LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD BIRTHDAY PARTY
Ideas galore for your a fabulous woodland party!
Happy Sunday!
This morning I awoke coming to terms with the end of summer and reflecting on the more "lazy days of summer" (can you tell school and all the schedule chaos has started?). While daydreaming, I was fondly remembering the summer picnic baskets from Elise's 4th Birthday Party. She wanted to have a Little Red Riding Hood party and we loved the idea. Armed with a lot of ideas and fun styles, we created a fun little backyard party for her friends. My amazing Mom sewed costumes for the kids and they got to play games of chase, trying to get to Grandmother's house without losing the contents of their basket....or being caught by a wolf!
I remember it rained up until an hour before the party that day. It was a mad dash to get everything up and ready, but it added to the race theme! The food was so fun and the kids had a great time. Enjoy this fun photo montage of the day and hopefully you can get some ideas for your next party. I did not spend time editing the photos, so please ignore the imperfections and focus on the fun.
“Into the woods she went, basket in hand and wearing a little red riding hood.”
Hope you enjoyed the photos; have a great Sunday!
- Casey
VALENTINE'S DAY COOKIE EXCHANGE
Celebrate your love of friendship with an easy party featuring cookies!
Cookies make me smile. Do they make you smile? It's even hard to say the word "cookie" without a least a little grin squeezing its way in.
There are so many reasons to love cookies. I think my love of cookies started while growing up with a mother that made everything (I think I mean EVERYTHING) from scratch. I was one of seven kids and we were always allowed to help in the kitchen. It is no accident that we all learned to love cookies. My mom was known for her "famous chocolate chip cookies" and the neighborhood kids seemed to always be aware when there was a batch in the oven. People were always impressed that she had not produced them from a refrigerated roll of dough, but rather had taken the time to create them on her own.
Of course, my love of baking grew from that kitchen and continued on through high school, college, and now into my adult life. The tradition continues as I have two daughters that are pretty passionate about baking. My oldest, Annika, has visions of her own bakery some day. At times it is difficult to keep up with the ingredients in our home as the girls burn through them crafting their new creations and testing their own recipes.
The obvious benefits of baking are the delicious outcomes and beautiful treats, but I believe that baking offers us much more. Baking brought me closer with my family growing up and it is bringing my children closer to me now. We spend time together dreaming of ideas, working as a team to narrow our vision, and then executing our plan to achieve an outcome we've all agreed upon. The teamwork that results is a pretty incredible benefit from such a simple task. There are even other studies to show that baking has health benefits such as relieving stress and lowering blood pressure (that is baking part anyway, the whole "eating the cookies" thing at the end might offset that a bit :)
Baking brings people together in another way: sharing the fruits of your labor. One of our family's favorite things are holiday parties where we share our baked goods with family and friends. Traditionally, we always tried to do this at Christmas, making lots of treats for family and friends. Unfortunately, Christmas can get busy and parties are so numerous that everyone seems to be rushed, making it difficult to squeeze in another event. My kids love to decorate cookies, and Christmas is no exception. Although we still decorate Christmas cookies, it often gets difficult to share them with everyone during the rush of the holidays, and it leaves you feeling like your hard work is a bit lost.
Because of this chaos, we started focusing our main baking efforts to Valentine's Day. February is a slower month with less obligations and events, allowing us more time to enjoy the process. Plus, Valentine's Day is all about love and we love baking, cookies, and friends. What better way to celebrate than to host a Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange? Though we don't do the party every year, we definitely make plenty of cookies for the season either way. We have found that people have more time to pour themselves into the process and enjoy their time together during Valentine's Day because they don't have ten other parties to attend during the same season.
You don't have to host the party on the actual day of Valentine's Day, but sometime around the month of February. If you are unfamiliar with a cookie exchange, allow me to educate you on how the party works. It's pretty simple.
- Create your guest list and confirm the attendants.
- Each guest is to make a dozen cookies (or half dozen - just decide the number based on what you think is appropriate for the size of your guest list) for each member on the list. (ex: if you have 5 total guests, then each of you will make 5 dozen cookies).
