Get Fit in Style

It's the time of year for new years resolutions to be made. For many, the first item on that list is to start working out regularly. If you are a fitness enthusiast like me, you probably already have an area of your home carved out for exercise. In my home, my husband turned a large section of our basement storage room into a space for home workouts. It's pretty basic, but it serves its purpose. Now, if I had my way, my work out room might look something like this:

Image from Cottage Living

I like the way that the equipment is stored away in an attractive piece of furniture instead of in plain sight on a cold, utilitarian rack. Did you notice the red and white wallpaper lining the inside of the cabinet?

A mirror for checking your form is always a good idea, but I prefer multiples like the ones in this image.

Image from Southern Living

"Try, Try Again". It is the perfect mantra to recite during a tough workout. Why not order some vinyl lettering and post your favorite motivational phrase.

Image from www.signbysage.com

If you don't have a designated space for storing fitness equipment, how about hiding it in a corner behind an attractive folding screen. This one from Boca Do Lobo costs a small fortune, but you could create your own with inexpensive bi-fold doors or MDF that you can paint and stencil with a design of your own choosing.

For a do-it-yourself tutorial for creating an inexpensive folding screen from old shutters, check out This Old House.

Image from This Old House

It's essential to keep well hydrated during your workouts. Be sure to have water on hand. If you have the space, you might want to add a compact refrigerator to store bottled water. You can find this Black & Decker compact refrigerator at Wal-Mart for $79.

Once your heart rate starts climbing, the sweat will start forming, a basket of towels is a must-have item in every home gym. Check Michaels craft supply stores for inexpensive lined baskets for your towels.

If dropping a few pounds is on your list of New Year's resolutions, why not create your own home gym. If you need a little extra motivation, visit my fitness blog, Fitness: A Journey, Not a Destination. In no time you'll be looking like this:

The Biggest Loser's Jillian Micheals. I like to call her the Devil in a sports bra.

How Do I Love Thee...?

Let me count the ways:

1. Ribbon trimmed Roman shades and draperies
2. Neutral color palette
3. Tufted chairs
4. Architectural detail on ceiling
5. Interesting overhead lighting
6. Dark walls that create a cozy feeling
7. Built-in shelving
8. A touch of zebra print

I love everything about this room. It is officially part of my inspiration file. Do you ever fall head over heels in love with a room?

Happy Holidays!

I will be taking some time off from blogging to spend with my family and friends. No fears, I'll be back soon, but in the meantime, I'll be reading all of your blogs. I wish you and all of your families a very happy and blessed holiday season!

Celebrate, Don't Gain Weight! Host a Skating Party.

Image from The Art of Ice Skating

Anyone at a loss for ideas for a holiday celebration or a party this winter that won't break the bank and requires very little preparation? Head over to my fitness blog for a "How to Host an Ice Skating Party" post. You can find it here.

The Party's Over

Image from Real Simple Magazine

While the holidays are in full swing, I'm already thinking about what to do with all of the leftover items after the festivities are over. You know what I mean, the extra candy canes that no one wants, the box of chocolates containing the flavors that everyone turns their noses up to, and the mangled honey-baked ham that looks like someone cut it with a chain saw. I'm okay with tossing those few chocolates, but there are some leftovers that I know can be put to good use.

If you are hosting a Christmas or New Year's Eve party this year, you will likely be left with half empty bottles of wine. As a wine lover, it kills me to toss it out. I was thrilled to find a few suggestions for just this situation from Real Simple Magazine. Real Simple suggests using the wine to create your own "Boozy Syrups". Yum! For the full article, go here.

Leftover Red Wine Syrup

1 zest of one orange
1 bottle of red wine (or 3 1/2 cups assorted red wines)
1 cup sugar
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

Combine ingredients in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the mixture is thickened, about 35-40 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and orange zest. Allow mixture to cool for 15 minutes. Refrigerate to chill. (Mixture will thicken as it chills.)

