homemaker dinner party

This past weekend I hosted a little girl's night at my house. I invited all the girls I knew that are recently engaged or married or are in a relationship that will definitely, most likely, almost definitely turn into marriage material! Haha. It was so much fun!! By no means am I saying that in my 2 years and 2 months of marriage that I have all (any of) the wisdom, but I also know that I would have liked the perspective of a women JUST on the other side of the fence when I was getting married. One with no kids, one who was just barely not a newlywed herself. So that is what I did. I invited these ladies into my home and we had a wonderful night talking weddings, engagement stories, recipes, crafts, and our men. (in the best way possible of course!)

DIYs

1. Card making

 We made some fab cards together ranging from birthday, thank you, bridal shower, you name it! These girls got so creative with it I loved seeing the end products!

  2. Homemade Laundry Detergent

The next DIY we did together was making laundry detergent. It was a practical & different craft for them to take home! I will post the "recipe" on the blog in a few days!

each girl got her own jar to take home! They all added different combos of the essential oils so they all came out so different and yummy smelling!

Dinner, dessert, sweets, & treats

Making dinner together was a blast! We made balsamic & brown sugar chicken with oven roasted potatoes, spinach salad with blue cheese and dinner rolls. 

After dinner we made some "Polar Express hot cocoa" (again, another post for another day...so.good)

and the last girlie left standing and I watch a movie.

swag bags.

Whats a party without swag??

I picked up these awesome bags for 0.99 each at Office Depot of all places and filled it with goodies!

Cute socks for the colder weather that is (eventually??) coming, kleenex for the purse, my favorite cleaning tool the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, a printed M-F cleaning schedule by Squirrelly Minds and a gorgeous scripture printable by French Press Mornings. They were also able to take their DIY laundry detergent and their homemade vanilla (not shown above) home in their cute bags!

Like I said we had a blast and it was so much fun hearing about all their wedding plans and what is going on in their lives. It was seriously an awesome evening!

Cleaning printable can be found HERE

Scripture printable can be found HERE

fall mug swap + online community

One of my favorite thing about the blogging world (my favorite actually!) is meeting the other women in it! It is crazy how you can feel a connection to women you have never and may not ever meet. We are connected by our stories and the similarity in our struggles and joys. We are connected by a comradity brought on by similar tragedy or victory - we cheer each other on and pray for one another with many miles in between. Sure sometimes it is catty and judgey and the claws come out on sensitive subjects, but for the most part I am proud to be part of such an amazing online community. 

Another fun perk of this community is all the swapping that goes on! Ornament swapping, mug swapping, headband swapping....the list goes on. It is so fun to participate in these things because you get a chance to connect once again in a way that is different. You get to know the person, you follow their blog and Pinterest and by the end it is like sending a gift to a friend! 

The Fall Mug Swap put on by the wonderful Amanda Lynne from Amanda Lynne Designs.

I hopped on board as soon as one of my besties (in real life! I love when the blogging and real world collide!!) Ali from Ballpoint + Pen told me about it. Give a mug, get a mug. I am all over it.

My mug swap buddy Chrissy from The Pearl Blog sent me the most amazing package! Not only did it contain a gorgeous mug that is as we speak filled to the brim with yummy coffee, but also she sent me cocoa packets, cookies, a HOMEMADE scarf (what? awesome!) an awesome flower ring and the striped stationary set! (someone has been peeping my office supply obsession board on Pinterest!) 

See mug swaps or any swap for that matter, are the best. You get to know a new friend explore a new blog and just participate in this wonderful online community!

My mug swap story has a little more drama! Haha I peeped her Pinterest, read about her on Facebook, followed her Instagram...I knew this lady loved owls and fall. I immediately ordered this little HOOT in white and had it delivered to my house. Well it got stolen off my porch (boo!!) so after 2 calls to UPS, 1 call to West Elm and many unbloggable phrases to my hubby about hooligans running around the neighborhood drinking about of MY owl mug (when did I turn 80...geez!) I just decided in the spirit of Fall Mug Swap to just suck it up and order a new one and have it sent to HER house instead of mine. All turned out fine, she loved the mug and did not already own it! (phew!)

Off to drink coffee out of my new mug and put my new scarf on! 

gather. week 5.

I am so behind! Our lovely friends came over like 2 weeks ago!

We had a blast hosting dinner  as always. 

It was the first time inviting over brand new friends and it was so much fun! I feel like I actually got to know so much about them and we were able to relax and talk and share a meal! We also bonded over our mutual love of boston terrier dogs...I am trying my hardest to convince them that they NEED one!

Because it was new friends I decided to do a make your own pizza bar. That way I could get a feel for what our new friend's likes & dislikes were without having to stress about if I made the "right thing" or not!! It was a lot of fun and we all ended up having different combinations of toppings!

 {The dough ended up looking a little ahem...rustic}

While our pizzas baked we had a little charcuterie and before dinner drinks. I know what you are thinking...it looks like a lot of meat, cheese, and bread was consumed this night. Well you are right. And it was delish. 

I blogged about these drinks earlier but for the girlies I made Peach Gin Fizz  & for the gents I made Rosemary Vodka Martinis which we also featured at Greg's 28th birthday party bash back in August.