- Everyone brings their cookies to the party and you exchange the cookies.
- Everyone leaves with five dozen cookies, all of different types!
Simple!! There are no rules (unless you want to create them!) but you can open it up to cookies, treats, bars or whatever makes sense for you. During the party, you can offer other food and treats, drinks, or simple just enjoy the cookies. You can have guests pre-wrap the cookies into their pre-sorted dozens to make the exchange simple, or you can turn it into a game to select the cookies. You will be surprised how cute people decide to wrap up their treats, or how fun the games can be to choose the cookies. It's pretty simple. Just have fun with it and enjoy your time together. One additional thing we did at our last party is offer little paper hearts to our guests so that they could write "things they loved" on the hearts and then we put them up on the wall. It was fun to see what made the list - both from adults and children alike!
I hope baking and cookies bring you as many happy memories as they bring me. It's been fun to watch my children create, make mistakes, and try again. I think back to the time that I was eight years old and making my mom's famous chocolate chip cookies. My mom was in the other room folding laundry, so this was a pretty independent project (or at least in my eight year old head it was). I told my mom that I needed more salt for my cookies, but that we were out of salt. She seemed confused as she knew we had plenty of salt. Mom, being the great mom she was, simply replied, "How much salt do you need?" Confident in my measuring, I brought my one cup measuring cup 4/5 full of salt into the room where she was. I showed her my nearly filled cup, and proudly stated (again) that we needed more salt. She smiled and said, "I think you should look at the recipe again. You might be confusing the salt with the sugar." Whoops. As usual, she was right, saving my recipe from complete disaster. She helped me find my error with grace and kindness, rather than leaving me feeling inadequate and inept. To this day, I have never added a cup of salt to another recipe; lesson learned!
It is through error that we learn. I am thankful that I had a mom willing to teach me. I try to remember this when my children are baking. There will be mistakes, messes, and frustration, but through it all, we grow closer and learn to be better. Then, even if imperfect, we can share those efforts of love with people we love.
“If baking is any labor at all, it’s a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation.”
I hope you will give a Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange a try, or at least, jump into a new tradition of Valentine's Day cookie decorating. When we step back from life and take the time to bake, we create a lot more than cookies. We create relationships and joy that extend far beyond the kitchen. Life is busy, no doubt, but cookies always seem to slow it down a little bit and offer a moment to smile.
Do you love to bake? Did you have someone teach you? Are you teaching your kids? What are you doing to celebrate Valentine's Day? I would love to know!
- Casey
HOT CHOCOLATE BAR
Every January needs something fun and a hot chocolate bar might just be the solution
BURRRRR. January is cold. Christmas is over. Snow has closed school (again). Kids are stir crazy. Parents are starting to question their sanity. Am I alone? I hope not.
When it is cold outside, I am cold inside AND out. Since moving to the South, I will admit that I have become a bit of a cold weather wuss. I spent the first 24 years of my life in Wisconsin and you'd think I would have thick skin. However, as I explain to most people, I was cold there too.
When I found myself in North Carolina, I had trouble tolerating the heat. Although I had always lived in the cold and did not love being cold, I was not used to the opposite effect of equivalently intense heat. I had to exchange my closet of sweaters, scarves and coats for a lighter wardrobe of tanks, dresses, and shorts. Although I can appreciate any good excuse to shop, I felt a little (LITTLE) sad to be leaving the cold weather behind.
However, the longer I have lived in the South, the less hot it seems and I almost find myself craving some intense heat; I guess that's acclimation for you. With that in mind, when it gets cold here, it feels even MORE cold since I am now used to being hot. I know my family back home is laughing at me and my 15 degree cold when they consider that a warm day in January, but we have already identified that I am now an official cold weather wuss.
So what's a girl to do? When I am cold inside and out, that means it's time to warm up. For most of us parents, a good cup of coffee or tea will do the trick. However, when it comes time to warm up the whole family, nothing beats a cup of hot cocoa.
