It's Christmas at the Foursquare!

It's that wonderful, yet sometimes stressful, time of year again at the Foursquare!

Lucky for me, I was relatively well prepared this year, and I didn't leave too many things up to the last minute. My annual dinner party with close friends was this past Saturday evening, and now most of the holiday stress for me is over.

To prepare for the party, I needed a few projects to get done: mainly the dining room chairs.

I had been pondering several fabric options over the past several months. I wanted something fun, but not too crazy. I wanted something that wasn't too light (because white or beige get dirty too quickly), and not too dark (since all the dining room furniture is dark mahogany), and I wasn't sure if I wanted a solid, a stripe, or a print.

At first, I was thinking of finding another fabric to closely match the current pink and lime green stripe, but this proved very difficult.

After that, I considered this fabric, which is a very nice quality, historic looking, and gives a rich look, but in the end, I thought it was just too busy.



As I was taking apart the chair seats, I also fell in love with the beautiful original damask fabric, which was a sort of indigo or periwinkle blue. Pierre and I flipped through several books, and we found 2 similar blue fabrics, but after taking them home, I found that both of them looked too dark, and with the dim and yellowish lighting of the dining room, the blue just looked like a drab grey.

In the end, I went with this lovely lime-ish green textured fabric. It was a remnant we had at the shop, and it was *JUST* large enough to do all my seat covers. Pierre was also nice enough to donate the fabric!

I got all the seats stripped, added a bit of new cotton (in addition to the original straw and old cotton historic padding) during my lunch breaks, and after work. I love how they turned out.



Before the seats were reattached, all the chairs were given a coat of the Howards Restore-A-Finish, which cleaned up a lot of the scratches and dings.



The next big project was setting up my Christmas tree. This is the fist time in many years that I actually have a full sized tree. Since 2003, I only once had a real tree, and all the other years I just went without one, or used my little mini tree that had been given to me by a coworker. This new tree is a nice pre-lit one that I had been eyeing for weeks last year, and after Christmas was over, it was drastically reduced and I think I bought it for only 60$.

The tree was still new in the box so it took about 1 1/2 hours just to set it up, and fluff all the 1200+ tips. I had thought I could have the tree in front of the larger window in the living room, but with the base of the tree at over 4 feet across, this just wasn't possible. I put it in the corner between the two windows, and moved the furniture around just a bit.

When it came to topping-off my tree, I had been wondering for a while what I should do. I'm not religious anymore (having grown up as a Roman Catholic), and I didn't want a star, or an angel, which leaves very few options. I had seen bows and ribbons before, but it wasn't until I saw this one on display at Sears, that I was confident it would look great.



I loved the ribbon on this display tree, and I asked the clerk if they sold these bows. After we looked around for quite a while, we turned up empty handed, but I spotted just the ribbon for sale, and I realized that someone had just thrown the bows together themselves! At only 6$ per spool (and 18 feet long each), I bought 2.

The bows were easy to make. All I did was I unravelled the entire 18ft roll, found the centre, and did a few looped rectangles. After that, it was just a matter of tying them in the centre with a stiff metal wire, and voila! The extra long tails were burned on the ends to keep them from fraying, and the tails were used to trail down the sides of the tree.

Here's my quick (crappy) sketch in Paint of the bow-making steps:



Super easy, and I couldn't be happier with the results! This design uses two bows, and leaves 4 long tails. I preferred the tails to gently trail vertically, but you can also place them in a spiral, though you may need longer ribbons, or additional lengths where you can tuck/hide the seams in the branches. I also liked that the display tree used two or three contrasting ribbons, but I chose to keep my tree a bit more simplistic.





I've also slowly fallen in love with the green living room paint colour. It suits Christmas decorating especially well.

I had thought that I might not have enough decorations to fill an entire tree, but as it turns out, my years of hoarding vintage and handmade ornaments has left me with enough ornaments to decorate at least 4 trees! For this tree, I just stuck with my favourite handmade ornaments, childhood favourites, and beautiful hand-painted glass ornaments (antiques). I also have a love of birds, and they remind me of my grandmother, who is no longer with us.

In this photo, you can see a lovely bird (one of three) with curled feathers, which I actually found at the dollar store several yeas ago. The cute little felt mouse in a Santa hat was handmade by my Mom.



In this one, you can see some of the apples and oranges, which are some of my favourite decorations (because they remind me of times gone by, where these simple fruits were difficult to obtain, and considered a real treat). You can also see two of the antique Christmas balls (next to the 3, and above the snow man).



