We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for Auld Lang Syne.
Happy New Year to you and yours — hope it’s lovely, indeed!
xoxo
2010: a year in review
2010 Started at the beach.
January brought the advent of my very first mouse ears in all my 28 years.
This was followed by the baking and decorating of many, many, many cupcakes.
Somewhere in there I turned 29, and spring sprang in NYC, after which I threw my beautiful sister a baby shower in CA.
I booked a job in Alabama and met some amazing chick musicians, and we all got to pretend we were country singers for the summer.
Summer’s two great joys: I got engaged, and I met my niece for the first time.
Fall: I started this here little blog amidst a flurry of wedding planning. Cut to me, immediately falling in love with the blog world. Also was so happy to make it home for Paige’s baptism.
We celebrated Mr. Lovely’s birthday with more cupcakes and yet another trip to CA to watch the baby grow. And to shoot little pumpkins out of enormous cannons.
Soon after that, we both booked work on the same national tour for 2011 — a huge blessing. Then found and almost entirely decorated a new apartment in record time. And started celebrating the holidays by trying to teach Paige to crawl.
Christmas at my parents’ house this year meant seven stockings, hung by the chimney with care — one of the best Christmases ever.
Tonight we’re wrapping up 2010 with family — an unexpected bonus, because our flight was cancelled due to the NYC blizzard. But travel woes aside, it’s kind of lovely to get an extra few days down on the farm. I hope that when you look back on your 2010, you find yourself fulfilled and grateful for the year. Here’s to 2011; I think it’s going to be a heck of a ride. xoxo
vintage pelouze postal scale
One of the things we’re planning at the wedding reception is a big, sugary candy buffet, kind of like this one:
{Image via JenaD Events}
I’m quite a sugar fan (although we try to keep that under wraps), so we figured on our wedding day we could just go to town and indulge. We’ve been yard sale-ing to find lots of fun glass containers to serve the candy in, and one day in my travels I came across this little fella:
It wasn’t glassware, but it was a vintage Pelouze postal shipping scale, and it was adorable! They were asking $5 for it, so I snapped it right up. I thought it would be pretty cute nestled into the candy buffet somewhere — not that people need to weigh their goodies, but just as part of the display. Maybe with a jar on top of it? We’ll see where she ends up.
I brought it home and did some research; I think this particular model is from 1968, judging by the postage rates and some other similar models that I found online.
Regardless of how old it is, I’m pretty excited about the find, and I’m even more excited to figure out the best way to use it in the candy buffet! I’ll have precisely 4 ounces of gumdrops, please. xoxo
holiday sangria
One of the things on my 30 by 30 is to make my own sangria recipe. When summer ended, I kind of figured that one would be a lost cause, and I was a little bummed out! But when Mr. Lovely suggested we make a holiday sangria to go with a Christmas dinner he was whipping up, I jumped right on board.
I had a (super early and super lovely) wedding shower recently, thrown by some old friends from my hometown, and one of the gifts we received was this beverage dispenser (thank you, Linda!). I think these things are the coolest, and I’ve wanted one forever. Naturally, we had to test it out immediately.
We headed to the grocery store and collected the goods, sort of making it up as we went along. We ended up with:
-2 bottles of cheap, fruity red wine
-a small bottle of brandy
-1 liter of club soda
-1 bottle of POMWonderful pomegranate juice
-2 oranges
-1 pear
-cranberries
Putting it together couldn’t be easier. First, cut your fruit into pieces; I did thin slices of the orange (we only ended up using one) and pear, and just sliced the cranberries in half. We used about a cup of cranberries and saved the rest for another project!
Toss all of the fruit into a your beverage container and pour in two bottles of wine, as much brandy as you’d like (we used about a third of the bottle), and the entire bottle of pomegranate juice. Mix gently, cover, and let it chill and get delicious overnight.
When you serve it, top each glass with a little club soda if you like your sangria to have a little bubble to it. Add some fruit to your glass and toast to a delicious evening (or afternoon, or morning…)! 
xoxo
beegee bag giveaway winner!
Well, my dears, December has been a lovely whirlwind of giving, and we’re buttoning it up with our grand finale giveaway: a clutch from the girls at BeeGee Bags! I’m pretty excited about this one, because I won a BeeGee myself a few weeks ago, and I know how much I love it. So let’s get down to business! This week’s winner is…
Kristina Stamper!
Kristina, we hope that the clutch is the perfect wrap-up to your holiday season, and a fancy-pants way to ring in the new year! Use it in good health. We’ll contact you soon to send you the bag!
And a big, fat thank you to all of the rest of you lovelies, who have been reading along and entering the giveaways! I hope you’ve enjoyed our holiday extravaganza as much as I have. And even more than that, I hope your holidays have been warm, cozy, and full of cheer. I’m so looking forward to 2011, and I hope you are too; there’s much more Lovely Indeed excitement to come, and a whole mess of adventures are awaiting, so let’s do it!
See ya back here tomorrow — we’re tackling another goal on the 30 by 30, so don’t miss it! xoxo
a gift for grandma
Hello, lovelies! Welcome back from our glorious Christmas break! I have to say, I think this was my favorite Christmas to date. Extra jolly, extra joy.
So my adorable grandmother is 88 years old, and this year we figured she had enough “stuff.” What we decided to give her for Christmas was a memory box — a box full of stories, greetings, and memories that we secretly collected from our whole family and all of her friends.
I can’t claim the idea myself; I found it online during a search for “unique Christmas gifts,” but have since lost the website and can’t find it again. (If I do, I’ll be sure to post). Basically, we sent a letter via snail mail to all of our friends and family, explaining our plan and asking for their help. We included a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a few index cards on which they could write their memories. We sent them out about 5 weeks before Christmas, and slowly but surely, they started trickling in! When all was said and done, we had over 160 cards.
We compiled them all, put them into a little photo box labeled “Friends and Family” (typed out with our old-school Smith-Corona), and wrote some instructions for Grandma on the top. We told her she could read as many at a time as she wanted, but if she read one a day, there would be enough to last until June!
It was so lovely to see what some folks sent; it’s also nice to know that so many people will take time out of their busy schedules to help with a project like this! Although I didn’t read them all, I peeked at a few, and I just know Grandma will have an absolute ball looking through them. Verdict: a very merry Christmas present, indeed! xoxo
merry christmas!
Well, lovelies, the time has come for us all to travel over the river and through the woods to celebrate my favorite holiday of the year! I’m taking a few days off to soak up some time with my family — as we speak, the boys are planning three (yes, three) separate holiday feasts, so I’m sure I’ll be rolling myself out the door afterward!
Whatever you do to celebrate the season, I hope that you find yourself warm, happy, and surrounded by people that you love. I find myself particularly thankful this year for all of the sweet, tiny, new members of my family, and for all of the happy things in the future.
I’ll leave you with a few photos of a ceramic Christmas tree, made (I think) about 35 years ago by my grandma. She gave it to my sister a few years ago, and it sits with us in the living room for Christmas. I think it’s just beautiful.
Sending each and every one of you holiday blessings and cheer. See you on Monday!
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” -Hamilton Wright Mabie
xoxo
