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~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

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Category Archives: holiday

Christmas at Sea Tablescape

23 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, baking, Christmas, crafts, DIY, family, holiday, home, home decor, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Christmas table, home decor, lunch, tablescape, toy ship

I hosted a Christmas Lunch for two of my daughters-in-law. The tablescape was Christmas at Sea, which featured an old ship that belonged to my dear father-in-law. I love the Christmas song “I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing in on Christmas Day” and that was the original inspiration for the table. I would need smaller ships to fit three on the table though so one ship was big enough. One of my daughters-in-law used to work on a cruise ship so the theme was all the more fun.
1 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0474
The ship was placed on a piece of fluffy white batting in the center of the table. Small glass balls in white and wintery shades of gray were scattered like bubbles around the ship.
2 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0476
Small crocheted snowflakes were hung from the ship’s sails.
3 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0490
I also hung several glass balls and glass icicles and chandelier prisms from the ship to add to the wintery icy effect.
4 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0487
The napkins were made from Vintage Christmas Carol sheet music fabric from Spoonflower. I had the design printed on Linen Cotton Canvas and it made lovely napkins.
5 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0483
On each napkin I placed a sugar cookie snowflake. They turned out pretty but are so fragile that I broke the royal icing on several even before the lunch! But I adore snowflakes so I’ll probably make these again, even if they do break easily.
6 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0485
Several of the smaller snowflake cookies were placed around the ship.
7 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0486
To light the ship, I used three strands of tiny, battery operated lights. The battery boxes fit perfectly under the ship and were hidden under the white batting.
8 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0484
Lunch was Potato Bacon Chowder, Ham Barbecue Rolls, Spinach Salad, and Cranberry Cheesecake Pie for dessert. We were sad that one of the girls couldn’t make it due to a sore throat. But now I have a good excuse to host again. It was too fun to only do once. Instead of Christmas at Sea, it will be Winter at Sea!
9 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0480
I wish we had a fireplace mantel in the living room. I’d love to style ships like this on a mantel. If you do, please post in the comments and share. I’d love to see it!
10 Christmas at Sea tablescape-0489

 

 

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Angel Curtain Treatment

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, Christmas, DIY, holiday, home decor, lighting, sunlight, tutorial, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

angel, Angel Window Treatment, Christmas, Christmas window, curtain treatment, curtains, DIY, home decor, tutorial, window treatment

All I wanted was a little more light in the dining room so I gathered up the curtain in one hand and pulled it up and discovered … an Angel Curtain Treatment!

Angel Curtain Treatment

Angel Curtain Treatment

[Please excuse my unwashed window. We’ve pared back on a lot of things since my surgery. ;) ]

Normally, the sheer curtain just hangs over a tension rod stuck in the window frame. I don’t hang the curtain full length as normal, using the rod through the curtain sleeve, but rather just drape the floor-length panel over the tension rod so the pretty embroidered bottom edge hangs about halfway up the window as seen in this fall photo.
I also like the double thickness of the sheer when I hang the curtain like that.
1 b Fall arrangement 2014

To make the angel curtain treatment, all you need are two S hooks with lengths of ribbon tied on and whatever decoration you want to use for the top of the “angel head.” That’s it! One end of the ribbon is shorter than the other when tied, as you can see here.
2 Angel Curtain Treatment

I made two S hooks from an old hanger, making sure they would fit over the tension curtain rod. I like using the inner stiffening layer from men’s ties as ribbon. (You can see what else I used the tie pieces for here.) In this tutorial, I will call the wool tie interlining pieces “ribbons” for clarity.
3 Angel Curtain Treatment

The curtain is very light and airy and you can see how long it is here. I’m not sure this treatment would work as easily with a heavier curtain. Also, the top of the curtain will actually be the bottom of the angel’s dress. So the back of the curtain’s hemmed sleeve must look good.
4 Angel Curtain Treatment

To begin making the angel, the S hooks with ribbons were hung near the center of the rod.
5 Angel Curtain Treatment

The two shorter ends of the ribbons were tied loosely across the middle, wrapped several times to make the ends hang at the sides of the “angel head.” I didn’t have to tie any knots because the rough tie fabric held position easily when wrapped around several times. But if your ribbon is slick, like satin, you will have to pin it together to make it stay.
6 Angel Curtain Treatment

Here I’m lightly gathering the curtain in one hand, a little above the embroidered edge. I adjusted the curtain length over the rod and made sure the embroidered edge was arranged with pretty folds as I gathered it together.
8 Angel Curtain Treatment

Once the curtain was gathered together in my hand, I raised it up.
9 Angel Curtain Treatment

Again, I adjusted the folds to adjust the bottom of the curtain.
10 Angel Curtain Treatment

