Autumn Harvest Centerpiece

From: Martha Stewart Weddings

A table arrangement of grains celebrates the bounty of fall. In addition to wheat, which symbolizes a fruitful life, this textured display includes other dried grasses (available at crafts stores), so it can be made weeks ahead. The final flourish? A luxurious satin bow.

Fall Centerpiece

Centerpiece How-To
To make each centerpiece, you’ll need about a hundred stalks (six bunches) of dried grass and wheat.

1. Bundle 15 or so stems together at a time (they’re easiest to handle if you secure bundles with floral tape about 4 inches below grain pods).

2. Hold between thumb and forefinger at an angle. Add bundles, in a spiral as shown, until all are used.

3. Wrap with floral tape (choose a color that matches your ribbon). Trim ends with floral pruner (cut center tips shorter for a stable base). Tie a wide ribbon over tape.

Tool for the Task: Colored Floral Tape
This handy tape, which becomes sticky only when you stretch it, and then adheres only to itself, is now widely available in a variety of shades. That means it blends beautifully into boutonnieres, bouquets, and centerpieces such as this one.

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Happy Cookie Days!

Who doesn't love frosted sugar cookies?

Who doesn't love frosted sugar cookies?

It’s cookie season again! My friend Becky goes to a [tag]cookie party[/tag] every year and it sounds like so much fun. It’s like a holiday shower where everyone is celebrated, there are fun games, and there are cookies galore to eat and take home. What an inexpensive way to celebrate the season with friends and family!

Invite your friends early and plan the party for a Saturday or Sunday in the afternoon so everyone is relaxed and ready to join in the midst of a bustling holiday season. Explain to your guests how the party will work ahead of time – everyone puts their cookies on a table, then each person selects their allotted amount from each plate. Each person or family must bring enough copies of the recipe to share, so at the end of the party you have a nice assortment of new holiday recipes.

One idea I discovered someone did was to assign ingredients to people in the invitations. Each person had to bring a small description or history of that ingredient and other uses for it.

My friend brings a wrapped homemade ornament to her parties.  Guests sit in a circle and everyone picks up a wrapped ornament.  With a song or a holiday story, one word is chosen. Every time the word is read, you pass the gift to the right.  When the story is finished, you open the gift/ornament in your hands and get to keep it!  We also draw a name and somebody gets a doorprize, already determined by the host(s).

It sounds like a lot of effort, but I think once the guests and date determined, the rest is a lot of fun, especially if you have someone to do the baking with ahead of time to add to the merriment!

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