Table Setting Etiquette

With Christmas coming up, I'm sure many of you will be hosting parties. So I will be showing you different ways to set your table depending on your needs.

Breakfast/Lunch

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This is a casual setting. You can take out the large soup bowl if it is not needed.

A- Dinner Plate

B- Soup Bowl

C- Bread & Butter Plate

D- Teacup & Saucer

E- Water/Juice Glass

F- Napkin

G- Dinner Fork

H- Dinner Knife

I- Teaspoon

Dinner

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This is similar to the Breakfast/Lunch setting, just with a few extras. Notice there is no soup bowl. It is usually served as an appetizer, so begin by taking the salad plate off the dinner plate, placing the soup bowl on the dinner plate, then returning with the salad (place next to the bread plate).

A- Dinner Plate

B- Salad Plate

C- Bread & Butter Plate

D- Teacup & Saucer

E- Napkin

F- Water Glass

G- Wine Glass

H- Salad Fork

I- Dinner Fork

J- Dinner Knife

K- Soup Spoon

L- Teaspoon

Formal Dinner

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This is where the big guns come out. You can add more stemware than I have pictured, if necessary. You can have: red wine, white wine, water, champagne flute, and a teacup. You can also add a charger underneath the dinner plate. If you do, NOTE: CHARGERS ARE TO BE REMOVED BEFORE THE MEAL BEGINS!

A-Dinner Plate

B-Salad Plate

C- Small Soup Bowl

D- Napkin (with napkin ring!)

E- Teacup & Saucer

F- Bread & Butter Plate

G- Water Glass

H- Wine Glass

I- Salad Fork

J- Dinner Fork

K- Formal Butter Spreader

L- Steak Knife

M- Dinner Knife

N- Soup Spoon

O- Teaspoon

P- Dessert Fork

Q- Dessert Spoon

Helpful Hints

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-If you're not sure which fork/spoon to use, start from the outside and work your way in.

-Knives should always have the cutting edge facing in, towards the plate.

-The host/hostess should always sit at the head of the table (but we already knew that, right?)

-Charger plates are for decoration only, so it should be removed before the meal begins.

- The meal begins when the host unfolds their napkin, then the guests do the same. The napkin stays on your lap the entire meal, but you can use it to gently blot your mouth. If you need to leave the table, place your napkin to the left of the dinner plate or your chair. Once the meal is over, the napkin goes to the right of your dinner plate (don't refold it though, but don't wad it up either!)

I hope this helps when you host your holiday dinner parties!

Have a beautiful December day!

Wedding Photography

I've been breaking my back (almost literally) on my newest reveal, so I have nothing new and exciting to show you.
BUT
I wanted to show you my wedding photo's new home: above the entertainment center.

If you live in my Wisconsin/U.P area, then you MUST check out my wedding photographer's website.
http://www.jennphotodesign.com/
Even if you don't live in my area, check out the site anyways.
You will find more pictures of me (my engagement photos), you can check out her blog, or at least get ideas on how to take awesome photos! She does great work!
Now go check it out!
And tell Jenn that I say hi ;)

Faux Shutter Headboard

I showed you these tiny shutters I scored a while ago.
I had to have them! I got busy on this project right away.

I took some existing hardware off the sides and used it to fuse these shutters together.

Don't be wasteful, right? Anyways, this is what it looked like at that point.
After tediously repairing the slats (they were just falling everywhere!) and giving it a few good coats of my trusty white spray paint, it was ready to hang above my daughter's bed. A faux headboard.

It looked a bit bare, so I popped on a wreath that I found while thrift shopping, and it felt complete.

My daughter was given strict instructions not to ruin this, because I'm thinking it will have a permanent place above this built-in bed. Then again, those instructions probably fall on deaf ears, being only a 1-year-old.

This is what it turned out to be:

Much better!

Anyways, after a few nerve-wracking roadblocks, I'm plugging along quite fast on my new reveal. Though I still see the final product to be months away, I already have some sneak peeks for you!
I have a busy week coming up, but I will try my best to complete all my promised projects!

Cookie Cutter Wreath

Yesterday I showed you a cute Powder Puff Wreath for your bathroom. Today I'm going to show you a Cookie Cutter Wreath, perfect for your kitchen (okay, okay, mine's in my entryway, but it leads to the kitchen, so it counts!)




