Thanksgiving Recap

I hope you are all feeling nicely rested after a trip back home. We spent the holiday getting to catch-up with family and friends throughout the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area.

First stop was my in-laws. (MIL) Momfran cooked a delish turkey - perfectly brown and juicy thanks to Martha Stewart's wonderful tip (see #5). We dined on mashed potatoes, candied sweets, amazing stuffing and enough pie to make the scale go a little haywire. There was even an appearance of pumpkin flavored ice cream - Thank You Edy's.

Saturday we awoke to bagels and coffee brought in from our favorite local jaunt, Terrace Bagels. Were totally in love with the coffee they serve there — made by Hillier Coffee, it's aptly named Brooklyn Roads and is fantastic!

After a visit to Terrain at Styers to see their amazing assortment of trees, ornaments and more. I got lots of great ideas for holiday gifts and a few cool garden pots/baskets to help decorate my workspace.

That evening we headed over to Longwood Gardens to meet our friends, Elena, John and John's mom, Pat. The trees along the outside grounds were meticulously covered in colorful lights and the conservatory was a glow with festive delights. The display was truly remarkable! The evening was quite chilly so we started with a stop at the cafe for some hot cocoa.

I took nearly 300 photos of all the sights including...

These X-mas trees decorated by local area school children

Dozens of orchids

(L to R) The main room was covered in hundreds of Begonia, Poinsettia and surrounded by a low reflecting pool. Me poising with a red poinsettia and a living sculpture made of hundreds of succulents

(L to R) Momfran and George posing in front of a blue butterfly covered tree. Interior of the dining room. A larger than life live wreath. Close-up of the garland from the massive tree at top. Hundred year old Bonsai. Love this photo of John and his reflection.

There were so many wonderful bronze sculptures surrounding the fountains - each piece was unique and worth a snapshot

And the best of all is that we toured the entire place with a fun group. (From L to R): George, Momfran, John, Elena, Pat and John.

If you live in the area and are looking for a nice day trip, be sure to visit Longwood. It was superb!

Saturday we headed to New Jersey to visit my brother and his family. We spent a few hours getting to see my parents and enjoying time with our nieces and nephew. I asked the kids to snap these photos - they seem to love that you will trust them with your camera - it's such a big responsibility and I love the photos they captured.

(From L to R): Aidan with Josh - check out their matching outfits! Lily and Madison with Shannon

We ended the night back in Pennsylvania to round out the trip and got a chance to see Brooke and Nick.

Lovely to share a peek into our Thanksgiving. Hope your was just as fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope each of you has a wonderful time with family and friends this holiday weekend. Travel safely and enjoy lots of good times and great nibbles.

Anyone for a little Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle?

Recipe from Paula Dean ©Food Network

Ingredients  

• 2 (14-ounce) packages gingerbread mix  
• 1 (5.1-ounce) box cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix 
• 1 (30-ounce) can pumpkin pie filling 
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1/3 teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon 
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped cream
• 1/2 cup gingersnaps, optional

Directions

Bake the gingerbread according to the package directions; cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool. Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cardamom into the pudding. Crumble 1 batch of gingerbread into the bottom of a large, pretty bowl. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of whipped topping. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and whipped topping. Sprinkle of the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. Refrigerate overnight. Trifle can be layered in a punch bowl.

Inspired Changes at IG

Back from London and working on playing catch-up before the holidays take over. We had a really nice trip and the best part was getting to spend lots of quality time together. We ventured all over town shopping, eating and walking our way from street to street. It was lovely!

I promise to do a recap of the trip a little later on when life doesn't feel like it's passing me by.

More importantly, I haven't announced this officially yet, but Inspired Goodness is getting a really good injection of it's own, starting on December 7th. From then on it will be 100% of me here, present, posting and spreading the word about IG. I know these past few months that I've been a little sporadic with my posting and all things DIY/creative. I finally came to a decision that I need to remove myself from the day-to-day minutia of side projects and devote all of my time to this venture.

That said, I'm giving up all of my other freelance business and spending 100% of my time and efforts on growing Inspired Goodness into a premier Event Design company I know it has the potential to be.

