“P” is for Pink Pancakes and Pajamas

Our oldest chickadee, Miss Chickadee, is in pre-school, and “the letter of the week” this week is “P,” so they were having a Pajama Party at school.  Since they were coming over later in the day—all three of them in their pajamas—:) we decided we should have breakfast for dinner—Pink Pancakes, in our Pajamas (yes, we were going to get into our PJs too, but there was no time for costume changes for my husband and me.  We had hungry little bears on our hands!)

Ms. Chickadee had done some Valentine’s Day decorating around here earlier in the week, so the original plan was that we would have the strawberry and cream cheese French toast they love, but when “P” came into play we went for Pancakes instead, but kept the Valentine theme and made them Pink—and heart-shaped!

Well, they were kind’a heart-shaped. :)   I don’t have a heart-shaped pancake mold, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have a BIG HEART cookie cutter, so I didn’t even take the time to look.  Freehand they were…    The whipped cream is of course made with my handy-dandy iSi cream whipper I told you about HERE.  Yum!!  These chickadees LOVE, LOVE, LOVE whipped cream!

Before the chickadee flock arrived, in keeping with our Valentine theme I quickly put a table together for them~

  The snowy trees, silver pieces, and white (snow) cutwork runner I’d kept out after Christmas were quickly repurposed to serve as a Valentine centerpiece.  The trees were decorated with felt heart cutouts I bought a few years ago, and a few other red/heart touches were sprung into play.

{And the Blue Hour was upon us…that’s always a special time.}

 

Believe me, taking this picture was NOT easy—these chickadees (in their P’jammies) were HUNGRY!!

 

HAPPY EARLY VALENTINE’S DAY!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Friday at Tatertots and Jello

Friday at French Country Cottage

Friday at The36th Avenue

Friday at Bacon Time

Friday at It's Overflowing

Friday at Shine on Fridays

Fridays at Stuff and Nonsense

Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff

Sunday at DIY Show Off

Tuesday at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life

Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Wednesday at DIY by Design

Thursday at No Minimalist Here

Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage

Thursday at House of Hepworth

Thursday at Jennifer Rizzo

From my nest to yours, ~Zuni

Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Dessert Bar

Our dear friends came to visit for the weekend—the perfect opportunity to spoil them a little.  We texted them while they were en route:  “Arrive hungry…we have LOTS of goodies for dinner and dessert!”

For dessert we had a HOT CHOCOLATE BAR set up.

I used our sons’ baby cups for the mini marshmallows and tiny chocolate chips.

Vintage napkins I turn to often, because they are so sweet.  They were a gift from my dear MIL from their years when they lived in Mexico, where my FIL was sent by General Tire. 

My iSi cream whipper was at the ready, of course, (you can read about this wonderful kitchen tool HERE), and the vintage silver cocktail shaker my mother gave me was perfect for the hot chocolate…LOVE this piece.

    Gifts from my SIL, I use these spoons often too, because I think they’re so pretty.

These sweet little sugar tongs now repurposed to serve the mini marshmallows.

And yes, we also had fruit on hand, in case we wanted to add something healthy to our dessert. :)

A not-so-mini chocolate-chocolate Bundt cake, garnished with peanut butter fudge curls and bite-size pieces for walking by and grabbing one or two, plus dark-chocolate on butter cookies, and of course, kisses.

My husband’s favorite aunt used to make peanut butter fudge for us, but now that she’s gone he’s happy to have found an excellent substitute at Krema.  Krema is local, but they ship everywhere.  You won’t go wrong with them, I promise.

And other walk-by treats.

But this was the BEST part…our family gathered together to spend time with our friends.

Our friends are so sweet.  They love everything we do to make their visit special, and they enjoy EVERY.SINGLE.DETAIL.  That makes it so much fun! 

What do you do when you have guests?  I’d love to hear your idea of pampering guests for our future visitors. 

I’ll be posting the recipe for my Espresso Hot Chocolate soon. ~~

Cake stand – Crate and Barrel, several years ago, a gift from my cousin

Mugs – House Beautiful, Marshall Field’s, years ago

Spoons – 1847 Rogers Bros., Columbia

Sugar tongs – Vintage Forbes Silver Co.

