entertaining

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my favorite, budget-friendly entertaining must-haves

I really thought I’d be sent to labor and delivery yesterday morning after my 38 week checkup, but instead I’m going on week three at 2 cm and 50% effaced, so it’s back to regularly scheduled programming for a little while longer.  I don’t know if it’s my nesting urge or the fact that I…

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gold leaf oyster salt cellars

Summer is my favorite time to entertain but even though we haven’t been hosting as much as we normally do this time of year (and while the rest of my house gets neglected due to all the fun we’ve been having) I’ve been making it a point to at least set out my favorite woven…

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a swoon worthy summer table setting

There aren’t many color combinations I love as much as blue and white, but navy and blush come in at a very close second (it was the original inspiration behind Lydia’s nursery when I was in the planning stages and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since!)  So, when I stumbled upon this summer dinner…

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christmas bar set up

If ever there was a time to have a makeshift bar set up in your home, I say Christmas season is it!  We have friends and neighbors dropping in all the time and having a little well-stocked bar in a corner somewhere has been a great and festive way to welcome everyone!  I don’t have…

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simple, classic entertaining essentials for thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is going to be small and intimate for us this year, but I still plan on going all out on the food and, of course, the table setting!  I’m all about keeping things simple, as much for keeping my sanity while trying to cook and prepare everything, but also because I think decor-wise, simple…

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entertaining with aerin

I never grow tired of glimpses of Aerin Lauder’s Southampton home; the grounds and outdoor living areas are among my favorites, so I was especially excited to see that she recently hosted a poolside luncheon to celebrate the launch of one of her new frangrances, photos of which were captured by Garance Dore.  Like her…

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a midsummer night’s dream dinner

With the temps quickly approaching 90 degrees around here, all I can think about is poolside dinners, playing cornhole under twinkly string lights and sipping light, crisp cocktails.  So you can imagine my delight when I laid eyes on this STUNNING bohemian-style dinner hosted by Athena Calderon, author of the blog Eye Swoon, at her…

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champagne + oysters

So much for a snow day; the 5-8 inches we were expecting and which caused mass hysteria at the grocery stores yesterday turned out to be gray skies and rain, instead.  And not even a whole lot, at that!  Scrolling through my blog feed this morning, rather grumpily,  I was stopped dead in my tracks…

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white + gold thanksgiving table

I about had a heart attack yesterday when I realized that Thanksgiving is exactly two weeks away.  Where has November gone?  This will be the first holiday we are having as a family since the hubby was deployed for Easter and I’ll be hosting something small and intimate to commemorate baby girl’s first Turkey Day! …

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take a seat

As much as I love decorating for the holidays, when I host Thanksgiving dinner it’s always all about the food.  I’d love to say that I lay out a beautiful, decorative spread, complete with gilded pumpkins, artfully tied bundles of wheat, napkins wrapped with fragrant sprigs of rosemary and place cards hand written in perfect…

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inspired: thanksgiving spread

There are now less than two weeks until Thanksgiving – where has the time gone?  When I’m cooking for the holidays, presentation is just as important as the food itself, and to be honest, it can be just as stressful as planning the actual meal, but for me keeping it simple and easy reign supreme…

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easy fall table setting

When I picked up these gorgeous gray/green heirloom pumpkins a few weeks back, I put them on my front porch, but I loved the color so much I moved them inside to my kitchen table where I could admire them all day long.  I decided to use them as the basis for a simple Fall-inspired…