It was cookie night at the Sember household. Even though my kids are 20 and almost 15, they still look forward to it. This is our first year with gluten free cookies and everything turned out well. I used Cup4Cup flour and made chocolate chip, sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies with my usual recipes. I made all the dough one night, refrigerated it and baked it another night. Then last night we decorated. I got gluten free natural (plant-based) food coloring for my birthday and used those to make different colors. Last year we tried putting each color frosting in a squeeze bottle, but we don’t make enough to fill the bottles and it ended up not working well. So this year, we went back to the tried and true method of a butter knife for each color. We have quite a collection of decorations we use. It was a fun night which ended, of course, with everyone having a cookie!

It was cookie night at the Sember household. Even though my kids are 20 and almost 15, they still look forward to it. This is our first year with gluten free cookies and everything turned out well. I used Cup4Cup flour and made chocolate chip, sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies with my usual recipes. I … Read more →

I used to write a holiday letter each year and enclose it in our cards, letting everyone know what we’ve been up to, what the kids are doing, where we traveled, and what’s in store for the new year. I also always included a wallet size family photo. Several years ago I stopped sending the letter (and the photo), but kept on writing the letter. I still write one every year and keep all the letters together in a binder. Sound crazy?

I decided that anyone I really cared about already knew what was going on with our family and if I didn’t care about them, why was I sharing all the details of my life with them (after all, they could just read my blog!)? If they cared, they would be in touch enough to know what was happening. If not, what kind of connection did we really have anyhow?

I still like to write the letter because it’s a way for me personally to look back on the year. I like paging through the binder of yearly letters and remembering everything that happened in those years. It’s also a way to keep track of what happened when, which does tend to blur as the years pass!

Will I continue to write the letter once my kids have flown the coop? I don’t know, but I do expect that our traditions will change as our children create their own individual lives, and I look forward to the change it will bring into our lives.

I used to write a holiday letter each year and enclose it in our cards, letting everyone know what we’ve been up to, what the kids are doing, where we traveled, and what’s in store for the new year. I also always included a wallet size family photo. Several years ago I stopped sending the … Read more →

Ornaments don’t have to be just for trees!

I have a lot of ornaments. Over the years, I’ve come up with some ideas for ways to display them. A tree is the obvious choice, but I’m maxed out on trees! I’ve got our main tree in the living room which holds all of my special ornaments. The family room is the kids’ tree – each has their own ornament collection. The kitchen has a skinny tree with my food and cooking ornaments. And my office has a skinny tree with my book ornaments. No more room for trees at my house, so I’ve had to come up with some other ways to use my ornaments.

When we got married, we bought boxes of pink ball ornaments in different sizes to fill in the tree. I now have so many ornaments I don’t have space for those. I keep those in a basket in the living room, in front of the fireplace. I spray painted a basket gold and tied some pink ribbon and artificial flowers on it to dress it up. I also have a few pink and white ornaments I like to display in a small footed bowl in my dining room.

When my grandmother passed away, I inherited a lot of her ornaments. Her tree was blue, so her ornaments don’t match the color scheme of my main tree or living room, but blue works well in my family room, so I’ve got some displayed in a bowl on a table there. This year I also put some in a lidded glass dish that was hers (I managed to break one in the process of trying to get it full but get the lid to fit!). She also had some old pink ornaments that I’ve placed in a hurricane vase.

I like to hang ornaments in windows, so I’ve got blue star ornaments above the kitchen sink and 12 Days of Christmas ornaments in the eating area windows.

We added some garland to the light fixture above the kitchen table and hung some ornaments there as well.

This year we also created some chair decorations for the kitchen and used some ornaments there.

Ornaments can also be added to wreaths, garland, candle rings, stockings, or just strewn down the middle of a table.

Ornaments don’t have to be just for trees! I have a lot of ornaments. Over the years, I’ve come up with some ideas for ways to display them. A tree is the obvious choice, but I’m maxed out on trees! I’ve got our main tree in the living room which holds all of my special … Read more →

In addition to the new decorations, which I shared earlier, my existing collections have undergone some changes, mostly because last year I received some new items for them as gifts and did not display them until this year.

