Holiday Kitchen

No matter how big or how small a home is you can bet that everyone always ends up in the kitchen. My husband and I entertain a lot and no matter how spacious the dining room and living room are for entertaining, everyone winds up in my kitchen. That is why when we remodeled 8 years ago I made sure it was spacious enough and also that the center island would serve as not only a place to eat but a separate area to prepare. It's 2 levels so our guests usually hang around the outside of the higher end of the island and I am at the other. They always joke that I should get a cooking show since I look like Mario Batali when I do that. My kitchen every year is decorated in a ginger bread candy land theme. I get so excited it's worse than a kid in a candy store, literally. Here we go....

This is the center island.

Those cute little topiary like ornaments in candle sticks were an inspiration from the very talented Liz over at Savvy Seasons. If you haven't yet, check out her blog for sure. She is one talented lady and always has great ideas to share.

These are the place settings. Since the place mats were so cute already I kept the plates simple with no design just the lime green and red color scheme that I have been in love with now for 3 years. The little gingerbread plates were a great find and really completed the look. I got the glasses at Christmas Tree Shops. They are very sturdy plastic but they look like glass. I loved the polka dots when I saw them. The coffee mugs were on a clearance at Stop N Shop a few years ago. I picked those up for 25 cents each!

Here is the mantel that is over the cook top.

This is the opening over the wall oven area. Can you spy the candy topiary tree? Do you notice that there is only one? That's because the other came a tumbling down. I told you they get heavy. I haven't fixed it yet. The container cracked and I am going to have to camouflage it somehow. The little elves with Mr. & Mrs. Clause are among a set of 7 that I have collected. They are all assorted in style and I place them all around the house. These little guys all dressed up for baking stay in the kitchen of course.

The corner cabinet and a close up of each shelf.

This is the wine rack area. No wine in there at the moment. Clashes with the candy!

A couple of little vignettes in the corners. The beautiful doillies that are in my kitchen are very old but very special to me. They were all hand made by my grandmother when she was just a young girl living in Italy. Apparently from what I have been told this was a skill that was very important for all girls to learn. I have so many of them and I cherish each and every one.

Last but certainly not least, The Christmas Tree! Loaded with candy goodies, cookies, elves, mesh ribbon in lime green spiraling down and lots of bows.

A close up of the topper. It wasn't a topper when I purchased it. It's just a decoration but the bottom is made of styrofoam so it was very easy to insert the tree tip inside. Then I added some candy picks from Hobby Lobby. I love how it turned out.

This year I went a little over board, usually I just do a small counter top tree. I gave up the use of my utility closet for a few weeks but who cares. I was determined to get a tree in there! My poor husband, what he has to put up with where my crazy holiday decorating is concerned. I'll have to be sure and bake extra cookies for him this year.

Well that is all for today. I hope you enjoyed my kitchen tour. I am having so much fun cooking in here every day. See you soon, Love Patty

Linking up with WOW US WEDNESDAYS
INSPIRATION FRIDAYS, SOCIAL HOP LIKE CRAZY PARTY, DIXIE AND DOTTIE SEASONAL SUNDAYS

Christmas Has Arrived

The day after Thanksgiving, known to all as Black Friday, is not a day for me to shop till I drop but rather a day for me to take it all down. The fall decor I mean, all down. It's not pretty. The house looks so empty and bland, void of all that gorgeous fall color. I go through each area till it all looks something like this;

Everything ends up on the dining room table so I can sort it all and pack as I like. That hot mess looks like this:

As sad as it is, I am not too heartbroken to see it put away because..... we know what that means..... Christmas bins are on their way out of the closet!

And so the fun began for me late Saturday afternoon when the last fall bin was safely tucked away till next September. My husband and I carried all the Christmas bins upstairs one by one and there I sat in the living room staring into space with that glazed over look in my eyes not knowing where to turn first. It happens every year. I get overwhelmed. So I took it one bin at a time. Exhausted, in pain with my neck (which I suffer badly from arthritis with), I mean the pain was so bad it was as though someone was holding a blow torch on it, but it didn't stop me, oh no, I started unpacking. I managed to finish the living room that night. Shocker, don't ask me how. Then I got that burst of energy and I couldn't stop. All I could hear in the distance was my husband yelling, "Can you please wait till tomorrow, why must you do it all now?" But I couldn't stop. Every bin I unraveled revealed some cute little friend I was so happy to see again. Next thing I knew I was in the kitchen. AAAHHH the best spot in the whole house. Before I knew it, Gingerbread Candyland had come alive once again in there. Here is a sneak peak....

