Two Tips Tuesday

Tip #1: Holiday Hostess Gift

I am so excited about this tip that I doing a tiny bounce in my chair as I type! Nothing is more fun to me than giving people gifts and this is the season to give a hostess a gift of appreciation for incredible hospitality. From cookie and ornament exchanges, dessert parties to family get-togethers, there are opportunities galore to give a thoughtful gift.

This Thanksgiving we are spending it with new friends. BFF broke my heart and decided to go to NC this year to visit family that moved from our neck of the woods just last year. We don't have any family here buuuuuut...we are grateful for new traditions and making new friends!!!!

Anyway, I decided to make this...well, I have no idea what to call this. I guess a flower holder. I say this because I recycled a large coffee mate container by wrapping it in felt and spelled out BLOOM across the bottom. The problem is the canister is made to hold dry powder, not water so I plan to put an inexpensive vase inside. I love that I re-purposed this container for my very green friends who are hosting Thanksgiving. I plan to buy flowers to put in it as a gift.

And as I type I am cracking up because this friend reads my blog (especially 2 Tips) and I am being ghetto tacky as I not only post what I am giving her but put a picture of it as well. Um, so to my friend Alaina...SURPRISE!

I really think this would make for a great gift for the holiday season. Ideas to use for are flowers, Christmas cookies, candy, a gift, whatever goodies you can think of to give to someone. I personally love packages that are a gift in and of itself. Obviously, felt and fabric are my thing but you could scrapbook this thing into the cutest little package everrrrrr! Paper would be faster and so gorgeous with all the endless embellishments it can have.

I plan to make myself one that says Cookies on it. I also endeavor to someday use different size containers and make a cute play canister set for the girls for their play kitchen.

Trying to get the whole thing for ya but it was a challenge. My camera does let me stitch all these photos together to make a panoramic view but...um...I am techy challenged. So use your imagination.

I used contrasting embroidery floss with both a blanket stitch and running stitch for interest and wrapped a lighter brown, felt ribbon around the top. Not sure if I can let this one go. It is so fun and happy!! :) Plus, I did my best to make it something she can use more often if she chooses.

Tip #2: Glam It Up For Your Festive Feast

I love, love, love attention to detail on a table. It is so my thing and I dig tablescapes, centerpieces, and all things different and creative. Because it all centered around eating! Food Decor! You just can't get better than that. So here are some ideas to get your minds churning. Sadly, the pics are sub par but their lack of clarity is made up for with my brilliant tip. :D

I am bummed that my photo taking skills were even more non-existent 3 years ago when I did this really cute centerpiece for Thanksgiving. This is the only photo I found and the table was not even done yet but I press on!

Anyway, I used white roses and green apples, grapes, and herbs to make a fun arrangement on the table. So pretty. I even tucked rosemary sprigs in the napkins for a simple touch. I would have made this amazing table but my mother came down for Thanksgiving that year and the woman will make a feast fit for 50 people and there was only 4 of us with Cati. No room for anything but the food. And she did alllll the cooking, God bless her.

This is a photo from my table from my Church's Christmas Tea last year. Squint and you can see it better. I loved seeing all the beautifully decorated tables. Most of us whipped out our china though I was not bringing my glasses that would break if you merely look at them so I splurged for 8 smoky grey water glasses at the dollar tree. It worked with my silver theme.

My theme was a partridge in a pear tree. I found a tree branch (no easy feat in palm tree laden, sunny, Florida), painted it kinda like a white, glittery birch, glued silver leaves on the sparse branches and hung silver pear ornaments, I even clipped on a little bird ornament which was not a partridge but people got it so who cares. The base was a white batting covered in sparkly snow with silver and gold leaves. The plates had confetti filler made nests that hubby and I made and I filled them with Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates (so yummy) so they looked like 3 golden eggs inside a white nest.

I have more ideas up my sleeve but I will save them for more Tuesday Tips during the rest of this season.

In the meantime, do you have any fun or creative table ideas? Place cards? Centerpieces? Give us the scoop!

Happy Tuesday Friends!