When things we love get on the fast track, all of a sudden comes a silly little worry that it's over, it's out, move 'em out. Using shells and coral as decor accents works so well, because having things from nature around us makes us happy, and makes a layer of a room pretty and interesting.
Celebrating is in my blood. I'm the eldest child of gregarious, fertile parents, by the time I was 5 I knew life was a series of parties. I have 10 brothers and sisters, growing up with a crowd, every day pulsed with a festive chaos. We had an open door policy, tour friends were always welcome. And if having 11 children weren't enough, my mom always had a stray fledgling chick under her wing until they could safely fly away. It seems we always had a party coming up, from birthday parties to opening our doors to the neighborhood for a holiday buffet. I learned that entertaining at home is the best way to show loved ones you care—and accommodate a crowd on a budget.
I started entertaining at home as soon as we married, we were college students and had a modest income of student loans and waitressing tips but that never deterred us from having a good time. We were married a few months before Thanksgiving and decided to invite 30 people for dinner. We cooked 2 turkeys, one in our neighbor's kitchen, using my mom's stuffing recipe and her tips for de-boning birds. My husband, a surgeon in training wielded the knife and I made a respectable copy of mom's masterpiece. An affordable centerpiece of fall branches cut from the garden was all the décor we could afford or needed, it was simply glorious. Guests sat all over our tiny apartment and we had such a great time we've indulged in feeding our souls with parties ever since.
Party Basics for New Nesters is my sixth book but the first I've written without the word "wedding" in the title. My career in publishing started at BRIDES magazine, where I learned to produce photographs and events that showed readers how to bring one of the most important celebrations to life. I've indulged in glamorous over-the-top concoctions and affordable-to-execute back yard pot-luck festivities. Many years and parties later I know its not the bottom line but the way you spend the money you have that makes each party a success because if the people that mean the most to you are at your side, the celebration will always be a success.
You have to love a town where the cemetery looks like a city of miniature houses. The scale of these houses is that of a large luxury playhouse.
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