Once a year, I clean the crystal chandelier in the dining room.  It happens to coincide with my holiday decorating.  For some reason, the rest of the year I overlook the dust on the crystals, probably because it is evenly dusty!  But once the glitter village and snow globes go up, the dullness of the chandelier catches my eye.

Quite honestly, there is really no easy way to do this (at least I haven’t discovered it yet).  This chandelier came with us during our move to Bella Terra.  Once candle lit only, we had it electrified and it has hung in our last two dining rooms.   I love the 12 arms and the crystals are not overabundant (except when you have to clean each and every one).

The cups that sit under each candle collect the most dust.

I start by laying down old towels on top of the table.  With a spray bottle of white vinegar and water, I spray each and every crystal and cup. With a soft towel, I wipe each and every crystal and cup…..good for toning the arms!!! 🙂

The view from below doesn’t show all the crystals.  Each arm has approximately 3o individuals crystals of varying sizes.

It never fails that one crystal will fall off during this process.  The purpose of the towel is to break its fall, however, this one bounced off the table and landed on the stone fireplace hearth.

Therefore, I keep a box of extras, just in case.  You can also find crystal replacements online.

Though most people won’t realize the chandelier has been cleaned, I know this will bump up the sparkle effect in the dining room, especially at night.

Wishing you a week of shiny and bright!

 

The theme in the dining room for the holidays is all snow and glitter.  Each year I build a snow village using several paper/cardboard glitter houses.  There are many ways to make your own on Pinterest, but I purchased these affordable, yet adorable houses over the years. They are readily available in many retail stores.

The buffet in the dining room is the perfect spot for this.  I leave the lace runner (a favorite handmade piece from our trip to Italy) in place and add a strand of white lights. I also leave the table lamps and add a small wreath to each.  A winter painting is placed in the small window above.

Next, I add items to create varying heights~~ a cake stand and different size boxes.

Using old white napkins and linens (they can be torn or stained, it won’t matter), I cover the boxes, and place the lights on top of the linens.

Next I add my village houses and churches. Like an old town, the church is at the highest point and in the center.

Then, I add trees.  Mine don’t match.  They are an odd compilation of evergreen, wood with glitter and funky, but it all seems to work.

Next I add another string of lights.  The purpose of this string is to insert the bulbs in the back of the houses.  Each of them have a hole in the back.

Taking the time to do this is rewarding as the little house looks so magical, as if the lights are on and somebody’s home.

The remainig lights are laid around the bases and in between the trees.

You can get packaged snow from any hobby store (mine is from Michael’s).  It is 100% polyester, flame retardant and comes in a roll.

I cannot take credit for this part.  My dear friend, Janie, taught me this trick years ago and I think it produces fabulous results.  It’s important to pull apart the fine layers of batting (vs. clumping) and drape the snow over the lights.  You can layer it or mound it up, but the key is to keep the “snow” or batting a light as possible.  The effect is so lovely, almost heavenly.

The snow hides all the wiring and lights and bases, producing a soft glow.

At night, with the lamps off, this snow village is so dreamy and enchanting! Now I am off to put out all the snow globes!!! Happy decorating!

Having the extra time between Thanksgiving and December has been such a gift.  I have been easing into holiday decorating, pulling out the easy stuff that doesn’t require 2 or 3 sets of hands. First stop, the bedrooms.

My artistic daughter has such a beautiful bedroom.  There is an unusual combination of windows that face east~~2 Palladian-style windows and a port hole one over her bed.  She has always loved the color black and was delighted when I painted her room that color.  John, our expert painter, was skeptical, but with tall white baseboards and wide trim around the doors and windows, the black is just stunning.

Playing on the color theme, I used black and white checked ribbon to hang small wreaths in the windows.

Wired ribbon is so easy to curl any way you want and it hides the push pin.

A battery operated candle is placed in each of the windows on the front of the house.  I purchased these from Frontgate and the flickering flame is rather realistic.  They also have a timer option so each night at 6:00 p.m. all the candles light up. They don’t have this exact style online but they do have something similar and it is on sale~click here.

In order to give the candle more height, my husband cut blocks of wood, which are wrapped to look like presents.

Christmas pillows, and we have many, are an easy way to quickly make a room festive. These sweet ones go on all the beds.

This colorful selection perks up the family room sofa. Most were purchased from Pottery Barn.

As with most older, historical homes, this one gets drafty and chilly in the winter.  Flannel sheets go on all the beds in the children’s rooms and holiday quilts are added on top.

I find it rather fun to change out the artwork during the year and will be hanging all these today.

