Handing Down the Family Dishes

Ask me what my favorite holiday is.

I guarantee your answer to be Thanksgiving.

Yes, the eight-year-old in me wants to jump up and down and scream,

"CHRISTMAS!!!!!"
I mean who doesn't love Christmas? 

However, this now twenty-six year old has over the years slowly allowed

her once favorite holiday, which was filled with stockings, hot chocolate,

ornaments and presents, to scoot on down the list.

Being back home and closer to family has truly given me a new appreciation

of sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

Remember THIS POST?

Last year Bryan and I hosted our first "engaged" Thanksgiving.

Actually, let's back up a minute there.

Bryan's Dad cooked the turkeys.

Mom was on champagne duty.

Bryan's Mom, Grandma and Aunt all brought sides.

I guess I should rephrase that:

This year Bryan and I set the table and made two casseroles. 

And man did I set that frickin' table.

Thanksgiving last year was particularly exciting for two reasons:

One. My amazing then-fiance made us the most beautiful 

farm house table. It was a project I literally could not wait for him to 

start on once we moved into our new home and holy cow did the guy deliver.

Two. One day in early November, while Bryan had begun the farm house-table-making

process, Mom and I were over at Grandma's. You see Grandma is starting to go through the 

"I need to get rid of everything in my house" phase in her life and between Mom,

Aunt Sherry and myself, we're all terrified that she is going to throw something

important away. Mom was going through her cabinets and reached up and 

grabbed one of the familiar, beautiful, off-white dishes trimmed with autumn reds 

and browns, "Want to use these on your new table this year for Thanksgiving?" she asked.

YES. What a GREAT idea! 

In our family we don't have a set game plan of who hosts what holiday and where.

It's usually decided on only a few weeks prior but whenever Grandma's turn to host was up,  you could bet those dishes were spread across her big dining room table beautifully.

Grandma agreed to let me use them this year and I could. not. wait.

I may or may not have played with them for hours after Mom dropped them off at my house later that week. And by "play with them" I mean I literally set the entire table with them

and started playing with runner ideas, what napkins I would use and other fun details.

If you're wondering what Bryan is doing during all of this, let's be honest,

he's used to it at this point and kind of just shakes his head and walks by.

Thanksgiving came and went and the dishes were put away.

It was decided that Grandma would split up the set of 12 and hand down 6 to Aunt Sherry

and 6 to Mom. Sometime in early December Mom informed me that she was giving

her portion of the dishes to me because she knew how much I loved them.  

They're not just my Grandmother's dishes, they're my Grandmother's MOTHER'S dishes.

To have such a beautiful family heirloom passed down to me- and they're something that I

will use and truly appreciate- made my heart just feel so full.

Quite a few are chipped, some are faded..  but I could care less. 

I have a little piece of tradition that I get to set my Thanksgiving table with every year.

Every year I'll think of past Thanksgivings at Grandma's when there would be almost 20 of us.
The cousins would have the smaller "kid chairs" at the table. Regardless of our age
or size, we were kids. And we sat in the smaller chairs. 

Uncle Jim would be sleeping on the living room floor after dinner. 

Dad and Grandpa would drink canned Budweiser while watching football.
Does this ring a bell to any of you?
The point is I'm starting to get older and I value even the most simple of things so much more.
Grandma, Aunt Sherry and Mara obviously took note of my special appreciation
for those dishes because I received some new additions as a Bridal Shower gift recently.
They actually FOUND some matching pieces in thrift stores all around our hometown.

Yes, I know. Clearly feeling a little nostalgic over here but the Fall months
always do that to me! Mid-October and I'm already ready to break these babies back out.
Happy Fall Y'all!
47 days til Thanksgiving, folks!

Claire is Three: Tinkerbell Pixie Party

My sweet little nugget niece turned THREE!
Okay, I'm a few weekends late per usual... 

