Parties Archives - The Celebration Girl

Apr

2013

Fast payday loans For Every One

3 Comments | Posted in Parties|Tablescapes, Dinner parties & everyday entertaining.

Good morning dear friends!

Today I bring you a super simple way to set the table for Spring, in a very cheerful yellow colour.

I love yellow, it’s so bright and happy. It makes me think of sunny days, long lunches under the shade of a tree, friends, laughter and happy conversations. So, the other day, when we went to Ikea and I saw that they had a yellow and white stripped tablecloth in the kitchen section, I didn’t hesitate a second, and bought it. I knew it was going to bring cheer to my days.

Then, as soon as I came home, I started thinking about other yellow things I had around the house: pretty kitchen towels, forgotten ribbon scraps, and a set of four yellow glasses that I bough a while ago. I put them all together and decided to use them in a festive, yet easy, tablescape to surprise my husband (he has been studying hard for an MBA and last Monday he sat for an exam).

As you already know if you have been reading this blog for a few months, I like tablescapes that are simple and child friendly, so that if a plate accidentally breaks or a glass of whine spills over the tablecloth, no one feels bad and there’s no drama. This is the way I actually set the table for a special occasion at home, or when we entertain some friends: without too much fuss. I also want to show you easy ways to make a table look a bit prettier, so that you can reproduce them at home, if you like them.

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I started with my new tablecloth (I normally use my white linen tablecloth, which you can see here, here, here and here), our plain white dishes, stainless steel cutlery and white linen napkins, which I tied with yellow ribbon. Since it was just a family lunch, I didn’t add any place cards, but you can easily make some with cardboard if you like to.

I then added yellow water glasses (they are made of plastic) and everyday wine glasses, which are small and not as fancy as these ones. I covered our bread basket with a kitchen towel in yellows, greens and oranges, and placed a few gerberas that I had bought that morning in milk bottles. Finally, I tied a silk butterfly to the improvised vases and the table was ready!

Do you like to take some extra time to prettify your table?

Which colors do you normally chose when you do?

Please, share in the comments below!

Con sabor latino…

Buenos días queridos amigos!

Hoy les traigo una forma super sencilla y primaveral de poner la mesa, en un alegre color amarillo.

Me encanta el amarillo, es un color tan luminoso, y alegre ¿no les parece? Me hace pensar en días soleados, almuerzos largos bajo la sombra de un arbol, amigos, risas y charlas eternas y felices. Por eso, cuando hace unos días ví que en Ikea vendían un mantel a rayas amarillas y blancas, no dudé un segundo y lo compré. Sabía que alegraría mis días!

Cuando volvimos de la tienda y tan pronto como llegué a casa, me puse a buscar el resto de las cosas amarillas que tenía dando vuelta por ahi: unos repasadores bonitos que casi no había usado, vasos amarillos de plástico, y unos retazos de cinta amarilla que habían quedado de otros proyectos. Junté todo lo que tenía y decidí usarlo para armar una mesa festiva y sencilla para sorprender a mi marido, luego de su examen de primer año de maestría.

Si llevan algun tiempo leyendo este blog, ya saben que me gustan las mesas simples y child friendly, aquellas en las cuales si se cae un plato o alguien vuelca vino sobre el mantel, no pasa nada y todos siguen contentos. Las mesas que les muestro en este blog, son mesas reales, y así preparo mi casa para recibir amigos o para alguna ocasión especial: sin demasiada pompa. Podría hacer mesas más elaboradas para el blog, pero mi idea es mostrarles ambientes reales y que ustedes puedan reproducir fácilmente, sin tener que invertir una fortuna ni dedicar días a la preparación.

Para esta ocasión (el lunes pasado), comencé con mi nuevo mantel (como saben, normalmente suelo usar mi mantel blanco de lino, que ya han visto aquí, aquí, aquí y aquí), nuestros platos blancos de diario, cubiertos de acero inoxidable, y servilletas de lino blanco, que até con un moño de raso amarillo. Como era un almuerzo familiar, no coloqué tarjetitas con el nombre de los comensales, pero si ustedes desean hacerlo, son fáciles de hacer con cartulinas.

Luego coloqué los vasos amarillos y copas de diario (que son más pequeñas que las que usamos AQUI, por ejemplo), cubrí la panera con un repasador en tonos amarillos, verdes y naranjas, y coloqué unas gerberas que había comprado por la mañana en botellitas de leche. Finalmente, até mariposas de seda a los improvisados floreros, y la mesa quedó lista!

¿Les gusta tomarse un tiempito extra para decorar la mesa de vez en cuando?

¿Qué colores suelen elegir cuando lo hacen?

Cuentenme en los comentarios!!

Spring yellow table setting by The Celebration Girl \

Dec

2012

Day 17: A “Peace on earth” white table setting {entertain!}

1 Comment | Posted in Blog|Holidays|Parties

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Good morning dear friends! Day 17 of the advent and 1 week only until Christmas’ eve! How are your Christmas preparations going? We still have a few things to do, as happens every year, there seems to be no escape from last minute errands!

I wanted to start this week with a table setting, probably the simplest of them all. I called it “Peace on Earth”because I thought about it after singing over and over -in my head- the song “Silent night, Holy night”, which in Spanish is translated as “Noche de paz, noche de amor” (Peaceful night, night of love). I had been watching the news, one cold morning, and I just wished there was peace where there is war, bombings, drones, and widespread suffering. I thought about how blessed we are not to have to worry about our safety and that of our children, about how thankful I am for that and, as I was deep in these thoughts, gazing through the window at the olive trees that line my street, ”Silent night, holy night” started coming out of my ipod.

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I started, as always, with white tablecoth and napkins, white plates, our daily cutlery and wine and champagne glasses. But this time, I kept all other elements simple and white as well, without any accent color except for the vanilla of the cookies that form the Christmas trees and the green of the olive tree branches that were placed on top of the napkins.

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I used transparent glass plates and mini bowls to create ad-hoc cake stands on which I placed the cookie trees that served as centerpieces(I inverted the bowls and placed the plates on top of them). The trees were made by piling 3 cookies of each of the 5 different sizes, interlining their sides. I did not glue them with royal icing (as is normally done), except for the final star, nor did I decorate them in any way, as you can see from the picture. If you prefer a whiter table, you could sprinkle them with icing sugar, or decorate them with royal icing (which would be more time consuming, of course). I liked how they looked bare, so I left them as such.

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I placed white napkins on top of the white plates (as I always do) and , on top of them I put an olive tree branch and a small place setting card that I created with white cardboard paper, a snowflake stamp dipped in silver ink, and a silver pen. I added cream colored candles on crystal candle holders and spread table crystals around the table, to add some sparkle without altering the mute color palette. Finally, I added a white votive candle next to each plate. Even though it is not really visible from the pictures, the light of the candles made the table crystals shine beautifully and light up the whole table, but in a very subtle, subdued way…

Have you decided how you are going to decorate your Christmas and/or your New Year’s table? What colors will you be using?

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White table setting by The Celebration Girl

Con sabor latino…

Buenos días queridos amigos! Hoy es el día 17 del adviento y falta apenas una semana para la noche buena ¿pueden creerlo? ¿Cómo van con sus preparativos? Nosotros aún tenemos cosas por hacer, parece que por más temprano que uno empiece con los preparativos siempre hay algo que queda para último minuto!