In case you haven’t gotten the hint, I’ve got a thing for trees, and I’ve also got a thing for pink. I’ve been working hard to update my collections to reflect those obsessions!

We have a huge mantel to decorate for the holidays, and I used to struggle because it needed height. My collection of tree toppers has solved that problem. They look wonderful grouped in front of the mirror. Last year we added some new pre-lit garland and I found two boxes of this amazing pink garland at an antique store that has made it gorgeous. This year I added some clip-on pink roses that have shiny ice or dewdrops on them. I think the mantel is looking fabulous. I would like to add a few more pink tree toppers to complete the collection.

I have a wonderful little collection of trees that sits on my grandmother’s chest in my dining room. That collection has been expanding as well and I received some beautiful ones to add to it last year. At this point, the chest is full, so unless I find something fabulous, I will need to put the brakes on this collection!

In my quest to update the dining room, I created this little display on a side chest as well. And my teacup collection has been changing as well. My grandmother bought me one teacup each year for my December birthday. When I was a child, it was a pretty horrible gift. I didn’t drink tea, I didn’t like them and didn’t care. As an adult, I still don’t really drink a lot of tea (and when I do, I prefer a mug to a tiny cup!), but I do like having a collection she started for me. One problem is most Christmas china tea cups are red. And, as I mentioned, I don’t do red, I do pink (I do have red in the kitchen, where it looks fine with the blue theme, and I have cranberry in the family room). My challenge in recent years has been to find cups that are Christmas, but are pink (or at least not red). My mom had a couple handpainted for me, which added to the collection. As you can see, I’m still working on getting the red out (so to speak!).

In addition to the new decorations, which I shared earlier, my existing collections have undergone some changes, mostly because last year I received some new items for them as gifts and did not display them until this year. In case you haven’t gotten the hint, I’ve got a thing for trees, and I’ve also got … Read more →

I’ve added a few new decorations this year that I’m excited to share!

While we were staying on Amelia Island, FL this past winter, we bought this gorgeous blue glass tree. Here’s the dirty little secret: it is made out of a gin bottle! The artist was minding the store when we went in and told us much more than we wanted to know, actually. It almost took away from the beauty of the item, but I’m so glad I bought it. And we miraculously got it home without breaking! It’s about 18 inches long and is really a beautiful piece of art.

I stumbled upon this cute little tree made out of magazine pages and had to have it for my office! It’s from Home Goods and I paid $12.99 for it. The secret was I got there the day they were putting out the Christmas decorations. Things tend to get a bit battered and bruised at Home Goods and TJ Maxx I think, but this made it into my cart right after it hit the shelves. I’m worried about how I will store it without bending the branches (that are rolled pieces of magazine pages).

The big new addition this year is the kitchen decorations! Last year I added a small tree to the kitchen and decorated it with food and cooking items. The room was still feeling sparse though. Last year my daughter and I went to a Christmas tour of homes and in one house they had beautiful decorations on the backs of their kitchen chairs. So this year, we’ve added that! My husband did all the work on this – I just gave direction. We bought silver ribbon (9 feet per chair) and he made them into bows (he watched a YouTube video to learn how). Then we attached a blue snowflake ornament to each (I can’t believe it, but I found these at Walmart – and they are jingle bells too which is kind of fun) and we added some faux evergreen (cut off from some extra garland). He attached it to the chair with 3M removable hooks. It looks amazing!

Next up, the kitchen chandelier. I originally planned to just put some garland on it, but then I found cute blue and silver star ornaments to attach. It has really dressed the space up.

I also decided the dining room needed some work. We have an old (as in rusted on the back side) wreath we usually hang on the wall in there and it has seen better days. I ordered two small preserved boxwood wreaths which we’ve hung on the sliding glass doors. We used ribbon to hang them (looped through the wire on the back) and velcroed them (with removable 3M sticky stuff) to the top of the molding above the doors.

So these are my new additions, all of which I’m quite pleased with. Have you added any new decorations this year?

I’ve added a few new decorations this year that I’m excited to share! While we were staying on Amelia Island, FL this past winter, we bought this gorgeous blue glass tree. Here’s the dirty little secret: it is made out of a gin bottle! The artist was minding the store when we went in and … Read more →

We always put our holiday decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was really looking forward to it this since I have been slowly replacing old ugly decorations with new ones I like, so I finally feel as though it’s looking nice around here.

