bridal shower / tressa's outdoor brunch fête

last week bobette and i threw my cousin, tressa, a bridal shower. bobette kept saying this was my debut as a party thrower, so we had to make it awesome. tress wanted it to be a brunch and had a huge guest list, so we took the party outside to accommodate all of the lovely ladies. 

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from my camera / audrey's birthday brunch

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audrey's birthday was on friday and i kid you not when i say that she loves her birthday more than i love mine. and that's saying a lot, because i loooovvveeee my birthday. she made a schedule two weeks beforehand of everything that we were going to do, and then posted it all over the house. she also made andie sign a contract promising that she would be nice all day on her birthday, and threatened the rest of us and her friends that she was going to make us sign one too. first on her list was to open her birthday outfit and have her birthday brunch. the night before, audrey and our mom went to the dollar store to get supplies for the brunch. they got the polka dot table cloth, balloons, and plates to accent the leftover decorations from the bridal shower last week (which i am posting about on wednesday, be excited!). after her brunch we went shopping, then came home and she tried on all of her new clothes for us. that night she went to sushi and we had lava cakes for dessert.

almost everyone says that me and audge look the most alike and act the most alike. she is kind of my twin separated by ten years. we are both a little bit spazzy, very excitable, and tend to over-think everything. we have a few good qualities too. audrey is by far the most thoughtful person in our family- she is the only sister to consistently give presents and always chooses meaningful things. i'm happy to call her my twin, not only because she is so cute but also because she is such a great little sister to have in my life.

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entertaining / our christmas dining table

i have shown you lots of ideas on how to create the perfect holiday table here and here, but this is how we are actually decorating our christmas table. somehow having the dining room table always set makes everything feel so much fancier. in a good way of course.

for the table we went with a green and gold theme, with black and white and a few hints of pink. we started with a black and white tablecloth (which was really just a giant piece of fabric, the edges aren't even hemmed. remember, we said to get creative!) we layered in a solid emerald runner (from ikea). for the place settings, we used our favorite gold chargers, topped with black and white damask plates and green flowered salad plates. we were also so excited to pull out our new gold rimmed glasses, courtesy of the salvation army. the centerpiece was a cluster of vases filled with garden roses and rosemary, tea lights and glitter. our favorite part was the pomegranates on the plates, they added such a nice contrasting color. of course we only had two pomegranates at the time so we filled in with grapefruits. we didn't spend a dime creating this table, we only used thing we had or could cut from our garden. let's see what you can pull together for your holiday table!

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last year's christmas party

i didn't get a chance to share pictures of our christmas party last year, and since we don't get to throw one this year i'm going to do it now. this is really just jarman and his friends at their finest. they are hilarious, but sooo obnoxious. but mostly hilarious. they decided to make the party an ugly sweater/turtleneck party (though the girls just decided to look cute). and then they took family pictures in front of the tree.

i was really proud of my christmas decorating. looking back on it, everything looks really awkward in our weird house, but it was our first christmas as grown-ups and you have to start somewhere right? when i was younger i bet my mom that i would do an orange christmas tree. i figured this was the year to deliver. i went with pink an orange decorations and even diy-ed some geometric orange and gold balls. i'm pretty craftsy. yes our couch is in front of a bookshelf and a door to a closet, but i really wanted to have a fireplace scene. it would have been nice if i had thought to include firewood to make it look more complete

oh! another diy- i made those pom-pom strings on the shelves, and attached some pom-poms to our stockings. pretty much all of the ornaments on our tree i stole from my mom, and somehow you can hardly seen them. i used pink and orange tulle on the tree as well, and got our cute glitter star topper at west elm. the piece-de-resistance was that pink feather wreath. my aunt and i fought over who got it, and i most definitely won on the 'i'm-a-poor-college-student' argument'. gets them every time. while i don't necessarily miss that little house, i do miss getting to decorate for christmas!

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the anatomy of a tablesetting / christmas

[this is the second part of bobette's table setting class, you can find the first part here]

Last month we talked about how to put your individual table settings together, and this month we are going to talk about how to put your entire table together. (This guide was adapted from Nat Berkus' guide over at Elle Decor)

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1. first things first you need to start with a blank slate/blank table. it will make your life so much easier

2. lay down a tablecloth. it doesn't always need to be a traditional tablecloth, you can use fabric, sheets, a shower curtain, a quilt or throw. anything that covers the table will work.

3. add a contrasting runner. again, this can be anything- wrapping paper, rugs, scarves, doilies, trays, mirrors, empty frames, wood planks. 

4. build your centerpiece, and keep it low. you could include fruits, nuts, succulents, candles, greenery, sticks, cylinder vases wrap with ribbon, wheat herb leaves, or burlap and candles in them.

5. create your first table setting (see our instructions here).

6. mix things up. everything doesn't have to be matchy-matchy-green-squared.

7. add flowers. no table is complete without flowers- add them to your centerpiece and even your individual settings.

8. layer in glassware.

9. get creative. you can add to anything on your table, or even decorate your chairs with wreaths, ribbons ornaments. don't be afraid to view things differently- you can pull something off the wall to use as your centerpiece, use dishtowels as napkins, wrap your silverware in a thousand different ways. once everything comes together, no one will second-guess you.

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cheery table setting

this is my favorite table setting of today's post. not only does it have the best colors (which i think should be everyone's christmas palette), but also the cutest place card. for this table, bobette chose to forego the tablecloth and just use her chartreuse runners. the centerpiece is a glass vase with succlents. we wrapped the plates with a red ribbon and put her festive napkin underneath. we added a sprig of rosemary to her place card- and a gift for our guests to take home. who wouldn't want that 'we wish you a merry christmas' sign? the glassware is a vintage goblet.

royal table setting

i love the color palette of this one- that rich purple makes it fit for a king. for the centerpiece, bobette used a little reindeer platter with glittered pears. she used her gold chargers and black and white damask plates. she wrapped her napkin with a sprig of rosemary as her place card. 

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merry table setting

this table setting uses the more traditional red and green palette, but we've updated it a bit. that red chevron table cloth is actually a rug (we cleaned it, we promise). we did another succulent centerpiece and leaned our mini holiday sign up on it. we used a simple white plate with a red glass one. again, we used the napkin as the place card holder, but wrapped it in red pom-pom ribbon and used our mini chalkboard signs. oh, and we were dying over the addition of the magnolia leaf- it really pulls the whole thing together.