EASY ENTERTAINING // A SILVER ANNIVERSARY DINNER

Over the weekend, my siblings and I teamed up to create an intimate celebration dinner for our parent's 25th wedding anniversary. We held the event at their home and sent them away for part of the afternoon while we staged the set up. While a lot of thought and planning went into how we would set this apart from other family dinners held more regularly, we worked together to make this affair come together surprisingly easy. 

One way we did this was to divide and conquer. Each of us managed an aspect of party. My husband and I took charge of creating our dinner setting for the evening on my parent's patio. Early on, I decided that we should leverage the built in greenery in the surrounding yard and adjacent golf course. I riffed on this naturally beautiful setting by pulling together a table using natural materials - woods, linens, branches and lots of greenery on the table.

A long dinner table kept the vibe casual and communal, as did the table effects. Rustic dishtowels served as napkins. We pulled together the flatware from extra sets my sisters and I have collected. I had the idea to fashion some inexpensive chargers out of birch plywood sourced from my local Home Depot. The staff were kind enough to cut a 4x8' sheet down into 13x13" squares which helped pull each place setting together. Yard clippings, boston fern, lilacs, wax flower and cream colored roses were intermixed to compose mini arrangements set into my collection of bottles and silver goblets that were placed down the center of the table. Once the day's heat settled into evening, we backfilled in between with candles to establish a festive glow. The regular shaded overhead lighting was also swapped for filament bulbs to create a clean and modern lighting scheme. 

We loaded up our respective cars bright and early on Saturday morning and met over at my parent's home to dispense with set up and meal prep. I had to laugh driving down the freeway in our own car.  The dog and I barely squeezed into the front seat we are so loaded up with lanterns, flowers, linens, plates and pillows!  The day felt burgeoning and full with activity as well. Meal prep took on the hustle and bustle of an industrial kitchen line at one point, each dish out timed with precision out of the oven so the next could be put in. Our fellas all helped out as well. As he always does, my husband worked his magic with our soundtrack for the evening while tending bar. One of my brother in laws manned the grill, while another dished up one of my favorite appetizers - stuffed dates. 

I also created a colorful board of goodies to nosh on while we sipped cocktails and took turns with the photographer my sister hired to take some formal family portraits.

To keep our table intact prior to the meal, I carved out a section of the yard and created a little side lounge at which to sit and visit during cocktail hour. 

I think one of the best aspects of the evening was the collective effort that went into this celebration. We honored our mom and dad who sat in the middle of the long dinner table by working together to make this happen for them. My sisters and brother and I went around with each dish, serving guests at the table and then filed into the kitchen to wash up once the cake had been served. We have a very large family, full of volume and chaos, but I'll always look back fondly at that evening and how we all worked as a team and made some more memories to mark the day our parents married and we all became a family.

*photos by erin neally for holtwood hipster

THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE // WEEK 1

At long last, The One Room Challenge Spring 2015 link up is here! I must admit I'm becoming a bit addicted to this semi-annual trademarked event, that brings together some of the best (and fastest!) home decor makeovers in the blogosphere. Yesterday, twenty design bloggers selected by host Linda of Calling it Home unveiled their one-room schemes. Today, I'm linking up with many others to share plans for a long awaited makeover of yet another room in my own home - my husband's home office.  

This is a room that has been somewhat of an afterthought, taking on bits and pieces that might not quite work in other rooms, but happily take their place here because, well neither of us want to give up on them or they count as an upgrade to what already existed. Consequently, there is already a lot of stuff hanging out in this space, but until now there has been very little in the way of cohesiveness. One of my objectives will be to unify (and better highlight) some of the cool little artifacts that have become lost on too large a wall, amidst piles on the shelf and behind closet doors. 

Many of my flea market finds have made their way here. I seem to see my husband in so many of the spoils from these weekend trips and he graciously accepts whatever I bring home to hang on his wall. Over the next 6 weeks (eek!) I'll look to better balance some of what I see fitting this space with more of the things he says he wants and needs out of it. 

That will surely bring about compromises. No offense to any of those Goodfellas, but it's always made me shake my head a little that we have a picture of these guys on a wall in our home. To each his own- my husband loves it (and he's already made sacrifices by storing away portraits of Bob Marley and Tupac). Seriously. The bongos can stay. But I'm betting that the margarita glass will probably go- I don't care if he says it's for change.

