Julia used nothing less than her most gilded china and glitzy silver for this cookie swap. After all, ringing in the New Year is all about the fanfare! In fact, Julia’s dishes looked so spectacular that she scattered small stacks
Clear glass ornaments filled with rock candy and snippets of tinsel look a lot like snow globes and fit wonderfully into Julia’s wintry New Year’s tabletop décor. But they’re more than pretty . . . a slip of paper inside
These baubles didn’t just dazzle guests with their beauty, they were also incredibly smart additions to Julia’s New Year’s cookie swap. Each contained the name and ingredients of the cookie it was set beside. (In case you hadn’t already noticed,
Draw attention to the sweets on your table by setting them on vintage cake stands stacked many tiers high! Here, Julia added colored plates, in alternating green and gold, on the top of each cake stand for even more interest.
Fruitcake fans and foes had no reason to disagree on this cookie swap selection. Not only did these golden fruitcake nuggets fit Julia’s color scheme, but they were moist and delicious. Chock-full of dried fruit, heavily spiced, and bound with
Cookies are always a joy to make and eat, but they’re especially fun when worked into party décor. For this centerpiece made for a staged party in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, Julia mounted pinwheel-shaped sugar cookies on dowel rods with
Secret revealed! What gives these packages their extra pizzazz is the costume jewelry-bling hot-glued on top. Guests at Julia’s New Year’s party, featured in St. Louis AT HOME magazine, were doubly lucky – first for the presents inside and then
A closer view of one of Julia’s bejeweled gifts at her New Year’s cookie swap featured in St. Louis AT HOME magazine. More repurposing (of vintage brooches) at its best!
Julia went a bit crazy bejeweling take-home gifts for her New Year’s cookie swap featured in St. Louis AT HOME magazine. Here’s a glimpse of just one more beauty out of the 20 or 30 she wrapped for her very
Ahhh, yes! Comfort food . . . Julia’s favorite! This hearty beef braise recipe, also developed and styled by Julia for Sauce magazine, capitalizes on the addition of robust Guinness Stout. Jump to Julia’s blog for the recipe.
Designed around the same time as her lavender farm party for St. Louis AT HOME magazine, this birthday party for both Julia’s mother and grandmother, which also took place on a farm, shared some similar design concepts. After all, “if
And don’t you forget this! There’s no better way to personalize a party than by embedding photographs. One of Julia’s all-time favorite family photos is the one taken on the day of her mom’s graduation from nursing school circa 1953.
Images of the guests of honor even made it onto the take-home gifts – cardboard pots decoupaged with photos and pages of old gardening catalogs, and filled with fresh rosemary, a symbol of remembrance. Thanks to this party detail and
The seeds of this party on a St. Louis-area lavender farm were planted at the start with a very distinctive invitation. Fashioned to look like seed packets with repurposed farm photos, they conveyed all of the party’s vital details while
Even the back of Julia’s seed packet-invitation for this party on the farm was forward-thinking. It set the idyllic tone well in advance by featuring the iconic red barn on the property.
It seemed perfectly natural to Julia to set the table for this farm party smack dab in the middle of a field overlooking the lavender plots. Quirky chandeliers crafted from repurposed tin cans and festooned with lavender and grapevines added another
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