My sister in law gave her options on what type of party she would like this year,

she was pretty adamant on Tinkerbell/Pixie/Fairy party (aren't they all the same thing?)

so Tinkerbell/Pixie/Fairy party is what she got!
#auntrinnydelivers

{ IDEA } Dress up plain ol' plastic silverware and paper napkins

by folding them up and tying them with a bow or twine!

That FACE :)

Click HERE for Claire's 2nd Birthday Party - Hello Kitty
Click HERE to read Claire's story

Healthy, happy girl :) Makes my heart so full.

Favorite Things Party { Times Two }

Am I the only one who goes through a wave of depression after Christmas and New Years wraps up?
All the normal songs resume on the radio, decorations come down, Christmas lights come down,
VALENTINE'S DAY DECORATIONS ALREADY UP IN STORES,
I mean dang people!
I usually leave all of my decorations (and lights!) up until New Year's Day
and choose to believe that any New Year's festivities are technically a Christmas round two.
Speaking of festivities!
I love ANY excuse to throw a party- especially a Christmas party.

Bring out the inappropriate cocktail napkins, pop open the champagne

andddd let's throw us a PAR-TAY!
Recapping my Favorite Things parties today:

Sometime last year I stumbled across Miss Stephanie's favorite things party

and could not wait to throw one this year.. errr.. two?

Favorite Things Party {Round One: Girlfriends }

 

 

 

Favorite Things included:
Stationary: Alyson // Burt's Bees: Haley // Chi Iron Spray: Tiffany // Evian Spray: Amanda
BBW Candle: Jennifer // Down the Chimney Candle: Brittney // Tinted Lip Balm: Anna
Not pictured:
iTunes Gift Card and Mixed CD: Katy // Starby's Gift Card: Your's Truly :)

Favorite Things Party {Round Two: Family }
After briefly explaining to Mom what EXACTLY a "Favorite Things" party entailed
it wasn't too hard the get the rest of the ladies in my family on board: mom, Aunt Sherry,
Gram, my sister in law AND my cousin were all in.

Seriously how cute is my Grandma for giving us all African Violets as her favorite thing?
When she walked in with five VERY awkwardly wrapped items, we were worried.
Then when she said, "We have to hurry and open mine before it dies!"
We were all VERY worried.
All was well and my home is happy with 2 new pretty plants. :)

If you have never hosted a party like this I would totally recommend doing one
and it doesn't necessarily need to be a Christmas party. Back to my theory.. girls just like to party :)

HEL-LO KITTY!

So I promised a Hello Kitty party recap today and quite frankly

I'm about to pass out from exhaustion so we'll try and make this short annn sweet, shall we?

If you are lucky enough to follow me on Pinterest 

then I apologize for all the recent pins of fabulous closets

No, actually, I do apologize for the obnoxious amount of closet pins.

I want to re-do mine. However a Mariah-Careylike closet is not in my future.

Back to reality.

I had been pinning a ridic amount of Hello Kitty party ideas.

For that I do apologize.

And can I just get this out of the way?

I don't know why I'm so haunted by Hello Kitty.

Maybe because it's EVERYWHERE. But I'm really not a fan.

Which may come off as an odd statement with the photo dump that's about to occur but

it's kind of like when my Mom decided to sponge paint my room purple.

Yes, y'all, sponge paint.

I don't know if she just had extra paint but I came home and it was already happening.

From that day forward I hated purple. 

Ok I cleeeearly just got distracted again. 

Back to party recap!

First up, which you all have already seen are the DIY favor bags.

These were SO stinkin easy!

Time consuming? Yes. 

But so much cuter than the little plastic baggies they sell at party stores.

Here was a little spread of the dessert table.

Vanilla HK cuppycakes on your left and, per my sister-in-law's

request, Chocolate Peanut Butter on your right. 

The cotton candy was only to serve as decor purposes

but once the kids realized it was there it was game over.

#typical

The drink table I wasn't totally in love with

but apparently Florida's weather that day decided to grace us with

hurricanic (that's a word, yes?) type winds so I had to limit

the tabletop decor and move on.

I also used plain 'ol water bottles and ripped their labels off

and replaced them with Hello Kitty tape I found at Michael's.

