Hello Friends. I hope the first week of your new year was fabulous!

So I have a question for you all. I am wondering how long you leave your Christmas decorations up?

Here on Ohio’s North Coast we have snow until March or April. {Below is my back yard this morning.}

Since winter lasts at least five months here, I like to leave my decorations up more as “winter decor” than Christmas decor per se.

If I lived some place warm, I would take them down earlier but seriously, since we will have snow on the ground long after the first day of Spring, I like having the evergreen tree up and turning on the lights at night.

When it’s snowing outside at night we will turn on the deck lights and put the fireplace on and it’s such a warm, cozy sight. It’s my winter home.

What are your after-Christmas thoughts about leaving decorations up?

Every season has a flavor all its own, and this month is all about warm and spicy cinnamon.

 Here is a yummy cinnamon nut bread that makes the perfect hostess gift when visiting family and friends this weekend for Christmas. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Nut Bread

Makes: 3 loaves (14 servings total)

Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: 45 minutes
Cool: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/3  cups  sugar, divided
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped toasted pecans or walnuts
• 2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1    egg, lightly beaten
• 1  cup  milk
• 1/3  cup  vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the bottoms and 1/2 inch up the sides of three 5 3/4x3x2-inch loaf pans or a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In a small bowl, stir together 1/3 cup of the sugar, the nuts, and cinnamon; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In a medium bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).

3. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pans. Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture. Top with the remaining batter and the remaining nut mixture. Using a narrow metal spatula or table knife, cut down through batter and pull up in a circular motion to marble.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes for 5 3/4-inch pans (55 to 60 minutes for 9-inch pan) or until a toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on racks. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

Cranberry-Nut Bread: Prepare as directed, except stir 3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries into batter.

Blueberry-Nut Bread: Prepare as directed, except stir 3/4 cup fresh blueberries into batter.

Nutrition Facts

• Servings Per Recipe 3 loaves (14 servings total)
• Calories 227

{From Better Homes & Gardens}

This past weekend we had our annual “End of the Lane” Christmas Open House. We invite our neighbors on the street and it’s the one time a year that we all try to get together.

I decided to have a dessert buffet and hot cocoa bar and was inspired by Amy Atlas’ amazing dessert buffets. My color theme was blue and pink – I wanted to do something that was fun and different from traditional red and green.

I made Bakerella’s cakepops (I bought her cookbook and it’s filled with great ideas!) 

Since we have a fireplace in the dining room, I skewered white and pink marshmallows “for roasting” – it was so fun!

I ordered chocolate covered oreos from Sweeties by Kim and they were a favorite!

Mini powder donuts, iced animal crackers, cones of caramel corn and sticks of blue and pink rock candy rounded out the dessert buffet.

Our hot cocoa and coffee bar perfectly complemented the desserts. I kept the cocoa warm in a crock pot and had yummy stir ins like white chocolate chips, candy canes, whip cream, cinnamon, etc.

It was fun pulling together a buffet that looked fun and festive!

As I deck the halls here at our Cottage In the Woods, I’m making the transition from the red color scheme {that went with the furniture we’ve had for the past three seasons} to a pale blue and cream look that goes with the newly painted walls and new furniture we got this year.

Of course, red would go with our new colors but . . . I really wanted to use the soft, romantic palette of  silver, blue, cream and blush pink. It’s all so frosty & icey. 

Our new stockings are wonderfully soft and have a bit of sequin bling  - I got them at Lowes, one of my favorite places to shop for home decor items, believe it or not. I love the little pom at the toe of the stocking – adorable!

My stocking holders go right with my color theme – this pink little bottle of champagne holds my stocking. The blue bottle {which you can see at the far end of the mantel} holds my hubby’s stocking. I thought they were a fun and festive touch!

We’ll be taking these bottles with us to the hotel in downtown Cleveland on New Year’s Eve but until then, I think they make great stocking holders!

I’d love to know what bits of creativity help you create your Christmas & holiday touches this year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I know we did. 