This weekend the bigger decorating projects will start and wreaths will go up.

It’s been an overcast, cooler week here in Phoenix.  Perfect for taking things slowly.  Have a wonderful weekend……I’m off to make some pumpkin bread!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It was so nice having all the children home and the house filled with their friends.  Today, as I take all the Thanksgiving items and store them away until next year, here are some random musings about the holiday.

We had the biggest turkey ever~~a whopping 28 lbs, delivered by Jimmy from Personal Gourmet, a local company who specializes in restaurant grade meat and fish. Typically, we have done this to our turkey:

But this year, my foodie son suggested we dry brine the turkey for 24 hours.  Honestly, I have never heard of dry brining and was a bit skeptical but it was so easy.  After patting the turkey dry, we sprinkled the bird with a combination of salt and baking powder.  This apparently changes the pH of the skin. We refrigerated it uncovered for 15 hours (can do up to 3 days).

Instead of a roasting pan, we put the bird in a V-rack on a cookie sheet.  According to Serious Eats, this increases air flow for even cooking.  In order to have the dark meat cook at the same rate of the white breast meat, we placed the cookie sheet on a preheated pizza stone.  You can find all the details on how to do this by clicking here.

This was, hands down, the most delicious turkey we have ever had.  The dry brining was SO easy.  I did add some herb butter between the skin and the breast meat before roasting, but other than that, we hardly basted it (maybe once).  The skin was so crispy and it sealed in most of the juices. We declared this a winner and this will be the recipe of choice when we roast a turkey in the future.

Thanksgiving Day started with blood orange mimosas.  We found the oranges at Whole Foods and it was a nice alternative to regular orange juice mimosas.

Every year, my husband makes his famous pumpkin pies.

And my son, Benjamin and I make a cake from Tessa Huff‘s incredible cake book, Layered.

Presenting (drumroll)…..the Butterscotch Bourbon Cake.

With the table set and ready to go, we enjoyed a delicious meal with family and friends.

Friday was a relaxing day (thank goodness as I was pooped) and, as we do each year, watched the Wizard of Oz, which is my favorite movie.

And took our annual family photo~~it seems to be more difficult to get everyone looking somewhat normal at the same time.  Of course, the battery was low in the camera and hopefully with some editing, we will have a Christmas photo for our card.

Hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving.  Today, all the autumn decorations come down and onto Christmas! I leave one Christmas related item out all year long and this sits on the mantle in the breakfast room.  I purchased this Christmas car waterless “snowglobe”from eBay.  Created by artist Alicia Reiner, each is hand signed and numbered.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A year ago today, I sent my first blog post of Life at Bella Terra.  It was an intimidating moment, because I thought “who would ever want to read this?”  I don’t consider myself a very good writer and I’m really trying to improve upon that.  But your words of encouragement have brought me back to the computer to post again and again.  If it wasn’t for your kindness and support, it would have been easy to just quit.  Thank you for your loyalty and feedback and comments. Truly. From the bottom of my heart.

Each time I send out an email letting you know I’ve created a new post, I am praying you find it interesting, enlightening or even motivating.  I try to share a small piece of loveliness in hopes that I can brighten your day. As I look out into the world, I believe we each need to find sources of joy and create our own beauty.  Whether it be feeling the warmth from a freshly picked tomato, or the scent of a homegrown flower, these moments of perfection can only help feed the soul.

Blogging for me, is a chance to stop and capture a sliver of time, an exquisite photo or a recipe that bursts with flavor. Plus it is forcing me to attack those cluttered corners of the house or undone projects while showing you my progress. But I can honestly say, I am still a long way from feeling confident about creatively illustrating that to you. But I will keep trying.

So here is a look back at the year and some of my favorite photos and posts.

My very first blog post was about the New York Times Bestselling author, Rhys Bowen and the fundraising English tea we had here at Bella Terra.

And other events we happily hosted here…..

Recipes shared…..

My Renovations and Restorations….

Travel and leisure…..

Decorating and Design…

The holidays….

Cleaning, Organizing, and Updating…

Sharing our home and yard….

My attempt at art….

Flower arranging..

Our pets…

And a few DIYs….

My online store….

There is still so much to learn, especially better photography, writing and getting my watermarks the same size on every photo.  So thank you again for following me and sharing my blog with others.

PLEASE send in your comments~~What area of interest would you like for me to expand? What are your favorite topics? How often should I post (trying to do a maximum of twice per week)? What can I do to be better for you?  My goals for the next year are to do a contest or giveaway and conduct a real survey into your likes and interests.

Here’s to one year and onto the next!! I couldn’t have done it without you.

 

 

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