Our Golden Hour Dinner Party

All the way back in June I decided that one of the things I wanted to do this summer was plan and host a pop-up dinner party. Before that day I didn't even know what a pop-up dinner party was but when I read this post I thought, "You know, I could totally do that!" A few minutes later as I scrolled to the end of the post I thought, "I'm definitely doing that!" and started looking at dates on my calendar.

So many things about this concept–hosting a semi-surprise, fancy dinner party outside with friends–resonated with me. What could be better than eating al fresco, for one? We live in a gorgeous part of the country and I was pretty sure we could find a breathtaking venue. I loved the idea of being in nature but using linen tablecloths and real forks and plates and glasses and cloth napkins. The challenge of coming up with a menu and cooking everything myself excited me. And of course, the most fun part was making everything as beautiful and magical as possible and getting to share that with the people I love. (I just hoped I could pull it off!)

We have such a lovely collection of friends here in Charlottesville. We had four couples at the party, plus us and my baby brother (who took all the photos and was incredibly fun and helpful all day long–couldn't have done it without him). In Oh Happy Day style I sent out this slightly cryptic invitation on Paperless Post a few weeks in advance.

I thought that keeping things sort of secretive would add to the magic of the party. The venue we decided on was a quiet public park with a lake and pretty mountain views. We set up the tables in the shade under a collection of old trees near the small lake. The morning of, we emailed directions that my husband had written out old-school style and told everyone that once they arrived, to look for white tablecloths under some nearby trees.

I spent all day cooking. My brother and husband were a huge help with this. I made only things that would be delicious at room temperature and I wanted everything to be fresh and seasonal and look colorful and beautiful on the table. We had poached salmon with a dijon sauce, brown rice with chives, local tomatoes with olive oil and feta, sliced peaches and blueberries, kale and cabbage salad with a balsamic dressing, baguettes with salted butter, and for dessert, lemon pound cake and raspberries. And rosé, because it's so darn pretty.

As we approached 5ish we loaded up both of our cars with all of the supplies. Two 6-foot folding tables, 11 chairs from around the house, a huge tub of tablecloths/dishes/silverware/serving utensils/glasses, the cooler of wine and sparkling water, a metal bucket with candles/bottle opener/twine/lighter/scissors, two vases of wildflowers, and finally the platters of food wrapped tightly in saran wrap. We stopped on the way for ice. 

One thing that was so incredible: as my husband and brother and I set up it was very hot, humid and buggy. This was around 6-6:30ish. We lit tons of citronella candles and sprayed our legs with bug spray and hoped the heat would subside. As we approached 7, which is when we had told our guests to arrive, the sun crept behind the mountain and it became instantly cooler and perfectly crisp and comfortable and the bugs all but disappeared. It was such a welcome relief and I was really able to relax once this happened!

My brother is an excellent photographer and he snapped most of these in the few minutes we had between taking off the saran wrap from the food and when our guests arrived. The light was golden and exquisite and I think he really captured the magic of the evening.

Our friends were so sweet and excited and I think they all loved the surprise element. They didn't quite know what to expect and I think it's safe to say they were amazed when they arrived. It was a marvelous, enchanting evening and I'm so glad we did it.

Inspired By Japan!

Hi, friends! I've been excited to share bits and pieces of our trip to Japan with you but it's hard to know where to begin. (I've also been fighting the jet lag demons ever since we got home. Ugh!) This trip has left my eyes wide open and my heart expanded and so much of me is inspired by what we saw, learned, witnessed, noticed, absorbed. Here are some of my favorites.

The natural respect

There is an amazing culture of respect in Japan that seems to permeate all relationships. Family relationships, friend to friend, shopkeeper to customer. Everybody bows hello, thank you, goodbye. Even two young friends parting ways in the subway after a night out will give a little bow to each other as they say goodnight. We found it to be so sweet and dignified. All of us loved this tradition.

