is a great visual way to see the passage of time and makes me eager for more sunlight and longer days.

Daphne Odora. This flower is new to me, but smells like sweet citrus when in bloom. I can hardly wait!!

Crocuses remind me of easter eggs, but especially in this particular shot. It is a reminder how even the most troublesome flower popping up in the middle of your grass can be beautiful.

I love irises, but mini irises are extra sweet.

Buds, buds and more buds

I was unsure what was popping up in our front yard, but so far I know we have some beautiful irises. I love their deep blue color and accents of gold and white.

I believe these are camelias. There are hundreds of them and I am ecstatic for them to bloom so I can bring them into the house.

I am uncertain what this tree is, but little yellow flowers are exploding open each day.

The mysteries continue here, but it is fun not knowing what will open up next when I walk outside.

D.I.Y: Cactus Terrariums

A terrarium is a good way to keep plants indoor with minimal care. A friend of mine gave me a cactus as a housewarming gift and it got my wheels turning. I already had these glass jars, but picked up some sand, rocks and a couple new cactuses. In a little under an hour, I had a new display of terrariums on my coffee table.

Ravenna Gardens is one of my favorite shops to buy plants. You can buy with confidence knowing they have taken care of your plant prior to purchasing it.  This little cactus is called a Chocolate Soldier.

Meal planning

I have always shied away from menu planning because the thought of deciding what I will make a week in advance makes me shudder. Ironically, I have always enjoyed planning, making lists, staying organized and being orderly. I just do not like the idea of being confined to what I eat on a day to day basis. We had been in a food rut for a couple weeks now and I was dying to break free of the lack of enthusiasm I was experiencing towards dinner. We have been focusing on more of a plant based diet (not vegetarian by any means, but not a lot of meat either) so I thought it was high time I found a use for all the chicken in my freezer. I resorted to by stand by assistant, Martha Stewart and together we created a menu of four meals I could make in the event I had the desire to. I wrote out the name of each meal, the items I was missing to make said meal and then went to the store to purchase the items. I have done this before, but with two dinner invitations extended and my lackluster performance in the dinner department we needed it.

Here is the report:
Sauteed Chicken in Mustard Cream Sauce: I have an aversion to using heavy cream (I usually substitute fat free milk for it instead), but succumb for this recipe. It was simple to make, visually appealing, felt fancy, classy and made me excited to find other uses for the left over tarragon I now own.

Jamaican Chicken Curry: I made this for some friends for dinner and then to take to another friend who just had a baby. I cheated and used regular curry powder, so next time I will have to use Jamaican curry as instructed. It was probably the farthest thing from what I normally make, so it was exciting to increase my repertoire on willing participants.

Moroccan Chicken Stew:  Since always find the need to take a cheat, I did not dredge the chicken in flour. This might have compromised the overall flavor of the dish, but I have my suspicions this is one of those recipes which is more flavorful the next day.

I have enjoyed being a little more adventurous in the kitchen as of late. Anyone have any great chicken recipes I should try?

Being outdoors

We have had a streak of fantastic weather, which is just perfect for making the outdoors look a little better. I spent some time down at our local nursery putting together a pot for the front door and selecting some plants for the back deck. I am happy with the results and am looking forward to watching them grow.

Remember the time I was locked out? Well I was seeing how this mat looked at our back door. With a couple of nails, Cameron was able to secure it in place and now it works just perfectly.

Our friends made the big move over to Vashon Island, which means our dinner invites now come along with a spectacular pre dinner view. Riding a ferry makes me feel like we really went somewhere. The best part is that we can just walk down from our house and hop aboard.