Spring Table Setting Ideas

Spring time is here (for those who live in a four season countries). This is a execelent time to do some cleaning and a beautiful brunch to celebrate this new season. Spring is for me color, a lot of color, that you can see every where in the flowers, in the sky, in the grass. Thast's why the inspiration ideas that I have brought for you have a lot of color and a lot of fun!!

I love this table setting, it is very colorful and easy to make, I found it in the hgtv website. What got may attention was the color of the paper pom-poms hanging from the ceiling and also used as a part of the table decoration. The fresh flowers bring spring to the table. And the small nest with decorated eggs remaind you that we are also celebrating Easter. You want to make the pum-pum, click here for instruction. DIY pump-pums.

Another very colorful table setting, but this time with the colors blue and yellow, this remind me the sun and the sky, in just one composition. It has a lot of details. This table setting is from HGTV, what I love more is that even the food bring a lot of color to the table not only the decoration.









Lavender-and-white polka-dot ribbon—around pots, along a linen runner—finishes this row of faux topiaries sprouting festive buds: in-palette painted plastic eggs (hot-glued into place; ditto the ribbon) and hyacinth buds. Tiny topiaries double as place markers and favors. Look for topiaries at floral or craft stores

Read more: Purple Easter Crafts - Lavender Holiday Decorations - Good Housekeeping

Candy Land

At this colorful kids' table, oversize purple lollipops become edible flowers when paired with scrapbooking paper petals and planted in buckets filled with grass-green jelly beans (wedge a small piece of Styrofoam into the base, if needed, to keep your flowers from toppling over). Duckling name-card holders let little ones know which seat is theirs (if you can't find ducklings at your local craft or party source, go with chicks). Encourage tykes' creativity to flow with a craft-paper tablecloth and crayons. Also up for grabs: doodle-friendly hard-cooked eggs.

Read more: Purple Easter Crafts - Lavender Holiday Decorations - Good Housekeeping




I hope you can take some ideas from here for your table setting this Easter, and celebrate the color of the spring.

A Cute and Affordable 1st Birthday Party

Happy First Birthday my Dear Son!

The last 27 of February I celebrated the first birthday of my son Estefan, time flied so fast that in no time my baby boy pass from doing nothing to crawl and then just stand up and then almost one year has passed already.

I really wanted get together with my friends and celebrate my son's birthday party, he has been a blessing for me and my husband.  We were  a kind of short of money for the occasion so I had to put my mind to work to get the best thing that we could do in the budget.

I chose a very difficult character cartoon for the party POCOYO from Discovery Kids, basically because he looks just like Estefan, I made my mind and I wanted to use him as a theme of my party, after a while I found that I could not get any party supplies with him, forget the party mega stores, here you cannot find that.  But with internet and a printer I got enough images of him and his friend to make all the party decoration and the party favors.

I would like to share some ideas and pictures, from my baby’s first birthday party; I hope this can inspire you to put together the children party decoration without spending too much.

The birthday cake have a print  in edible paper



I purchased the cake from a bakery and I did a composition in the computer with the picture of POCOYO, his name and the age. The bakery just printed it in edible paper and air brush the cake. This saved me so much time.

Two days before the birthday party I put made the party favors, I made tags with the name of the children to come to the party. I confirmed in advance who was going to come. As you see the tags are just prints of Pocoyo that I pasted on a card board and I wrote the children name.



The last lollipop



I put all the party favors’ in a decorated box, and I used it to decorate the table where I had the cake and the sweeties. Imagine, the box is a old dipper box, I rapped in white paper and I paste on each face of the box a print of Pocoyo (the same used on the cake), I did a ruffle with craft paper and I pasted on the bottom of the box

In the picture above you can see me giving away the lollipops, the lollipop holder was just a told box raped in blue card board, with the prints in a white background and I put on top all the lollipops decorated with paper in two colors (pink and blue).

I placed the balloons (white, pink and blue) all over the house so the children could play with them.

Beside all the decoration I also made cake pops, three color gelatins and other stuff to eat, the cake pops were the sensation (my camera gave me some problems in the beginning, by the time we fixed the camera there was not cake pops to show, it is a pity, next time I will take some picks.

I have to confess that with a little time that I had and the amount of things that may husband and I made that day we were very tired at the end of the day. But very satisfied of the job done and the time spent with our friends and son… that day he gave us the best present, he started to walk.

The Holiday in the Kitchen: Planning your Christmas Dinner

One of the most popular tradition during Christmas is getting together for dinner with family and friends at a well decorate table, with delicious food typical for the season. What we eat during that day varies from one country to another, but the food, sweets and drinks are the most delicious food that you can eat in the entire year, at least for me. The food that we prepare for this dinner usually demand a lot of work, not only for the type of food but also for the variety and the amount.

Here, I will give you some tips to plan your Christmas dinner and avoid the hassle during the Christmas day so you can enjoy together with your guests and family no only the food but the night with them.

Remember, the holiday is to be enjoyed ... stress free. Be simple, with good taste and do as much as you can in advance, so when the holidays come it not much what you have to do and... get help, do not try to do everything yourself.