Cake plate – gift from my MIL many years ago; Dome – Bombay Company

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to Google+ this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Mop it Up Monday at http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com

Tuesdays at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Wednesdays at Let’s Dish: http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Wednesdays at Wow Us: http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Share Your Cup Wednesday at http://jannolson.blogspot.com/

Thursdays at Tabletop Thursday: http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Thursdays at Home Sweet Home: http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Fridays at Feathered Nest: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home Fridays at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Inspiration Friday at http://www.atthepicketfence.com

Sundays at The Tablescaper: http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

From my nest to yours~  Chickadee Home Nest

Taming the Monster in the Basement

The good news is we have a HUGE basement…the bad news is it’s a HUGE basement!  It’ll be eight years next month that we moved into our home, and it was only about six months ago that I decided made peace with the fact that we’re staying—at least for a while.  You see, we moved from the BIG house, thinking we were going to simplify our lives, only to realize, about two days after the move, that we NEEDED a big house.  Too much furniture, too many pretty things I (well, actually we, to some extent) didn’t want to part with.  So….thank heavens for a big basement!

When I finally decided to unpack EVERYTHING a few months ago (we’re staying, remember??), our basement looked like this:

Stuff everywhere, as I got my arms around the massive amount of stuff we had.  Yes, in the old house we DID use all these Christmas trees!  And the hammock…and the wrought iron plant stands…

Then, to make matters worse :) my brother and SIL introduced me to auctions…hmmm.  Just what I needed.  A NEW monster was created, and sometimes our basement looked like this:

Shelves organized, then new stuff would come in.  And the problem with auctions is that you sometimes end up with things you don’t want too.  It’s called box lots, where you bid on a box of stuff because of ONE thing you want, but you get the whole box full of other stuff you don’t want.  Do I need more snack sets (see the boxes stacked under the table?)?  Not.a.single.one.  My parents always had nice big parties—as in no paper plates, regardless of the number of guests—and the snack plates and punch cups were always put to use.  I think it’s a safe estimate to say that they had more than 100 of each, some of which I now have.  And then there are the linens…I can hardly pass up a fine piece of hand-embroidered linen.  See them stacked on the basket? :)

Oh, and did I mention punch bowls?  I have a “thing” about big bowls and punch bowls—maybe it’s my dreams of always having large family gatherings.

This one was an auction find that came with 36 punch cups.  Wait!  I just said I didn’t need more snack sets!  Ahhh, but I DID need THESE.  I really like this pattern!!, AND besides, this one came with the stand!  My identical punchbowl didn’t have a stand…I NEEDED it.  Oh, and did I say I got the whole thing for $3???!!!  Yes, THREE DOLLARS!!  How could I pass it up??  You understand, right?  (And to the right edge of the picture are other punch bowls, and upstairs on the buffet is our sterling one my MIL gave us years ago, which I’ve happily used often—you can see it HERE.)

To redeem myself now that I’ve shown you the bad and the ugly, while all that was going on, the shelves we bought when we first moved here WERE organized.  The problem was the ADDITIONAL stuff from the unpacking, coupled with the new auction stuff…

So we bought more shelves and made progress taming the monster:

But there was always more to go…

But now, I’m happy to report, THE MONSTER IS TAMED!

Yes…new dishes to be put away.  My SIL gave me the Pottery Barn plaid ones for Christmas.  Yippee!!  Lucky me!  I’m anxious to use them, so I’m thinking about how to use them for a non-Christmas table.  Any ideas?

The Christmas things were tamed, but now they’re in a different place, to allow more room for my “play room.”  (There’s still lots of room on the other side too, so the little chickadees are going to get a play room to ride their plasma riders down here too!)

The crystal was safely tucked away months ago when I unpacked.

And unused pieces of furniture were put to good use…

The forest was tamed and covered to keep the dust off.

But here is my FAVORITE fix!!  (I wish I could claim credit for the napkin solution, because it’s SO CLEVER, but no…I got it from Mary at Home is Where the Boat Is.  Isn’t it brilliant?)

  Shoe holders!  They’re the PERFECT solution for napkins.  I’ve had this ton of napkins in deep drawers in the buffet, in baskets, on shelves. None was the perfect solution, but I do believe this is going to be!  (I used kids’ shoe holders because they’re the perfect size for folded napkins.)  I’ve wanted to get a clothes hanger for the tablecloths for some time, and NOW was the time.  I have so many tablecloths that it’s always been impossible to store them in one place, and while these aren’t all of them, I was able to free up quite a bit of drawer and closet space by moving the good linen ones down and putting others here too.  I will check with Susan at My Place to Yours—she’s the expert on caring for fine vintage linens—on how to cover them.  I’m pretty sure she’s going to tell me to get rid of the dry cleaner bags.  (Susan, if you’re reading this, please advise!)