The design
Oh, Japanese design. It's lovely. It's simple. It's infused into the most everyday facts of life. Everywhere we went I noticed this careful, thoughtful focus on beauty and aesthetics. Spaces were uncluttered, walls were white, little details never went by the wayside. In our hotel room in Kyoto the hair dryer was stored in a cream-colored linen bag with the word "DRYER" hand-stamped on the edge in inky block letters. The tiniest, most subtle thing. At our gate in the Osaka airport, there were rows and rows of kelly green seats with light-colored wooden frames and the notes of a piano trio murmured over the sound system. A garage door near our Airbnb in Tokyo was made of wood, not vinyl, and I never knew a garage door could be so gorgeous. These things are heart-swelling for someone like me. I'm so inspired by this intentional creation of loveliness, by the elevation of the mundane, by the attention to simple beauties.

The cleanliness and general treatment of public property
Japan is a clean place. On the streets, in public restrooms, in the backs of taxi cabs, in the subways. All clean! It was marvelous. We realized partway through the trip that this has less to do with fastidious janitors or a well-paid city cleaning staff and more to do with maintenance by regular people and a respect for what is shared. The tip-top bathrooms were obviously most noticeable to us. People don't trash public restrooms in Japan. If anything, they will leave a bathroom stall cleaner than it was when they walked in. Some bathrooms even had wall-mounted cleaning spray for the seat. Brilliant!

The onsen culture
This was a girls activity that my friend and I did together while the boys headed back to the hotel. An onsen is a Japanese spa where women and men go (separately, usually) to bathe. There were two hot indoor pools, one hot outdoor pool that was dyed red for some reason and one cold pool (which was a godsend). All done in the nude! This part took a little getting-used-to but I think we both found the atmosphere to be quite liberating. There's nothing showy about it and there's also nothing fearful. Body image does not have a place in the onsen. You are there to nourish your body, physically and spiritually, not to criticize it or flaunt it or feel ashamed of it. You soak, pamper, relax, treat. It's like a little thank-you to your body for working so hard. It was neat to get over our natural modesty for a moment and remember that bodies are just bodies. They're functional and biological and they're beautiful no matter what precisely they look like. The Japanese women barely gave us a glance and absolutely none of them (and many of them were quite a bit older than us) were self-conscious about walking around with nothing to hide behind. Really inspiring.

...and SO much more. I loved Japan. I adored it. I didn't want to leave and I definitely want to someday go back.

Of course, having the best travel buddies in the world didn't hurt. Post on that to come!

Earthy Linen Napkins

I've been on the lookout for some beautiful cloth napkins, soft and faded in a deep color that hides imperfections, a rich mocha or grey-blue slate or inky charcoal. I stumbled on these stonewashed hemstitch linen beauties and they perfectly mirror the ones in my imagination. They are simple enough for everyday but sophisticated enough for special dinners. Wouldn't it be lovely to mix and match several of these earthy tones or maybe create an ombré palette? 

(p.s. They also sell these without the hemstitch, but I love the homemade quality that pretty stitching lends.)

The Best Everyday Drinking Glasses

The first of the dishes we received as wedding registry gifts have done what most dishes do eventually--they cracked. It happened within a span of about 10 days. A bowl slipped from my hand while I was washing dishes and it landed on a mug. They both suffered small but noticeable chips.
The salad plate wasn't so lucky. A few days after the first incident one of our small plates shattered and we had to toss it. It made me a little sad because they weren't just dishes, they were wedding gifts.

I'm happy to say though that our Duralex drinking glasses have not endured a single casualty (and not for lack of a few swift run-ins with the kitchen floor). I grew up with Duralex glasses and have always loved their classic design so they were an easy choice for our registry. We have the Picardie tumblers in both the small and large sizes plus a few tiny hand-me-down juice glasses from my parents that are probably 15 years old, and still good as new.

Now that I have my own kitchen I appreciate these glasses beyond their classic French bistro look. They are really affordable, especially for how well-made they are. They stack well. The tempered glass is suitable for both hot and cold drinks and they stand in quite elegantly for a stemmed wine glass. They feel nice in your hands, both the shape and the weight of them. And I love the variety of sizes available. The juice glasses are adorable.

Best of all the design never changes, so I'll be able to keep my kitchen stocked with my favorite glasses forever.

Tell me--what in your kitchen are you most loyal to? I want to hear about your favorites!