The bear with the red bow was handmade by my Mom from "Plastic Canvas" which was incredibly popular back in the 1990s. The eyes are made with peppercorns. Above him is a hand blown glass bird ornament, hiding in the branches.



The bows, which each have 5 loops. They turned out even nicer than I had thought. I also love that the ribbon has a nice ribbed texture to it. It's not as easy to see in this photo, but you can see it clearly in the photo with the bears above.



And here is the tree in the evenings. I haven't bought a tree skirt yet, so the bottom looks a bit odd.



Also in the living room are two snow men carollers which were recently donated by my Mom, and my childhood Christmas stocking, which you can see farther below (in the photo of the pink roses).



While preparing the dining room, I also made an amazing, and exciting discovery (for me, at least!) I needed to swap-out the dining room table. As much as I love the Duncan Phyfe style mahogany table that goes with the set, it's 42" wide, and the dining room is quite narrow. It wouldn't be too bad if the sideboard wasn't as deep (it's around 21" deep), but with the existing table, it was difficult to push-out your chair without banging into the sideboard. My old table is only 36". It's not a huge difference, but every inch helps. What also didn't help the old table is that I still don't have the original leaves that go with it (that's a whole other long story, but basically they're still looking for them).

While I was wrapping-up and moving the old table top, I found this!



This is the ONLY label on the entire set, and I only spotted it by accident. If the table had been flipped the other way, I wouldn't have seen it. CFM is an amalgamation of several old furniture companies in the Toronto area. CFM started around 1901. Oddly enough, my 1880s grain-painted dresser is also made by one of the companies that eventually got grouped into CFM.

The dining room looked pretty festive this year. It will look even better once I paint the walls and refinish the floor, but that will get done eventually. Here you can see the current setup. I wanted to use the 8 matching mahogany chairs, but they were too wide to all fit under the table, so I used the two blonde ones.



I was also able to find a similar green table cloth to match the new chair seats. This table cloth is similar to my previous one, but the other one was much lighter.



I added yet another nutcracker to my collection: A snowboarder! I thought he looked neat (and different) plus he reminds me of a coworker from my previous job, who loved snowboarding.



In addition to oiling all the chairs, I also did all the furniture from the dining room set, which needed it. I also cleaned all the clocks with lemon oil, which smells wonderful.



This wreath was also donated by my Mom.



This is the first time I buy myself flowers for the house. I feel like the house is finally getting close to the point where I can bother to do this. These were inexpensive roses from the grocery store (5$ per bouquet of 5). I'm not crazy enough to spend 20$ for flowers.



A daytime shot (the day after). I'm not sure why the camera didn't focus quite clearly on the roses.



I bought a bouquet of red for the dining room, and a bouquet of pink for the living room.





The party itself went really well. I had 8 guests, with only one person who couldn't be here for the supper (he came after 9:30). The rest of us enjoyed a meal with the following:
- Caesar Salad
- French Onion Soup
- Boeuf Bourgignon with sides of mashed potatoes and green beans
- All served with French baguette, cheese, and red wine.

The beef turned out exquisite, and melt-in-your-mouth. The only issue was that the sauce/broth was much too liquidy since I didn't add enough flour. I was also very happy with how my French Onion Soup turned out. I had made it once before with ho-hum results, but this time it was just perfect.

Another pleasant surprise for me was the wine selection. I'm generally not a fan of wines. I've tried dozens so far, and for me, it's either love or hate. All the wines we had with the meal were awesome! The wine I used for the beef was Peller Estates Cabernet Sauvignon, which was good (90% of it got used in the cooking with just a bit left for drinking), then I had a friend who brought a large bottle of Tocornal Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz from Chile, which was great! Then I also had a bottle of wine that my boss Pierre gave me, which is one of his home-bottled wines: La Réserve du Coq de Bruyère 2007, and that one was also very good. Potent, though. It needed to breathe, and my friend said it would have benefited from using an aerator (which I didn't have). The bottle still disappeared pretty quickly. On top of those, we also shared another blackberry wine cooler that I had on hand, and then we were out of wine, haha.

Overall, though, it was a great evening with friends.

Last Update From 2012~

As 2012 wraps up today, I'm leaving you guys with one last update for this year. These are a few photos and projects from the past 2 weeks.

