Last year I did a pretty much all white look on the mantle. I put a cute silver and white garland inside a large apothecary jar and some fun natural wooden letters that spell JOY and placed a white feather Christmas tree beside it and these two things were pretty much my favorite thing on there! 

Then I had my fluffly wreath I made (you can find the tutorial here) and hung it on a chalkboard in the center of the mantle.

This is how it looked last year..the room is kinda small and I just really want to enlarge it but alas it is not possible nor is it in the budget. To make the room feel bigger I am going to get a smaller tree and not use red or at least very little red.

I will have to play around with things this year because I just may go try something new and fun rather than elegant...

I saw this idea on Instagram and I am in love with it!!

but who knows I may just do the same thing I did last year.. There are just so many cute ideas out there I want to try but I don't want to spend a lot nor do I want to change things so much that I have more stuff to store you know what I mean?  

What are you doing for Decor this year?

 This cake makes 4 layers! I made the cake recipe from Sweet Pauls Magazine The layers were kind of thin probably because I used 9" cake pans oops! His recipe has you cook the frosting but I didn't have time for that so I found this frosting recipe and 6 minute caramel sauce on Baker by Nature. OH MY GOSH!! BEST Frosting ever!!

The caramel sauce is delicious and I should have doubled the recipe for the caramel so that I could've had it oozing out all through the layers of the cake

 Here's a tip..when frosting the cake cut up a few pieces of parchment paper and place them on the cake stand and then place the cake layers on top and frost and when you are done you simply remove the paper and no mess is left!

 It was sooo yummy...Hope you will try it! 

Cake recipe

Frosting

• 2 cups unsalted butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces), VERY soft
• 4 and 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream (more if needed)

• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the softened butter on medium-speed until completely smooth; about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer off and sift the powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn the mixer on the lowest speed and mix until the sugar/cocoa have been absorbed by the butter; about 2 minutes. Increase mixer speed to medium; add in vanilla extract, salt, heavy cream and salted caramel; beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting appears a little too thin, add a little more confectioners' sugar; If your frosting needs to be thinner, add additional heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.

linking to
The Scoop
Metamorphis Monday

• 
  

 Karin

Linking to 
The Scoop
Metamorphis Monday

6.  Use a hand blender and blend until creamy! 

My cute friend Penny just came back from Spain and brought me this beautiful Orange tablecloth and so I knew it would be perfect to use for an Elegant Halloween Dinner..including roasted crow under glass! (Insert Wicked laugh here)

I brought out my grandma's elegant colorful crystal stemware from Germany that I inherited from her. They are amazingly gorgeous. Remember when I used them for Easter Here I love that they are so versatile!

Here are the "boot"- iful orange colored napkin rings that I love to use! 
 The little black stones I had...and just used a paint pen to write little spooky messages on them for my guests.

Notice I used my little white porcelain balls with black lettering on them for placecards. I also used them in a black and white tablescape with a touch of Pink HERE

I love this big white pitcher...this time I added some black ribbon to make it look like big stripes going around it.
 I did this for the fourth of July with Red ribbon..you can see it HERE

On top of the black and white toile plates I placed another larger amber colored goblet to use for the dessert...
"Death by chocolate Mousse"!

Hope this inspired you to use what you may already own in new and different ways without spending a dime!

I am participating in

Tablescape Thursday!

 For the yummy appetizers we served fresh fruit, crackers and yummy fresh veggies.

Using my galvanized tiered serveware we filled it with tons of fresh fruit and it looked stunning

 We also served delicious cheeses and crackers..a couple of my favorites were Brie and blueberry cheese..sooo yummy!!

This is photo of our large group of amazing women who attended

We set up lots and lots of voitve candles in rocks around the lake area where we set up our Soiree for a game that we played later. 

We played "Speed Friendshipping" where we had the women face each other and they were given a question to talk about for 1 minute and then they move to the next person and the next person until we went through the whole line. At the end we asked them to look the last person straight in the eye without talking for one minute and let their souls speak to one another and it was very powerful..some women started to weep and others just hugged one another. It was really such a special evening that couldn't have gone any better.  

 We brought lots of rugs and pillows from our houses to lay on the on grass to continue our Bohemian theme. 

 As the sun started to set...the lights bgan to glow and it was magical! My cute hubby took buckets and filled them with rocks and sand and we took poles and stuck them in the buckets that had hooks on them to hold strings of lights. I used ping pong balls and cut a hole in them and attached them to Christmas lights and it made them look amazing!

It was such a perfect night...I will miss summer!!