Left over White Wine Syrup

1 vanilla bean
1 bottle of white wine (or 3 1/2 cups various left over white wines)
1 cup sugar

Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. In sauce pan, combine ingredients, including the vanilla bean pod. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the mixture is thickened. about 35-40 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod. Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes. Refrigerate to chill. (Mixture will thicken as it chills.)

Serve with: Ice cream, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, pound cake, cheese cake or fruit.

Image from The Food Network

If you don't have the time or enough left over wine to make the syrups, Real Simple suggests pouring the leftover wine into ice cube trays and freezing the mixture. When a recipe calls for a small amount of wine, you'll be all set.

According to The Kitchen, due to the alcohol, the wine will not freeze completely but will be solid enough to pop out and transfer to another container. They also suggest using muffin tins or pouring the wine directly into a freezer bag.

Don't throw out the odds and ends of the wine at the end of the party. Put it to good use!

Christmas Brunch

Image from anticiplate.com

On Christmas morning our family's tradition is to exchange gifts followed by a holiday brunch, just the four of us in our underused dining room. For several years running, our favorite dish for brunch has been my Overnight Caramel Apple French Toast. (If you read my fitness blog, I swear, I only eat this twice a year-Christmas and Easter!)

Last week after I did a post on decorating the table for a Christmas meal, Christine from Design Esquire left me this comment:

"Christmas morning my mother would always make the same egg casserole, but this year I'm going to try and combine that with my mother-in-law's quiche recipe. It's always the best opening presents and smelling it cooking in the oven."

Can't you just smell the food cooking? I love that tradition and told Christine I planned to hijack that idea this year. (Although with the way my kids tear into their gifts, the yummy swell of my casserole may not be wafting through the air until well after the gifts are open!) Christine is blogging about her mother's casserole today and has included the recipe. Stop over to Design Esquire and say hello.

If you don't have a favorite brunch recipe for Christmas morning, you may want to try My Overnight Caramel Apple French Toast. It's call "overnight" because you can make it 8 hours or more in advance and refrigerate it. Anything that can be done in advance is okey-dokey with me!


Overnight Caramel Apple French Toast

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 large apples, peeled and sliced
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 loaf of day old French bread, sliced

In a small sauce pan, cook brown sugar, butter and syrup until thick, about 5-7 minutes. Pour into an ungreased 9 X 13 pan; arrange apples on top. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk and vanilla. Dip bread slices into the egg mixture for one minute; arrange over the apples.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite holiday brunch recipe?

HGTV Dream Home

2010 HGTV Dream House

It's that time of year again. HGTV will be giving away a dream home to one luck winner. The 2010 home is located in New Mexico and is decorated in a Southwestern style with a contemporary twist. The winner will not only receive the fully furnished home, but also a 2010 GMC Terrain and $500,000. Sign me up!

Great Room

Kitchen




Master Suite



Home Office





Home Theatre




Guest Bedroom


Child's Bedroom



View from the Patio

Entries will be accepted here starting at 9 a.m on New Year's Day. You may enter once each day. Go here to sign up for daily reminders to enter. You wouldn't want to miss out on this opportunity! If you win, be sure to invite me to the house warming. Good luck!

Setting the Table for Christmas

Image from Country Living

Each year our neighborhood has a progressive Christmas party that we call the Holiday Home Tour. Five families act as hosts and we travel from house to house, snacking and drinking along the way. It's a great opportunity to see everyone's house decked out for the holidays. The last stop every year is at my friend Tracy's house who organizes the tour each year. Tracy has a real knack for decorating. (I'll have to do a post about some of her ideas in the future!) I love the way that Tracy's dining room looks during the holidays. Her walls are already painted a dark green and for the party this year, she had the table staged for a Christmas dinner. It looked so festive. If only I'd brought my camera!

Seeing Tracy's table inspired me to look for some ideas for my own Christmas morning brunch. I already own a collection of Spode Christmas china, but I need a few ideas for finishing touches.

Image of Spode Christmas China from Spodechristmastree.net.

A unique centerpiece like this one made from carnations attached to a saturated sphere of floral foam would add a fun element to our Christmas morning brunch.

