winter white

On Christmas Eve, the day of celebration in Sweden, we had a very nice and quiet - I don't want to say dinner because we started around noon and finished sometime after 8pm, so let's go with day of food with my family. To match my Christmas decorations, and incidentally also the gifts, I decorated the table with all white on white on white on white. Delicate and crisp and pretty was the way to go this year for me.













Resources:
White plates from IKEA
Glass plates from local second hand shop
Lace mats from H&M Home
Crocet snowflakes from La Rinascente in Milano, Italy
Wreath from local florist Anna Gouteva
Small wreaths are styrofoam wrapped in white lace
Votives from IKEA wrapped in white lace
Candle holders from IKEA
Glassware from IKEA

autumn dinner table featured

This is just a quick note to say that YAY! one of my table scapes was featured at Hostess With the Mostess last week. Since I was away I missed the day it went live, hence my late posting.

The HWTM blog is my favourite place to go to when looking for inspiration for party decorations so being featured is a very, very huge honour for me. And, yeah, the excitement when I found out was as big as the first time I was featured.

Just click on the photo to go to the post.

an autumn themed dinner party

The husband likes to celebrate his birthday every year with a dinner party. This year we held the party for parents and siblings (and still managed to have 15 guests) and had a lovely time. The food, curtesy of the husband, was lovely as always and I even managed to make an apple and pecan cheesecake (although I used a different recipe for the actual cheesy part).

Now, knowing me you can be sure that I needed to decorate at least a little bit for the dinner table.
I wanted a kind of updated vintage feel with an autumn touch. My key words were doilies, sheet music, and pumpkins. Here's the finished result.















I used inherited crochet doilies as a runner on the brown linen table cloth. Together with the white china, alternated in different shapes, it made a nice contrast against the dark base.

I cut leaves from sheet music paper (sheet music pattern from Graphic sfairy printed on white cardstock). The larger ones were shaped by rolling and folding around a pencil and then placed at each setting. The smaller ones were glued together and strung on into a garland and then draped along the doily runner.

I put small succulents, wrapped with a lace ribbon, under upside down wine glasses and used the foot cum top as a candle holder. To compliment that I put the same type of candles inside another type of wine glass.

I found super cute little white pumpkins and placed them on brown lace in small glass dessert stands.

Big white faux roses were placed in glasses wrapped in white lace. The last part of the centerpiece was a ball candle in a pedestal glass bowl filled with pebbles.

The low centerpieces make for a great focal point that isn't in the way for conversation.
I feel this turned out close to my vision, a contemporary version of a traditional style.

Join the fun and get a freebie - 7 Days in May

Ok, just so you know, if you haven't popped over to join in the fun of the 7 Days in May challenges at JessicaSprague.com yet then you are really missing out. The forum and gallery is hopping with creativity! Of course, it's not too late to join. Come on over! You will get a freebie! Today is a template freebie from moi!



Go on, you know you want to! ;)

Mark your calendars, folks!

Guys, don't forget about the 7 Days in May Challenges Week that kicks off on Monday! It will be a blast, and we've got great challenges and freebies lined up for you. Mark your calendars, folks!

7 Days in May - the return of a favourite

Don't miss the third annual 7 Days in May challenges week over at JessicaSprague.com!
My fellow co-hosts, Liv Esteban (of LivEdesigns) and Kari Holt (of iKari), and I will give you a new challenge every day for a whole week and each challenge features a fab freebie. Come on and join the fun!

Project 52, celebrating autumn

This post features two  weeks of beautiful autumn inspiration.

#42,2010
We got some new plants for the pot outside of the front door and added a colourful pumpkin. I like how homely and warm it feels.


#43, 2010
The husband celebrated his birthday yesterday with our parents and (some) siblings and we went all out with an autumn theme, both with decorations and food (mmm, pumpkin soup). I really liked doing this one.


I will do a separate post on the table setting but here's another photo of the table.


Have a great week everyone, check back tomorrow as I have new stuff going live in the shop! :D

Baby party planning

In the past couple of days I have been working hard to finish all the preparations for the christening party of our nephew. The event took place yesterday and it was a lovely ceremony and an equally lovely party afterwards.

I designed the invites, which I have shared before




The invites got to set the theme for the party decorations. We went with baby blue, navy blue, and green as the main colours.

I made flag garlands in the theme colours that we strung all across the ceiling and along the railing of the staircase.


and smaller flags that were placed in flowers and vases around the house.


We also decorated with hydrangeas in glass vases.


On the table we went with white on white with the decorations adding the colour.


I chose green napkins and made belly bands with the little kidlet's name to tie around them. The pattern of the belly band is taken from the invite, as well as the shape and fonts of the tag.




Hydrangea flowers in small cake stands added some height to the decorations on the table without being too tall to interrupt any discussions between the guests.


Paper Es were covered with matching papers and placed in the middle of each table.


A small buffé was served and I hung two tissue paper pom poms above the buffé table.


Dessert was served on the same table and of course the cake matched the theme.




We had cookies on a tiered stand individually wrapped with matching ribbon and a tag again with the baby's name.




The kid himself hung out in his grandmother's arms while dad and big brother opened presents.




I also have to share these two pictures that we took in the morning before it all started, just because they are such lovely kids.




All in all, a very lovely day!

Cray fish party

Summer nights are lovely. Summer nights with people you love and good food are even better. August is the big cray fish party month here and we are always eager to celebrate because we love cray fish in this house. Here are some pictures from one of those parties.

I wanted a fresh summery vibe for this party so I went with a red, white, and blue colour scheme.
I decided to try out making pom poms to string from the ceiling. They turned out to be very easy to make, but also very easy to break, lol. I used white tissue paper for the pom poms and my husband said they looked like little clouds.


I got a blue table cloth with white dots and paired that with white china and red and white paper napkins (eating cray fish is a messy business after all).


I got white flowers and put them in white bowls in a dome-ish kind of shape. Thank you to the person who invented oasis!




I got clear round vases that came as a set of three at IKEA and put white pillar candles in them and finished them off with ribbons in my colours and little signs that says "cray fish party"


Each seat got a small booklet with songs to sing before toasting with the snaps - this is a totally Swedish thing so if you are not familiar with the tradition believe me when I say that it's a lot of fun! I also made little pinwheels that I stuck on clothes pins and put on a glass at each seat.
I used my Tricolor digiscrap papers to create the booklets and pinwheels.

Just a small tip: In the small bowl under the booklet I put a few slices of lemon and filled with water for the guests to refresh their fingers during the meal so that their glasses and flatware would be mess free.



The actual cray fish got to play center stage in the table setting. Their beautiful red colour was perfect with the colour scheme.


Besides the actual little creatures themselves we also had prawns, chicken and feta pie, and some gorgeous cheese and sour dough bread.


We also had a champagne bar with a few different juices, sodas, and berries to add to the goodness. As we had a few guests not drinking alcohol we made sure to provide an alcohol free alternative.




I made little umbrellas, again with the Tricolor papers and some barbecue skewers, for each champagne glass.


For the juice and soda bottles (from IKEA) I made little tags that I strung on the ribbons I used for the vases with the candles on the table.




The meal was ended with a blackberry cheesecake made by yours truly.


All in all it was a pretty great night!