I do hope you will join me as we change for the better - that includes more DIY ideas, loads of fun and creative wedding eye candy and more Behind the Scenes to capture what the team at IG is creating for our clients.

It's an exciting time for us and I just wanted to take some time and thank each of you for joining along and supporting us on this journey.

Farouche via Etsy

And since I'm such a stickler for putting my thanks into a handwritten note, I've found this amazing stationery I would pick just for the occasion. Isn't it just divine?!?

Special thanks to each of you that make me smile with every comment, email and inquiry you send my way. Thanks for always making each moment of this so special and for being a really great group of readers, friends and colleagues.

Bon Voyage

Hello lovelies! I am in an extra happy mood today after two weeks of putting on a very brave face.

You see, John, my better half, has been traveling the past few weeks for work. First to Shanghai, then Vietnam, then Johannesburg, then Lesotho and currently in Swaziland. The boy has been very busy traveling the globe!

click for source

It's been an amazing opportunity for him and quite an education for me. Before he left for the trip, I couldn't tell you where on Earth Lesotho was geographically. At this stage in the game, I can easily figure the local time, temperature and approximate distance from New York City. (Go me!)

From afar, we've kept in touch with various modes of communication. Apparently you can receive text messages from South Africa. (Let's pretend they will cost the same amount that local ones state side would.) We had some odd-hour skype calls (11:45PM on Saturday for me, 6:45AM on Sunday for him.) and we both have learned how hard it can be to return to an empty hotel room (him) /apartment (me) and long for a simple gesture like holding each others hands or a kiss goodnight.

After two plus years of marriage, it still amazes me that our relationship can still stay so fresh. The excitement at times gets overtaken by life and the grind of everyday, but through it all, we are tested and have generally come of of each situation knowing that we really just love to be together.

So it's been a bit hard for me - having too much time to myself. I must admit that I've been quite busy; the visit to Asbury Park, a night talking away with my dearest friend, making major progress on assembling the frames for our Paris wall map plus getting the latest wedding invitations designed and presented to a very satisfied bride.

Anyhow, I'm going off on a tangent and need to get back to my point...

Which is that tonight I am boarding an airplane bound for London, John's final destination. His flight home was arranged to leave for Heathrow to New York and he came up with the idea that I should meet him for a long weekend there. Were staying for 3 nights/4 days and I couldn't be more thrilled!!!

Not only do I get to spent all weekend in a city I've always dreamed of visiting, but that I can do it with John. After two weeks apart, we sure have some time coming to us.

Artsharkdesigns via Etsy

I've got my camera all ready and found a wonderful inspiring set of shops and restaurants to visit (many courtesy of Wee Birdy). If you plan to visit London, you mush check out this blog - she has incredibly detailed descriptions, site visits, photos and google maps of her favorite London places.

With that said, I'm packed, ready and signing off until Monday. I hope each of you has a lovely weekend as you gear up for Thanksgiving. 

And to John, I hope your ready because this girl is on her way.

Someone please alert the Queen and Sir Paul (McCartney & Smith). The Canale's are coming!!

Much love and adieu...

~ Kim

DIY Family Tree Guestbook

Ever since we posted Shira and Loren's DIY envelope liners and etched mirror, I've been seeing family trees pop up everywhere!

A cool twist to the traditional route, this project provides your guests with a fun activity during the cocktail hour and becomes a lasting keepsafe for you.

Start with an oversized print of your tree without guest names on it. Setup a few different stamp-pads. You can either do a range of colors that matches your wedding color or shades of green, mimicing natural leaves. Also place a grouping of matching pens inside a pretty vase or vintage drinking glass.

Leave a small sign asking guests to imprint their thumb onto a branch and use the pens to add their name to identify their thumbprint. Be sure to encourage randomness to make the final design organic and fun!

To keep the project tidy, provide a basket of small moist toilettes in easy to use individual packets.

If you're not the DIY type, check out Etsy Lovliday - she offers signs and blank trees at a really great price! Lovely idea, don't you think?

Photos by: Jonas Peterson found via .C is for Charmed / Loviday found via Ruffled