 

So here’s how this spot turned out.  I keep the seasonal placemats I’m using on a regular basis upstairs, but these were tying up valuable drawer space in the dresser under the shelf with stemware.  Now I have EMPTY DRAWERS!!  That means more room for more stuff! :)

So any other suggestions?  How do you store your vintage linens?  Oh, and don’t forget that I’d like some ideas on how to use my new plaid dishes NOW—I don’t want to wait till next Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Mop it Up Monday at http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com

Metamorphosis Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Tuesdays at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Wednesdays at Let’s Dish: http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Wednesdays at Wow Us: http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Share Your Cup Wednesday at http://jannolson.blogspot.com/

Thursdays at Tabletop Thursday: http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Thursdays at Home Sweet Home: http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Fridays at Feathered Nest: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home Fridays at http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Inspiration Friday at http://www.atthepicketfence.com

Sundays at The Tablescaper: http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

A Celebration of the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day

This year, like last year, we celebrated the Three Kings’ Day at home (see 2012 post HERE). 

Grandpa Chickadee and I are doing the celebration in order to keep my childhood tradition of the Three Kings bringing gifts to the children alive.  Little Miss Chickadee, 5, has long known their names (in Spanish):  Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar, and almost-three-year old Master Chickadee almost has them down pat.

The three little chickadees spent the night with us (the youngest is 8 months), but guess who was up at 2:15 in the morning on her way to our room??  And this is what she saw:

Our Cuban tradition is to put their shoes/slippers by their beds, but we decided to tweak that a bit, since we didn’t want them to see their gifts without our being there to witness it.  Also, since Santa has brought so many gifts, the Three Kings bring just a few little things.  The idea is to celebrate the day, and to further reinforce that they brought gifts to Baby Jesus.

So she came in our room without having touched a thing, telling us that they had come, and describing perfectly what they brought for her brothers, but saying that she had seen nothing for her!  Why she said that, I don’t know.  I asked her several times, and the story was the same, so I chose to believe that maybe her sweet little mind didn’t allow the surprise to be given away.  As she snuggled in bed with us she was so calm; not giddy as we would have expected.  When she peered out the window she was sure that she could see one of the Three Kings on a camel!  We decided that they must have heard her get up and dashed outside before they could leave her gifts, and they were waiting for her to go back to sleep to come back in.  Ahhh, sweet innocence.

Our celebration this year was far simpler than last year’s.  On the menu:  Espresso hot chocolate (recipe to follow soon), punch, and cookies.

As you can see, I was a bit behind in the picture taking (you do remember the little chickadees spent the night, right?  And they needed their dress clothes, of course!).  I’d say the guava pastries (pastelitos de guayaba) in the red dish—a yummy gift from a dear friend—were pretty popular!

This year the table was a simple mix of evergreens, pinecones, and white.

 

The Three Kings were represented by our various nativity scenes.  This one, precious to us, was given to us early in our marriage by my in-laws, who brought it back from one of their frequent trips to Mexico.  I love how simple yet intricate it is.  To its left, the mother-of-pearl one my grandmother brought back from her visit to the Holy Land in the late 70s or early 80s.  Oh, how precious that one is too!

 

This sweet little nativity scene surrounded a feather tree while all the Christmas decorations were out, but as we pared down to a simpler winter look in preparation for our Three Kings celebration it looked like this:

 

And last but not least, the chickadees’ own nativity scene.  This is the one they are allowed to play with (and you never know who might be added to it).  Master Chickadee added this visitor at one point:

And when I asked Baby Love/Miss Chickadee to get the nativity scene ready for the party, this is what she lovingly prepared:

Be sure to notice the ladder…

As you can probably tell, the Three Kings celebration and the nativity scenes are very hands-on experiences for the chickadees—just as we want it to be.  In fact, at one point during our gathering Miss Chickadee took Baby Jesus out of the nativity scene and told the adults around her that “Christmas is about Baby Jesus.”  That, is exactly the goal.

Do you celebrate the Epiphany?  Have you by any chance read Yvonne’s moving re-telling of the Three Kings’ visit to the manger in her beautiful blog, StoneGable?  She tells it so beautifully that you might want to read it HERE.

These are the parties I’ll be joining to share my Three Kings Celebration.  They’re wonderful gatherings too; I hope you’ll visit.

Tuesdays at http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Wednesdays at Let’s Dish: http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Wednesdays at Wow Us: http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/

Thursdays at Tabletop Thursday: http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Thursdays at Home Sweet Home: http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Fridays at Feathered Nest: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Sundays at The Tablescaper: http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

From my nest to yours, ~Zuni