We finished the night off with our usual coffee & dessert. Our gracious guest brought these delicious chewy cookies from Whole Foods and a vanilla bean ice cream. Hello!

gather: week 4

Last week we were able to squeeze in a dinner with dear friends at the end of the week after many failed attempts to get together due to schedules! 

We had our friends Nicolai & Ali from Ballpoint + Pen over with their two precious little girlies!

We have known these two for a long time! When we were dating our respective mates Ali & I lived together and Greg & Nicolai lived together so we all spent A LOT of time together!! We called it the "guys house" which had 5 guys living in it and the "girl's house" which was chocked full of 6 girls in a three bedroom house! One of which was also dating a guy who lived with Greg & Nicolai!

{insert stereotypical Christian joke here}

Yes it was ridiculous....ridiculously fun! Haha!!

After weddings and babies we no longer get to spend hours on end together having movie marathons and Christmas in November celebrations that last entire weekends. But we do get dinner and the joy of seeing each others families grow and catching up!!

1 carton mixed mini heirlooms, 2 cloves garlic, minced, a handful of basil, chopped, olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. Sometimes I throw in red onion and corn too! Mix together and let sit for at least 1/2 an hour to let the flavors mingle!

I kept it fairly light since it was a hot day when they came over. 

{I did baked chicken with garlic & herbs}

{a heirloom tomato & basil salad}

{and a corn and green bean ragout}

I snapped just a few pictures of our time together since my phone was mysteriously missing for most of the time they were here....I blame it on the 2 year old! Ha.

We loved getting together with them and catching up on life!

Gather: community dinner #3

 I completely forgot to post this last week, so now I am a week behind with community dinners! 

Whoops! So there might be two posts this week!

We had one of my BFFs over & her boyfriend. I know what you are thinking...we aren't branching out much yet with these dinners! Haha it's true...so far we have had very good friends over each time and not a lot of new friends. Please know that these dinners with good friends are SO overdue!
So new friends being added to the docket soon...but for now oldies but goodies! : )

I roasted a chicken, which is one of my favorite things to do when we have guests.
I just rub the top with salt, pepper, fresh garlic and olive oil and then cut up potatoes, onions and carrots and bake it all at 350 for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours until it is done all the way through and the potatoes and carrots are soft.

We had coffee and cookies after dinner and played Monopoly Deal...which turned out to be super fun...who knew?!

I don't think I will ever get tired of having people in my home! It is a challenge to think up recipes and a pain to wash so many dishes (truth!) but it is so worth it for catching up, discussing deep things, laughing at silly things, and just living life together!

day trip to Napa

This Labor Day weekend the Mr. & I took a day trip to Napa with our good friends to celebrate one of their birthdays! It was so nice to be out and about on such a wonderful, sunny day!

We started off the day at one of our (collectively - both couples!) favorite breakfast places Howard's Station in Occidental. I may have ordered the Irish Benedict which has homemade corned beef hash instead of the canadian bacon. And it was mighty good. 

 Our next stop was Olive Oil, Balsamic, & Fresh Mozzarella tasting at Figone's in Kenwood. 

I left there with a lemon olive oil for a certain mom-in-law's birthday...but shhh she is in Texas all week so probably won't read this until after she gets it! : )

Our next and final stop was at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa. It is a wonderful indoor market with way too much good food and drinks! We had lunch, dessert, and coffee inside!

We ended up eating at a South American eatery called Pica Pica which served up some delish pulled beef and coleslaw on a sweet corn fritter. What? So yum.

We ended the lovely day at Ritual Coffee before having to run home to babies and doggies. 

It was so much fun, I can't wait for more weekend adventures!

family dinner week 2

Like I said - I am loving this weekly dinner thing. It is so.much.fun.

This week we had our good friends Jake & Kailey over. We know them from church originally and they are one of the neatest couples we know! Love them!

 I thought long and hard about this menu when our CSA box arrived and inside were the most delicious looking figs & peaches. (Among other yummy things!!) I knew the flavor combo would be a winner but as I was doing my morning blog reading I came across the words {grilled peach and fig sliders} on James from Bleubird Blog's instagram post about the Kinfolk gathering dinner she attended. 

Ummm...yummm!

How could I not? I decided to pair it with spicy sweet potato fries and the broccoli was an afterthought, but I do love broccoli, especially oven roasted with parmesan! 

You will be surprised how many sweet potato fries one sweet potato yields. I used 2 for 4 people!

I paired the spicy sweet potato fries with a simple garlic lemon aioli
3/4 C mayo, 2 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice, 3 garlic cloves minced, salt & pepper to taste.

Everything turned out so yummy and it was such a fun night!

I may have made another Pazooki. Maybe.

Sasquatch just love having company! Haha

week 1 - family dinners.

I decided that now that I have more time I want to have friends/family over for dinner once a week. Old friends, new friends, our families, you name it! I also love trying new recipes on my friends, so its a perfect combo. : )

Well this last week we started out with some of our best, dearest, and long time friends and their sweet firecracker of a daughter! I was able to use the homemade cheese & ricotta that I posted last week for a fab pizza party.

I kind of love when the dough looks a little wonky makes it feel more homemade and rustic! 

We made a combo pizza with the ricotta, pepperoni, organic sausage, tomato, & bell pepper. 

and one caprese or margarita pizza...basil was added later.

We ended the night with a giant pazookie that we all shared straight out of the pan with spoons.

I love our friends. I love sharing dinner with them, they are such a blessing in our lives!!