A link to Operation Give Thanks

We are excited to share with you - Operation Give Thanks hosted by TomKatStudios!
I love the printables that she has created for a 'giving thanks' party, and I really love that they benefit a wonderful cause. We are so excited to support Operation Give Thanks, and hope you will too!

What is Operation Give Thanks?

Operation Give Thanks is a nation-wide fundraising campaign to help Operation Shower continue their mission to throw amazing baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment.
We are often asked how to best help Operation Shower. We decided that since Operation Shower gives back to our military families through parties, so can YOU!

Click HERE for the details of how Operation Give Thanks works, and find out how you can support your troops and their families.

The Premiere of FEATURE FRIDAY

Welcome to our first edition of Feature Friday! We love discovering new blogs and the amazing women behind them, and this is a great way to feature your ideas to share with a whole new audience! Check out our first post for some great holiday fun, then scroll down to the bottom for directions on how to link up to your blog! We can't wait to meet you!

 ___________________________________________________

You have to love a decoration project that looks fantastic and doubles as potpourri for your home. This is a wonderful project that will brighten up any holiday party, entry way or mantle. We love turning to Good Ole' Martha for project inspirations, and we just happened to have a bunch of pears that needed to be used! Rather than spend the whole day slaving away in the kitchen, we put these pears to work in our home.

Here's our original inspiration

 

 Follow these easy steps:

1.  With a fine-tipped washable marker, write letters on the front of each pear.

2. Press whole cloves into the flesh along the lines

3. Using a pushpin or a tack first can ease their entry. 

4. Make the letters no earlier than the day your guests arrive

5. Walk by them again and again just to smell them!!!

And you will have a gorgeous, easy display to welcome your Thanksgiving Dinner Guests!

Send us your inspiring fruit pics- we'd love to feature you!

I have linked this up at  The Shabby Nest - go visit her, she's amazing!
As well as Somewhat Simple

Rules for Feature Friday:
1. Make sure to link directly to your POST and not just to your blog. If you only link to your blog when someone tries to find the post later, they won't be able to.
2. Please link back to Simply Chic Parties so that we can spread the Feature Friday Love.
3. Spread your blog love and make sure to leave comments for the amazing posts you visit

Sweet Taste of the Holidays

I hope you're getting ready for a month of mouth watering goodies, inspiring decorations, and fun family activities because we have some great ideas hiding in our stockings to share with you!
We just finished baking up our first holiday batch of Peppermint Bark, and can't wait for you to start munching on this too!


One of my very favorite recipes is from the Joy of Baking, it is my 'go to' website for all my holiday baking!
The recipe is listed below, but head over to her Peppermint Bark page for some great tips

Peppermint Bark:

6 ounces (170 grams) semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 ounces (170 grams) white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/3 - 1/2 cup (50 - 80 grams) crushed candy canes

Peppermint Bark Instructions

Line the bottom and sides of an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan with aluminum foil, smoothing out any wrinkles.

Melt the semi sweet chocolate and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Immediately pour the melted chocolate into the prepared pan and tilt the pan so the chocolate makes an even layer. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set.

Then, melt the white chocolate and remaining 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Immediately pour the melted white chocolate over the dark chocolate and tilt the pan so the chocolate is in an even layer. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes evenly over the white chocolate. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set.

Remove the Peppermint Bark from the pan by lifting the edges of the aluminum foil

Peel back the foil and break the bark into small irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Makes about 25 pieces.
 

There's So Much To Be Thankful For

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we have been doing a lot of talking about the holidays at our house! Our kids get so excited to see Santas in the stores, and love seeing the pumpkins, turkeys, snowmen, and can't believe the stores are already playing our favorite Christmas tunes! Oh how I love those joyful songs now, but come December 26th, I am always ready to regain my sanity. For now, we're embracing all things that embody Thanksgiving, most of all, quality family time and good food!!! And, it is usually up to those AMAZING Moms out there to create a warm, friendly, and beautiful space for all of the family to come together and celebrate being thankful for many things. We are working on designing our Thanksgiving dinner tables, and are excited to share our inspiration with you! These great pics make me want to wrap myself in a warm sweater with a mug of cider, eat a big bowl of sweet potatoes, and indulge in a sweet slice of pumpkin pie topped with whip cream- YUM! Hope they inspire you too! Send in your pics of your holiday table- we'd love to feature you on our blog!

What are some fun family traditions that you celebrate with your family?

Country Living

Celebrations at Home

Celebrations at Home

Full House

I don't have sources for many of these files, but I would love to give the designers credit! If you happen to know where they came from - PLEASE shoot me a note and I will update them immediately. Thanks!

Who Doesn't Love Cupcakes and Champagne!

 We love anything that celebrates with cupcakes and champagne, but when we stumbled across the stylish party that the WH Hostess put together over at the Partydress.net, it had to make an appearance on Simply Chic! The WH Hostess has an A-MA-ZING ability to accessorize  any party with stylish, creative decor, and this CupCakes and Champagne party is no exception. She brilliantly used pink and polka dots as inspiration to create a fabulously chic decor.

A Wall-E Sneak Peak!

 We are busy preparing for an 'out of this world' Wall-E party for a darling 5 year old boy, but we're so excited about some of our creations, we had to share some of them with your before the party debut!

These great little pots will be fantastic to the kids to plant their own little Wall-E plant!

These little beauties will top our cupcakes - love them!

Our sweet little pots get to go home in matching 'trash collector' favor bags

We can't wait to get these customized Wall-E invites out to the 5 year olds, we hope they will love them as much as we do.

The great part is that you can also have your very own Wall-E party!
Head over to our Etsy shop to get your own printables

Come Celebrate With Simply Chic!

Thank you so much for visiting! We are so excited to kick off our Simply Chic blog! Simply Chic Parties is all about celebrating life's fantastic moments and making them sparkle with lots of pretty things. We can't wait to share tons of fun party ideas, tips, and decorations to make your party delightful for everyone. Please stick with us as we get ready to dress up the holiday season!