Our Thanksgiving dinner was the best we’ve had in a number of years. We bought a pre-cooked and sliced turkey breast with gravy from a local butcher shop and it was yummy. All we had to do was to heat it up.

We also bought their mashed potatoes which were surprisingly flavorful. I made the rest of the sides and it all turned out well.

So here we are, Monday after the long holiday weekend. It is hard to get moving but I have so much to do.

Not only do I have lots of stuff to finish up for clients but I have SO much to do at our house before our annual “End of the Lane” Christmas Open house this weekend.

We are having a dessert & hot cocoa bar and I have ordered some of  Kim’s fabulous chocolate-covered oreos! I’ve been inspired by Amy Atlas and others who create dreamy dessert buffets.

I’m sure you are all busy working on transforming your homes from fall to a winter wonderland. I’ve gotten the outside of the house done. Inside I have the tree finished and the fireplace mantels in the living room and dining room. I still have lots more to do!

If you’d like to decorate your computer, I thought I would share a link from MidWest Living Magazine – 28 beautiful winter pictures for your desktop {photos used in this post are from this link}. I have had Bora Bora on my desktop but am going to change to the skating one I used above.

Have fun decking your halls {and computers!}

Last weekend I went to a holiday open house at Gale’s Garden Center which is about 20 minutes from us.

Since I have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the five-gray-months-of-winter that we have here on the North Coast, Gale’s beautiful Christmas decorations are the spoonful of sugar to help that medicine go down!

I thought I’d share a few of the photos that I snapped on our tour and share the inspiration!

The first photo {above} was their candy-theme tree. Lots of fun but oh, how expensive! {One of the large present ornaments was $45! Even after season it would be a pricey tree.}

 Next we have one of my favorite finds – a ribbon wreath. The base is a grape vine wreath and I think it just might be a DIY project!

The winner of my most creative tree goes to the colorful tropical Christmas tree {well, I’m pretty sure there was a tree under all that stuff!}

I wish I had taken my digital camera because this photo doesn’t come close to catching the unusual beauty of this tree.

The tree that was cute but that would not make an appearance at my house is the Ohio State Tree! I’m a Buckeye fan but seriously, NOT going to have this in my house!

I loved this “garden” theme tree! This is a band-style tree that is only sold for retail display but I think it is really neat how there are bands of open area between the branches for creating your displays. The window backlit the tree, so it was hard to get a decent photo on my phone.

Here’s a closeup of the garden tree.

Speaking of Christmas, at the end of the week I will be decorating a tree for the annual “Festival of Trees” for NE Ohio Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I hope to take photos and will blog about it next week.

Stay tuned for Part II of our tour later this week. I think you’re going to love the “jingle shaker!”

Fall is in full force here on the North Coast and I’ve been trying to add a few autumn touches in the house.

Like so many of you, my schedule is crazy. It’s the busiest time of the year for my design business {everyone getting their house holiday-guest ready} and sometimes it’s hard to find the energy and motivation to actually decorate my own home when I have been busy decorating other people’s places.

This year my fall mantel was all about using what I had on hand and I really only had about 15 minutes to pull it all together.

I used two garlands of white mini pumkins that I bought after season at Pottery Barn a couple of years ago and intertwined them in a fall garland of pinecones and fall leaves.

I felt like I needed height to flank the rabbit weather vane (which I bought at target three years ago) so I put the pumpkins on a couple of black candle holders. They are not the same height but that just adds a bit of movement to the arrangement.

I tucked the sweet little ceramic bird into the garland and voila! The fall mantel for this year.

Fall has officially arrived.

I can’t say it thrills me because here on the North Coast I know the arrival of fall means five months of winter is on the way.

However, this morning I am trying NOT to think about that. Instead, I am inspired by some beautiful fall photos from Southern Living.

I love how warm and cozy these outdoor fireplaces are.

They provide a great way to extend outdoor entertaining into October in colder climates. If you live in the south, theoretically you could entertain all winter long.

These pictures almost make me glad fall is here {almost}.