Quise comenzar esta semana con una idea para poner la mesa, y esta es quizás la más sencilla de todas las que he mostrado hasta ahora. La llamé “Paz en la tierra”porque se me ocurrió la idea despues de días de tener la canción “Noche de paz, noche de amor” sonando en mi cabeza una y otra vez. Una mañana f’ría, despues de mirar las noticias, con bombas, guerra y sufrimiento por doquier, me quedé pensando en cuán afortunados somos de poder vivir en paz, de no tener que preocuparnos por nuestra seguridad ni la de nuestros hijos. Así estaba yo, sumida en mis pensamientos, mirando la hilera de olivos que se encuentran todo a lo largo de la vereda de mi casa, cuando “Noche de paz” comenzó a sonar en mi ipod. Y entonces preparé esta mesa.

Comencé, como siempre, con mantel y servilletas blancas, platos blancos, nuestros cubiertos de diario y copas de vino y de champagne. Pero esta vez, a diferencia de las anteriores, mantuve todos los otros elementos simples y blancos tambien, sin usar ningún otro color con excepción de la vainilla de las galletitas de los arbolitos de navidad, y del verde de las ramas de olivo colocadas sobre las servilletas.

Usé platos y mini bowls transparentes para crear pequeños pie de torta sobre los cuales colocar los arboles de galletitas que usé como centros de mesa (invertí los bowls y coloqué los platos encima de los mismos). Los arbolitos están hechos apilando 3 galletitas de cada uno de los 5 tamaños diferentes, de manera que las puntas de la galletita superior quede encima del espacio entre dos puntas de la galletita inferior. Las galletitas no están pegadas con glacé,como suele ser habitual, a excepción de la última (para mantenerla parada), ni están decoradas de ninguna manera. Si quieren hacer la mesa enteramente blanca, pueden espolvorear azucar impalpable sobre los arbolitos o bien decorarlos con glacé blanco. A mí me gustaron así, desnudos, y así los dejé.

Coloqué las servilletas sobre los platos, como siempre hago y, coloqué, sobre las mismas, una rama de olivo y una tarjeta de sitio hecha a mano con cartulina blanca, un sello de copo de nieve con tinta plateada y los nombres escritos en fibra plateada. Agregué velas color crema colocadas sobre candelabros de cristal, y esparcí pequeños cristales de mesa por doquier, para dar brillo sin modificar la palete de color. Finalmente, agregué una velita pequeña al lado de cada plato, las que hacían brillar como estrellitas los cristales (aunque ésto no se vea bien en las fotos).

¿Ustedes ya han decidido cómo decorar la mesa navideña? ¿Y la de fin de año? ¿Qué colores van a usar?

Dec

2012

Day 14: A Simple Christmas table setting in White and Gold {Entertain!}

5 Comments | Posted in Blog|Holidays|Parties

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Good morning friends! It’s 10 days only until Christmas eve, so I thought it was time to bring you another table setting idea for you holiday celebrations. When I started planning the decoration and entertaining ideas for this advent calendar, I knew I wanted each tablescape to use different colors and elements, so that you could adapt them to whatever you have in hand, if you wish to do so. I wanted them to be simple, easy to put together, but pretty.

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For the first tablescape, I chose red, ribbon and baubles to complement the basic white background. For this tablescape I opted, instead, for Gold thread, confetti and chocolates, making it apt for both Christmas and New Year’s. I also swapped the white votive candles for glittered ones (you can learn how to make them HERE), to add even more sparkle.

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I started, as always, with an all white canvas: white tablecloth and napkins, white plates, our everyday cutlery, white and champagne glasses and two unscented white candles. Then it was time to have fun and spread the confetti all over the table! I only needed to use one small pack (you can see how small it was from the picture above) and it really was more than enough. I love how fun, sparkly and celebratory it looks! They make the table glow, don’t you think?

I placed the napkins on top of the plates, wrapped them in gold thread making a cross (the two sides were tied with a simple knot behind) and added a little chocolate truffle on top. You could replace the truffle for a chocolate coin, which would probably be more popular with kids. Then I placed the cutlery in the international informal way and added a glittered votive candle next to each plate.

White and Gold Table Setting by The Celebration Girl

I also made a terribly simple centerpiece with a recycled glass vase, a starry garland and a few old golden baubles that I hadn’t used in our tree this year. I simply added them in a more or less random manner, to add some visual impact, without much care.

Do you like it? Is this a color combination you would use in your home?

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Con sabor latino…

Buenos días queridos amigos! Faltan ya sólo 1o días para la navidad, así que pensé que ya era tiempo de traerles otra opción para decorar la mesa de fin de año. Cuando comencé a planificar los posts para este adviento, quise traerles opciones diferentes y por eso me propuse que cada diseño estuviera logrado con colores distintos y utilizando objetos diferentes, de manera que ustedes pudieran ver diferentes opciones y luego adaptarlas a su gusto y a los materiales que tuvieran a su disposición. Y la consigna para todos ellos era que tenian que ser simples, fáciles de armar y bonitos.

La primer mesa que les presenté estaba decorada en blanco, usando como complementos el color rojo en tela, cintas y adornos navideños. En esta ocasión, en cambio, opté por el color dorado en todos los acentos: confetti,hilo dorado y envoltorio de los chocolates, lo que la hace una mesa apta no sólo para navidad, sino tambien para recibir el año nuevo.Tambien cambié las velas blancas por velas con purpurina (pueden aprender a hacerlas AQUI), para darles más brillo a la mesa.

Comencé, como siempre, por una base completamente blanca: mantel de lino blanco, servilletas blancas, platos blancos , nuestros cubiertos de diario, copas de vino y champagne y velas blancas sin aroma. Luego llegó el tiempo de divertirse y esparcir el confetti por todas partes! Usé sólo un pequeño paquetito (el que ven en la segunda foto), y verdaderamente no hizo falta más. Les confieso que me encanta cuan divertido, brillante y festivo queda! Ilumina la mesa, no les parece?

Coloqué las servilletas encima de los platos, las até en cruz con hilo dorado, y agregué una trufa de chocolate sobre las mismas. Otra opción sería colocar una moneda de chocolate en lugar de la trufa, opción que seguramente sería más popular con los niños. Finalmente coloqué los cubiertos a los costados, conforme el estilo informal internacional, y agregué una vela pequeña con purpurina al lado de los mismos.

Hice tambien un pequeño centro de mesa con un florero de vidrio reciclado, una guirnalda de estrellas y bolas doradas que no había puesto en el arbol este año. Agregué todo sin mucho cuidado, al azar, buscando sólo que la mesa tuviera un centro de atención visual.

Qué me dicen, les gusta? Son estos colores que usarían en sus casas? Cuentenme, que ya saben que soy curiosa!

Dec

2012

Day 12: A hot chocolate tray around which to gather {connect!}

4 Comments | Posted in Blog|Holidays|Parties

Good morning dear friends! It’s day 12 of the advent and there’s only 12 days left until Christmas’ eve! How are your preparations going so far? Are you managing to keep your zen this holiday season? Because this is what I want to talk to you about today.

Have you noticed how everybody seems desperate to get together in December but your January calendar is normally empty? Are you running here and there like a headless chicken, trying to get everything ready before the multiple end of the year celebrations? Did you start tons of decorating, crafting and baking projects but couldn’t finish any and now feel even more stressed out and overwhelmed than when you started? You are not alone. December can be both wonderful and extremely stressful at the same time, and it’s very easy to feel pressured to do things, to buy more…even connecting can feel like a chore when we have to do so with everyone, in special ways and in just 4 weeks time.

