When I was still pregnant with Jane, my family was joking around and asking me if I had a theme for her first birthday party yet. Oh, they joked, but I honestly already had been thinking about how fun it would be to get to throw birthday parties for her. Over the last year, I tossed around idea after idea, and finally settled on a theme fit for our sassy, funny, little daughter who loved to say RAWR: dinosaurs. Jane loves books about dinosaurs, the toy dinosaurs at our local library are the first thing she crawls to when we visit, and she believes that all animals, no matter how big or small, say “roar” just like the dinosaurs. 
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This post was created in partnership with Keurig Green Mountain®; all opinions, images, and content are my own.
The days have gotten shorter, the wreaths and lights are going up around the neighborhood, and this week I finally broke down and pulled out our basket of hats and mittens for the cold weather; it feels like winter! In the summer we have tons of friends and family visit us — living by the beach lures them in! When we have friends and family stay for the weekend this time of year though, I find that we spend a lot more time cozied up inside our house enjoying slow mornings full of brunch and pajamas and lounging on the couch. Given that we spend a bit more time at home during these chilly holiday weekends, I’ve been brainstorming fun ways to make our mornings with houseguests a bit more special.
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When it comes to holiday decorating, I work my way through the house and add touches of festive details wherever I can. The mantle and staircase get garlands, the dining room gets updated linens for the season, and the front porch gets adorned with wreaths and greens. My favorite place to add festive touches is a high-traffic spot during the busy holiday entertaining months: my bar cart. I thought I’d share a few of my favorite styling tricks for decking out your bar in the most festive ways for the holidays:
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You’ve cleaned the house, you’ve ordered your groceries, the apron is on and all that is left to do is prep the holiday meal. Of course there’s one other item on the list that you forgot to tackle: putting together a Pinterest-worthy tablescape for your beautiful meal and gracious guests. I can sense the eye-rolls as you read this, because with everything else going on with holiday preparations, who has time for that?! That’s why I have four easy DIY ideas to dress up your place settings for the holidays that should take under 5 minutes to make and use simple household supplies:
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We’re just a few weeks out from the official start of the holiday season. Over here in blogger-land though, I’ve been busy prepping holiday content for weeks – which means taste-testing holiday recipes, pulling together entertaining tips, and of course keeping my glue-gun warm with some fun seasonal DIYs.
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When it comes to hosting holiday parties, I always start my menu with a cheese plate. Dinner parties, cocktail parties and open houses – you better believe there will be cheese at all of them! This year for holiday entertaining, I thought it would be fun to take a different approach to the cheese plate and try a brand new way to serve my favorite cheese board components.
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Thanksgiving is three weeks away. I know what you’re thinking: how is that possible? Am I the only one that feels like this year has flown by and the holidays just popped up out of nowhere? The countdown is on for turkey day and some celebrations, like the annual friendsgiving party we attend, are sneaking up even sooner! To help you prepare I’ve been digging for some of the cutest (and affordable) autumn-inspired entertaining pieces to zhush up your home for guests. Shop them all in the gallery below, and tell me what your Thanksgiving plans are in the comments — who is hosting?!
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Over the weekend, my girlfriends and I hosted a super-colorful, taco and treat-filled baby shower for our best friend Taz, and it was a blast — I couldn’t wait to snap pictures and share them here! When it comes to throwing showers, I always like to think about the guest of honor’s favorite things and build a theme around some of them. For Taz, she’s the queen of color, a collector of all things bright and bold and punchy, and a devotee of guacamole-topped Mexican food. We decided a fiesta-inspired theme would be the perfect way to incorporate some of her favorite flavors with a festive color palette for this celebration. 
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This post was created in partnership with Keurig Green Mountain®; all opinions, images, and content are my own.
Alright, folks. I’m going to say something controversial: I’m really excited for fall this year. I know, I know, we still have a few weeks of warm summer weather to enjoy and I shouldn’t wish it away. But as soon as I walk into a big box store and see those aisles of fresh school supplies and plaid scarves and cozy sweaters I get so thrilled. Not to mention those fall flavors that are popping up on shelves too, tis the season for pumpkin spice after all!
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There are two things that have made us ripe targets for a friendly “pop-by” this summer: 1) Living close to the beach, and 2) Having a cute baby that family wants to visit! I actually love a surprise pop-in from friends and family, it was one of the things that I’ll always cherish about my own childhood. We grew up with a well-known open door policy that meant people would stop by for dinner or drinks on any given day of the week, and my mom always graciously popped a bottle of wine and added an extra place setting to the table.
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