{a thanksgiving holiday tablescape}

Chris and I decided not to travel home for Thanksgiving this year (flights are insane and we have been traveling like crazy this past year), but instead of spending the holiday alone in Chicago both of our families decided to travel to us!  Both our parents and siblings rented an old victorian house together in Lincoln Park and the best part of the place was the super old school dining room (complete with cheesy teal tufted chairs!) where we got to serve Thanksgiving dinner.

I really wanted to make the dinner special for our families since they traveled so far to be with us and BBJ Linen helped me bring my vision to life by giving us access to their amazing catalogue of designer rental linens and chargers.  I would have loved to go super modern and use this striped linen or use some punchy colored chargers, but I decided to keep it classic with a luxe navy blue damask topped with their gold braided glass chargers and some simple texture of with these marquis napkins.  I finished the look of the table using my own white dinnerware and gold flatware (is anyone tired of seeing this flatware yet?!?! because I'm certainly not. ok good).   For the centerpieces I made one large arrangement surrounded by five smaller arrangements then mixed in gold taper candles and gold votives.

 {check. out. those. chairs.  pretty sure they have been there since 1886 when this rental home was built}

 {the federal damask linen looks even better in person than it does in photos if you can believe it!}

 {we pre-ordered some flowers including decorative cabbage, garden roses, mums, thistle, hypernicum berry and eucalyptus from Whole Foods then arranged them as a family the night before}

 {gold vase from Target}

 {in addition to the linens BBJ gave us, we rented some luxe Murano glassware from Hall's.  Renting linens or glassware for special occasions really takes the entire event up a notch and its surprisingly resonable- it only cost $55 for us to rent 13 place settings of this Murano glassware which included red wine, water and a champagne flute!}

{I know that Crackers like this are traditionally used for Christmas, but I just love the lighthearted-ness they add to the beginning of dinner and they come with a prize (like mini playing cards, a yo-yo or pocket mirror), a joke AND a paper crown- who's going to turn that down!?}}

 {garden roses are some of my all-time favorite flowers I just can't resist them when they are available}

{we were having so much fun at dinner that I forgot to take any photos of us all together at the table- but my sister in law did capture this one of a portion of the guests near the end of the night- wearing the paper crowns from our crackers of course!}

{video: easy holiday decor projects}

           

A few weeks ago, Glam asked me to come out to NYC and shoot some fun holiday DIY projects for their Haute Hostess video series (you can see more of their fun videos right here).  This video shows you how to make a few different easy DIY projects for the holidays- my personal fave is the floral table runner adorned with gold antlers! This was the first time I have ever done something like this on camera (so don't judge too hard!) and while it was a bit awkward at first by the end I was having a total blast.  We also shot another fun video all about holiday cocktails that I can't wait to share with you in a few weeks- see a sneak peek here.

{holiday party idea: blind wine tasting}

A couple years ago, our friends hosted a super fun wine tasting party at their place that I have been dying to recreate.  So when Target asked me to put together a little holiday party inspiration using some of their new products,  I immediately thought the wine tasting idea would be perfect for a quick and easy holiday party!

The way this party works is you will ask each guest or couple to bring a bottle of wine under $25 - you can even specify a varietal like Pinot Noir. When the guests enter have them hand you the bottle so that you can wrap it in kraft paper or a brown bag and then assign their bottle a number without anyone else seeing (as the host you will be the only one who knows all the different bottles and their corresponding numbers).  Ideally you will have one glass per bottle per guest so that guests can try the different wines and refer back to them rather than emptying out their glass.  We have a shocking amount of wine glasses in our house, but if you don't own enough wine glasses to make this possible then you can easily rent some.

Serve appetizers as well as some sweets and let guests mingle while trying the different wines then reporting their thoughts on printed "notes" cards.  Tally up the favorite bottle selections at the end of the night (this bottle of Pinot Noir won the year we did this) and give the guest who brought the winning bottle a nice bottle of wine or another fun gift!  Links to items used for this party are under each photo and the download links to the printables are at the bottom of this post!

{gold Nate Berkus vase, gold prism tray, wine glasses}

 {wine tag printable}

 {wine bottle number printable}

 {gold rimmed decanters}

 {leftover florals from our Thanksgiving dinner which I will be sharing later this week}

 {gold rimmed agate tray, white ceramic trophy vase from older Target collection but find a similar one here, wine notes printables}

 {vintage black milk glass cake stands - find similar here}

 {gold prism tray by Nate Berkus, gold/black wrapping paper from holiday dept at Target}

  {I like the idea of setting up a spot for each guest to keep their glasses so that they aren't trying to roam your party holding 3 or 4 in one hand- I used simple place cards to designate an area for each person}

{free download link for wine tasting party printables}

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media.  The 

opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of 

the opinions or positions of Target.