So, this advent, I wanted to bring you something really easy, really simple, that requires virtually no preparation at all but can be just as effective for connecting and having a nice time as the most elaborate celebration: A hot chocolate station that you keep ready for visitors, reading with the children, watching Christmas movies, or simply unwinding after a busy day. I chose hot chocolate because…well, because I love chocolate , but also because it releases endorphin in your brain, and it feels decadent, like a treat in itself. Also, hot chocolate is a winter classic which admits several variations: You can flavor it with peppermint, cinnamon, nutmeg and even pepper; you can add to it whipped cream, coconut cream, marshmallows, chocolate shavings; you can mix white and dark chocolate, you can make it with coco, you can drink it thin or thick, like in Spain or in Italy (where they boil chocolate, milk and sugar with a bit of cornstarch because they like “all things to be clear and chocolate to be thick”).

I wanted the setup to be really easy as well, something that you can pull off with no effort at all, so I thought about a tray, which can be carried around the house and moved if necessary…and you could even enjoy breakfast in bed during the weekends! What you need depends on your taste in chocolate, mine has: chocolate chips (because I like the creaminess they add), white chocolate snowflakes (they are like white chocolate chips, but fancier looking), cinnamon bark, candy cane, a jar of sugar, a box with assorted cookies (yes, that’s one of the times when those recipes and tutorials can be useful!) and a teapot where I put the milk I warm up right before serving. You could use powdered milk and just add boiling water, as well as use one of the many varieties of non-dairy milk (almond milk is my favorite for hot chocolate, but if you are unsure if a person has a food allergy, stick to rice milk instead). You could also add marshmallows (I didn’t make mine yet) and use a hot cocoa mix instead of chocolate chips. If you don’t like chocolate, you can keep a couple of your favorite tea bags, or coffee (little secret: the chocolate is the excuse).

I find that having the tray already set up makes me look for ways to slow down, and just enjoy a cup of chocolate and a couple of cookies. It avoids the stress of having to think what to serve if someone comes home and it is a welcoming, nice excuse for a simple, fuss-free way to gather with loved ones. My former boss used to bake cookies and offer them to clients when it was time to give them some bad news. When people were happily munching and complimenting her baking skills, she would deliver the news and, she said, they were received better than if given without them. Small treats have that special power, of making good things seem better and hard things easier to bear, possibly because we associate them with our childhood, that time when the World seem huge and our homes were always a safe heaven.So this holiday season, let’s use those powers to bring us closer to the ones we love, to let us appreciate and enjoy all the blessings in our life.

Con sabor latino…

Buenos días queridos amigos! Día 12 del adviento, y ya faltan sólo 12 días más para la nochebuena. Cómo van sus preparativos? Están logrando mantenerse en estado zen estas fiestas? Porque de eso quiero hablarles hoy.

¿Se dieron cuenta que todo el mundo parece desesperado por juntarse en Diciembre pero la agenda está vacía para el mes de enero? ¿Estan corriendo como gallinas sin cabeza, para todos lados y sin parar, intentando dejar todo listo antes de todas las fiestas y celebraciones de fin de año? ¿Comenzaron millones de proyectos de decoración, cocina y manualidades sin poder terminar ni la mitad y ahora se encuentran más estresados que antes, frustrados y más agobiados que antes? No están solos, no son los únicos. El mes de diciembre puede ser maravilloso pero tambien puede ser extremedamente estresante y es muy facil sentirse presionado para hacer más cosas, comprar más objetos…hasta conectar con nuestros seres queridos puede sentirse como una obligación cuando tenemos que hacerlo con todo el mundo, de manera especial, y en el corto plazo de 4 semanas!

Por todo esto, este adviento quise buscar una manera muy pero muy facil, que no requiere prácticamente preparación alguna, pero que puede ser igualmente efectiva para juntarnos y pasar un momento agradable que la más elaborada de las celebraciones: una estación de chocolate caliente, siempre lista por si vienen visitas, para tomar mientras leemos con los niños, mientras miramos peliculas navideñas o bien para relajarnos al final del día. Elegí chocolate porque…bueno, porque me encanta, pero también porque llena nuestro cerebro de endorfinas, es decadente y, al tomarlo, sentimos siempre que nos estamos dando un gusto especial. Además,el chocolate caliente es un placer invernal que admite muchas variantes: podemos saborizarlos con menta, canela, nuez moscada y hasta pimienta; podemos agregarle crema batida, crema de coco, marshmallows (nubes), chocolate picado; podemos mezclar chocolate blanco y chocolate amargo; podemos hacerlo con cacao, podemos tomarlo ligero o bien espeso, como en España e Italia (donde es casi como un postre, porque le agregan fécula de maiz ya que ” las cosas deben ser claras y el chocolate, espeso”).

Quise, como les decía, hacer algo fácil de poner en práctica y versatil al mismo tiempo, y por eso elegí una bandeja, que puede moverse a través de la casa, y trasladarse de ser necesario…y que hasta podríamos transformar en un desayuno en la cama el fin de semana! El contenido de la misma depende de qué les guste más.La mía tiene: chispas de chocolate, porque me encanta la cremosidad que aportan, copos de nieve de chocolate blanco (como chispas, pero más vistosas), barras de canela, bastones de caramelo, una azucarera, una caja con galletitas surtidas (para esto sirven, por ejemplo todos esos tutoriales y recetas!) y una tetera donde coloco la leche, que caliento justo antes de servir (no tengo termo). Pueden usar tambien leche en polvo y simplemente agregar agua, así como una de las tantas variedades de leches vegetales (mi preferida para el chocolate caliente es la leche de almendras, pero si tienen dudas acerca de su invitado tiene alergias alimentarias, es preferible usar leche de arroz). Tambien pueden agregar marshmallows (yo aun no hice los míos), y optar por cacao en lugar de chispas de chocolate. Es más, si no les gusta el chocolate, pueden poner sus saquitos de té preferidos, o café (secreto: el chocolate es la excusa).

Yo siento que tener la bandeja ya lista y esperando me ayuda a desacelerar, a hacerme el tiempo para una tacita y un par de galletitas. Elimina el stress de tener que pensar qué ofrecer a las visitas, y es una linda excusa para juntarnos con seres queridos sin demasiada pompa ni preparativo. Escribo esto y recuerdo una anecdota de mi ultimo trabajo: Mi ex jefa (uno de los seres humanos mas maravillosos que he conocido) solía hornear galletitas cuando tenía que dar malas noticias a sus clientes. Preparaba una bandeja, les servía te, y cuando ellos estaban disfrutando y elogiandole sus dotes de repostera, ella decía lo que tenía que decir. Invariablemente, me comentaba, las noticias eran mejor recibidas que cuando no servía nada. Los pequeños gustos tienen ese poder especial de hacer que lo lindo sea más lindo y lo dificil más facil de llevar, quizás porque los asociamos con nuestra infancia, aquel tiempo en que el mundo parecia enorme y nuestra casa el lugar más seguro del mundo. En estas fiestas, usemos esos poderes especiales para acercarnos a quienes amamos, para pisar el freno, apreciar y disfrutar de todas las bendiciones que tenemos en nuestra vida.

Dec

2012

Day 5: A Christmas table setting in Red {Entertain!}

3 Comments | Posted in Blog|Holidays|Parties

Good morning friends! It’s day 5 of the advent and today we will leave the baking and crafting aside for a while, and start focusing on ideas to set the table for Christmas. As I have mentioned before , I like my table settings to be simple, with just a few touches to make my family and guests feel special but without overdoing it, because I don’t want anyone to feel stressed over whether they spill some drinks on an expensive tablecloth, or afraid that a child may break a piece of heirloom china. In fact, we never bought expensive china or silverware because we knew we were not going to give them much use during our children’s early years. We believe the time for elaborate table settings may come in the future but, for now, we keep it simple, so that we can all relax and focus on the meal and the conversation.