Of course I was overly optimistic. We put up the tree in the living room and about 40% of it wouldn’t light. This is the second artificial tree we’ve owned for that room in 12 years. They really should last longer than this. When we moved to this house in 2000, we decided to switch from a real tree to an artificial. I remember buying the pre-lit artificial tree at Kmart for a great price (I think it was $100 or something). That lasted 2 years. We replaced it with another tree that cost a lot more from Michael’s. That one has lasted about 10 years. I had a premonition about this – for weeks before Christmas I had a feeling there was going to be a problem, and I was right. Yes, we could just string lights on it on top of the ones that don’t work, but we already add a long string of pink lights to that tree and I don’t want any more wires. So off we went to the stores. Ugh.

It seems that they’ve changed the shape of trees since we bought last. First of all, we could not

find the height we needed – 6.5 feet. We ended up with a 7.5 foot tree from Lowe’s for much more than I wanted to spend. The tree is taller than what we had, but narrower and instead of being a triangle shape it kind of flares out at the bottom, is straight in the middle, then flares in at the top. Different, but I don’t mind it. Since our ceilings are 7.5 feet high, we couldn’t put the wooden box my husband built years ago under the tree (I like some space between branches and floor for presents).

We also had a crisis with our tree topper. We bought this topper on Valentine’s weekend the first year we were married when we were on a getaway to Corning, NY (for our first Christmas, we used a big bow that was on a wedding gift). The tree topper MUST go on the tree, but it wouldn’t fit! Terry ended up snipping off the top little branches and cleaning off the top of the center pipe to get it to fit on top. It fits, but the only way to get it on and off is to tip the entire tree sideways!

I think the tree looks nice and every year I love hanging the ornaments and remembering where I bought them or who gave them to me. I think I need to take photos of them and label them so my kids will know the meaning behind each on, but that is a giant task. I have ornaments from both grandmothers and I buy ornaments on our trips (I have ornaments from Italy, Scotland, Maine, Hawaii, Bahamas, Arizona, California gold country, Saint Saveur Quebec, Florida, and Ocean City, Maryland among other places).. My mother-in-law bought us the first Christmas and baby’s first year ornaments. My mother has bought me a lot of ornaments and started my collection when I was a teenager. There’s an ornament that reminds me of our first dog (there used to be two of this ornament, but she ate the other one, so I always think of the remaining one as her ornament). There is the bird’s nest with 2 big birds and a baby bird that Terry bought for me the year I was pregnant with our first child.  There is even an ornament that one of Terry’s past bosses bought him – the man was a kind of mentor to him, so I always think of him when I hang it.

In the coming days I’ll share some of my new decorations with you and show you some of my Christmas collections that have expanded nicely.

Do you have ornaments that are meaningful to you? How long do your pre-lit artificial trees last?

We always put our holiday decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was really looking forward to it this since I have been slowly replacing old ugly decorations with new ones I like, so I finally feel as though it’s looking nice around here. Of course I was overly optimistic. We put up the tree … Read more →

It’s that time of year when we are all scrambling for gift ideas. Cyber Monday has us all looking for great shopping ideas. Let me help you! I have written what sometimes feels like a whole library of books (over 40 titles!) and there is pretty much a title on my list for everyone on your shopping list (and maybe one or two you might want for yourself!):

Cookie: A Love Story: Fun Facts, Delicious Stories, Fascinating History, Tasty Recipes and More: Who doesn’t love cookies? This book is perfect for your mom, your grandma, your aunt, your best friend, your book club pals, and the gal at work who is always bringing in cookies. It’s a delicious read – all the things you never knew about cookies. What could be better for a holiday gift? It’s an ebook, but you can buy a printable gift certificate to give that lets your recipient download however they want (Kindle, Nook, PDF, etc.). Give the certificate with a tin of gingerbread men or some cocoa and you’ve just given someone a delicious evening!

The Muffin Tin Cookbook: Perfect for any mom you know, this book has 200 recipes for all kinds of foods made in muffin tins (mini, regular, and jumbo) for breakfast, snacks, entrees, sides, veggies, muffins, desserts, and more. Pair it with a package of muffin tin liners (I like the reusable silicone ones) and a muffin tin pan for a cute gift basket.