A few years ago, we implemented a January tradition in our house: The Hot Chocolate Bar. It is exactly what you think it is: A bar completely devoted to the production and consumption of hot cocoa (and additional delicious treats that go with it!). Following Christmas and all the festivities of three months of holidays, January can leave us feeling somewhat flat. I think it is mostly due to the energy and excitement, visitors, and events of all the holiday season that precedes it. While I am usually ready for life to slow back down a bit, I always feel that a little January "pick me up" is in order.
Thus, the Hot Chocoate Bar tradition was born and continues to be something to look forward to as we celebrate winter. You can make a bar as simple or complex as you want. We often rotate what goes on the bar, but the basics stay the same. To craft your own bar, you'll want the following:
- Cocoa Powder
- Dry Milk (or you can skip this and warm up milk for the bar as needed)
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla
- Marshmallows (we like all sizes!)
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Peppermint Sticks
- Treats
- Mugs
We always include little cookies or candies that go with the bar so that it is even more festive and fun. When we are ready, we warm up the water or milk, and everyone can create the cocoa to their liking. If you wanted things to be easier, you could just supply pre-made mix as well. You can buy that or you can use this recipe: 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 2 cups dried milk, and 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. Kids add a dash of vanilla to their cocoa and often add a peppermint or cinnamon stick (we had already eaten our King Leo sticks before I could photograph them...off to order more!) When we really get after it, we make our own marshmallows (most because it is super fun and they are really yummy!)
I don't know if you are like me, but I use Amazon for easy ordering, and this cocoa bar is no exception. We keep ourselves well stocked with goodies and ingredients for the bar. Quality matters here since there are so few ingredients, so I recommend using higher quality ingredients such as:
“Hot Chocolate is a HUG from the inside”
I hope you can carve out a spot in your home to include a hot chocolate bar. We have found it to be a fun way to start the year and a cozy way to warm up. With the amount of snow days we've have this year, we'll be blowing throw our hot chocolate bar at twice the speed. Oh well. Most of the time, hot chocolate is even better on a snow day.
Do have a January tradition? Have you had a hot chocolate bar or station in your house? Was it fun? What did you serve? I'd love to know!
- Casey
Please note, this post contains affiliate links for products that our family uses for our hot chocolate bar.
HOLIDAY PARTIES WITHOUT THE WORK
Throw an amazing holiday party without the work
I love parties. I love going to them, throwing them, and decorating for them. I love all of it. My kids and I love all the fun design, planning, staging, and creation that goes into throwing a great party. We love to open our home and invite our friends and family to enjoy the party that we create. We love it all.
Enter the holidays....enter the time crunch.
While I love throwing parties, including throwing parties during the holidays, I know that life can get hectic and there is not always time to create a party at home. It might be the fact that you cannot get the house in order, cannot plan all the events or assemble all the pieces that make your typical parties so fun. Sometimes, there just is a time shortage.
Enter: Gathered Marketplace.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Gathered Marketplace, let me educate you. Created by two lovely women here in Fayetteville, Amanda Elias and Meagan Riggs, their mission is to grow togetherness between people in our community. Whether that be through a personal party or a community event, they are refocusing our time to what matters most: being with one another.
Gathered Marketplace can plan and throw your holiday party (or any get together!). They can help you figure out a location (which doesn't have to be your home but it CAN be!), a theme, and even activities. I am not referring to your typical party games. These ladies are full of creativity and they can create workshops, projects, and more for you and your friends. You don't have to think of anything - Gathered can figure it out for you.
One recent event they hosted was a workshop on making your own Magnolia Garland. What a perfectly southern thing to learn! Friends gathered, enjoyed wine and appetizers, and learned a new skill, all while spending precious time with one another. I recently attended an event organized by Gathered and a friend. Our workshop was on making floral leis. We had a luau to attend the following day, and we arrived with our freshly created carnation leis from our Gathered workshop. Not only were the leis gorgeous, we were able to learn a new skill while spending time together at our Gathered event.
Gathered Marketplace works with local farmers to source incredible fresh florals and greenery. Each time they create a floral event, you can be sure that the floral stems and greens will delight. However, their expertise is not limited to florals, but believe me, you'll want to try to include them if you can.