I have 6 weeks to tie it all together and make this a more inspiring space for him to work from while working some magic to make it compliment our home. I'll be posting each Thursday on my progress and will share all the triumphs and obstacles of making over a space that actually must be functional enough to be used each day in the interim. Hey, I'll count it as my first success if I can get that poor plant in a pot before I report back next week. Be sure to check out and cheer on my design-mates in blogland over at Calling it Home as well.

My previous ORC rooms:

Master Bedroom - Fall 2014

Guest Bath - Spring 2014

ON THE TABLE // CAULIFLOWER RICE + ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH TAHINI DRESSING

My favorite dinner preparation method just might be roasting. I've figured out that I can chop up just about any vegetable and protein, toss it in some olive oil, a little garlic and salt and pepper and stick it in the oven for a quick and healthy dinner. Add to that a cup of brown rice and I'm happy to call that dinner any night of the week. There are very few dishes to wash and my meal is usually ready in under 30 minutes from start to finish. I've taken to this "new" way of eating - abandoning many of the multi-ingredient, calorie laden recipes I was trying to balance making on a work night for the sake of variety. The truth is, I can alter the type of vegetable and protein from night to night and still not feel as though I'm eating the same meal over and over and my body is feeling better for it. But I also have a couple of tricks that have served me well to keep things light and inventive- particularly when leaving out the protein. Cue in some homemade dressing and a grater. 

I stumbled across the amazingly simple way to take ordinary cauliflower and reduce it to a rice-like texture somewhere within the Pinterest rabbit hole and once I did, my life may have changed forever. I was so happily surprised at how much the grated cauliflower easily subbed in for my go to brown rice - without all the extra carbs. Both the cauliflower and vegetables really pair so well with the tangy tahini dressing, which when prepared, will actually be enough for several bowls should you possibly have any leftover for lunch the next day. Make this on a Tuesday night or when hosting lunch for your friends on a Sunday afternoon. It's a tasty and versatile enough dish to work on either occasion.

Make This // An Upholstered Faux-Leather Bed

The looming launch date for the next The One Room Challenge (beginning this week!), lit a little fire under my feet to get this long-promised tutorial up on the blog. Today, I'm sharing a step by step to make the faux leather bed I made for the ORC back in the Fall when I made over our master bedroom.

I owe the success of this project to two items on my materials list - the french cleat hanging system that enables a fully supported bed frame without the need to build out a larger wood skeleton and also the buttery look and feel of some very 'looks like the real' thing vinyl, that I was able to score for a song here locally.  This project comes together quickly, relatively inexpensively and best of all - easy. You can do this with just the very few materials listed below.

In addition to those listed, you will also need to start with a standard metal mattress frame. You will be connecting the side boards to this using the french cleat. Note that while the bottom of the frame will typically not have this "bar" to hang the end board from, you will be connecting all three sides together using the corner braces so it will be fully supported. 

You do not need to invest in pretty boards for this project. Source the most inexpensive common pine boards and plywood you can from your local Home Improvement store. Do invest in your faux leather yardage. Though I found mine at a discount home fabric outlet, I have provided a good online source in  links (I actually have swatches in hand to validate the quality). 

Boards | Plywood | French Cleats | Corner Braces | Quilt Batting | Wadding | Faux Leather

The basic concept and the construction of the bed is simple - you'll be upholstering the face and sides of the headboard (I did not account for material to upholster the back as it sits up against a wall), then the sides as well. The upholstered headboard will sit up against your wall, on the floor. The remainder of the upholstered bed frame will hang securely around the bed base and eventually slide up to meet the headboard. 

You may also choose to bolt your headboard to the top of the metal mattress frame (there are usually pre-drilled holes in the metal for such a purpose). I did not find that step necessary.  Additionally, I have provided steps and measurements for our queen sized bed set up. Use these as a guide, but double check all measurements both before you buy the materials and then again before you begin cutting your yardage and upholstering. I actually came up a half a yard short lengthwise when making my own, which forced me to sew together shorter pieces for the sides. It was a happy accident for me as I ended up preferring this stitched seam detail on the face of my sideboards. The instructions here do not call for this step and the additional half yard of fabric has been added.

When putting the frame together, just remember that the end-board will fit between the two sides and then be braced with the corner brackets.

The frame is easily removed for cleaning and linen changing if needed (I covered our box spring in a pin-stripe that I occasionally remove and launder). 

We've been so pleased to finally have a fully upholstered bed at a fraction of the cost for a similar style. To see the final room design from the Fall '14 round of The One Room Challenge, created and hosted by Linda of Calling It Home, click here.