Today’s post is the first of several table setting ideas I will present you during the advent, and they all have three things in common: they use white as a background, they are easy to put together, even at the last minute, and they are easy to reproduce on a tight budget. In order to set the table as I did today, all you need are a white tablecloth and napkins, white plates, glasses, a few candles and the following extras that are the ones that actually transform the table:

You will probably notice that I don’t use flowers or greenery as centerpieces and there are a couple of reasons for that: Some people are allergic to flowers, some others, while not allergic, are bothered by them because they feel that their smell interferes with that of the food, and in some countries they can be very expensive. So, since my goal for this year’s advent calendar was to provide you with ideas that anyone can reproduce at home, I skipped them.

I started setting up this table by laying out our white linen tablecloth (which I love) and then placed two red table runners on the center of the table, to cut it horizontally. I could also have put them vertically, to run under the plates, but I felt that they cut the table visually, and made it look smaller. Then I set the plates, I placed the fork, knife and spoon in the international informal way (with the spoon next to the knife, on the outside) and I added the wine and champagne glasses.

I placed the napkins on top of the plates, and wrapped them in red polka dot ribbon. I did not tie the ribbon, but just crossed the two sides and placed a miniature red bauble on top. Finally, I added the candles: one votive candle next to each plate and a few more scattered around the table, as well as bigger candles placed in small plates (found in the gardening section of Ikea), lined with red paper. I kept the touches of red small, as you can see, because it can be quite a dominant color, and I didn’t put many more candles because I wanted to leave space for placing the trays with the food, without having to alter the whole decoration.

Now I would like to know, how do you like to set up your table for the holidays? What colors do you use? Please, share!

Con sabor latino…

Buenos días queridos amigos! Es el 5to día del adviento, y hoy les propongo dejar de lado manualidades y cocina y ponernos a pensar en cómo pondremos la mesa en Navidad. Como he mencionado en otras ocasiones, prefiero que mis mesas sean sencillas, con sólo un par de detalles que hagan que mi familia y amigos se sientan especiales pero sin sobrepasarme, porque no quiero que nadie esté estresado acerca del vino que puede haberse volcado sobre el mantel carísimo, o preocupado porque un niño pueda romper un plato de porcelana heredado de la bisabuela. Nosotros no tenemos juego de porcelana ni cubiertos de plata porque yo estaba embarazada cuando estábamos comprando las cosas para nuestra casa, y sabíamos que iban a pasar varios años antes de poner usarlos sin preocupación, y queríamos (y queremos) poder relajarnos y disfrutar de los momentos especiales con la familia sin nervios. El tiempo de las mesas

elaboradas llegará en un futuro pero, por ahora, preferimos mantener nuestras mesas simples y sencillas, y concentrarnos en la comida y en la conversación.

El post de hoy no será el único de este estilo, porque en este adviento quiero que tengan muchas ideas que puedan adaptar a lo que tengan en casa, a su gusto y a su estilo. Todas las mesas tiene tres cosas en común: usan el color blanco como base, son fáciles de preparar, incluso a último minuto, y pueden reproducirse con un presupuesto limitado. Para poner la mesa como yo lo hice hoy, sólo necesitan: un mantel blanco, vajilla blanca, copas (las que tengan, mis platos y mis copas son de Ikea), velas, camino/s de mesa o tela roja de 50 cms de ancho y del largo de la mesa o superior (yo coloqué dos caminos, uno al lado del otro), cinta roja y mini ornamentos navideños, tambien rojos (los míos son tambien de Ikea).

Seguramente habrán notado que no suelo usar flores ni plantas en mis centros de mesa, y hay varios motivos para ello: Son preciosas y quedan divinas pero mucha gente es alergica, hay otros a quienes éstas les molestan porque consideran que su perfume interfiere con los aromas de la comida y les quita el apetito o los hace sentir mal y, finalmente, en algunos paises son carísimas. Así que, como mi objetivo para este calendario de adviento, es brindar ideas que puedan ser puestas en práctica por todo el que así lo desee, decidí omitirlas.

Al preparar esta mesa, empecé por los básicos: puse el mantel de lino blanco sobre la misma, y luego coloqué dos caminos de mesa, uno al lado del otro, cortando la mesa de manera horizontal. Podría haberlos colocado verticalmente, para que quedaran debajo de los platos, pero decidí no hacerlo porque me daba la sensación que cortaban visualmente la mesa, haciendola verse más chica. Luego coloqué los platos, dispuse los cubiertos conforme al sistema informal internacional (con la cuchara a la derecha, al lado del cuchillo, del lado de afuera) y agregué copas de vino y de champagne. Coloqué las servilletas sobre los platos y las envolví en la cinta roja, sin atarlas ( simplemente cruzando los extremos) y coloqué un pequeño ornamento rojo en el cruce. Finalmente, agregué una velita al lado de cada plato y algunas mas distribuidas alrededor de la mesa, así como también velas más grandes colocadas sobre platos pequeños (de la sección de jardinería de ikea), cuya base cubrí con papel rojo. Como pueden ver, este color está presente sólo en algunos detalles porque puede llegar a ser muy dominante, y la mesa no está repleta de velas porque quise dejar espacio para colocar las bandejas de comida sin tener que modificar toda la decoración al hacerlo.

Ahora cuentenme ¿cómo suelen decorar la mesa para navidad? ¿qué colores prefieren? Cuentenme, que soy curiosa!

Nov

2012

A simple fall table setting

5 Comments | Posted in Blog|Parties|Uncategorized

Fall takes its time before arriving to Nicosia and, when it does, the ways in which it manifests are almost imperceptible to those who haven’t been here for a while. The trees remain unaware of the change of seasons, their leaves refusing to turn yellow, or even brown, until mid-October and the weather is still hot way past the end of Summer. Sweaters don’t take their place in our closets until November, and blankets, duvets, rugs and jackets remain stored until it’s time to assemble the Christmas tree.

Loving fall as much as I do, this has always been hard for me. As soon as September begins, I start scouting the streets in search for a yellow tree, or even a branch, for some fallen leaves. In my daily morning walks, I look for pine cones in the parks near my house and, in the evenings, I go to the balcony to see whether the air has started to cool down, even if only slightly so. Every year, I persist in my hope that fall will arrive sooner, even though I know that we will only need long sleeve t-shirts in November, and that the time for sweaters and duvets will come right before Christmas.

This year, I decided to celebrate fall even more, to cook with seasonal ingredients, and to incorporate nature into the house decoration. We have been looking for ways to mark the change of seasons with Luka and Zoe, and have undertaken nature exploration walks to hunt for weather clues, as way to increase their awareness of their surroundings, their understanding of nature and, hopefully, their environmental consciousness.

In this spirit, I came up with this very simple table setting for a casual dinner party. As I have said before, I believe in stress free entertainment and that, if we strive for magazine-style, photo shoot perfect parties we run the risk of never receiving friends at home, of not relaxing often enough, of not enjoying important connections with those we love and who love us. When I entertain, I have what I define as “a Taoist approach”: I strive to achieve a happy middle way between throwing a few pizzas on the table and a full blown 5 course dinner with silverware and my grandmother’s china (neither of which I own, by the way).

In this occasion, I used our white linen tablecloth, and I made a table runner using leftover fabric from another project.If you don’t have the time to sew a table runner, you can simply fold it and press it well. It will stay in place and you can finish it later. The plates and cutlery are the ones we use on daily basis, and the wine and champagne glasses are from Ikea.

