Nuts for the Holidays

'Tis the season for gifts ... for everyone on your list and then some!  With two children in preschool, I am always busy this time of year putting together gifts for the wonderful and loving teachers at our school/daycare.  My gift each year is always a variation on the same theme: a card with a handwritten, personalized note for each teacher; cash; a scratch-off lottery ticket (one of them won $100 one year!) and a home-made goodie.  This year, I made my friend Jennie's spiced pecans, which I packaged in a pretty box and tag I made for each person.  Here are the deets on how it all came together:

* I bought the cute red and white Martha Stewart favor boxes at Michaels with one of their 40% off coupons. I think I got them for less than $5 for the pack of six.  Sweet.

* I took a few minutes and made personalized tags for each teacher.  I simply printed on white cardstock, used a small glass to draw a circle around each tag and then cut with a pair of patterned scissors for an even more fun look.  I punched a hole in the top and used ribbon to attach it to the box.

* I printed out the recipe for the pecans with a laser printer - so the recipient knew what they were and what was in them.  Then I made the pecans with a little help from my 4 year old.  Mmmmmm:  I am telling you, these pecans are ah-maz-ing.  The recipe is ridiculously simple (I will post it below my signature in this post).

* I put the spiced pecans in clear, sandwich-sized plastic baggies (about one cup per gift) and the recipe print-out in each box.  Then I closed up the boxes (which resembled little milk cartons!) and used some red satin ribbon to make a sweet bow.  Apologies to Martha, but while her boxes came with a red ribbon, it was too skinny.  So I used my own thicker, prettier ribbon.

* Finally, I put all of the boxes in an empty clementine crate to transport them to school.  I accumulate tons of these during the holidays because come on - who doesn't love clementines? I like being able to put something that would otherwise go in the trash to good use.

Are you giving any home-made treats or crafts for the holidays? Please do share!

See you swoon,

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* Spiced Pecans *

Ingredients

4 c pecan halves
1.5 tsp Kosher salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 heaping tsp dark brown sugar
1 heaping Tbsp freshly chopped rosemary leaves
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp olive oil

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place pecans on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Mix rest of ingredients together in a bowl. Remove pecans from oven and toss them together with rest of ingredients, until completely coated. Return pecans to oven for another 2-3 minutes, until toasted and fragrant, but be careful not to overcook them.

From Frank Stitt's Southern Table

Sherwin Williams, We Love You

Last night Shanna and I had a much needed "Swoon" night which always involves take out food and of course our favorite, wine!  We sit and chat about our dreams for Swoon and pine over her most amazing fan deck that was given to her by Sherwin Williams, for free.  Oh yes, they know her so well they just gave it to her!

As we sipped our wine, we discussed colors for my house since she is coming over to paint this weekend (we are so, so excited about this).  I had planned to do Sherwin William Rice Grain in the front room, however, here was the dilemma with that.  If I do the front room in rice grain then what would I do in the dining room and kitchen which are sort of attached and can be considered one room.  I need a neutral color in one space but also feel the need to have color somewhere in my house and it will not be in my furniture, I can tell you that right now (accessories is where all the color will come out in case you were wondering).

So this is what we decided and it is a huge coincidence that both names start with the word rice but these colors look perfect together and add just enough color.  You bet some before and afters are on there way to you very soon.

So I found this picture with a wall that has the rice paddy for the front room and I am totally in love! Even though those are not bamboo blinds they have a similar feel as the shades I want so now I am confident they will look great in my house!

Here is the rice grain that will go in the dining room and kitchen, this kitchen is from the Lettered Cottage:

What are some of your favorite colors in your house?

See you swoon,

Goldilocks and the Three ...

Curtains? Yes, Goldilocks (me) and the three shower curtains.  As I mentioned in the big bathroom before & after post earlier this week, the winning shower curtain was my favorite of three that I purchased.  I love it, but it took a little trial and error in settling on the One.

I searched high and low for the right shower curtain.  I figured I would start at Home Goods, Marshalls, TJ Maxx and see if I could find a really great deal.  No luck.  I also had a coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond, so I gave that a whirl.  Nada.  I really wanted a subtle pattern with a lot of white in it, but not a solid white curtain.  So I ended up where I always end up: Target.

Target has two whole aisles of shower curtains.  Yippie! I meticulously combed through every section of the aisles and found three that I really liked.  Rather than try to decide right then and there (oh the pressure!) I decided to bring all three home, give them a test drive in the space and then return the two that did not make the cut.  Of course, my husband was like OMG when I told him I bought three shower curtains, but he quickly recovered when I assured/promised him that I would only keep one.

Here are the castoffs and, finally, The One.  Note: because I was only testing out the curtains temporarily, I did not take the time to hang each and every hook.  I just needed a feel for how they would look in the room.  End caveat.

Castoff #1 - Stripes

This one was easy: as soon as I put it up, I knew it wasn't right.  The color was perfect and the stripe was really cute, but it felt too masculine and blah in the room.  I wanted something a little more pretty and a little more sophisticated.

