Reuse, Recycle, Revamp your Holiday Table!

So I decided to do something different for my holiday table this year. Usually I try and come up with something I haven't done before. This year, however, I did a spin off of last year's table. I did this because the average woman (especially a newlywed) doesn't have a stockpile of table decorations lying around their home. And let's face it, there couldn't be a worse time than the holidays to find extra money to splurge on these items. So what is a poor girl to do?

I decided to start with a staple every bride should have available ... my wedding china and flatware! The dishes were the start of both of my holiday designs. I didn't want to have two completely identical tables (what's the fun in that?), but I wanted to create two looks using common items and other affordable options.

Here are the two designs!

2010 - Formal Holiday Dinner








2009 - Holiday Brunch





Now for the details! I'll start with describing the items in my 2009 design.

I decided to accentuate the white and blue of the dishes in this look. I laid out a simple white tablecloth (on sale from a fabric store) and put silver chargers (from a dollar store) under the china. Each year I use an ornament for a place card (so each person will have a memento for their tree to take home). Last year I was inspired by Martha Stewart's Sweetgum-Fruit Wreath, since I have this tree in my front yard and tons of the spiny fruit fall from it. I decided to make mini wreaths for each person and used the extra fruit to craft silver trees for the table. Because this design is more casual I used paper napkins dressed up with snowflake napkin holders I got at an after Christmas sale at Target. For my centerpiece I raided my Christmas tree decorations! I got a clear glass vase and stuffed it with white stuffing. Then I stuffed sparkly white branches and hung all the small blue and silver ornaments I could find in my collection from them. Lastly, I found some silver tinsel garland from the dollar store and strung it up and down the table.

For my 2010 transformation I again started with the same china and dollar store chargers. I laid my white fabric down on the table and covered it with a cotton damask fabric I purchased at the fabric store. For my centerpiece I found the candle pillar holder at Target for only $19.99 and filled it with silver and blue ornaments I found in my ornament collection. You can also see the sparkly white branches from last years centerpiece in it as well! For the place cards this year I found these pretty black ornaments for $2 each at Target. I further dressed up the table setting by printing my own menus. The silver sweetgum-fruit trees are getting used again alongside some fresh flowers. Finally I strung some larger blue and silver ornaments from the ceiling all of which came from a dollar store!

I hope you enjoyed my table transformation. I'd love to hear what you do to create a fresh and beautiful table each year without breaking the bank.

Halloween Happy Birthday

What could be more fun then a Birthday with a Halloween theme! Happy October! I decided to do a write up on hosting a Halloween birthday party since I attended one this past weekend and found out that one of my followers used her EEAD Halloween giveaway items at her daughter's Halloween birthday!

This is such a great theme since there are so many great Halloween party ideas for all age groups. For young kids you can focus on fun, festive aspects of the holiday like candy, fun music, and costumes. For older kids you can move more into spooky and creepy with scary movies, evil monsters and villans. For adults you can go with a haunted elegance. For this post I'm going to explore ideas for the younger age bracket. I hope they help give someone ideas for their own festive birthday party!

Food & Recipes

Martha Stewart's Deviled EggsSimple and yummy, even my husband didn't mind making these for a party.


Martha Stewart's Orange Jack-o'-LanternsLove this idea! Martha suggests sorbet but you can use them to hold any yummy concoction. The birthday party we went to this weekend filled them with fruit salad for the little ones.


Martha Stewart's I Scream Sandwitches


Martha Stewart's Candy Corn Sugar CookiesFestive and easy to make, especially if you buy some premade dough!


Witches fingers in dirtYou can't go wrong with chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms


Creepy Pasta BakeJust add crab legs, mushrooms, and quail eggs to your favorite baked pasta dish


Activity Ideas
1) Costumes
Family photos

Halloween backdrop photos

Or a costume parade!
2) Apple Bobbing

3) Pinata (filled with candy and/or toys)

4) Musical chairs with Halloween music

5) Mummy wrap race (with toilet paper)

6) Haunted house/maze - for smaller kids you can use card board boxes decorated and attached together
7) Pin the tail on the donkey with a Halloween image (nose on the witch, tail on the black cat, etc)


8) Face painting - this can go well with costumes or if someone shows up without a costume they can still feel part of the theme

9) Spider yarn web - get the kids in a circle and pass a ball of yarn around to form a web

Crafts
1) Coloring books or pages with Halloween themes
2) Pumpkin carving/decorating

3) Cookie decorating - pre-make sugar cookies in Halloween shapes and let the kids decorate them with icing, sprinkles, etc.
4) Felt decorating - pre-cut shapes for pumpkins, scarecrows, bats, cats, witches, etc and give the kids some glue

Real Parties
Sara over at Dandy Delights posted some pictures on her blog of her daughter's Halloween birthday party this past weekend. She took advantage of my Halloween giveaway and got herself some free cupcake toppers and goody bag tags to help decorate her dessert table. Look what a great job she did (and it was her first dessert table too)!





Oliver had his 1st birthday party at a park. His mom and dad did a great job of decorating fun and festive food for everyone as well as having lots of fun games and activities (parachute, pumpkin decorating, and coloring).