I also prepared a simple centerpiece using candles and a few recycled pieces: a vase from an orchid that my husband gave me as an anniversary present the year we arrived to Nicosia, pine cones I had collected in my morning walks and two wooden bowls from my husband’s days in Rwanda, which I inverted to use as candle holders

I used napkins in white and brown, to add a little more color to the table (I like to mismatch things), but you could use white only, or even make ones from the same fabric as the table runner.I wrapped the napkins in beige and white baker’s twine and attached a fallen leaf to them, for a little extra embellishment. I was not planning to assign seats, but if you are, you could simply write the name of your guests in the leaves using a black , copper, or brown marker.

I love the warmth that candles bring to a very simple tablescape such as this one, how welcoming they make it feel, don’t you agree? Now all the table needs is good food and friends with whom to enjoy hours of great conversation- the main ingredients for a wonderful evening.

Do you like to entertain? What do you like to do when you receive friends at home?

Con sabor latino...

El otoño siempre se toma su tiempo antes de llegar a Nicosia y, cuando por fin llega, se manifiesta en formas prácticamente imperceptibles para aquellos que no son de aquí. Los árboles permanecen ajenos al cambio de estación, con sus hojas que se niegan a tornarse amarillas, o siquiera marrones, hasta bien entrado el mes de octubre, y el clima permanece cálido hasta bien pasado el fin del verano. Los sweaters no ocupan el lugar que les corresponde en los armarios hasta llegado noviembre, y las frazadas, duvets, alfombras y camperas, continuan guardados hasta casi el momento de armar el arbol de navidad.

Para alguien que ama el otoño como yo lo amo, ésto ha sido siempre dificil. Tan pronto como llega septiembre comienzo a buscar con ahínco algún indicio de la llegada del otoño en las calles de la ciudad: un árbol amarillo, una ramita siquiera, hojitas caidas, aunque sean pocas. Busco piñas en mis caminatas matutinas por los parques cercanos a mi casa y, por las noches, me asomo al balcón a ver si el aire comienza a refrescar, a ver si el otoño se asoma en la brisa. Cada año persisto en mi esperanza de que el otoño llegue más temprano, aún cuando sé que el tiempo de las mangas largas no llegará antes de noviembre, y que usaremos sweaters y duvets sólo cerca de la navidad.

Este año decidí que, despues de tanto esperarlo, el otoño debía ser celebrado tan pronto como llegara, quise y quiero disfrutar al máximo todo lo que dure, cocinar con productos de estación e incorporar elementos naturales a la decoración de la casa. Tambien hemos estado buscando elementos que nos ayuden a mostrarles a Luka y Zoe el cambio de estaciones, y hemos organizado caminatas de exploración de la naturaleza para buscar pistas acerca del cambio de tiempo, y que así ellos puedan tener un mayor contacto con la naturaleza, comprenderla, tomar conciencia de las modificaciones en el medio ambiente.

Con este espíritu, decidí organizar una cena tranquila, casual, sencilla, y poner la mesa con estas premisas. Como he comentado ya otras veces, creo que lo mejor son las celebraciones desestresadas, porque si aspiramos a organizar eventos dignos de tapa de revista corremos el riesgo de no recibir nunca a nadie en casa, o de no relajarnos cuando lo hacemos, y así nos perdemos de conectar con personas importantes, que nos quieren y a quienes queremos más allá de cómo luzca nuestra mesa. Cuando recibo amigos en casa, mi filosofía es “taoista”: busco el camino medio entre tirar un par de pizzas compradas en la mesa, y poner una mesa con cubiertos de plata y la vajilla de porcelana de la abuela (que no tengo, de todas maneras),

En esta ocasión usé como base nuestro mantel de lino blanco, sobre el que coloqué un camino de mesa en beige que hice yo misma con un retazo de tela que había quedado de otro proyecto. Si quieren hacer un camino de mesa, pero no tienen tiempo de coserlo, o no tienen máquina, no se hagan problema: doblenlo bien, corten, y planchen con cuidado. El camino quedará perfecto y no se moverá por lo que dure la celebración y, una vez que ésta termine, pueden terminarlo tranquilos. Los platos y los cubiertos son los que usamos a diario, y las copas de vino y de champagne son baratísimas y las compramos en Ikea.

El centro de mesa que ven lo preparaé usando velas, elementos naturales y objetos reciclados: piñas que había recolectado en mis caminatas matutinas, un macetero de vidrio en el que vino la primer orquídea que mi marido me regaló en nuestro aniversario, cuando acabábamos de llegar a Nicosia, y dos bowls de madera de la época en que mi marido vivía en Rwanda, los que invertí para hacer las veces de candelabros.

Utilicé servilletas blancas y color chocolate, para darle más color a la mesa, y porque me gusta mezclar cosas, pero pueden usarlas todas de un mismo color, ya sea blanco o bien pueden hacer unas iguales al camino de mesa. Luego agregué un pequeño detalle, para dar más interés al conjunto: envolví las servilletas en hilo beige y blanco, al cual adherí una hoja muerta. En esta ocasión no planifiqué sentar a la gente en un lugar determinado, pero si ustedes prefieren hacerlo, pueden simplemente escribir el nombre de la persona en la hojita misma, con un marcador marrón, cobre o negro.

Finalmente, encendí las velas, porque me encanta la calidez que brindan al ambiente, cómo invitan a sentarse y charlar tranquilos ¿no les parece? Una mesa sencilla, un par de elementos naturales, un par de velas, y todo lo que hace falta es buena comida y amigos queridos con quienes disfrutar horas de conversación agradable: no hace falta más nada para garantizar una noche hermosa.

Y a ustedes ¿les gusta recibir amigos en casa? ¿cómo preparan su hogar para hacerlo?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Que pasen un fin de semana maravilloso!

Oct

2012

Luka and Zoe’s 4th birthday party

6 Comments | Posted in Blog|Parties|Uncategorized

Good evening friends! I hope you had a lovely weekend!

I write this post late in the evening because today was a holiday, Cyprus Independence Day, so we took advantage of having Luka and Zoe home for an extra dose of playing, crafting and cooking together. I try to spend as little time as possible in front of the computer when they are home (I don’t always manage, but I try!).

Now on to today’s post: Luka and Zoe’s 4th birthday party!

If I had to chose one word to describe the party, it would be relaxed. Unlike other birthdays, for this one we decided to take it easy, not only on the day itself, but also during the preparations. This year there was no rush, no late night crafting, no stressing over little details. We did our best to give our children a pretty little home party that was within our budget; and we made a conscious decision to make our best for Luka and Zoe to enjoy, not only the party itself, but also the weeks before it.

Let me explain this a little better. Earlier this year, I mentioned to my husband a comment a friend had made to me, about how her child was always cranky and hypersensitive the week prior to his birthday, and I noticed that the same had happened with our children the week prior to their last party. “Of course children get cranky and hypersensitive” said my husband, and then explained his thoughts: “The week before these parties mothers go crazy with all the preparations, and children at this age don’t really understand what it all is about, nor do they care, so they get nervous.” This got me thinking a lot about how we celebrate and about how we honour the persons in our life, and I realized how easy it is to slip into the mistake of doing things that, while beautiful, are not really for the ones we intend to honour, but for ourselves. So we made the commitment to follow our children’s lead as to what they want(and then adapt that to be within our means, of course) to have them participate in the preparations as much as possible, and to be mindful about the fact that in every celebration, little or big, it is the memories we built that matter. We decided to make an extra effort to build memories that are happy from beginning to end, memories that are untarnished by unnecessary stress or arguments over minor details.

We started by setting up a stress-free birthday preparation plan of action, for which my natural A-type personality behaviour came in handy (wink, wink). Luka and Zoe didn’t really care about anything else than there being a cake with candles they could blow over and over so, without a theme chosen by themselves, I decided to make one based only on flavours they love: vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate, lots of chocolate. This lead to a simple color palette: brown and pink, with a white/creme base. With this in mind, I checked what I already had at home to set the table (I had almost everything. The only thing I had to buy were the popcorn boxes) and prepared a menu based on the number of persons that we knew we would invite, which was very small because Luka and Zoe’s birthday falls the middle of the Summer vacations.