I'll start off with some of the party prep & decorations. For those of you who don't know me that well, I have a strong love of food. Both the simple act of eating, and just the wonderful flavours and combinations of foods you can experience. I used to be quite overweight, too (I have photos to prove it) and I just love eating in general, especially when I'm bored, sitting in front of the PC, or while watching a movie. It's been a struggle to keep myself from gaining too much weight while I've been off work, but I've somehow managed. The only trick I've found is to keep myself busy/distracted, or to snack on other things. However, I'm not here to talk about my diet. Back to food. As a result of my love for food, I also love to cook and bake. I have come a long way from my earlier years of making ramen noodles and Kraft Dinner (which I still make on occasion), and these days, I don't shy away from making very exotic and elaborate meals (time permitting). That said, what would seem to be just a normal "chicken noodle soup" for my party, was actually made entirely from scratch. Nothing but the best when I'm entertaining for my friends!



The broth simmered and concentrated, on low, for around 10-12 hours (overnight) for maximum flavour. I used chicken "backs" (an inexpensive pack for 2$) as well as 2 full chicken breasts (that's 4 individual chicken breasts still on the rib cages) for the stock, and I reserved and cut-up the 4 breasts for the meat in the finished soup. I have no photo of the finished soup, unfortunately, but it consisted of a mirepoix (celery, carrots, and onion) softened in butter, added to the soup stock, along with the reserved chicken, and cooked miniature bowties.

The main chili dish was also made entirely from scratch, and it was my near-imitation of the one served at Tim Horton's (a popular coffee & doughnut restaurant chain here in Canada). This chili features a deep, flavourful mix of spices.

I was, however, very surprised and very happy to get rave reviews on my simple Caesar salad. It was simply chopped Romaine hearts, a bit of shredded mozzarella, croutons (store bought ones *gasp*), and home made bacon bits. The only secret ingredient was the Renee's Mighty Caesar dressing (which is absolutely amazing).

The final table setting (after buying wine glasses, additional flowers, and washing everything) looked like this:



Since I'm currently unemployed, Christmas this year was very tight, so my main gifts were home baked sugar cookies, and this party. I also had a nice sized treat bag filled with Christmas candies & chocolates for each guest (no photo).

On the day of the party, I was running behind schedule so much that the cookies (enough for 8 boxes) were all baked and ready only minutes before the guests were due to arrive! This was maddening and very stressful for me. I will *not* let this happen again.

I ended up needing to do a last minute grocery run that morning, and this put me a bit behind. I had planned to have several hours to prepare the cookies, and it didn't work out that way. I was ready to start baking at around 1:45 - 2:00pm (the party was scheduled for around 4:00pm).

It was at this point that I realized I DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH FLOUR!

*cue freak out*

I wanted to make a triple batch, but I only had enough flour for two batches. I had checked that I had enough icing sugar, vanilla, etc,but somehow I neglected to check the flour. Thankfully, I have nice neighbours (the ones in the attached building) and I was able to get the other 2 cups of flour I needed!

So, keeping in mind that the dough for sugar cookies (or any other butter-based cookies) is SUPPOSED to chill for 1 hour in the fridge, it was a miracle that I was able to bake somewhere in the region of 90 cookies in just 2 hours... but I totally cheated! I tossed the dough in the freezer to speed things up. I had to! But it worked just as well.

These were most of the cookies before I boxed them. I had something like 9 cookies per box (x8) and about a dozen slightly burnt ones (the first sheet ALWAYS gets fubar'd), and there were also a handful that got broken/bent/squished/eaten.



So yeah, hectic, stressful, insane. All these words are applicable. I got the cookies baked, cooled, and gift boxed just in time before my first friend showed up right around 4pm. Once that was all over, things like the soup, and reheating the chili (prepared the previous day), were easy, and I could relax.

And as a funny side note: I totally threw all the dirty cookie sheets and bowls into the oven, but shhhh! don't tell anyone. LOL.

***

Here are a few of my decorations. I really love nutcrackers, probably ever since I first saw the Care Bears version as a kid. Those wishing to go down a trip on memory lane can find it on YouTube :D

My Mom bought me the smaller teal one many years ago (second photo below). The other two were bought in the past few years, and I may grow the collection after seeing Alex & Wendy's collection. They make a really beautiful display as a group. Here's a photo of their wonderful collection:



And these are mine. I especially liked the unusual striped hat on the larger drummer:



This red drummer was bought this year. He was only 12$. I've mentioned before that I'm a bit picky about details, and you can see how nicely painted he is. His hat has a real brass chain, and he also has a few fake gems (hat and boots). I never expect these to be perfect, since they're mass produced, but it's always nice when they look like time and effort went into them, which is something I really appreciate. He's also the same size/company as the other drummer above (which I bought a few years back at the same store).