The Parchment Paper Cookbook: Give this to anyone who likes to cook but has a busy life. The book has 180 recipes that are all made in parchment paper packets. There are no pots and pans to clean: everything is cooked inside folded parchment packets, so it makes life simple! Pair this with a roll of parchment paper and a baking sheet for a gift basket and you’ve just given someone many nights of easy dinners.

The Organized Kitchen: Great for newlyweds, friends who love to organize, people who have just moved, and teachers. It has great ideas for now to arrange, organize, and store kitchen tools as well everything you need to know about cleaning, storing food and perishable; and a section of recipes everyone needs. Give this with a set of magnetic nesting measuring cups or a set of square glass food storage containers (perfect for stacking!) and you have a lovely gift.

How to Parent with Your Ex: That friend, co-worker, or relative who is getting divorced, or just got divorced will thank you for this friendly guide to making your parenting relationship work during and after a divorce. It has lots of tips and practical advice that are useful not only as they are going through the divorce, but in the years after as they continue to have to parent together. For a joke, give it with a bottle of your recipient’s fave booze. Or pair it with some chocolate and cozy socks.

The Essential Supervisor’s Handbook: Give this to your friend or relative who just got promoted. It’s packed with hands on advice about to succeed as you move into management. A paperweight or small desktop game is a great accompaniment.

Bad Apples: How to Manage Difficult Employees: We all know that person who is constantly complaining about the idiots at work. Give him or her this book which offers practical advice about how to work with people who are imperfect. Pair this with a bottle of headache medicine and you’ll get a hearty laugh as your thanks.

The Practical Pregnancy Planner: The mom-to-be on your list will appreciate this ebook, which offers monthly checklists of everything you need to do to get ready for a baby, with a focus on finances, insurance, wills, guardians, and organizing information. Add in a cute rattle or pair of booties and you’re good to go.

The Everything Kids Money Book: Perfect for kids ages 8-12, this includes activities, fun facts, puzzles, advice, and just plain fun to make earning, saving, and spending enjoyable. Pair it with a $10 bill inside a plastic money puzzle holder or a bar of money soap!

Quiz Book 3: Three Times the Fun: This American Girl quiz book is what the tween girl on your list will enjoy. Funny, revealing, light, and inspiring quizzes will make her laugh and help her learn about herself. A packet of sparkle colored pens and some hair elastics make it a complete gift.

The Divorce Organizer & Planner: Anyone facing divorce will need this book to help reduce legal fees and get organized for the process ahead. Add in some relaxing tea and this recipient will know you want to help him or her through a hard time.

It’s that time of year when we are all scrambling for gift ideas. Cyber Monday has us all looking for great shopping ideas. Let me help you! I have written what sometimes feels like a whole library of books (over 40 titles!) and there is pretty much a title on my list for everyone on … Read more →

My office needs a serious upgrade. I’m not talking about a new desk, chair, or storage. I’m even happy with the paint on the walls (plum). No, I am talking office supplies. I’ve had it with boring note pads, black staplers, silver paper clips, yellow post-its, and Bic pens (no offense Mr. Bic). However, I am finding it to be a bit challenging to find truly fun items. And by fun, I almost always mean polka dot. Or pink. Or purple. Something cheery and happy.  I found a polka dot accordion folder that I am in love with and some cute notebooks. But I need more, more, more.  I’ve scoured local stores.  Someone needs to start an online store that only sells super cute office supplies. There are some fun things at SeeJaneWork.com, but nothing I have to have. SortingWithStyle.com also has some cute things, but again, nothing I bought (their mod dots file folders did catch my eye).

 

My office needs a serious upgrade. I’m not talking about a new desk, chair, or storage. I’m even happy with the paint on the walls (plum). No, I am talking office supplies. I’ve had it with boring note pads, black staplers, silver paper clips, yellow post-its, and Bic pens (no offense Mr. Bic). However, I … Read more →

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had all this stuff AND that it was so friggin’ old. So I took an afternoon and purged. It was painful, but I did it and filled two garbage bags to donate. Here are my tips for how to get yours under control.