Stop back in soon to see the whole reveal. I kinda went nuts again this year. What else is new? I live for Chritsmas time! See you soon, Love, Patty

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sorry I have been MIA lately. It's been a little hectic around here and blogging has taken a back seat sad to admit. I will be back soon with some Christmas projects and decorating that I will be starting this weekend. For today I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of you in blogland a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let us remember all we have to be thankful for this day. For those of you traveling I wish you safe travels to your destinations and safe returns back home. Till next time....Best Wishes, Patty

Candy Topiary Trees

Each year I do my kitchen up in a Gingerbread/Candy Land theme. This year will be no different. I decided to create candy topiary trees to add to my kitchen decor this year. This project is very simple. I hot glued some gum drops to 3 inch Styrofoam balls till they were filled all around. I inserted a candy stick at the bottom to serve as a tree trunk so to speak. (please excuse my messy workshop)

This process can be very quick and easy with the use of a glue pot. The glue gun is also fine but you have to keep putting the ball down to grab the gun to get hot glue on another piece of candy. That makes me nuts! I'm impatient to say the least.

One 10.5 oz bag of gum drops will do one 3 inch ball. Unless you are like me, glue 1 drop, eat 2, then you may need 2 bags per ball! HaHa.

Once I was done gluing all the candy on, I hot glued the trees inside these great flower pots that I found on clearance. They each had a shabby looking flower arrangement in them which I took out. So for only $2 a piece for these great looking containers, it was a great deal. Please note that these balls get very heavy after they are filled with candy so be sure to secure them well in the container you choose to use. I tied a simple holiday ribbon on to complete the look and there you have it, candy trees perfect for a candy kitchen. I think I will be placing these on the mantel over my cook top. We will see. I change things around so many times during my Holiday decorating before I am actually done, but that's all part of the Christmas fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I will making a lot more Christmas things in the coming weeks so be sure to stop in. I'm currently working on a recycled chandelier and I am so excited to finish it up and show you the amazing transformation. I don't start decorating for Christmas till after Thanksgiving but there is nothing wrong with getting a head start on the craft projects. Have a great weekend everyone!

Stay warm, it's a gettin cold out there!!! Love, Patty

I am linking up with SHARE YOUR CREATIONS, INSPIRATION FRIDAYS

Fall Home Tour

Well Hello! I am back after a short break. Due to Hurricane Sandy we had no internet, phone or cable TV for over a week. We were very lucky and I am grateful that we are all safe. It could have been worse. I am in northeast New York and if no internet or TV was the worst of it, then we have a lot to be thankful for. So for my latest post I thought that before I take down all the Fall decor in my home I would give all of you a little peak inside my house to show you some of what I did. I kept it pretty simple this year. To be honest I was going through some personal issues early in September and I just wasn't into it as much as I normally am. Money is a little tight and buying any new pieces this year is out of the question. I made use of what I had and also created some new floral pieces and I was very pleased with the outcome. Hopefully for Christmas I will be back to my old self again.

This table is in my entry as soon as you come in. We have a raised ranch. Modest in size and the entry is tiny. For as much as I love our home, I hate the entry. The shelf at the bottom of this table is used for shoes. (I left that hot mess out the photo). There are shoes everywhere. It's a nightmare. At least this way they get off the stairs and I no longer have to look at the "shoe parade".

This is the Living Room. I photographed it from each end.

These 2 cutie pies I bought one year on clearence at Kmart. Would you believe me if I told you they were $5 each? Well they were. Why I didn't buy more than 2 I will never understand. They stand 3 feet tall.

Close up of my sofa table. I made the arrangement in the center using my favorite pumpkin pitcher. The 2 beautiful girls in the photographs are my nieces/god-daughters.

My kitchen. I posted a few pictures of it in a previous post. Here are some more.

This is the dining room table centerpiece.

And there you have it. Nothing special or huge just my humble abode that I love so much. Thanks so much for stopping by. In a few days I will be posting a new Christmas craft project that I have been working on. Be sure to stop in and check it out. Have a great week. We have a Nor'easter on it's way. Gotta get the shovels ready!

Love Patty

Linking up with TABLETOP TUESDAYS, WOW US WEDNESDAYS and SEASONAL SUNDAYS