Get your kids involved while you prepare your holiday meals this season.
It’s a great opportunity to bond with your children, teach them how to cook, entertain and help them feel like a bigger part of a family celebration.
Here’s a few things to get them more involved:
Looking the part.
Entertaining is messy business! All that cooking, cleaning, and caring for guests can leave your clothes dirty. Allow your child to wear an apron to not only protect their clothing, but also they will feel like a bigger part of your event. Jacaranda living offers aprons just for kids to wear. See more on our site here.
Show them measuring basics.
What’s the difference between a cup and tablespoons. Once you teach them how to measure and even read a recipe, they can pre-measure out all your ingredients for you.
Let them use their hands.
Kids love to play with their hands. As adults, we forget the joy in that sometimes. Show you kids how to mix up a sauce, cookie dough or knead some bread dough. Here’s some more tips from Food Network’s Giada DeLaurentis on how to make cooking fun with kids here.
Preparing for dinner.
To many children, a nicely set table for dinner looks like something out of a fairy tale. Think of Cinderella’s Ball or the grand table from Beauty and the Beast. Show them how to properly set a table or fold napkins. They will feel like they made a huge contribution to making the dinner look beautiful. Plus that frees up time fore you to do some last minute preparations for guests. Here’s some inspiration on table settings from HGTV.
Clean up.
It’s never fun to do dishes or put everything away. By having some extra hands, no matter how little, this can be a big help. Kids love to be involved and feel helpful. Give them a task, like clearing the table, putting dishes in the dishwasher or bringing out containers for leftovers. Reward them for their hard work with dessert! Use this helpful checklist from Earlybird Mom here to help with clean up.
Here at Jacaranda Living, we love Fall in New England. We thought it would be great to bring you some easy ideas for Fall centerpieces for your home. We searched and found the prettiest and easiest do it yourself centerpieces featured from weddings, home decor magazines and design blogs. We found the ten we thought were the best. Enjoy!
You don’t have to be having a wedding, event or dinner party to decorate your table for Fall. Get the same look as any professional florist but do it yourself with the many resources the Fall season has to offer.
1. Pumpkins gone wild…
Use pumpkins and goards for your fall centerpiece. Photo: Martha Stewart.com
Find various sized real or faux pumpkins for your local farm or craft store. Add nuts and any sort of dried orange flowers. Create multiple plates and place together or spread around your table, countertop, sideboard or entry table.
2. Vintage Romantic Victorian Fall Display
Vintage Fall with Flowers and Candles.
How to create this look:
It’s time to pull out that old silver or grandma’s china you never use along with that antique platter sitting on your sideboard or a silver tray from your serving drawer. If you don’t already have these items they are easy to find at a flea market, vintage or thrift store or online from one of our retailers such as Lavender Fields ($210.00 available online) or Cachet’s in Wellesley MA, Silver Demask Tray ($34, available online)
Arrange together orange and yellow Dahlias with fall berries and submerse with a bit of water in your silver or vintage china dishes. Add 3 – 4 white votives in white or other Fall colors. Place this gorgeous peice anywhere around your house and your guests will be impressed.
3. Indoor Foliage
Bring the outdoors – indoors with tree branches Photo: Martha Stewart.com
How to create this look:
Bring the outdoors into your home! Trim one of your outdoor Fall trees branches off in any size and arrange into some sort of heavy vase. Here are some vase ideas from a few of our retailers such as this rustic garden vase from Cachet in Wellesley MA ($45) or these gray cup vases from Lavender Fields ($150). Arrange pumpkins and ghords into wooden or Fall colored dishes around the branches. This arrangement makes a large statement!
5. Romantic Fall Candle Display
Romantic Fall Candles Centerpiece with acorns. Photo: Wedding Colors and Themes
How to create this look:
Find vases of all shapes and sizes around your home. Send your children outside to collect acorns or use shelled nuts to fill the vases about 1/4 full. Insert white candles into 4 – 5 vases and arrange together. Add greenery or leaves around the candle vases. Be sure holders are heat resilient! Be safe!