Image from Country Living

When I was growing up my mother always placed one gift for each of my brothers and sisters at the breakfast table on Christmas morning. I've continued this tradition with my family. When the gift is decorated as beautifully as the one below, it almost seems wrong to open it.

Image from Country Living

A must-have on our holiday table is always Christmas Crackers, an English tradition. If you've never enjoyed Christmas crackers, they are a lot of fun-especially for the kids. When you pull the ends, there is a popping sound and inside each cracker you will discover a few surprises. How cute are these crackers decorated with nutcrackers? $19.95 for a set of 12 from Williams-Sonoma. Not a bad price considering my family of four could use them for the next three Christmases.

Image from Williams-Sonoma

I love this charming and casual table created by Susan from Between Naps on the Porch.



Plaid is perfect for Christmas and looks appropriate throughout the winter months. I was absolutely smitten by a plaid table runner I spottedt at Williams-Sonoma on a recent holiday shopping spree. Sadly, I wasn't the only one who fell in love. They were completely sold out as is the WS site. Plaid napkins are still available though.

Image from Williams-Sonoma Home.

While I love traditional red and green for the holidays, I was taken by this combination of silver and white on a table created by John and Sherry from Young House Love for their holiday celebration.


I still have nearly a week to decide how I'd like to decorate my table for Christmas. Whether or not it's fancy doesn't really matter. With my fabulous husband and my beloved children there to celebrate with, it will be perfect.

Care to share your Christmas table ideas or traditions?

Mercury Glass: Is it Just for Christmas?

Mercury Hobnail Cachepot from Pottery Barn, $16.

Mercury glass and Christmas decorating seem to go hand in hand. Every year at this time, a new crop of mercury glass items hit store shelves and we consumers snap them up. There is just something about mercury glass that makes it so special at this time of year. But my question is, do you decorate with mercury glass year round?

I love the new Hobnail Cachepots from Pottery Barn so much that I grabbed three for my dining room table for the holiday season. I was considering filling each with a small plant after the holidays.

At Christmas time, I love the look of a large grouping of a variety of mercury glass items. I'd love to add on to my skimpy arrangement next year with a few new items. A sampling of my current favorites:Mercury glass hurricanes from Z Gallerie, $39.95.

Antiqued Mercury Glass Votives from Ballard Designs, $44.99 for a set of 6.

From Wisteria, the squatty urn is currently available for 50% off, $34.50.

Vases from Mothology

Santa, if you're reading this, you know what to do!

I love the urns and the candlesticks and think they'd look great year-round. What do you think? Would you decorate with mercury glass after the holidays?

In the Houzz

December is all about holiday decorating, but once the Christmas decorations are packed up for another year, I'm ready to be inspired to add some spark to my home. One of my favorite sources for decorating ideas is over at Houzz.com. I love the ability to easily create an Idea Book with images that inspire. Take a look at a few of the images that I've put into my personal Idea Book:



One of my current obsessions is large scale artwork. I would love to have something similar to the piece on the far to hang on my great room wall.





Highlighting the individual pieces in a collection by framing them separately is a great way to add importance to each item. Maybe I need to start collecting something.




This eclectic mix of things adds so much appeal to this hallway.




Who says that a closet has to be boring? Adding a papered focal wall would be an inexpensive way to add a little spark to my walk-in closet. A cool chandy would be the icing on the cake!

The colorful bedside tables are perfect in this space. My own bedroom furniture is matchy-matchy and could benefit from a coat of paint.




Framing wallpaper with moulding is a simple, yet effective way to make an impact in a room.



I love the black and white staircase and the artwork. Staircases often are the last areas to receive attention.

Have you started an Idea Book at Houzz?

*All images found via Houzz.com.

Free Printable Gift Tags

It seems like every holiday season I run out of gift tags before I finish wrapping all of my gifts. This year I'll be prepared in the event of this kind of minor holiday emergency. My Home Ideas is offering free printable gift tags. There are a selection of styles to choose from traditional red and green to more contemporary color palettes like brown and pale blue. You should have no trouble finding something that will work with your wrapping paper choice. If you are in a pinch, you know where to go.




Happy wrapping!