One month before the party, while Luka and Zoe were in Summer school, I baked the macarons, and froze them. Three weeks before the party, I baked the cakes and froze them too, wrapped in two layers of foil. One week before the party, I prepared the cakes’ frostings and froze them as well. Two nights before the party, I prepared the streamers for the backdrop, the garland for the dessert table, and I punched and glued the circles that I used to personalize paper cups and popcorn boxes. The day before the party, I defrosted all food, made the cake-pops, assembled the cakes including crumb coating and, on the night before, I decorated them in no more than one hour.

Two hours before the party, we bought a few petits fours at a local bakery. One hour before the party, while Luka and Zoe were playing by my side, I set up the backdrop (using double sided tape) and all dishes. 15 minutes before the beginning of the party, I placed the food and took a few pictures. Here’s a look at how the table looked before and after the food was added:

If you look closely, you will see that I used a few “tricks’: The cakes were placed on a cake drum on top of inverted white bowls (I don’t own small cake stands) and the cute glass cake stands where the macarons were placed? They are dessert plates placed on top of matching bowls, glued together with a little piece of play-dough so that they would be safe for little hands!

The food consisted of the above said petits-fours (in different flavours), chocolate macarons with dark chocolate ganache, rose macarons with white chocolate and strawberry ganache, chocolate cake pops (covered in white chocolate and drizzled with pink chocolate-Sorry there are no pictures!), Luka and Zoe’s favourite cookies (Pan di Stelle and Abracci), popcorn, and the birthday cakes.

Zoe’s cake was made of layers of vanilla and strawberry cake filled and frosted with tons and tons pink vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream ruffles. You can see how to make the ruffles watching THIS video by My Sweet and Saucy. It is really, really easy and fast!

Luka’s cake was made of layers of a very moist chocolate cake, filled and frosted with semi-sweet chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. For the decoration, I used the petal technique, which has been all over the web these past months and that you can learn by reading THIS tutorial by My Cake School. It is a little more time consuming than the ruffles, but just as easy.

You probably noticed that the pictures are…well, not my best. I had decided not to over stress about them before the party (not to stress Luka and Zoe out) and, during the party, in the middle of it all, a few funny things happened. If you follow me on facebook, you already know what that is, but if you don’t, here’s the status message I published at the time: Instructions for candle blowing with 4 year old children: 1) Innocently believe that it will be possible to light 8 candles with two 4 year old kids waiting patiently to blow them, despite this being the first birthday when they actually realize what is going on and are super excited 2) Set up the camera on a tripod in a hurry, while trying to keep said children away from the tripod and, mostly, from the camera. 3) Accidentally set incorrect speed settings, thereby causing all pictures to be blurred.4) Try to light candles in one cake first 5) Watch both children blow vigorously from below, turning off the candles as soon as they are lit 6) Realize that no matter which settings you chose, your children are blowing the candles so quickly that the continued shooting did not have time to even start taking pictures before all candles were blown.7) Quickly, grab a child and put her next to the cake to try to “fake”a picture, while the other child runs around asking “again! again!”. 8) Light the candles of the second cake, grab the children and their friend (who also wants to blow candles!) and make a last attempt 9) Enjoy the happy chaos and everybody’s laughter and forget about whether anyone will be able to distinguish anything from the pictures ;)

Have a wonderful day!

Con sabor latino…

Buenas noches queridos amigos! Espero que hayan tenido un fin de semana hermoso!

Escribo este post tarde por la noche porque hoy fue feriado, el día de la Independencia de Chipre, así que aprovechamos que Luka y Zoe estaban en casa para tener una dosis extra de mimos, juegos, manualidades y cocina juntos. Cuando ellos están en casa intento no acercarme a la computadora…no siempre lo logro, pero lo intento!

Ahora sí, hablemos del post de hoy: el cuarto cumpleaños de Luka y Zoe!

Si tuviera que describir la fiesta con una sola palabra, sería relajada. A diferencia de otros cumpleaños, este decidí tomar todo con calma, no sólo el día de la fiesta, sino tambien durante los preparativos. Este año no hubo corridas, manualidades hasta altas horas de la noche ni stress por pequeños detalles. Hicimos todo lo posible para darle a nuestros hijos una fiesta casera y bonita, dentro de nuestro presupuesto, y tomamos la decisión consciente de esforzarnos por que Luka y Zoe disfrutaran, no sólo de la fiesta en sí, sino tambien de las semanas anteriores a la misma.

Dejenme explicarles un poco mejor a qué me refiero con ésto. A comienzos de este año, le mencioné a mi marido el comentario que una amiga me había hecho, acerca de cómo su hijo siempre se ponía nervioso y estaba hiper sensible durante toda la semana antes de su fiesta, y cómo yo había notado lo mismo en nuestros hijos durante la semana anterior a su última fiestas de cumpleaños, que celebramos en Argentina. “Es lógico que los chicos se pongan nerviosos e hipersensibles “, me dijo mi marido, y explicó: “Justamente es en esa semana antes que las madres estan enloquecidas corriendo detras de los detalles y preparativos de las fiestas, y los chicos, que a esta edad no entienden de qué se trata, ni les importa, se ponen nerviosos”. Esto me dejó pensando mucho acerca de cómo celebramos y cómo honramos las personas importantes en nuestra vida y me dí cuenta de cuan fácil es caer en el error de hacer cosas que, aunque bonitas, no estan dirigidas a quienes queremos celebrar y honrar, sino que son hechas para nosotros mismos, porque nos gustan a nosotros, porque satisfacen un deseo nuestro y no de la otra persona. Por ello, asumimos el compromiso de dejar que nuestros hijos quienes decidan qué quieren y qué no (adaptando ésto a nuestras posibilidades, claro!), de hacerlos participar en los preparativos, y de tener muy presente que en toda celebración, grande o chica, lo que importa con los recuerdos que creamos juntos. Y nos comprometimos, tambien, a hacer un esfuerzo extra por que esos recuerdos que creamos sean recuerdos felices de principio a fin, recuerdos que no estén manchados por stress innecesario o discusiones sin importancia.

Con este objetivo en mente, armamos un “plan de acción para una fiesta de cumpleaños sin stress”, facilitado por mi personalidad tipo A Luka y Zoe no querían nada especial, sólo una torta con velitas que pudieran soplar una y otra vez así que, sin un tema elegido por ellos mismos, decidí concentrarme para armar todo en sus sabores preferidos: vainilla, frutilla y chocolate, mucho chocolate. Esto llevó a una paleta de colores simple y sencilla: rosa y marrón chocolate, con una base en crema/blanco. Con esto en mente, comencé a ver qué tenía disponible en casa para servir la mesa (para mi alegría, descubrí que tenía casi todo-sólo compré las bolsas de popcorn), y planifiqué el menú en base a la cantidad de invitados, que fueron muy poquitos porque mis hijos cumplen años en plenas vacaciones de verano.

Un mes antes de la fiesta, mientras Luka y Zoe estaban en la escuela de verano, preparé los macarons y los congelé en el freezer. 3 semanas antes de la fiesta,prepará las tortas (cada capa por separado) y las congelé tambien, envueltas en doble capa de papel film. Una semana antes de la fiesta, preparé las cremas con las que rellenaría y decoraría las tortas y las congelé. Dos noches antes del día de la fiesta, preparé las guirnaldas que decorarían la pared contra la cual iría la mesa dulce, la guirnalda que iba en la mesa, y personalicé los vasos y las bolsas de popcorn con circulos de cartulina en los que escribí el nombre de mis hijos. El día antes de la fiesta descongelé toda la comida, hice los cake pops con los restos de torta que sobraron al emparejarlas, armé las tortas, incluyendo la primer capa de crema de la decoración y, la noche anterior, las decoré en no más de una hora.

