hostessing.

As you might have been able to tell from this post and this post, I love having people in our home. I love to get everything cleaned up and presentable, I love to keep house so it is warm and a smellin' yummy, I love making extra special foods for visitors (thank you Mel for making this possible!), really I just love going the extra mile so when others enter our small abode they feel welcomed and loved. I've always enjoyed doing these things, but it wasn't until recently that I realized why these things are so important. What spurred this realization, you ask?? Well, I read this blog post about housekeeping and it seriously changed my perspective of keeping house by like 99%. You should read it, again and again.

Last week I got to do all of these loved-filled-keeping-house-things as I hosted the salad/appetizer portion of our Relief Society's progressive dinner. I wont lie, I went back and read that blog post again because yes, I love it so much, and because she gives some great examples of how to help others see, smell, and most importantly feel that your house is a home.

So for this progressive dinner I was put on the "italian route." Six thirty rolled around and half of the ladies came on over to our place where we had some green salad and tasty bruschetta. Yum bruschetta! I could eat it allll day! Obviously outside of the delicious food (thanks Amber!) and the awesome company (for reals, I sure lucked out with the group that I got!) I had lots of fun putting these little "center pieces" together for the table to greet the ladies as they came inside from the nasty snow-blowing-everywhere weather.

Terribly trendy? Yes, terribly. Absolutely adorable? Chyeah! And oh so easy, too! This is how easy... buy "priced to sell" flowers at Miller's for $2.99, buy a pack of paper doilies at World of Variety for $1.50 (while you're actually looking for non existent 3-D adhesive something-or-others), find 5-ish smaller random glass jars in your house (I went with two tall baby food jars, an old Cholula jar, and two different jam jars), wrap a little twine around said jars, fill them with flowers and a little water, and throw 'em on the table with some doilies! Okay don't throw them on the table... but yeah, so easy! 

Now this guy, on the other hand... 

[recipe]

...was also so easy! And mega delicious... again, thank you Mel, from the bottom of my very stuffed stomach.