pink and green + happy birthday

To celebrate Madeline's 17th birthday we decided on a pink and green theme and just went from there.  Invitations were made using card stock cut into the shape of a tag.  I got the idea of using different fonts from invitations I've seen on Pinterest.

Madeline chose 10 of her favorite quotes and we put them in inexpensive and a few re-purposed frames.  I wrapped them in gingham fabric from Walmart and they played the game of exchanging much like the rules of an ornament exchange.  I found the rules here.

Madeline insisted no candles, no singing happy birthday...so we went with flags made from Lilly Pulitzer gift wrap.  Thank you dear Elizabeth for finding LP paper!

That moment of waiting for her guests to arrive...

Shirley Temples and pink Lemonade. Photo by Bailey.

Twistbands, garden roses and miniature latte bowls from Anthropologie, frames wrapped in gingham fabric and ribbon from Walmart.  I generally wrap everything in Kraft paper, but I was imagining a lot of brown paper covering the table and decided a little piece of fabric would work well. 

Details - The place cards incorporated pink and green twistbands that the girls all love to wear.  I ordered pink stripe straws from Shop Sweet Lulu.  They arrived looking like a little gift...love that.  I made Madeleine's and put them in small cellophane bags sealed with an M sticker.  I used this recipe and they were absolutely delicious!

Brown bags for each girl to take all of her goodies home.

Trader Joe's + Lentils

 My sister was telling me about this salad she made with French green lentils, but by the time I stopped at Trader Joe's I knew there was no way I was going to make it to actually cooking green lentils and then tossing together a salad.  I'm trying to make healthier choices all day long so when I saw Trader Joe's steamed lentils...I knew this was the short cut I needed to stop me from veering off the healthy eating trail.  I still had to chop a few things, but the steamed lentils ready to eat right out of the package was just what I needed.  I did warm them, but that only took three minutes in the microwave.

Shallots, carrot, yellow bell pepper, fresh parsley and arugula.

I sauteed the thinly sliced shallots in a little olive oil until soft and then added my diced carrot and bell pepper.  Season with salt and pepper.

Cook until all the vegetables are tender and add them to the lentils.  Add the parsley,  arugula,  a little more olive oil and a splash of balsamic.  Toss together and then add a small amount of crumbled goat cheese.  I freeze my goat cheese for a couple of minutes, then crumble it into the salad and toss gently.  This way the cheese does not melt too quickly.

Enjoy!

Available at Trader Joe's for $2.99. 

                                                     Linking up with:  Savvy Southern Style

October + Halloween

What I love about Halloween is that it's in the fall and I LOVE fall.   And I love that it's at the very end of the month so I can decorate on the first of October and enjoy it until the end. 

This makes me happy every single Halloween.  My friend Nancy (the same friend that gave me the thank you fold out book I wrote about here)gave me this little photo album to be  filled with photos of my kids and their friends dressed up in costumes throughout the years.  From Piglet to a Rockette, to Darth Vader and Dracula.  I love them all and it's so fun to look back through the years. 

                                                                   

eat your vegetables

Individual creme brulee dishes by Apilco from William Sonoma. 

Individual Vegetable Gratins

Makes 4 individual gratins

When shopping for this dish, you want to try and choose vegetables that are the same size.  This is delicious the same day or the next day, slightly warmed.

Olive oil

4 or 5 shallots, depending on size and cut into small dice.

1 large garlic clove, minced

4 medium Yukon gold potatoes

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

4 roma tomatoes, any small tomatoes are fine, roma or plum work well due to their size and shape.

Salt and pepper

6 or 7 fresh springs of thyme.  Remove the leaves from all but four sprigs and chop fine.  Reserve 4 sprigs for top of gratins.

Parmesan Cheese

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Drizzle olive oil in each of the  5- inch individual gratins and place on a baking sheet.  In a medium sauté pan, heat the olive oil and add the shallots and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until they are soft.  Add the garlic and stir with the shallots for a minute, then remove from heat and spread the shallot and onion mixture on the bottom of each dish dividing evenly. 

