Beautiful Christmas tables

Some ideas to decorate your Christmas table. Get inspire with the pictures and some tips:

Ornate your wine glasses with lace and add something to differentiate them such as apiece of paper with a happy quote, your kids drawings, or a photo of a character or celeb.

Use candies to create unique ornaments

Hang Christmas ornaments on your lamps or chandeliers to dress them up.




Photos: Hostessblog y Athomewithkimvalee

More gift wrapping ideas

I love to wrap gifts and I am always looking for interesting designs. I found these pictures I hope you also enjoy the designs.

The Shabby Chic design is so simple and romantic. I also like Sweet Paul's idea of creating initials with wire to add to the ribbon. I like them all.

Gift wraps

I love to give and to receive beautiful gifts, and by that I mean beautiful wrapping. The conservationist in me struggles with the fact that we waste so much just wrapping gifts. Most of the wrapping is not remarkable and goes to the garbage without even looking at it.

There are many ways to wrap gifts in an eco conscious way.
1-The best way is to reuse what we have and use our imagination to create beautiful new wraps. These include paper and ribbons from gifts we receive, shopping bags, magazine or newspaper pages etc.

2- Another way is to use reusable material such as tablecloth, towels or similar to wrap the gift, in this case the wrapping is part of the gift.

3- Use natural materials such as flowers, leaves etc.

I hope you enjoy the samples and inspire you to create memorable eco conscious wrapping.

Snowman

I am not a big fan of going outside and get cold to make a snowman, but these are really cute and I do not need to go out to make them. They make great decorations not only for Christmas but also for the whole cold winter.

The first pic has edible snowmen, they came from Homes and Gardens magazine. One is a cute way to drink mild and eat a donut and the second just donuts.

The next pic has decorations. One of them is by Mosey (Etsy shop) and the next from Homes and Gardens. One is felt and the other is made from socks.

Robotic nativity set

I love this nativity set from PsandQs. It is one of the most creative nativity sets that I have seen. It is already sold out, but it motivates me to create my own.

Photo: Ps and Qs

Martha Stewart eggnog recipe

You can eat or drink almost anything as long as you do it in moderation. Yes, that means that you can eat your cheesecake or pecan pie without any guilt as long as you understand that it is a treat and you only do it once in a while. That is why my principle is that if you are going to eat a calorie-rich food, you better have the genuine version. For instance, I love yogurt, but when I do have it (rarely), I choose the Stonyfield full cream version, because that is delicious. The low- and no-fat versions taste awful. So if you want to enjoy eggnog during the holiday season (Related: How to avoid weight gain during holidays), my recommendation is not to buy the crap from the supermarket but make your own authentic version and stick to a small glass. Of course, Martha Stewart has the best recipe for egg nog.

Hair for holiday party

When you are getting ready for the holidays, there are essentially three important parts to looking good: the clothes (I am including the dress, shoes, and accessories here), makeup, and hair. Obviously, if you are going for a very special event, you can always go to a hair salon and have it done professionally, but if you either don't have the time or are just going to a less formal event, you can even do your hair yourself or ask a family member to help you. Here is an excellent video by celebrity hairstylist Johnny Lavoy who shows how to create a great holiday hairstyle that is inspired by Katherine Heigl.

How much to tip, whom, and when?

I love Japan because there is no tipping involved. Of course, prices are high for everything but I like the idea that I do not have to deal with figuring out all the complexities of tipping. You can tip too much and spoil the recipient. You can end up tipping too little and make the recipient unhappy. Fortunately, Peter Post of the Emily Post Institute has all the answers about tipping during the holiday season in this insightful video.