This holiday season, I’ve been embracing a new color palette to ring in the holidays. You all know that I love turquoise, and at the end of fall I began to pair it with gold and navy for a rich, timeless look. The best part is I think this palette takes you straight from fall through Christmas, New Years and the remaining winter months. I put together an inspiration board to show how festive and classic this color combo can be.

What colors were you loving this holiday season? Are you a traditional red and green, an all white, or did you decorate in an uber-metallic palette.

{one} {two} {three} {four} {five} {six} {seven} {eight}

Here’s a sneak peek of how these colors all came together in a holiday tablescape. Its fun being non-traditional!

I arrived in NJ the other day, ready to celebrate Christmas.

Now, not shockingly, I have been in Christmas Cheer overdrive for a few weeks now.  Decorating the house, making a bunch of presents, wrapping, watching hours of Christmas movies, meeting friends, eating food, etc etc.

But one of my favorite Christmas activities I really didn’t make time for.  Cookie baking.  I know, crazy, right?  I just never seemed to need them, and I just seemed to longingly imagine cracking open my Martha baking book.

Well, then I came to Jersey, and my mom told me she too had yet to bake. And my sis, the family baker-extraordinaire (seriously way better then me!) had not shown up yet.

So.  We baked.

Four recipes later….  we now have some delicious morsels now in hiding from my dad, the cookie monster, that will hopefully last until Christmas day.  I made Molly Chocolate Chips…

and Chocolate n Peppermint Crackle Cookies…

and Gingerbreads decorated with the neighbor gals ….

and these beauties…..  (adapted from Martha!)

RASPBERRY HAZELNUT THUMBPRINTS

{Two of my favorite things, in a cookie!}

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg, separated, each part lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup hazelnuts – ground, or chopped finely

Raspberry jam, for filling

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put butter and 1/2 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and mix well. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt, and mix until just combined. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.

• Stir together toasted hazelnuts and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl.

• Roll dough into 1-inch balls; dip balls in egg white, then in hazelnut-sugar mixture.

• Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press down center of each ball with your thumb. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; press down centers again with the end of a wooden spoon.

• Return to oven. Bake cookies until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes more. Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks. Fill each center with jam.

Eat.

Yum.

Want to know what we’re asking Santa for (in an unlimited possibilities universe)? Hop over to Little Gray Pixel to find out!

Merry Christmas to all of you, the final reveal of the Master Bath remodel project I worked on with my parents earlier this year. I know I’ve been dragging this on forever and ever, and I’m sorry for that. But look, now I get to give a Christmas gift to everyone who has been reading this and waiting.

To my credit, this project did take a little longer than some because my parents DIYed several elements after the contractor was done with framing, drywall, plumbing, and tile install. They may have DIYed the tile also except they had radiant in-floor heating done and you have to be careful (with a capital C) not to damage any wiring while you’re installing tile.

Lets take a little jaunt and look back to what the bathroom looked just as construction began (since I don’t have a true before photo)

When we started there was a wall dividing the toilet/bath area from the vanity and closet, which really encroached on the usable space of the overall layout. After exploring some options on space planning, we decided to leave most of the plumbing in its existing location and came up with the schematic:

We selected an “Elegant Northwest” color palette and were off and running. I think everything came together really nicely, there is enough visual interest to keep your eye moving, but it is still neutral and calming enough to create a retreat, plus make it friendly for future sale potential. What do you think?

The remodel also inspired my mom to repaint and revamp some of their master bedroom accessories, so here are some shots of the rest of the room in progress. The color is Martha’s Sharkey Gray. Hoping to get some accessories and fill things out after the holiday.

If you want to get caught up on this project, read the intro, the design inspiration, how we modified the plan, see some rad demolition photos, learn about the fixtures that were chosen, as well as which finishes we used.

Hope everyone is having a festive pre-Christmas weekend (last one!). We had our close girlfriends over for a gift exchange today and it was a day full of great chats, fun food, prezzies, and coziness. Last weekend we went with the same group to see Arthur Christmas and we highly recommend it (despite bad reviews).  In the movie, Arthur (Santa’s son), heads out in Grand Santa’s vintage sleigh to deliver a present to a little girl. It made me think of this wrapping paper I spotted over at Hank and Hunt last week that I just had to share.

Around here we try to use up all our paper before buying more, but this is so darling I might just have to go get a roll. Wouldn’t it look cute all framed up and hung on your wall for the Christmas season?

Sorry for the lack of posts this week – but bonus: hop over to The Stationery Place to see a round up of Christmas Card displays, including one that we put together this season.