Daily Living Portal

Christmas Cookies

2008-12-14T16:37:00.013-06:00

Tracey from A Cottage Industry is hosting a Virtual Cookie Exchange. Click here to visit her blog.
Susan of foodblogga is hosting Eat Christmas Cookies event . Click here to go see all the yummy cookies sent to her event.

Recipes for Peanut Blossoms, Melting Moments and Pecan Shortbreads are from the Joy of baking site. Click here for the recipes. The fudge recipe is from containerstore.com and the Eggnog Cookies are from Karen Cooks blog

Clockwise from top - Chocolate Fudge, Eggnog Cookies, Peanut Blossom Cookies, Melting Moments and more Eggnog Cookies. In the center are the Pecan Shortbreads.

Cookie Platters

Wrapped Up

Thanks for visiting. Please have some eggnog

Garland Show and Tell

2008-12-10T15:33:00.010-06:00

It was quite easy to make this garland. Just attached two garlands together to increase the length. Added some white and multi-colored light strands. Wrapped up the project by adding a few ornaments. Maybe next year I'll add some ribbon or beads to it.

Virtual Holiday Home Tour

2008-12-09T18:53:00.067-06:00

Tracey from A Cottage Industry is hosting a Virtual Holiday Home Tour. Please go and check it out, it's awesome!

Hello and welcome, I hope it was not too hard to locate my place. Yes, I put the wreath together myself.

Pine topiaries decked in lights.

Do you like the colored lights on the handrails? I'll have to take this picture again maybe when it gets a little dark so that the lights look better.

Here's the living room.

Let's head to the family room where it is nice and cozy

Here's the breakfast room

Oh cool! you found the Christmas tree!

This is the dining room

Some ornaments

Christmas Gifts (part two)

2008-12-08T14:30:00.015-06:00

Candles are fun to give and to receive. I found some nice candles and candle holders at Pottery Barn and Bath & Body works. These will be included in my gift baskets.

Here are some gifts from PotteryBarn.com that are beautiful

Christmas Gifts (part one)

2008-12-04T14:13:00.029-06:00

What items do you have on your gift list for this year?

Some of my gifts include store bought stuff while others will be homemade. The homemade stuff is going to be cookies. Some recipes will be the ones that I have already tried, that were delicious and not to mention how easy they were to make. I plan on making gift baskets with these goodies.

These delicious looking and healthy Walnut Oat Wafers made by Deeba from Passionate About Baking are going to be a hit (Picture from Deeba's blog). Check out the recipe here

The Melting Moments from JoyofBaking

Ina Garten's Shortbread cookies from Food Network

I won't be using any cookie cutters instead I will shape the dough into a pie and cut them into wedges.

Store bought gifts I have on my list are my favorites from Williams-Sonoma.com
The Holiday Petits Fours

The Original Peppermint Bark

Ikea carries some beautifully packaged chocolates that I might pick up to include in my gift baskets. My next post will include more store bought gifts and the post after that will include ideas on how to put these gifts together.

Holiday Theme

2008-12-03T10:55:00.022-06:00

What is your Holiday theme this year?

I love shopping for Holiday decor from Williams Sonoma. The Gold Ornament Tree Special Set from williams-sonoma.com will work for me because the theme I have chosen this year for the holiday decor is gold. Their special set includes the tree with their own set of 12 colorful glass ornaments, each representing one of the traditional gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas. This will look great on my dining table. I plan on displaying this on a gold charger plate, set on a white table cloth and a red runner.

The Dinnerware will have to go with the gold theme, so I plan on using the Lenox "Eternal" Dinnerware. Placed on gold charger plates, they should look beautiful.

Lenox "Debut Gold" will be my ideal choice for Bar and Stemware. The Lenox Eternal and Debut Gold pictures are from the online Lenox.com site but you can find these at Macy's on sale.

Christmas

2008-12-02T21:25:00.006-06:00

Greetings all, I would like to invite you to a Virtual Christmas Party at the Daily Living Portal. Party is on the 20th of December 2008. You are welcome to bring cookies, entrees, side dishes, deserts, beverages, gifts (store bought/homemade), decorations, Christmas trees, ornaments, stockings, gift wraps and whatever else that is related to Christmas. Let's make this a colorful and merry Christmas. If you want to share stories on how you are celebrating Xmas this year due to the economic recession you are welcome to do so. So, hurry up and start sending in your posts to DailyQueries@gmail.com
Thank you!