Crafts

Holiday Decorating with Sterling Pear // GIVEAWAY

1 · Dec 10, 2012 · 4 Comments

Pinch me… I have found the perfect stocking hanger from Sterling Pear (who was recently featured on HGTV) and I am so excited to share it with you guys today!

Have you heard of Sterling Pear? I hadn’t until they contacted my about reviewing some of their products. I thought it was just a run of the mill holiday décor company, but I was so wrong. Sterling Pear is an online boutique that specializes in innovative holiday décor solutions! For example, the stocking hangers…

They are brilliant! I selected the Stocking Scroll to use with my faux mantle. It’s perfect for ornate type edges and will hold your stocking perfectly in place without causing any damage to your wood work. It’s masterfully designed to use counter weight in conjunction with a special grip pad that holds it in place without causing any damage to your mantle, or faux mantle in my case. It can even hold a filled stocking up to ten pounds!!! I LOVE them!!

I also took their adjustable wreath hanger for a test drive. Again another very innovative product.

The adjustable wreath hanger is perfect for any size door and it has protective pads at all the pressure points to protect your door. They also have these amazing garland ties designed to be not only stylish but functional… Think wired twist tie that looks great, is functional and protects your wood work.

SterlingPear.com was launched by two friends, Heather Dietrich and Janet Hayden, in time for the 2007 holiday season. What started with a different idea altogether, designing and selling Christmas decorating kits, morphed into something else entirely. As part of the Christmas decorating kits we ended up designing an ornament storage chest unlike any other that had ever existed. It was luxurious and sophisticated, something fitting to hold the treasures of one's collection of precious heirloom ornaments. It was like a jewelry box for your ornaments. We new we had something special and we decided to just focus on this box since we didn't have the time and funds to roll out the whole kit at that time. We launched with our Keepsake Ornament Storage Chest and a few other Christmas decorating products. And every year we've been adding new products ever since, with an emphasis on ingenious design and sophistication.

Our most popular item last year was the Candy Cane Stocking Hanger.

Last year it was a total surprise how quickly the Candy Cane Stocking Hangers sold out! We did not predict they would be as popular as they were. They are a bit more cute and whimsical than our other metal finished stocking hangers and we just didn't know how they would sell with our normal elegant and sophisticated product line. Last year we started with approx 1,200 Candy Cane Stocking Hangers ready for the holiday season and, to our surprise, they sold out in less than four days! Now for this year, the 2012 holiday season, we have an enormous supply on hand and we think we are prepared for the demand. We just hope they last through the end of Christmas!

What's so exciting about all of our Stocking Hangers is that they are child and pet friendly. The weight of the stocking pulls down on the stocking hanger and holds it securely to the mantel. And even if the stocking hanger did come off, they only weigh a few ounces and wouldn't hurt your little ones! (Unlike the heavy, clunky type of stocking hangers that sit on top of the mantel, which could injure a child if they were to tug on the stocking.)

The lovely ladies at Sterling Pear would love to give away an elegant Home Décor prize pack to one of you!! That would include a set of four stocking hangers, an adjustable wreath hanger and a set of garland ties. SCORE!! Just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter box below to enter the giveaway…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those of you looking for a great deal on Sterling Pear products… They are having a free shipping day on December 17th!

Friday Flair Link Party // Peppermint Cupcake Edition

2 · Dec 6, 2012 · 28 Comments

Well, It’s (almost) FRIDAY… Time for Friday Flair! I just returned home from our 2nd Christmas party for the season and it’s only December 6th. These parties start earlier and earlier every year. Tomorrow night we are heading over to have a gingerbread house party with some new friends here in Lincoln… We can’t wait! The girls and I LOVE making gingerbread houses. My friend Christene (in Las Vegas) hosts a gingerbread making party the first weekend of December every year and I was soooo sad to miss it this year. Here’s a look at my gingerbread house that I created last year, plus a great Gingerbread 101 post from Christene a couple of years ago. It’s an oldie but a goodie.

Our inspiration photo this week comes from Sweet Revelations. It’s a stunning photograph of some dark chocolate peppermint cupcakes that look divine!

img source // dark chocolate peppermint cupcakes from sweet revelations

I don’t think you can get anymore perfect that that. Just look at that frosting, it’s looks like a little ruffle of silk… heavenly.

Now, who’s ready to PARTY?!