Cookie Cutter Wreath
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Try finding old metal cookie cutters from thrift stores. It saves a ton on this project!



Supplies
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-glue (I chose Gorilla Glue for it's strength)
-metal cookie cutters
-large paper or cardboard (to trace out your perimeters)
-spray primer (make sure it's the stuff for metal!)
-spray paint (I chose white)
-ribbon (I bought a red pre-made bow)





Directions
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1. Using a large dinner plate, trace a circle on your paper or cardboard.
2. Make 1 row of cookie cutters, being careful not to go outside the lines (use two rows if you have small cookie cutters or if you are making a larger wreath)
3. Play with the placement of the cookie cutters until you get a design that you think will not only look good, but be easy to glue (i.e. lots of surface space to glue the pieces together)
4. Once you're set with the design, take pieces out 1 at a time to apply your glue.
5. Once all the pieces are glued together, let it dry.
6. When it's dry, apply a coat of spray metal primer. Don't skip this step! Paint comes off so easily off of metals, and you don't want to take this wreath out of storage and see that it's ruined!
7. After the primer is dried (I had to bring mine indoors to dry, darn cold weather!) apply your spray paint. I chose white.

8. Let the spray paint dry, then attach your bow.
9. Now you're ready to hang!

I want to make two more wreaths for my patio door, but I haven't yet decided how I want to do it. I was thinking of wheat grasses for a Scandinavian look. I'm not sure yet, but I will definitely show you when I get them done!


I'm thinking that tomorrow I will show you what I did with those old shutters. Sound like a plan?

Powder Puff Wreath

I hope everyone's having fun today for Black Friday!

I think the door busters are getting worse and worse. Does anyone agree? It always used to be really cool stuff. I will probably pick up some towels since I have to go to work later on this afternoon, but that will be all. My big Black Friday trip, haha.

Anyways, I'll give everyone a really cool project to do after you're done sorting through your goodies.

Powder Puff Wreath

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The genius of a wreath is obviously made for the bathroom. I'm completely smitten with it.

Supplies

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-cardboard

-powderpuffs (amount will vary with the size you do your wreath. I found packages of 3 at Walmart)

-glue

-ribbon (I did two different colors. One to make a bow, one to hang the wreath. You may only need the bow depending on how you are choosing to hang it.)

-Accents: I chose craft mirrors in assorted sizes and jewels colored to match my bathroom. (Choose your own accordingly)

-Xacto knife

Directions

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1. Lay out your cardboard. Take a large dinner plate, place it on your cardboard face-down, then trace around it.

2. Do the same as above, but with a smaller plate, in the middle of the circle you made with the large plate. Use your Xacto knife to cut on the lines. That gives you your wreath form.

3.Start gluing your powderpuffs, puff side down, onto your wreath form. Continue this all the way around.

4. Glue on top layer of powderpuffs, placing the top layer at the seams of the bottom layer (like laying brick) until you've done in all the way around. (Refer to the pictures if I'm losing you.)

5. Let that dry long enough that when you tug on a powderpuff, it won't come loose. (I used Gorilla Glue.)

6. Start putting on your accents. This is how I did mine, but you're free to do whatever you like:

I alternated the mirror sizes all the way around on the top layer powderpuffs. I had silver and blue jewels, so I alternated colors all the way around the mirrors. Then I placed a silver jewel on the little part that you could see from the bottom layer.

7. Make a ribbon for your wreath and attach it.

8. I then attached a long, thick white ribbon to the back of my wreath to hang it with. I love wreaths hanging from ribbon. It's so classy!

9. Hang it up, and enjoy!

Alright, I have a laundry list of things for you to check out:

-What I did with those old shutters

-A fancy table dressing

-I'm giving a tuturial (with lots of pictures!) on different ways to dress your table, depending on your needs.
-Another wreath (almost done with it!)

-A few different styles of ornaments

-Highlights of the 6th annual Festival of Lights

-sneak peeks and my newest reveal

-tons of holiday recipes

My school semester is ending mid-December, so a girl's got to stay busy, right?

Stick around ;)