6. Warm Pumpkin Pie Centerpiece
Pumpkin Candle Pie Centerpiece. Photo: Wedding Colors and Themes
How to create this look:
Carve a fake or real pumpkin at the stem and place melted wax or a candle holder directly into the hole (try to carve the same time to avoid rotting). Place candle into the holder and decorate with faux berries. You can create this centerpiece in any size, mini-pumpkins, larger pumpkins, just have fun!
7. Mini-Centerpieces: Acorns and Dahlias and Votives with cranberries
Mini Fall Candle Centerpieces. Photo: http://blog.myweddingreceptionideas.com
How to create this look:
Acorns & Flowers: Fill glass jars, vases or candle holders with acorns and decorate with faux Fall Flowers or add a bit of water to the bottom and use real flowers.
Cranberries & Candles: Fill glass candle holders with cranberries (real or faux) and insert white candles into them.
8. Country Farm Mason Jar Arrangement
Country Farm Mason Jar Arrangement. Photo: howtonestforless.com
How to create this look:
This is likely the easiest centerpiece of all of these to make. Three mason jars with votives, some beach rocks, faux or real berries. Simple as that. Be careful of hot mason jars if you leave candles burning too long, you could also use LED faux candles, available at Pier 1 imports and other retailers.
9. Fall Lantern Centerpiece
The Lantern Fall Centerpiece. Photo: How to Nest For Less
How to create this look:
Purchase a candleholding lantern from Michael’s Craftstore or another store such as Pier 1 Imports. place faux leaves and mini pumpkin goards around the centerpiece.
10. Happy Thanksgiving Centerpiece
Happy Thanksgiving Centerpiece.
How to create this look:
Collect various sized white pumpkin goards and stencil the letters onto them in black. Scatter with various sized dessert dishes add candles and other goards. Here are some gorgeous beaded candleholders from Furbish Studios ($29) or these Beechwood Pine candles also from Furbish Studios ($14) that would add some vintage romance to this look. For this white look, keep everything white. For a multicolored look add oranges and reds.
We hope you will add some Fall joy to your table and visit us or one of our many retailers mentioned above online for design ideas, products and inspiration!
We tend to think of making our beds as a routine morning chore, but it turns out the ritual may be more meaningful than that. The results of a recent Bedroom Poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that many people believe clean, neat and comfortable elements of the bedroom environment are important to getting a good night’s sleep.
Not surprisingly, over 90 percent of people said a comfortable mattress and pillows are important to the sleep experience. But more than three quarters of people also believe that the comfortable feel of sheets and bedding are important to a good night’s rest, and 62 percent said that a clean bedroom makes the difference.
People who reported making their bed in the morning were 19 percent more likely to get a good night’s sleep every night. It’s not clear why this is, but perhaps there is a connection between feeling good about where you sleep and your tendency to sleep through the night.
Your bedroom is where you spend lots of time, so it’s important to create a space that’s peaceful, calm, and inviting. We have some ideas to help you make your bedroom a relaxing oasis. See below for ideas on how to get your bedroom looking and feeling as comfortable as possible and help you feel your best!
1-Use some of our fine embroidered cotton sheets for your bed that are 200 or 400 thread count. Crisp, clean cotton sheets are a great pleasure in life.
2-Match with a duvet cover that is inviting and comfortable.
3-Throw pillows add a special touch to your room and can really make you bed look like a one from a luxury resort when you make it up each morning.
4-Use a comfortable throw blanket for extra cool nights.
5-Keep your room clean and organized. You’ll sleep better when every thing is put away and you don’t have to worry about stepping on something or tripping in the middle of the night.
6-Minimize electronics in your room. In order to signal your body that your room is for rest and relaxation, keep computers, TVs and even cellphones out of your room for more restful sleep.
7-Keep your room dark and cool. Light blocking curtains are helpful for creating a dark environment for you to sleep in. Even the street lights can be disruptive to your sleep cycle. Temperature is also important. Keep your room a little cooler at night.
8-Use aromatherapy. Keep a lavender sachet by your bed, or use an oil diffuser. Just make sure that you use soothing calming scents that aren’t too strong.
8-Use aromatherapy. Keep a lavender sachet by your bed, or use an oil diffuser. Just make sure that you use soothing calming scents that aren’t too strong.