Slice the potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes about ¼ inch in thickness.  Arrange in a circular pattern alternating the vegetables in each dish creating one layer.  Drizzle with olive oil over each dish and sprinkle each with the fresh thyme, salt and pepper.  Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove foil and place 5or 6 shards of Parmesan cheese shaved with a vegetable peeler.  Add one sprig of fresh thyme and put back in oven and bake just until cheese melts.

Small But Charming . . . flowers in the house

Jane at Small But Charming is having another "Flowers in the House" party...go over and check it out.   Jane has some pretty fall blooms from her garden in her kitchen. 

White roses are ubiquitous around here.  I'm not even sure what they are called, but they are everywhere....Not very seasonal, but I like the way they look in my glassybaby votive called Ocean in our powder room.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a glassybaby.

with gratitude

September marks one year of starting my blog.  I have learned so much and still have so much to learn, but I must say this last year has been wonderful.  I have "met" so many amazing people.  Through writing and reading blogs I have really figured out a lot about what I like.  Style when it comes to fashion, food and home decor have always been important to me, but through blogs I think I have defined my true style.  One thing that maybe surprised me is that I have defined my style to fit one word and that is simplicity.  To mark my one year anniversary I would like to do my first give away.  Through blogs I have fallen in love with the company Glassybaby Forever.  I love the story behind them and adore having them in my home.  So I'm giving away a Glassybaby called appropriately "Gratitude" to one of my readers.

Thank you for reading l o v e l y t h i n g s  and for your comments and encouragement.  A winner will be selected through random.org on October 16th.  Remember to check back on Monday to see if you've won.  To enter you must be a follower.  Leave a comment here and tell me which Glassybaby is your favorite.  To receive an extra entry, please mention this giveaway on your blog.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

laundry rooms and small houses

On the cover of the most recent IKEA catalog,  the caption says, "A home does not need to be big, just smart."  That is so true.  I know some people love big houses, but for me, I like small, smart ones.   One space that is so important is the laundry room.  When we were building our house I had many conversations with our architect about this.  I said I did not need a large space, although that would be heaven.  There are some fabulous laundry rooms out there...Mary Anne from Classic.Casual.Home did a post on them here.

Here's my short list on what I must have:

1.  a window
2.  a bar to hang things on hangers when they are drying
3.  room for a drying rack for things that cannot be placed on hangers
4.  a clothes sorter
5.  a full size washer and dryer


Things I would like to have:

1.  upstairs laundry room in a two story house
2.  a sink

There's not a lot of space in this tiny room, but it functions beautifully.  It has a bar to the left for hanging clothes for drying, room for a sorter since I stacked the washer/dryer and a drying rack.  There's even space for a very small sink.   The architect had the W/D side by side with a door that opened in to the right.  Hello....did he not hear a word I said?  I even sent him the photo of my previous laundry room. (bottom of post)

The solution to a door that opened into the room....double doors that open out and sit flush against the space on either side when they are left open.  By having doors that open out it did not lose any space inside the tiny room.  There's no space to fold clean laundry, but since the laundry rooms is upstairs, there's plenty of beds to fold and sort laundry.  And since it's upstairs, we kept the small stack-able washer/dryer in the garage for sandy beach towels.

This was our laundry room in our previous home in Connecticut.  It was by no means perfect, but I knew what worked and what I needed to make it functional.  It had a pocket door so that was not an issue.  I have all the important items on my list:  Window, bar to hang, folding rack, clothes sorter, full size washer and dryer.  Since I did not need to stack it in this space, I can fold on top of the machines.  I do laundry almost everyday.  We are a family of four and so that means we have about 6 to 8 items each per day.  Workout clothes, regular clothes, Pajamas, plus underwear, towels and linens.  And that's times 4....I think we are a pretty average family, but does everyone have this much laundry?  Do you have a day of the week for this one chore for you or someone else to accomplish?  I do it everyday because that way it never feels overwhelming.  Having my laundry room upstairs makes it that much easier to put clothing away, so it never feels daunting.  What are your laundry tricks?