Another fun holiday item is this vintage tin "angel chimes". This was something I found either at Value Village, or I may have picked it up at a yard sale. It was still in the original box, and it had never been opened (the plastic baggies inside were still sealed). I didn't light it, since I'm not sure if I could find new candles that would fit.



Next is my miniature tree. I had not found a good artificial tree at this point yet, (I'm really excited for next year!) and this small tree was a gift from a former coworker from several years back. I had used it only a few times, back when I was at the apartment. It's filled with many of my old/childhood ornaments.

You will see many of the ornaments in it are hand made, and most of them were made by my mother (who used to do tons of crafts). Many are done in plastic canvas (which was huge back in the 90s), others are felt & pom-poms, like the cute kitten in a slipper near the top. Others are store bought.

I'm also a huge fan of apples and oranges* as part of the decorations. Unfortunately, the oranges are very hard to find, and I'll probably have to scour eBay or make some myself. You can see just one or two (since these are all I have). We used to have a whole box of them, but I think they're still with the other decorations at Dad's house (who never puts up the tree anymore). Apples seem to be extremely easy to find, and I have several boxes in different sizes.

* For the simple fact that decades ago, it used to be a real treat for people to get apples or oranges at this time of year, simply because back then, they were a luxury due to transport costs, etc. It makes you appreciate how lucky and spoiled we are today.



Opposite the tree (in the living room), I added my pine cone wreath to the large antique mirror, and hung my stocking on one of the doors of the bookcase. This is the stocking I've had since I was a kid, and it's also one that was entirely hand made by my Mom. All 4 of us had one (Mom, Dad, my brother and myself), and each was slightly different. I know that mine and my brother's had bears in the pocket, and Dad's was an elf with a pointy/curved hat, but I'm not sure what Mom's was. It may have also been a bear. Or maybe my bothers' was also an elf? It's been too long.

Each year, they would get stuffed full of candies and small toys. One of the things I remember getting in these was Terry's Chocolate Oranges.



Side note: You can see the stocking a bit better in this old photo from 2006:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/sooth15/LiveJournal/Xmas06-3.jpg

The last little project I did on the house before the party, was to install the hinges on the vanity. I did not want to run the risk that someone might hook them, or try to open them (not realizing they were just propped-up for looks), and I also didn't want to leave them off the vanity (because it would have looked tacky). I had a bit of trouble with two screws breaking in the wood (Remember folks, hard maple is hard like a rock. You can bash it with a hammer and it will barely leave a mark!), so I increased the size of drill bit that I was using, and I was able to fix everything without too much trouble.

To make things easy, I used the same method as the other doors I hung in the house. Attach the hinges to the doors, then to the cabinet, using shims as both spacers, and to keep the doors in place. Punch mark the centres, pre-drill, and affix the screws.



Also, since I have no bathroom door, I hung a temporary curtain with a dowel rod tensioned into place in the jamb.

The party went well, and everyone had a good time.

***

Alright, this post is getting insanely long, so I'm cutting it into two parts. Part 2 will be the more random stuff.

Dinner Party!

A friend of mine gave me a gentle push to finally do a Christmas party this year. For several years, I had been hosting a "non traditional" Christmas party at my apartment, and I invited everyone who could attend. The more the merrier.

I'm fairly sure that my first real "dinner" party was my 2005 "Asian Dinner Party", where I made a huge assortment of Chinese/Japanese dishes for everyone, which included: won-ton soup, udon soup, dumplings, pork and green onions, fried rice, and a bunch of other things (including sugar cookies for desert). I slaved over the stove for hours (days, really) and everything was made entirely from scratch. Thankfully, everything was delicious, everyone had a great time, and I was happy to cook for my friends. Prior to this party, we only had casual get-togethers.

I haven't hosted a Christmas party since I bought the house in 2010. And my excuse has been that the house is a disaster and I didn't feel like it (since it's generally a lot of work and planning).

But this year my friend Gen told me that I should make one anyways, and that all of my friends know that it's a mess because I'm renovating, and they don't care. And she has a point.

So with that, I decided to post an invite on Facebook, and I'm aiming for a close friends only, "Last Minute Christmas Party", with mostly just people that I'm fairly sure will be able to attend. This makes things less stressful for me, since I usually have to hunt people down to find out if they're coming or not.