If you still feel like a party is just too much, you can attend one of Gathered Markeplace's many pop-up events. One of my favorites was the evergreen pop-up shop that they just hosted at Leclair's General Store (which is amazing and will be having its own post shortly - check them out!). There these talented ladies provide us with fresh floral stems, seasonal arrangements, and more. You can meet your friends there, enjoy the time with one another, and knock out some holiday decorating in the process. The options are endless!
Allowing someone to help you plan your holiday party (or any party) might feel defeating at first; perhaps a feeling that you could not "do it all". However, once you have Gathered step in, you'll have so much fun that you might never turn back. Not to mention the fun your friends will have - they will likely request more of such events in the future! Beyond parties, I know I contemplated just having them stop by to decorate my house with fresh greenery for Christmas; they'd probably agree to that if you asked with a little southern charm!
If you are not lucky enough to live in Fayetteville and have Gathered Marketplace to serve you, then be sure to check out what might be available in your community. Enlisting help can save you a lot of headache and stress, and you'll still be able to enjoy those moments you crave with friends and family. I know that Gathered Marketplace does a beautiful job helping to create those memories. If you have not attended one of their events, grab a few friends and get there. You won't regret it!
Have you attended a Gathered Marketplace Event? What did you think?
- Casey
Workshop Photos by Jamie Pope Photography and all other Magnolia styling photos by Lola V Photography; Evergreen photos by Light and Cedar Photography Co.
5 TIPS FOR THE BEST FRIENDSGIVING
HOW TO MANAGE THE CROWD AND ENJOY YOUR MEAL
I love Thanksgiving. I think it is my favorite holiday. I love that it centers around family and friends, gathered together to celebrate what we are Thankful for. I also love that it doesn't focus around gifts, events, and other things that tend to create chaos in the holiday season. Don't get me wrong, I love tradition and the bustle of the holidays, but there is something sweet about Thanksgiving being solely about the food and time we share together (well, and football :)
We started having a Friendsgiving about 13 years ago. Due to the military schedule my husband was on, traveling 18 hours home just did not make sense. We found we were not the only people that were stranded on Thanksgiving. Thus, our Thanksgiving became one of the Thanksgiving Misfits so we liked to call it! People who did not go home to visit family.
Over time, it has grown to include some family members that do travel to join us for Thanksgiving, and it includes anyone we know that might not have a place to celebrate Thanksgiving. It has been one of our most enjoyable traditions. This year, we will celebrate our 14th Friendsgiving and we have learned some great tips for success. Allow me to share:
1. Cook several, smaller turkeys
I like to cook several, smaller turkeys so they don't dry out. When you are feeding a crowd, you tend to think bigger is better, but the smaller turkeys keep more moisture in because they have more bone to meat ratio...yum! It also allows you to carve them more easily and plate them in several areas for easy access.
2. Farm out the drinks
Several of our guests do travel to join us and they'd like to bring something, but cannot cook it on the road. Having those guests bring drinks is a wonderful way for them to help, without having to mess with cooking.
3. Don't Farm out the basics
I consider the basics of the meal Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Gravy, and Pumpkin Pie (you might add to this list but these are the staples). I learned the hard way that you risk a lot when you tell someone else to bring one of these items. They MIGHT change their mind and not show up with one of the staples of the meal, throwing you into a panic. When this happened to me, I vowed never again to "farm out a staple" dish. I now respond - "bring anything you'd love to have or are good at making". If you have more of the basics, it's a win!
4. Appetizers are key (but keep them simple)
Thanksgiving dinner is hard to time, especially with guests rotating in. We make a lot of easy appetizers (think dips, cheese, crackers, fruit, muffins, bars, etc) for snaking throughout the day so the meal can be made without "hangry" people in the kitchen!
5. Accept help and be Thankful for it
People want to help. They see you as a host and feel that they want to be helpful to you. Allow this and go beyond that, be thankful for it. Sometimes I get bogged down in just trying to "get it done", which does somewhat miss the point of it all. When I step back and allow the help to happen, I find I enjoy the time so much more.
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, whether it be with friends or family. It is my favorite holiday and I am thankful for the chance to share it with you.
Do you have tips for a successful Friendsgiving?
- Casey