1. Count. How many t-shirts do you have? How many sweat pants? How many pairs of black pants? I was shocked to realize I had enough t-shirts to wear one a day without doing laundry for more than a month. Counting how many I had of each item made me feel more comfortable about giving some away because I would never ever need the 15 t-shirts I ditched, not when there were 20 more at the ready.

2. Fight stains. How many digging in the garden, painting, stripping wallpaper outfits do you need? I kept one. The rest were just taking up space I needed.

3. If it doesn’t fit, you must donate. You know those things you buy and they seem like a good idea in the dressing room, but then they look not quite right at home, and you never wear them? Why are you saving them? They aren’t going to magically become suitable. Yes, you wasted some cash on them, but you’re wasting space by keeping them. Donate and know they’ve clothed someone else.

4. No pain. Shoes, bras, waistbands that cut in, anything that makes you uncomfortable is bad closet karma. You feel miserable when you wear it. So just stop the insanity and let it go. It’s never going to feel any better on your body.

5. Stragglers. Somehow I had managed to keep a sleeveless shell from a sweater set from which I no longer had the actual sweater. I kept it thinking it might someday match something else. 10 years later, I can say I was wrong! Out it went. Don’t keep halves of sets like this.

6. Too big to fail. We all have those “just in case I gain it all back clothes.” And I can admit in the past I’ve ditched them and then gained the weight back and regretted it. My solution is to keep the really good pieces but take them out of the closet and store them somewhere else (under the bed, in the attic, etc.) until you are certain your weight loss is not temporary.

7. Out of synch. I will never take a job that requires me to wear a suit every day, so why am I keeping my lawyer suits? If you have clothes from a job, hobby, type of exercise or other lifestyle you aren’t going back to, get rid of them. I kept 2 suits that I could wear to a funeral, but the rest went out the door.

Other ways to make sense of the closet madness:

– Rotate. Put seasonal clothes in front and out of season things in back. This makes your space more functional.

– Fold and stack. If you have shelves in your closet, you might have the tendency I do to just stuff things on them. If you take a few minutes and neatly fold and stack everything you will fit more on the shelf and you’ll be able to easily see and access what you have there.

– Put extra hangers elsewhere. I keep all of my extra hangers hanging from the edge of a shelf up high. This leaves more room for clothes. When I take clothes out, I put the hanger up there. When I hang clothes up, I take a hanger.

– Hang shoes. Buy a shoe organizer and put it on the back of your closet door.

– Assess non-clothing items. My closet has extra blankets, tote bags, and old throw pillows lurking in the nether regions. Purge! Put the ones you really want in plastic zipped bags and get rid of the rest.

– Keep the “I’m going to fit into that someday” clothes, but separate them out so that you aren’t grabbing them, putting them on and then chucking them across the room in a fury. Stuff them in a bag and put them in the back of the closet. If you lose the weight, they will be there.

– If donating doesn’t make you feel excited enough, take your stuff to a resale or consignment shop. My kids LOVE taking old clothes to Plato’s Closet and it is a huge motivator to get them to get rid of things that no longer fit.

Now it is time for confessions. I kept the 20 year old dress because it is beautiful. I doubt it will ever fit but I’m allowed one non-functional item. I also kept a few of the lawyer blouses because they are classic and will work with the funeral outfits.

When was the last time you cleaned your closet?

 

I’d been ignoring it all summer. The closet. It was totally out of control.  My daughter wedged in there with me recently and I showed her blouses and suits from when I practiced law (15 years ago) and a dress from before she was born (20 years ago). I was shocked that I still had … Read more →

Having a collection is not just about finding, buying, or creating stuff (the thrill of the hunt). It’s also about arranging, protecting, and thoughtfully caring for the collection. If something is important enough to spend your time seeking out and buying, then you have to be prepared to devote some time to caring for it and keeping it in good condition.

Labeling

This is one job I have been trying to be better at. When my world traveler grandmother passed away at age 99, her home contained many fascinating treasures, but unfortunately we didn’t know where many of them actually came from. While I appreciate inheriting the collection of dolls she bought on her travels, I just wish I knew for certain where she bought each one. I’ve begun trying to label my own treasures, or to take photos and label those, so that there is some chance that they will be identifiable in the future. I wish I had done this when I started my bookmark collection. I have over 60 at this point on display in my office and while I can identify where most are from, there are some that I’m a bit hazy on at this point! I have the same problem with the sheep in my collection. Over the years, I’ve forgotten where some came from.