Castoff #2 - Blue Tone on Tone Design

This one was a lot harder.  So hard, in fact, that I thought it might be The One and had it hanging for almost 24 hours.  I liked this one a lot.  I really loved that beautiful print and how it managed to bring in both the white and the soft blue in the room.  But after living with it for awhile, I began to realize that the print, while subtle, totally overwhelmed my small bathroom.  It ended up closing in the space and making it feel shorter and smaller.  So as much as I loved it, back in the packaging it went.

The One - White with Silver Modern Graphic

And here she is!  The second I put this one up, I knew it was what I wanted.  It was pretty, sophisticated, subtle, had enough white to feel clean and bright, but wasn't so white that it was impractical for how we live.  I love that the curtain is very light and airy, which is always a plus, and I figured that when I was using the shower, because it was on the sheer side, it would let in a lot of light.  There is just enough white and just enough pattern to really finish off the space.  Love.

What do you think? Did I make the right choice?

See you swoon,

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...A Holiday Party!

Holiday parties are upon us and what is the first thing you think of, that is besides holiday spirit(s) and holiday treats?  The first thing that comes to my mind and the first thing my husband has to hear is, "I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR", and then I wonder how in the heck I ever got by last year with what I currently have in my wardrobe.  Where do all the clothes go!?

So, I thought this would be the perfect time for me to show you some great ideas for this holiday/winter season.  My husband also wants me to make sure you are all aware that he picked this topic for today's post, he is a very big fan of the What Would Jamie Wear blog topics, go figure.

If you have a go to outfit this year or one that has been an outfit that you go back to time and time again share it with the rest of us (and if you can remember, let us know where you bought it), we all need these essentials to work into our wardrobe.

Victoria Secret Sweaterdress with Embellished Cuff (this woman's legs are insane, I know).  One of the things I love most about this dress besides the sparkly cuffs of course, is that it's a great dress for a holiday party and it still has sleeves.  I have been searching for dresses that I can wear out without freezing to death and this one fits the bill.

J Crew Glitterati Party Clutch (LOVE)

J Crew Sequin Oriole Dress I love this as a dress with the stockings and heels but you could also put this together with a sequin skirt and your own tank tucked in to make the outfit your own and as a bonus,  get more use out of each item.

BCBG Maxazria Geometrical Sequin Tank.  I would love to wear this tank with a pair of dressy shorts, tights, and the pumps you see above.  You could also pair it with a flowy cardigan to stay warm.  Any sequin tank would be fun and festive, a light neutral sequin tank would be  a gorgeous find and pairing it with a pair of black skinny cords or black skinny pants will make beautiful clean lines and create a very classic look.  The possibilities are endless!

See you swoon,

Shanna's Bathroom Before & After

Cue the angels and trumpets: It Is Finished!  Behold ... my beautiful, new, non-brass bathroom reveal!

 Ahhhh.  Doesn't it look nice?  One of the benefits to having a pretty small bathroom is how fast a project like this comes together.  All told, it only took about four hours (yes! four!) to transform the space and rip out those doors.  I'll give a tutorial on how to rip out the doors in a later post, but for now, I can say that it was really simple.  So simple that I was able to handle it solo.  Score.

Anyway, since I know everyone loves a good before and after, here you go:

BEFORE: as you can see, we had brass trimmed shower doors.  Yes, they were clean and functional (I will miss those towel bars for sure), but they were just so dated and the raised bar at the bottom made giving baths to the kids a real challenge.  I should note that I snapped these pictures after I put up a few test squares of the new paint color on the wall. Oops.

AFTER:  goodbye doors, hello curtain!  I think the new curtain makes the space look much more open and certainly a lot more modern.  This curtain was my favorite of three that I purchased (more on that later this week).

BEFORE:  I liked the wall color enough, but I was ready for a change. The "before" color was Behr's Smoked Oyster, which was a greyish lavender.  It was actually a great tone on the wall: softer than a normal grey but not too pink or feminine of a lavender.  Still, out with the old ...

AFTER:  ... and in with the new! I painted over the Smoked Oyster with Rarefied Air, by Sherwin Williams.  Rarefied Air is the lightest color on a blue paint strip - it's almost white.  I wanted to be more cohesive with the other colors in the house, so blue felt like a good choice.  Plus, I have always wanted a white-white-white bathroom, and Rarefied Air was just one paint color up on the paint strip from the blue in the nursery.  I absolutely love it.  As you can see, I painted above the wainscoting and the ceiling.  Sadly, the "hollywood" style bar light above the sink must stay due to the angle of the ceiling.  Yes, I could change out the mirror and do something a little more "now" but since we're planning to move in the relative near-term, I think we will make do with what we've got.

And that's about it!  Please excuse me while I go grab my favorite pen and make a big X over the "bathroom" part of my To Do list.  Yee haw.  Stay tuned for a few more posts on the transformation of this room.

See you swoon,

{I should also give a big shout-out to my brand new digital camera.  L-O-V-E.  What a difference!  I'm now using a Canon PowerShot SD 1400 IS Elph.  I have no idea what that all really means except the camera is amazing and takes great pictures. Hopefully my posts will be easier on the eyes going forward!}