1. Create a check list, three weeks in advance, and wright backward from the holiday day, what you can do everyday o every week, what chores can be done three, two and one week before, even a few days before Christmas day.
2. Three weeks before send your invitation to your family and friends, and ask them to confirm at least two weeks before their assistance.
3. Think about your table setting, are you going to use the traditional red and green, or the sophisticated gold and silver, or are you going for something more updated as blue, shades of green, fuchsia... this is a good time to decide. So you will have the time to check what you have already at home or get ready to look for new decoration item in the stores. If you do not want to spend too much money for decoration, keep it simple, a bed of fresh-snipped greens is more modern than a table runner, you can also add inexpensive grasses with a color or white candles inside, decorate with group of Christmas ball, the same that you use for your Christmas tree. You also can  create a jolly napkin ring, simply tread a jingle bell onto a piece of ribbon, wrap around the napkin and knot and add a name tag.
4. Two weeks before, decide your Christmas menu -by now you should know who is attending your dinner-, traditional or with flavor from other countries. No matter while you are comfortable with your choice, then make your shopping list - make also a list for soft drinks, wines and spirits, glasses , ice and all related to the beverage. Also decide if you will have an open bar - make sure that you have everything you need in term of glassware, bar tools etc -or just a selection of wines and soft drinks or juices.

5. The Christmas menu is very important, if your guests are coming at least 2 hours before dinner time, you may have to serve some finger food or a selection of cheese, bread, grapes, nuts and wine, it always look good and keep your guest busy but ready for diner. The Chritmas menu usually has one ore two type of meat (turkey, pork or chicken), salad, carbohydrates (rice, potato or corn meal treats), in some places "pan de jamon" is bread filled up with bacon, ham and raisin. Offer at least two type of sweet.
6. If you want to tray any new recipe, do it 2 weeks before the date of the dinner.
7. One week before, prepare and cook in advance are anything that can be prepare and refrigetare to be use during the diner day. Remember that is impossible to make everything, so get from the super market cookies, bread, cake or anything that other people can make for you. This will make your week stress free. Think about the trays where you plan to serve the food and get them.
8. Two days before, clean the house, and all the social areas where your guests may go around. Wash and dry cutlery, glasses and serving plates or trays.  Set up the bar area.
9. One day before, finish making any grocery that you need. Marinate the meat. If you are making cooked salad, boil and cut the carrots, potato and put in the refrigerator. Prepare the cake, cookies or purchase them. Make any food that can hold until the party start. Set the table, table cloth, napkings, table runner, Make the palce card.
10. Dinner day, early in the day, purchase the ice, enough to chill the drink and to use with the soft drink and drinks, you can never have to much ice. Use a laundry tub or the children wadding pool to contained or any facy container to keep the driks cold. Finish cooking as much as you can, try to cook every thing at least two hours before any one arrives, so you will have time to be ready by the time your guests come.
11. Plate whatever food you can in advance and cover with foil.
12. Set the table with the plates, curtlary, napking and the place card.
13. In the social area, plate the finger food and the wine, make sure that the drinks are close by. So your guests can help themself. You may offer them drinks the first time.
14. when you are ready to have dinner, do not doubt to ask for help to bring the food to the table.
15. Most important that all is that you enjoy the night as your guests do.

I hope these tips help you to organize your dinner and have a very plasant time with your family and friend... away from the kitchen as long as you can....

Great food ideas for Parties by Caren Grant

in Food / Cooking Tips    (submitted 2010-11-26)

We all love parties being either the host or the guest. Everybody enjoys parties. If you are having a party to celebrate a special occasion then you have preplanned it. However, if you want to throw a party just for enjoyment you can arrange for a theme party. Theme parties are fun. You first choose a theme. I can give you some idea on this, like winter wonderland party, luau party, jungle, nautical, Hollywood, Christmas to name a few.

With help from culinary blog, you can select the menus and the recipes. If you are choosing winter wonderland theme on Christmas, decorate your house with artificial snowflakes, snow covered Christmas trees and the menu as follows: 1) Wassail 2) Finger Sandwiches 3) Fruit-n-Cheese Trays 4) White chocolate fondue and cupcakes topped with white icing and flaked coconut 5) Stack mini popcorn balls like snowballs for a fun, seasonal party snack. 6) White Chocolate Truffle and Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake 7) Hot chocolate with whipped cream and a peppermint stick.

Do not forget to greet your guests with hot chocolate and champagne.

If you want a theme for your kidâ• • s birthday, you can choose your kids favorite character, say Mickey, Superman or a whole gang of Walt Disney characters. Search on food blogs for ideas on kidâ• • s party food. Keep in mind that kids below 10 years eats little and wastes much. So serve cakes, ice cream, munchies, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, and grapes, they will love them.

If your guests and you are health conscious do not think parties are not for you. You can have your share of exiting healthy food,seeHealthy food sitefor yummy recipes.

Summary:

Parties are all about entertainment, food and fun. People of ten get confused, choosing party food. Some ideas shared here to guide you on what food to select for which party.

About the Author

Author Bio:

Caren Grant shares her expert advice on selecting party food and recipes in her food blog and you can know more about food on http//www.allnewrecipe.com/