If you label your treasured items, include details such as when and where you bought them,

as well as any special information (such as “bought on our honeymoon” or information about special materials or craftmanship).

I got a P-Touch machine as a gift recently and will be using that to do some labeling.

Protecting

I am embarrassed to admit that the doll collection sits in a cardboard box in a closet at our house. Someday I will buy a case and stands, after I have someone repair the costumes that are falling apart.

Having a collection is about preserving it and honestly, that can be awfully expensive. I have

antique glass that was my grandmother’s on shelves in our living room, but they get so dusty and I am afraid of breaking them. I would love to have glass shelves with glass doors and lighting to keep these in.

Protecting and displaying your collection doesn’t always have to be an expensive proposition however. Lucite boxes are inexpensive and can be bought at craft shops. Think creatively about how you could show off your collection. An inexpensive shelf or bookcase can be a designated area. A dab of museum gel will keep things in place on the shelf. A kitchen cupboard with the door removed provides a special niche for a display. You could designate a side table in a corner as a display area. Some collections work nicely gathered on the floor in front of a fireplace or in a corner. Others can be hung on a wall, or placed on each step of a staircase. I display my bookmarks on colored paper inside inexpensive frames with the glass removed.

Cleaning

Keeping your collection looking good means taking the time to keep it clean. This can be a challenge since it can mean a lot of dusting! Keeping your collection behind glass doors or in display cases can really cut down on cleaning time.

It’s also important to know how to properly care for your items. I have a sweet grass basket that was handmade in the Low Country of South Carolina. Every year, I soak it in water then let it dry in the sun, as I was directed by the shop owner.  Find out the proper way to care for your collection.

When you are cleaning breakables, I find that it is often easier to take them all off the shelf or out of the case and put them on a table and then clean them one by one. It seems that when you are reaching in past other items that you are most likely to knock something over or break it.

Organizing

I am spatially challenged, so I have a hard time organizing things so that they look right.

Fortunately, my husband makes up for my deficits and between us we’re able to sort things out. It really makes a big difference how you arrange a grouping of items. One way and it just looks like a bunch of stuff. Another way and suddenly it looks like an interesting collection. These are some things to keep in mind:

• What’s behind it. The background color of the wall, shelf, or case greatly impacts how your collection stands out. Aim for a contrast: light-colored items against a darker background or vice versa. I painted the inside of my living room shelves different colors to better show off my glass.
• What’s under it. A table runner, artfully arranged piece of fabric, or metallic paper underneath it can all help to focus the eye on the collection as a group, and also to help it stand out. Stands, holders and other items that allow your collection to stand upright will make it more visible and visually pleasing.
• Lighting. Almost everything looks better when lit. Cabinets with lights built in them are ideal. If not, try a stick-up battery-powered light for some quick illumination.
• Keep it clean. Dusty collections look bedraggled. Keep it dusted and polished as much as possible.
• Group like items together. Sometimes it’s best to organize your collection into types and display similar pieces together (for example, a group of round baskets put together within your larger basket collection makes for even more cohesiveness).
• Organize by color. You may wish to group things by color for a high impact visual statement.
• Pay attention to height. Taller items in the back, shorter in the front allow for maximum visibility.

Moving Collections

Sometimes you get tired of a collection, which can be hard to admit if you’ve spent years creating it. I have moments when I am ready to pack my teacups away and do something else with that wall in my dining room. I did decide to be done with glass fruit years ago, and although I have inherited a collection lace doilies those are packed away. If it no longer makes you happy, why are you looking at it?

I rotate some collections to keep things interesting. My grouping of pink glass comes out for Valentine’s Day. Blue pottery emerges for the summer.  And of course, holiday collections come and go with the calendar as well. If you look at something too long, it becomes stale. Moving things around keeps it fun and interesting.

Having a collection is not just about finding, buying, or creating stuff (the thrill of the hunt). It’s also about arranging, protecting, and thoughtfully caring for the collection. If something is important enough to spend your time seeking out and buying, then you have to be prepared to devote some time to caring for it … Read more →