Seize the Weekend Vol. 6

Seize the Weekend is a weekly feature on No Place Lyke Home. I've scoured the Internet in search of five crafts/recipes/projects that are easy to tackle in a weekend. My hope is to inspire others (and myself) to roll up our sleeves and get creative!

1. Make these lemon ricotta pancakes from Sugar & Charm. Something about spring makes me crave tart and fresh flavors.

2. Try out a few dos from A Beautiful Mess' 20 Hair Tutorials We Love post. There are some great looks for warmer weather. It must be on it's way soon, right?

3. Throw an egg decorating party to get ready for Easter. The always inspiring Design Sponge shares an inside look at their party including some unusual egg designs.

4. Learn something new in the kitchen. If there's a certain area of cooking that you would like to improve on, head over to Martha Stewart's Cooking 101. It's filled with tons of short, easy to follow videos on how to do everything from chiffonade herbs to properly fillet a fish.

5. Restyle a corner of your home to reflect your personal style. I touched a little bit on this last week with our record stand makeover. I think it's so important to live with what you love. Shelley over at The House of Smiths walks you through how to take on projects in an approachable manner. She's all about doing what you can now with what you have.

I took a page out of Shelley's book and recently restyled a pair of shelves in our family room. I love the family photos that were on the shelves and moved them elsewhere, but I wasn't happy with the overall look going on. They didn't really scream us.

I applied a fresh coat of spray paint, and grabbed some meaningful objects from around the house and voila.

With the addition of a horseshoe from the racetrack near the town that we met and grew up in, a vintage dog that looks like Penny, my great grandma's books and my grandma's doily these shelves now hold a lot of sentimental value.

It cost me all of $3 and I feel so happy each time I walk by them. All this to say, don't hold yourself back from making over a space for lack of funds. If you look around at what you already have, there are probably lots of things that can be easily restyled to suit your personal style.


Now here's a song to dance to. Happy weekend!

Epic Oscar Party Menu

Oscar season is one of my favorite times of year. My husband and I are big movie buffs and we try to catch all of the best picture nominees before the awards.

Each year, we pop champagne and put out a nice spread of appetizers. I've been know to throw on a pair of sparkly earrings (often paired with pajama pants and slippers).

I decided to jazz things up with a menu inspired by each of my favorite best picture nominees. This year's line up did not disappoint, so I did have to leave a few out. I was sure to include a cocktail to make up for it, though!

1. Zero Dark Thirty Dark & Stormy (Recipe)

2. Argo make some hummus (Recipe)  
*For more guests, make a Middle Eastern inspired platter with pita bread/chips, red peppers and cucumbers for dipping, stuffed grape leaves, tzatziki etc.

3. Beasts of the Southern Wild Creole Shrimp Skewers (Recipe)

4. Silver Linings Playbook Philly Cheese Steak Sliders (Recipe)

5. Les Miserables Chocolate Fondue (Recipe) *Add strawberries, marshmallows, dried fruits and pretzels image via



I'd be remiss if I didn't honorably mention The Sessions, which was another of my favorites this year. Had trouble coming up with a dish to pair it with though... Better Than Sex Cake?

Any plans for the Oscars? What were your favorite films of the year?
 

Christmas in the Midwest

Please excuse the lateness of this Christmas post, life has been a little crazy. Also, I have been trying to hold on to as much of the holiday as possible. We just took down our decorations today (sad face).

This Christmas, Jake and I traveled to Wisconsin to spend the holiday with the Koneman side of our family. We have lots of family in Wisconsin and it was wonderful to spend some time with everyone.

Some of the absolute highlights included:

Surprising my mother-in-law with a party for her 60th birthday

She threw her purse and went and stood in the corner. I'm guessing she was surprised ;)

This one melts my heart.

Seeing our beautiful niece, Madelynn, who is now walking:

 

Witnessing my husband and brother-in-law dressed like this for the Packers game:

A night snowed in with some of my favorites:

Visiting with family (especially all of the little ones!):

Ooooh and our big Christmas present from my in laws... A cruise to the Bahamas! All of us leave in less than a month.

Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parent's house with a mixture of friends and family from all over. My mom spent 4 days cooking and setting tables to prepare for our wonderful feast. 

My brother-in-law, Adam, flew in from NYC to stay with Jake and I for a few days (which was awesome!). Together, Adam and I prepared a range of sides including: roasted chili lime cauliflower, roasted asparagus with toasted pine nuts and lemon zest, sharp cheddar and bacon corn casserole, sausage stuffed mushrooms and cheddar sage biscuits. Also, Adam made a pretty epic pumpkin tiramisu.

All of the food that we prepared was combined with my mom's scratch made mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, English peas with pearl onions, two different kinds of stuffing (my favorite was the cornbread sausage stuffing) and cranberry chutney. The main events were smoked turkey, fried turkey and filet mignon.

F o o d   c o m a. 

 We washed everything down with my dad's "Thanksgiving Dinner" cocktail which basically tastes like the holidays in a martini glass. I will see if I can get him to share the recipe here.

My sister and her husband, Mike, are due with their second daughter, Ellie, in early January. Since Mike's family was in town, we decided it would be the perfect time to surprise Britt & Mike with a shower. Our theme was "Thankful for Ellie". My mom ordered an adorable pumpkin shaped carrot cake that read, "Thankful for our little Punkin'" and I made a bunting and a "Thankful Jar" for all of us to fill throughout the day and place in Ellie's nursery.

All-in-all it was a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with dear friends and family and no shortage of food, great conversation or laughter.

Special thanks to the movie, "Brave", for teaching Addie to bend over roughly 55 times throughout the day and yell, "Feast your eyes!" (pictured above). Side note: I think Addie loves Kellie even more than her Rudolph.

Major photo overload, but with good reason -- lot's of beauty to capture.

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?

An Anniversary Celebration

This weekend, my sister and I (with the help of our husbands) hosted a dinner party in honor of our parent's 30th anniversary. Brittany made an incredible seafood bouillabaisse, together we made a roasted beet salad and some appetizers and I threw in some handmade decorations.

The traditional gift for a 30th anniversary is pearl, so all of us ladies wore pearls. My dad got my mom a gorgeous multi-strand fresh water pearl necklace (seen in photos below).

The best part of the evening was when each of us went around the table and shared our favorite memories involving our parents - there were some real classics. The recurring theme throughout each of our stories was my parents great love for one another and their awesome sense of humor that's kept them laughing through the years.

(toasting glasses from their wedding 30 years ago)

How cute are they?