Once the curtain was held up, I looped the long left ribbon under and around the bundle of gathered curtain.
11 Angel Curtain Treatment
12 Angel Curtain Treatment

The two long long lengths of ribbon tie were tied together under the gathered bundle.
13 Angel Curtain Treatment

I fine tuned the embroidered curtain edge, pulling it down a bit to make it longer.
14 Angel Curtain Treatment

Here you can see the curtain sleeve from the top of the curtain now hanging at the bottom of the angel’s dress.
15 Angel Curtain Treatment

To finish the angel, I simply tucked a small halo of gold star holiday wire and a Christmas package decoration on top of the ribbon tie.
16 Angel Curtain Treatment
17 Angel Curtain Treatment

The finished Angel Curtain Treatment

18 Angel Curtain Treatment

An angel spreads her wings of sheer batiste. She disappears at night when I let the curtain down and the window sill lights shimmer through like stars.

To make this window treatment took less than 5 minutes. Seriously, it took longer to rummage through my old ribbon box to find the package decoration! To take it down, simply untie the ribbon from behind the curtain and remove the S hooks. Super simple.

And Thank You, Brenda, for your husband’s ties. This project finished up the linings I had from the first batch of ties. Your bag of ties will be plenty for new projects!

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Giving Thanks continues…

29 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, family, food, holiday, home, journals

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

dinner, family, food, gratitude, holiday, joy, optimism, table setting, tablescape, Thanksgiving, turkey

We are still eating delicious Thanksgiving leftovers so it’s fitting that the house is still decorated for fall. I’m glad we were back in time from Japan to see the maple turning red. The color was spectacular this year! Brighter than it’s ever been, even on a cloudy day.

The Japanese Maple was spectacular this year.

The Japanese Maple tree was spectacular this year.

The table was set. Even with the heavy overcast, the new windows provided splendid light.
2 2014 Thanksgiving table set
I asked one of the guys to label the serving dishes to make filling them faster when the food was ready. He labeled the water glasses! So funny.
3 2014 Thanksgiving table labels
The turkey was small this year, barely 14 lbs. It was the perfect weight for me to lift by myself. It was nice being able to use the rosemary and thyme growing in the kitchen planter.
4 2014 Thanksgiving turkey
Not all the family was present and we missed those far away. But everyone here was in a jolly mood and we were happy to be together.
5 2014 Thanksgiving everyone happy
We started with a salad course. One of the guys cut the peppers into leaf shapes. We made our own house dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, cracked Tellicherry pepper, water and a bit of boiled cider. It was delicious!
6 2014 Thanksgiving salad plate
Then on to Pumpkin Bisque. We tried a new recipe this year. The cardamom was prominent and very good with pumpkin.
7 2014 Thanksgiving Pumpkin Bisque
After the salad plates and soup bowls were cleared, we placed the rest of the food on the table. Here are some of the dishes.
8 2014 Thanksgiving table
9 2014 Thanksgiving side dishes

Baked Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans and Bacon

Baked Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans and Bacon; Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup; Buttered Squash with Cinnamon.

10 2014 Thanksgiving turkey

French Bread Stuffing with Sage Sausage; Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Turkey with Rosemary and Parsley.

The turkey was taken to the kitchen island for carving. This was the first year we used a fresh turkey. It was delicious and tasted much better than a frozen turkey. It did cook faster than I thought though, so we’ll remember that next time. Look at the steam rising! Delicious.
11 2014 Thanksgiving carving
We didn’t take any more photos. There were many wonderful moments, such as when grandson “cooked” his real food in the toy oven. But I was so thoroughly enjoying the baby and grandkids, eating pie and participating in our myriad conversations and laughter, that I completely forgot to take photos.

This morning I finally got around to washing the crystal. The glasses sparkled in the sun. As I held a glass, I wondered whose hand had held it and extended it in a toast to family. Even the grandchildren got to hold the crystal in toast this year. My beloveds were here! That’s a warm and happy thought indeed.
12 2014 Thanksgiving washing crystal day after
The latest additions to my gratitude journal are even more full of thanks. Being thankful ALL the time is truly a choice. You can’t complain one minute and be thankful the next. Choose optimism, choose joy.
13 2014 Thanksgiving journal
This year we placed his cutting board in the center of the table. Thank you God for good meat, for good bread, for good wine. Thank you for family and friends. –I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13 — Thank you for helping us see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, here, now.
14 2014 Thanksgiving letting the candles burn
Today I made the apple pie I didn’t have time to make for Thanksgiving. Today we’re still giving thanks.

Thank you Ethan and Gabe for taking some of the photos and thank you Holly for the delicious Candied Carrots and Baked Squash. ::smile::

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