DIY Leather-Wrapped Vase

Working creatively with your own two hands is so therapeutic, isn't it? My favorite supplies for my DIY projects are ones that look and feel natural and earthy--copper, marble, leather, milk paint, rope, paper.  So I was thrilled to get this lovely leather cord in the mail last week from a German company called Endless Leather (they were kind enough to send me this pretty sampling of their wares for free). This Regaliz leather cord is serious--I haven't seen anything like it in the craft stores I normally go to for materials. It's thick and sturdy and as soon as I saw it I had this vision of a slender leather-wrapped glass vase, sort of a modern, masculine piece.

So I hopped on Amazon and bought a glue gun. I can't believe I didn't already have one! I typically use some sort of super glue for projects but I knew this leather cord would need something stronger to hold it in place.

I already had this glass vase which ended up being the ideal size and shape. It was tricky going at first but once I got the hang of the gluing and wrapping, gluing and wrapping, I sort of zoned out and let my mind wander. The best sort of relaxation.

I decided that some muted green eucalyptus stems would be the perfect contrast to the rich, cognac leather, and I am loving the whole effect. It's rustic yet elegant and those two words together in the same sentence never get old for me.

Happy weekend, friends! Make it a creative one.

The Dreamiest Dining Room

Dark, rich, moody walls. Pewter pitchers and plain white dishes. A long farmhouse table with rustic wooden chairs. Dim sconces casting shadows. Antlers and framed black and white sketches and photographs. A crackling fire. Gorgeous hazy sunlight filtering through the windows. Neutrals layered upon neutrals.

Ok, what do you think--any guesses? You might think I'm sitting here describing my dream aesthetic and you wouldn't be far off from the truth.

But no, this room actually exists, at least in the way that Lady Mary and Mr. Bates and secret-wielding servants and breakfast trays for married women exist. I know it's far less glamorous than its upstairs counterpart, but the servant's dining room is my favorite room in Downton Abbey. I just love it.

Wouldn't it be so much fun to model your own dining room after this one? (Apparently the paint they used was mixed up from historical paint recipes, and you can buy it!) I would do it in a second. This room is just so tasteful and earthy and elegant.

(Don't even get me started on the kitchen. Open shelving, copper pots, stone cannisters! To die for.)

Homemade Christmas

Unsurprisingly, I like to decorate for Christmas the same way I like to decorate the rest of the time--simply, putting hand-me-downs to good use, re-purposing in creative ways, making instead of buying when I can.

For me, this is the most wholesome and refreshing and in-the-spirit way to approach Christmas. I've been very conscious this year, perhaps more so than in other years, of keeping my focus on Jesus, of nurturing peace in my heart and in my home, and making this most special holiday simple, lovely, and joyful.

As I look around our home the words "Homemade Christmas" jump into my mind. My brothers and I were raised on gluing together our own ornaments, baking and frosting warm sugar cookies, stockings that were sewn by Grandma. And I suppose I've now adapted that homemade spirit for adulthood.

Instead of purchasing an expensive garland for our mantel, we asked for the discarded evergreen trimmings we saw in a pile at a local Christmas tree farm. From those I had more than enough to fill our mantel and transform my fall wreath into a wintery one. I found some holly (holly look-alike maybe?) in our yard and stuck a few sprigs on the wreath, and I dotted the mantel greenery with some of the leftovers from this unexpected fall bouquet. I foraged for the red berries during a walk to the park.







Our advent wreath is a little on the makeshift side but I love its simplicity. These greens also came from this bouquet. We arranged them in a rustic circle and set out four white votives and a larger Christ candle in the middle.

Everything is so simple and wintery and the only thing we've purchased (other than gifts) is our mini live tree. I felt so content and peaceful as I unwrapped things we already had and found a place for them in our new home, as I snipped berries from the tree outside our window, as I positioned baby Jesus and Mary in the place of honor on the mantel.

So while it's certainly nice to have the traditional pink or purple Advent candles, I don't think Jesus minds that we've chosen to honor him with plain white votives instead. After all, Christmas isn't about acquiring things and it isn't about perfection. It's about love and joy and celebration and family and it's about a heart-bursting kind of hope.

In that spirit, a Homemade Christmas sounds just right to me.