We love receiving holiday cards from family and friends. It’s the time of year to catch up on people’s lives and each and every card is opened with great anticipation. Instead of putting all the cards into a bowl or basket, we like to hang them where they can be seen. The butler’s pantry, which…
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…
Food seems to taste much better when served in a beautiful setting. Even though I didn’t have an extravagant childhood, my mother always set a lovely table for the holidays, using her Franciscan Ware apple pattern. Are you setting a Thanksgiving table? If so, here are some of my tips and tricks to creating a…
I know some people are not fond of Halloween, but I have such great childhood memories going trick or treating with my siblings in our small Connecticut town. There was a cemetery across the street from our Dutch Colonial house. We would run by it really fast imagining all sorts of ghoulish things, squealing the…
Being on the receiving end of a visually gorgeous gift is exciting. I have always appreciated someone taking the extra time to make the outside of the gift as thoughtful as the inside. When we were restoring Bella Terra, I designed a gift wrapping space in our mud room ~~a place to hold all the…