Dos horas antes de la fiesta, mi marido compró unos petits fours en una panadería cercana.Una hora antes de la fiesta, mientras Luka y Zoe corrían y jugaban alrededor mío, puse las guirnaldas en la pared y coloqué la vajilla en la mesa.15 minutos antes que llegaran los invitados, coloqué la comida, y saqué un par de fotos (arriba pueden ver el antes y el despues de la preparación de la mesa dulce)

Si miran las fotos del antes y el despues detalladamente, notaran que usé un par de truquitos: como no tengo cake stands pequeños, coloqué las tortas en su base de carton sobre bowls blancos invertidos, y los macarons sobre pies de torta que en realidad no son sino platos de postre colocados sobre mini bowls haciendo juego, invertidos. Los bowls estan pegados a los platos con plastilina, que es facil de sacar y de lavar, para que no se muevan y sean seguros para pequeñas manitos toca todo.

La comida consistió en los mencionados petits fours, macarons de chocolate rellenos con ganache de chocolate amargo, macarons de rosas rellenos con ganache de chocolate blanco y frutillas, cake pops cubiertos con chocolate blanco y tiras de chocolate blanco teñido de rosa (no hay fotos, perdon!), las galletitas preferidas de Luka y Zoe (Abracci y Pan di Stelle), pochoclo y las tortas, claro.

La torta de Zoe estaba formada por capas de tortas de vainilla y frutilla, rellena y decorada con montones de volados de crema de manteca suiza a la vainilla, teñida de rosa. Para saber cómo hacer los volados pueden ver ESTE VIDEO de My Sweet and Saucy (en Ingles). Es facil y rapidísimo!

La torta de Luka estaba formada por capas de torta húmeda de chocolate, rellena y decorada con crema de manteca suiza de chocolate semi amargo. Para decorarla usé una técnica que se ha visto muchísimo en internet estos últimos meses, llamada “petalo” y que pueden aprender viendo ESTE TUTORIAL de My cake school. Si bien este método lleva un poco más de tiempo que los volados, es igualmente fácil de hacer.

Posiblemente hayan notado que las fotos de este post no son, ejem, de las mejores que he tomado. El día del cumpleaños decidí no estresarme al respecto antes que llegaran los invitados para no poner nerviosos a Luka y Zoe (siguiendo la misma linea de pensamiento que les comentaba antes). A lo largo de la fiesta, en medio de todo el caos que estos eventos son generalmente, ocurrieron un par de cosas graciosas. Si me siguen en facebook, posiblemente hayan leido el status que publiqué en esa ocasión y sepan de qué hablo, pero por si acaso no es así, aquí lo tienen: Instrucciones para soplar velitas con niños de 4 años: 1) Cree, inocentemente, que será posible encender 8 velas con dos niños de 4 años excitadísimos y esperando impacientemente para soplarlas,y justo en el primer año en que se dan cuenta de qué es un cumpleaños 2) Coloque la cámara en un trípode a las corridas, e intentando mantener a dichos niños alejados del trípode y de la cámara 3) Seleccione los parámetros incorrectos accidentalmente, causando que todas las fotos sucesivas aparezcan borrosas 4) Intente encender las velas, una torta por vez 5) Observe cómo los mencionados niños la persiguen soplando vigorosamente, apagando las velas tan pronto como usted logra encenderlas. 6) Dese cuenta que los parametros de la cámara no importan demasiado, porque sus hijos estan soplando las velas tan rapidamente que todas se han apagado antes que el modo continuo de la cámara comience siquiera a tomar fotos. 7) Rápido, tome un niño y coloquelo en posicion de soplado aunque todas las velas ya esten apagadas, para fingir una foto correcta, mientras el otro niño corre alrededor gritando, excitadísimo, “de nuevo! de nuevo!”8) Encienda las velas de la segunda torta, tome ambos niños y a su amiguita que a estas alturas tambien quiere soplar velas, y haga un último intento 9) Disfrute el feliz caos y las risas generalizadas y olvide que nadie será capaz de distinguir nada en las fotos

Que tengan un hermoso día!

Aug

2012

August break and a simple table setting tutorial

No Comments | Posted in Blog|Parties|Uncategorized

Good Morning friends!

I hope you are having a lovely week, enjoying the warmth of summer (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere) or the cool days of winter (if you live in the South).

Luka and Zoe are currently on a break from nursery school and, for this reason, I have decided to take a break from blogging during this month, and to dedicate it completely to making this a summer to remember. A few weeks ago, I read THIS post on the blog Modern Parents Messy kids and it got me thinking about how time seems to fly, how childhood seems to go by in the blink of an eye.

I remembered, as I read, a passage from one of my favourite books, Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, where it says: “You’ll find out it’s little savors and little things that count more than big ones. A walk on a spring morning is better than an eighty-mile ride in a hopped-up car, you know why? Because it’s full of flavors, full of a lot of things growing. You’ve time to seek and find. I know, you’re after the broad effect now, I suppose that’s fit and proper. But you got to look at grapes as well as watermelons. You greatly admire skeletons and I like fingerprints; well, and good. Right now such things are bothersome to you, and I wonder if it isn’t because you never learned to use them. If you had your way you’d pass a law to abolish all the little jobs, the little things. But then you’d leave yourselves nothing to do between the big jobs and you’d have a devil of a time thinking up things? Cutting grass and pulling weeds can be a way of life.” So, I decided to make this a summer of little things: to blow lots of bubbles, to hunt for rocks, to explore new parks, to try new games, to bake more cookies, to laugh a lot, and jump on beds, and give “no”a little break. Without computer(except for talking to grandma (my mother) via skype), without cellphones, just trying our best to be present, to be mindful, to really be here and now.

But I didn’t want to leave you just like that, so I put together a teeny tiny tutorial for planning a simple, yet pretty, table setting, which could be useful if you are entertaining but do not have a huge budget. This is how I do it:

I don’t own expensive china, but I do own a set of very basic and versatile white plates and cups (from Ikea), which I can always pair with anything more colourful that I find around the house. I find that, when one doesn’t have tons of money and plenty of space for different tableware sets (I know I don’t!), white is the best choice. And one little secret: my milk bottles are not, in fact, milk bottles. They are recycled energy drink bottles! I scout supermarkets for cute bottles and sometimes chose products based on other uses I can give to the packaging.

If your china has a pattern or a different colour, don’t panic! Just keep reading!

Next, pick something that you really like from your home. For my birthday I chose the above-pictured kitchen towel (which I don’t use as such because I find it too pretty!) and I used it as a place mat in the middle of the table, to add a pop of colour. But you could use anything: a vase, a wooden toy, a pretty box, anything that you find beautiful and that matches the look that you want for your table.

Colour is the next step…or you could chose to work with whites only, and then add interest by using different textures. But if you do chose colour, remember that you don’t need to stick to a monochromatic palette using only shades of the same colour, or colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel; you also have the option of working with contrasting colours. So, if your china has a blue pattern, you are not restricted to blues and greens, but you could also use oranges, yellows and browns and there are so many shades of each that the possibilities become endless!