I also planned a very simple (non Christmassy) menu of:
- Caesar Salad
- Chicken Noodle Soup (since I have a few fussy eaters)
- Chili & Buns
- with Wine / Soft Drinks

I haven't decided if I want to do a dessert, but if I do it will be something like brownies & ice cream (since I've been craving some and it's an easy dessert to make).

***

With all that said, I'm assuming that all 8 invited guests will show (though 2-3 may not), and if I have anything "extra" then too bad. With that in mind, I've started to hunt down decorating items, dishes, and planning some sort of table setting.

I already have a lot of stuff still packed (decorations & dishes), and I've been hanging artificial spruce branches, bows, and other wreaths and decorations around the main floor.

I also went to Value Village (hey I'm on a TIGHT budget this year) to see if I could hunt down any good finds. I actually got really lucky and bought 2 beautiful (festive) table cloths for 6-7$ each. One is a bright red with 3 patterned (in white and black) stripes, while the other is a "Country Plaid" type pattern in a light green.

I also went and got a few things from the dollar store, like clear plastic table cloth protectors (since a bunch of us are accident prone and I don't want to ruin my nice newly acquired table cloths), more artificial spruce garlands and bows, and an additional cheapie red table cloth. Then I made another stop and picked up some candy for party favours. And lastly, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up some silk flowers for centre pieces/decorations.

One thing I'm excited about, though, is that I can FINALLY put my Currier & Ives dinnerware to good use. I've had this lovely old fashioned set of dishes for several years, and I have yet to use it.

The newspaper wrappings on it are from 2007, and I wouldn't be surprised if I bought it around that time, or not long after. I know I bought it while I was still living at the apartment. I happened to find this "set of 9 settings" at a yard sale for pretty cheap. I think I paid around 30 or 35$ for the whole box full. The reason that the "set of 9" is in quotes is because I'm pretty sure that it was originally a set of 10, since I have a one or two items in the set with 10 each. I was told that no pieces were chipped, but this was a lie, and I didn't look too carefully through the box before buying it. As it turns out, there are 7 chipped pieces, and one with a huge blob of clear glaze (right in the middle of one of the unchipped dinner plates). If I count the pieces missing to make a complete set of 10 (including replacing the chipped ones) I'd need an additional 12 pieces.

I actually never really looked up any information on this set until this evening, and I'm surprised to find that it's actually worth a bit of money. The average "street price" (eBay or Etsy) is around 5-10$ per piece! So those 12 replacement pieces would set me back about double or triple what I paid for the whole set.

Here's the bulk of it (note the green plaid table cloth and silk flowers, which aren't really arranged yet):



Luckily the chips are very small, and I'm not too bothered by most of them (though one plate has like 3 chips on it). I only have 5 "good" dinner plates, so some of the chipped ones will be used anyways. I'm 99% sure NO ONE will notice. That is, unless they've read this first.

Here's what a full place setting would look like (with all 6 pieces). In there is a dinner plate, soup bowl, bread plate, dessert plate, and a cup & saucer.



I'm really not sure if I want to use those fun blue striped napkins. They're the only ones I have, and I love them (also never used them yet), but they don't really match the Christmas theme. I have nothing blue except maybe some Christmas ornaments (balls?), which I might be able to work in there? Also, I will NOT be using all 6pcs for the settings. I'll be using 3, and if people want coffee or tea, then I'll use the cups/saucers "per person" as required. It will mostly be just the plate, bowl, and bread plate. I'll have a water glass, and a wine glass.

I was also happy to see that the set also has a bunch of other pieces that I could add to it, like a gravy boat, butter dish, serving platters, and a salt and pepper shaker. I don't think I'd really need any of these pieces, but maybe the gravy boat or S&P shakers would be nice to have.

Apparently this set was manufactured up until around 1986, and is now discontinued. I would not have thought this set was that old, since it looks like it was barely ever used (probably only once a year since then, and then boxed and put away when the owners didn't like it anymore and sold it). The only reason I know that it's not brand new is that there are a few chips, and the odd piece has one or two barely visible knife scratches on them.

I really do like the pattern, though. It reminds me of some similar dishes we had when I was younger, and also of some dishes that my grandmother had.

So what do you guys think? Should I try to find red napkins to complement the table cloth and look more Christmassy, or just go ahead with the funky blue ones?

I also need to see if I can find my cutlery. I have a nice set somewhere that I've also never used... I swear I'm not a pack-rat!