Sharing Holiday Joy with Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

3 · Dec 6, 2012 · 29 Comments

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars // My all time favorite Christmas goodies are my Mom's Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars…

Some of my earliest Christmas memories are hanging out in the kitchen with my Mom and sometimes my Dad while they made their famous holiday concoctions. They had a few staples on the list… Fudge, peanut brittle (not my favorite,) your classic Christmas Sugar cookie and then my favorite the chocolate peanut butter bar. I remember dreaming about this little treat all though out the year. Not to mention the anticipation I would feel when Mom would start the task of holiday baking. She always kept the pans of goodies out in our cool garage which acted as our overflow kitchen storage. They were supposedly hidden from sticky little fingers, but no… I always found them. Nibbling little morsels here and there until the sad day when the pan of chocolate peanut butter goodness was gone for another year.

I remember that sense of pride I felt as we would travel out as a family to deliver our plate of goodies to friends and neighbors. I always felt like my Mom's holiday plate was just a little extra special because of the chocolate peanut butter bars. My Mom would always make them in a 9×13 pan and then cut them into bars. This year I made some for my family and friends in these super cute mini paper loaf pans that I found at Walmart and then wrapped them with decorative parchment paper tied with bakers twine. A nice little updated touch to an old family classic.

I just love these little treats full of messages of love from giver to the lucky person receiving the special gift. Whether it's a personalized card or cookies right out of the oven, I love sharing the warmth of the holiday season with my family, friends and, of course, my readers!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 sticks butter (melted)

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

Mix graham crakers crumbs, peanut butter, sugar and butter together well and press into a 8×8 pan. Melt chocolate and spread on top of peanut butter mixture and chill for 30 minutes. Cut into small squares and serve at room temperature.

Last Minute Holiday Gifts with GiftGloss

210 · Dec 4, 2012 · 4 Comments

Do you ever find yourself in a pinch over the Holidays? You need a gift for a friend, neighbor, colleague and you just don’t have time to make some goodies to share! You find yourself heading to the market to find some store bought goodies but feel like a total dope for bring bringing something that’s not homemade. Don’t you worry! All you need to do is keep some GiftGloss on hand with a few other handy packaging supplies and you are GOLDEN!

design elements // rhonna designs

I ran to the store yesterday and checked out the bakery section to find some goodies that I could repackage and give as fun gifts for friends & neighbors when you are in a pinch. Here are some suggestions that I have…

No. 1 Select a Theme

Even when you are in a hurry, take a few minutes to come up with a cohesive theme. This will kick your quick goodie up a notch and turn it into a stunning gift. It took just a few minutes to go through the bakery and candy section at the store to find a few items that would go with my red, white & chocolate theme.

No. 2 Packaging

Nothing screams LAME more than store bought goodies brought in their store containers. To save myself from that mistake I keep a few items on hand to save me when in a pinch…

GiftGloss – Not sure what GiftGloss is click here to see their video. I keep both the 6 & 12 inch rolls on hand
Decorative plates or containers – The skies the limit here, as long as they fit in the 6 or 12 inch GiftGloss tube.
Fancy parchment paper – I found my red dot parchment paper at Cost Plus World Market
Ribbon, twine, yarn or some type of decorative tie – I found my fun personalized ribbon on Pick Your Plum not too long ago. It says “Merry Christmas from the Thoming Family” LOVE it!!

No. 3 Placement

You’ve taken the time to get the goodies, stock the fun packaging… Now you need to make sure you create a beautiful goodie package or plate by making sure you place thing well.

Don’t over crowd the plate.
Use the color to your advantage with color groups.
Think of your patterns and textures and place accordingly.
For large plates have one item be the show stopper then add to it with a good supportive selection of items. For example, in my large plate I have the beautiful cookies as my show stopper and then the supportive cast accentuates the beautiful cookies.

Now, if you keep all of those things well stocked, you can have some amazingly SIMPLE yet STUNNING holiday gifts in a snap.

The FoofQueens are making that extra easy right now with a special deal for EVERYONE!!

Head on over and visit the FoofQueens to stock-up on GiftGloss so you won’t be caught empty handed.

Here are some more easy ideas from the FoofQueens…

What are some of your ideas? What would you foof-up with your new GiftGloss?

Discloser Statement

Friday Flair Features

1 · Dec 3, 2012 · 13 Comments

Welcome to Monday, the first week of December… are you feeling it? This magical time of the year? We spent the weekend putting up our tree, the lights on the house and dressing up the little red barn for the season (if you follow me on Instagram, you know about the little red barn) We had a bit of a false start over Thanksgiving when it came to our holiday decorating… We started setting up our 12 year old tree, only to find out that 75% of the lights no longer worked on the tree, so sad. Well, I wasn’t too bummed, the tree was way too big for our little rental house, so I took the opportunity to find a slim Christmas tree during all of the Black Friday whoopla and then we started over again. Today I’m working on dressing up the rest of the house and can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on. I have some fun stuff for this week!

Last night I spent a few hours pinning away while going through last week’s Friday Flair and had a ball looking through everyone’s amazing creations. Here are a few that caught my eye…