Christmas

On this Weekend Meanderings my neutral Christmas Decor, holiday nights at Santana Row, vintage holiday pins, cute runners and napkins, an easy Christmas cookie to make and more…

Santana Row for Holiday Fun

Santana Row has been really making an effort to have fun things at the holidays and I wanted to share. This week my friend E organized us to have dinner and do their Wednesday night ‘Sip and Stroll’ where you can get drinks, walk about and see the lights and festivities. Wednesdays they have snow machines and on Tuesday nights wonderful live performances and coming the weekend of the 18th, a holiday craft fair.

We sat under the heat lamps at Left Bank and had a lively dinner and took a photo after by the big tree. It was a great way to be with friends during this holidays with low effort. Elaine and Bari are long time friends through tennis and we are lucky our husbands get on too. If you want to dress up a little and get that holiday feeling on, this is the spot! More here about all the happenings.

My friend E has a beautiful collection of vintage pins and wore one that night which brings me to this…

#Blingit

After writing this week’s Signature Style about festive outfits, I was inspired to share more of my own mom’s and grandma’s vintage pins and jewels that I have inherited and mostly sit in the drawer. I love wearing this pin of my grandma’s and the bells that my mom always had on her coat at Christmas!

I know a lot of you also have some festive holiday pins and jewelry you may only wear at a party or for the holidays. We need to get theses small treasures out all the days of December! Even wear them with a t-shirt and jeans- they look cool!

Juliet and I thought it would be fun to have a hashtag #BLINGIT on Instagram so people can share their treasures. All month, tag us with your sparkly bits and we will share them on our Stories! If you don’t Instagram, just email me and I’ll share here. Kim@northerncalstyle.com.

Also some of you have no vintage jewelry and that’s okay.. It’s fun to look for it online and at places like Goodwill and local charity shops. Online, EBay is a good source and WEISS is an American brand that made gorgeous pins and you can source beauties for good prices here.

Cute table runners and napkins

I love this runner I found at Nordstrom in Hillsdale while visiting my son last week. Very nice quality and I thought this green could work after the holidays too.

The whole line, called Heirloomed, is adorable and you can find it here.

They also had these cute cloth napkins 4 for $20 …

I filled my big wooden bowl (similar here) with some light green and pink bulbs and a few cuttings of greenery. It has been so dark lately, it’s hard to get a good photo.

I’m loving muted tones and that sort of works with the new white tree.

Last year’s look.. I had a brighter runner and added red ornaments. Also we had sunshine. It’s been pretty gloomy this month.

I’m really going slow on the whole decorating thing. Juliet and I talked about having to be in the mood to decorate on our LIVE this past Thursday on Instagram. Anyone else feel the same? We also talked about how important it is to say no to things this time of year. You don’t have to do everything you think you do, and cards and excess gifts are some of the things you may need to cut out to find more joy.. As women we put way too much on ourselves. We often do it to ourselves. Lower expectations =happier life!

Thanks to everyone who caught the chat. It was great to connect with you all. You can still watch it on Instagram here and we will do one next week before we take a little break for the holidays.

I found the gingham ribbon at Michaels this week. Michaels was CLEANED OUT of everything – and I consider this earlyish. Am I wrong? My sons will add their ornaments, each have their own boxes, when they come home.

I am not good with ribbon like some.. I kind of just jam it in there…

We did get the stockings up with command hooks and faux garland bought at the local home store Harvest. I have to remove it when the fire is on. This is the one time I miss having a mantel…Of courses Marlo has her own stocking!

Christmas Dream Drops

It’s going to be a stormy weekend here in Northern Cal, so I’m planning on doing my baking. This is one of the cookies I’m making and it’s fast, pretty and delicious. It was Sunset Magazine’s best cookie for 2011. I adapt it to remove the white chocolate chips which were unnecessary and weighed these down. This is like a mini pavlova so you want to make sure not to over bake these. They should have some give and be crisp on the outside and have chewy goodness inside that a hard meringue does not.

My dream drops at in the old kitchen, and far right photo from the original issue of Sunset. The online recipe has a new pic of them dipped in chocolate on the bottom. Recipe here.

FYI- these are a two day cookie max, so make these right before you want to share or eat them! I found the chopped up peppermint at World Market in the baking area.

I also spied at World Market and here, the vintage Betty Crocker ‘Cooky Book’ that holds all the treasured recipes our mom’s made. If you don’t have one, this spans cookies of the 20th century, trends and even world events and is chock full of good recipes and fun reading and awesome retro photos. I will never part with my mom’s edition, but may get another for the sons to each have. A cool gift idea!

Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach’s California home

Guys, the real estate market is slow now, so instead I’m sharing these new photos from Sunset of Abby and Glennon’s home that I love….

This house is my vibe, and is described as a modern Cape Cod style. I love the lightness and use of soft colors and fabrics and lots of texture. You can see more of the house here. Interior design by Kate Lester and photos by Douglas Friedman.

I want a pink rug for my bath! The bookshelves are so cool..

You can follow their designer Kate on her Instagram, which I am obsessed with and she also has a home store in So Cal here. How lovely is her mantel for the holidays? Inspiring!

ALSO…

Serena & Lily has their Winter Clearance which is up to 70% off on some things and many favorites like the gingham pjs, velvet shams and Sonoma Bath towels are the lowest I’ve ever seen them. Sale ends 12/20 if need any beautiful home things.

I did update the men’s gift list from last week as my son and I had a great day shopping at Nordstrom and he showed me some more cool things so go here if you need gifts for guys.

Sorry if this post seems light, but I had two other posts this week.. One was Signature Style with Cindy and Sarah…about holiday dressing strategies, and on Thursday I joined Annie, Cindy, Mary Ann and Kelley in Balboa, to share our hometown holiday traditions. Mine is about my town of Los Gatos and our family December must-dos.

And that is my weekend meanderings for this week. Don’t forget to stop over at Elizabeth and Juliet’s blogs to see what good things they are talking about..

MAKE MINE A SPRITZER

PINECONES AND ACORNS

Have a lovely weekend!

Kim

On last weekend’s post..men’s holiday gift ideas, some fresh ideas in Christmas stockings, my new faux tree, a wonderful local floral design studio and more.. 

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