Voila! Hello Kitty water! Weeeee!

Also, would it be a party if there weren't super cute mason jars?

No, ma'am. :)

For the food spread we went with a "taco bar"

type theme. Random, I know. But tacos and chips and salsa

just sounded delish at the time. So taco bar it was!

I'm actually craving all of this as we speak.

It's a major necessity to have some type of activity for the

kids that are running around. Especially since they're all hyped up on cotton candy.

You're welcome, parents.

So we decided to make an activity table with printouts.

And "pin the bow on the Hello Kitty"

Clearly a DIY.

Kelley's banner also made an appearance in that last little snapshot.

Like I mentioned the backyard was basically a wind tunnel so I couldn't 

find a great spot for the banner that day and I totally forgot to snap a pic. 

Double :(:( 

All in all it was a good day!

Claire was being TOO dang cute making her kissy face all day.

And these ladies made an appearance!

I have basically come to the realization that

I'm in love with throwing kids parties. 

Luckily I'm at the point in my life where every other weekend

is either a bridal ORRRR baby shower.

Hello, sarcasm!

So I'm THINKING it won't be too long until I can start crackin out

some of my friends' kid's parties! Yes?! Yes. 

Anyway, the NFL draft is on which meaaannnssss.... bye! :)

PINK Breast Cancer Charity Party

<3 October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month <3

..Is it me or is Breast Cancer Awareness becoming

bigger than Halloween during the  month of October? 

This month is very special to me.

My Mom is a survivor and I always like to show my support in one way or another.

Whether it's participating in a walk or donating, I feel that I owe

it to my Mom, whom I could have lost. 

Therefore I have decided to host *yet another* party! 
I chose to host a Bunco for Boobies charity event-
all proceeds to be donated to Susan G Komen. 
Oh what's that you say ? Bunco is for middle aged women
all hopped up on Chardonnay? 
Invite your girlfriends over to play one night,
and yes, 7-8 bottles of vino,
you'll see how exciting it actually is haaaa!

Beverage Display 

The concoction? 

Annndddd the Dessert Display. I clearly outdid myself this time.

Food Setup.. not as exciting, I know.

This buffet server was possibly one of my FAVORITE purchases;
Hellooo Spaceeee:

Here are some other Deets:

Keep Calm & Fight On Printable
..with more of those fabulous little glitter ribbons
I found from Michael's.

Pink Tissues Balls
I am on a tissue ball frenzy now that Kell
has showed me how to master these.
Tissue Balls at EVVEERRYYYY event! YAYY!

The "Hope" Banner
Kelley made this for me, literally the night prior.
I am mildly obsessed with Cricuts and what they can do. 
[Ignore the minor Halloween decor in the background.
I undecorated most of the house for the party but
a few things were missed- OOPS!]

Gift Bags!
[More Kelley projects.. ]
And my un-chalked chalkboard
that I bought from Kirkland's.
It formerly read "BOO" for Halloween
and I just turned it into a Welcome sign on the door for the party :)
$10 bucks well spent!

Finally, I saw this idea on Pinterest. I asked the girls to sign under the 
"I Wear Pink for.." 

Super excited that Mom & Gmom were able to attend!

The party was a total success and we had a blast!
We are donating $250 to the Susan G Komen Research Foundation.
It's not a gazillion dollars but I'm no Donald Trump, people.
I'm hoping to organize a walk in Ocala next year
to switch things up a bit!

We also just recently celebrated 2 of
my best girlfriends' bdays!
Jill turned 25 on the 9th and Haley turned 27 on the 15th.
I made this wine label for Jill.

I took Haley out for margs and gave her a cutie pic of us.

Followed by a super appropriate card. :)

That is all I have for you at the moment, friends!
Actually, I don't know what I'm talking about.
That was an obnoxiously long post.
You are welcome. 

Don't forget my Halloween Treat Countdown starts tomorrow!
MWAAAHHAHAA
Creepy laugh? Not so much?