Work with what you already have, and remember that pops of colour don’t need to be expensive items: a few lemons, oranges, or even tomatoes, a couple of colourful straws, a few leaves or flowers from your garden (or the neighbour’s-ask first!), a few candles, a mason jar with some ribbon, anything can work. The banner from the picture above was taken from my daughter’s bedroom, for example, and the pretty glass cake stand? It’s not a cake stand at all, but a plate placed on top of an inverted bowl.

Finally, add food. Whatever food you like, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. As much as I like beautifying food, I am a big believer that the most important thing is for it to taste delicious.

And most importantly, relax and have fun with those you love. That’s the only thing that matters.

Have a wonderful summer (or winter!)! See you again in September!

(Spanish translation coming soon)

Feb

2012

A special present for a very special little girl

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Good morning dear friends!

Today Nicosia has blue skies again after a few weeks of clouds and rain and I feel invigorated! I don’t mind cold weather (I love it actually), and I like rain too, but I need the light of the sun and blue skies to be truly happy. Maybe that’s because skies in Cordoba, my home city, are always deep blue and, looking at blue skies makes me feel a sense of connection with my own home.

These past weeks have been really hectic. As I mentioned before, my children, Luka and Zoe, started nursery school one month ago…and as it very often occurs, two weeks into their new schooling experience, they got a ear infection! There seems to be a really strong bug going around, because all children and even the teachers got it. The first round of antibiotics didn’t do the trick, so we had to try with a second one, and it took them 10 days to be ready to go back to school. What was even worse was that my husband and I also got a really bad cold (we are guessing the same bug), so there was a concert of coughs going on in our house all night long. But now we are all recovered and very appreciative of our good health! We are also giving the children vitamins and probiotics to reinforce their immune system, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that they won’t get anything new (in the short run, at least).

But today’s post is not about me, or my immediate family. It is about a very special little girl, whom I love very, very much and whom I consider my “niece of the heart”. Olivia Valentina (Oli, as we call her), is the daugther of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Mariana. No, scratch that, Mariana is not really my friend, she is more like the sister I never had, a “sister of the soul”. Mariana is the person I shared dreams and hopes with since we were 16 years old, the one person that was as passionate about books and history and literature as I was, the one with whom I buried a time capsule in the backyard of our country-side home when we were 17 , the one with whom I wrote a little book that maybe one day our children will read, the person that had a penpal and liked studying, just like me. Mariana is the magical being that showed me the meaning of true friendship and someone I have missed deeply during these 7 years that I have lived abroad. The thing with being an expat is that we are bound to miss those we love, and we carry the burden of knowing that, many times, we are not present during our loved ones special and important moments. Argentinian author Hernan Casciari uses a metaphor from football (soccer) to explain it and says that ” pain and party, tragedy, triumph are the same when you’re away. Not being able to cry with your loved ones when something horrible happens, not being able to celebrate with your people when something wonderful happens puts you immediately in offside“. He is right.

Fortunately, last year it was different. Last year, our trip to Argentina coincided with Mariana’s pregnancy and that made us both so very happy. I could not stay until Oli was born and I have only seen her cute, adorable face through pictures, but having had the chance to hug my friend during such a life-changing time, and to talk to Oli through the belly is something that I am deeply thankful for.

The original idea was to take advantage of this trip to organize Oli’s baby shower, so I started planning it pretty much as soon as the pregnancy was announced. But once we arrived in Argentina, we learnt that Mariana’s pregnancy was experiencing some complications and, during our second week in the country she was put on full bed rest. The baby shower no longer being a possibility, I decided to prepare Oli and her mummies a special present to celebrate her life: a “party in a box” which they could use either for a “sip and see” after Oli’s birth, or maybe even for Oli’s 1st birthday.

The “party in a box” used the same theme as the baby shower I had originally planned: The tree of life. Mariana and I always liked ancient mythology and literature, and used to write listening to Loreena McKennit’s CD The Mask and the Mirror, which contains a song called The Two Trees, based on the homonimous poem by WB Yeats, which reads as follows:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,

The holy tree is growing there;

From joy the holy branches start,

And all the trembling flowers they bear.

The changing colours of its fruit

Have dowered the stars with merry light;

The surety of its hidden root

Has planted quiet in the night;

The shaking of its leafy head

Has given the waves their melody,

And made my lips and music wed,

Murmuring a wizard song for thee.

There the Loves a circle go,

The flaming circle of our days,

Gyring, spiring to and fro

In those great ignorant leafy ways;

Remembering all that shaken hair

And how the wingèd sandals dart,

Thine eyes grow full of tender care:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.”

When I listened to this song, I also remembered the myth of Yggdrasil, and how the idea of a Tree of life is shared by different mythologies and the baby shower’s theme was born. I contacted my dear Laura ( from Delicious Tea) and commissioned her to design the party printables, and she did the most beautiful work I could have imagined. Laura designed a lovely, blooming tree, with leaves in different colours to represent the diverse ways in which Oli is loved, and this tree was included in all items. She also designed a banner with the baby’s name, which instead of the traditional triangular shape uses leaves in the same colour palette as Oli’s tree of life.

The tree above was made from a branch of a tree from my mother’s garden, so that it would grow together with Oli, accompanying her. The little tag cards are for guests to leave good wishes for Oli’s life and to hang them on Oli’s wishing tree, so that she would be able to know, when growing up, that she is, and has always been, deeply loved.

The box also included some decorations, such as two little wooden trees and a rose paper pompom, as well as some of the items necessary for a dessert table, with food labels that played with the party’s theme.

The sweets and sugar decorations included “Flowers of Joy” (sugar flowers to decorate cupcakes with), with their corresponding cupcake cases…

…”Enchanted dew” (little meringue cookies)…

…”Prosperity leaves” (bamboo skewers, to insert chopped fruits in)

… “Love seeds” (chocolate coated almonds)…

“Branches of Life” (Branch chocolate)

…as well as all of my favourite recipes in a little hand-written notebook, that could serve as Oli’s first.

It also included drink tags for different kinds of Lemonade, with coordinating twine, as well as personalized paper cups with matching paper straws, paper plates and bamboo spoons…

The box also had the tags for souvenirs, but not the souvenirs themselves (mixed flower seeds, to celebrate life by giving back life to the Earth) because I didn’t know when the party was going to take place.

I also punched lots and lots of flowers in different shades of green and pink , which could be used to craft garlands, piñatas or other decorations.

As a special present, we created a series of postcards for guests to write love notes for Oli. These postcards, when put together, formed a A3 sized poster (which could be hanged in the baby’s bedroom) with the inscription: ” Your existence makes us very happy”.

Finally, I added three bibs, just because one can never have enough of them with a young baby!

I placed all items in a box, and travelled with it, the tree and the pompom to my friend’s house, to deliver the party and have a quiet afternoon of mate and long talks, like in the old times.

Queridas Mariana, Pao y Oli: las quiero con el alma! Que esta nueva vida juntas, que recien empieza, las llene de felicidad hoy y todos los días de su vida.

Have a lovely weekend, dear friends!

Jan

2012

Hearts and cookies: a Valentine’s day tutorial for Catch my Party!

Good afternoon dear friends! How are you today?

These past weeks I have been absent from the blog, and I apologize for that. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had been preparing two surprises for you. The first one, was the dessert table for Chinese New Year, and here is the second one: A tutorial for making the chocolate cookie heart wreath pictured above, which I designed for Catch my Party!

When my Christmas breakfast table was featured as Catch my Party’s Party of the Day, Jillian mentioned that she was going to pin the holly wreath to make it next year and I offered to prepare a tutorial for her. She loved the idea and suggested, instead, a cookie wreath for Valentine’s day! So I set myself to work!

If you would like to know how to do this, including how to decorate each type of cookie, hop over to Catch my Party!

I will show you how to decorate tons of cookies…