{"id":137787,"date":"2026-04-17T07:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/?p=137787"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:07:00","slug":"lets-talk-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/17\/lets-talk-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s talk…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good morning everyone\u2014time for another Let\u2019s Talk, and today\u2019s is one I have a feeling many of you might relate to\u2026 entertaining and hostessing.I will be the first to admit, I absolutely love the idea of a party or dinner party\u2014and I\u2019ve certainly hosted my fair share over the years. But lately, I\u2019ve noticed something has shifted. I don\u2019t quite take things in stride the way I used to. If I have a headache (I get abdominal migraines which are brutal), that can really throw off my game and stamina. I have learned to push through them but its not easy whereas in the past, I would just rise above it and carry on.\u00a0 \u00a0I find myself feeling anxious over things that, deep down, I know are probably a bit silly. Silly details that no one would necessarily notice.<\/p>\n

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I also know myself\u2014I\u2019m very<\/em> detail-oriented (okay, borderline OCD when it comes to entertaining), and I\u2019m just not someone who can throw something together without giving it my all. And as you can imagine, that naturally turns into a lot of work\u2026 bringing out the china, the silver, the crystal, the beautiful linens\u2014you get the picture.<\/p>\n

Easter Sunday a few weeks ago,\u00a0 was a perfect example. We were originally supposed to go to our club, and I was very much looking forward to a year where I could simply show up, relax, and enjoy. But as life would have it\u2026 plans changed at the last minute (two family members with colds and Phillip coughing), and suddenly, I found myself hosting for our family and a few friends.\u00a0 I had worked hard the day before so that morning of,\u00a0 I was trying to take it easy, my husband said there was a guest towel needed for the powder room and as I sat down taking a break not wanting to move to trudge all the way upstairs, I yelled for him to get a kitchen towel:) Half joking! That reflected where I was in the entertaining game!<\/p>\n

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Stress for me comes out of things like not being able to find all 12 matching goblets for my table (about half our stuff is in storage) and the stress I felt about not having matching glassware was making me nuts. Until I realized no one will notice and guess what? No one noticed, it was a good\u00a0 test for me for the next time I stress over something so trivial.<\/p>\n

And while part of me truly loves creating a beautiful table and welcoming people into our home, another part of me couldn\u2019t help but feel a bit overwhelmed. So suffice to say, I still love the idea and the concept of entertaining. I love planning what plates I\u2019m going to use, what cutlery I\u2019ll bring out, which linens I have at my disposal\u2014and of course, the flowers\u2026 always my favorite part. But have I on occasion wanted to pull a Howard Hughes (sets up the party but goes upstairs to observe it and not necessarily partake in it)? Yes, I will admit it, there have been those moments!<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve noticed that as I get older and perhaps a bit more anxious about making sure things are just right,\u00a0 my stress levels definitely rise leading up to it. I\u2019ve always been someone who operates in blocks of time\u2014I think I did a post on this years ago\u2014but on the day of any gathering, big or small, I would literally map out my day in time blocks. For example: table set by 11, veges chopped by 12, everything done by 2:00, bath by 3:00, and so on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gotten away from doing that a bit\u2014partly because I\u2019m not entertaining nearly as much (rarely in fact) , and also because we\u2019re not in our permanent home\u2014but I may go back to it. There\u2019s something about that method that creates a sense of control. Everything feels compartmentalized, manageable\u2026 almost like it gives you permission to exhale at appropriate intervals if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

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We started a game night with some other couples. The agreement was its pizza and salad in everyone’s home (we rotate homes) My turn comes up soon and is it tempting to pull out some beautiful china, crystal, etc…? Yes it is! The last time we went to someones home, she served the pizza and salad and the pizza was barely warm. It’s hard to having piping hot pizza to serve a crowd. But this is where my brain says, I will have the ovens on the minute the pizzas arrive and they will stay there until we serve it to be pipping hot. I would not have been comfortable serving barely warm pizza. That’ me and I am not happy about, I wish I could be more of a go with the flow kind of person.\u00a0 And the irony is everyone, really enjoyed the pizza which of course was overshadowed by the fun and lively conversation. No stress needed<\/p>\n

So this is going to be a great litmus test, I will be using my melamine, outdoor plastic glasses and keeping is super casual. Funny thing is, I am kind of looking forward to it. It’s out of my comfort zone but I love the no pressure idea and it feels like a personal challenge to the way I typically do things.<\/p>\n

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The next event I\u2019ll be hosting that I know of is a baby shower for my daughter-in-law, which I\u2019m truly so excited about. And I have a feeling I\u2019ll be bringing back my good old \u201cblock method.\u201d Of course, lists begin well before the actual day\u2014I typically start planning at least four or five days in advance, sometimes even earlier if something needs to be specially ordered, like a cake or favors.<\/p>\n

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So I\u2019ll put that to the test\u2014and report back in June. Now I want to hear from you\u2026<\/p>\n

Do you still love entertaining as much as you used to has your perspective changed over time? Do you prefer hosting\u2014or being a guest?<\/p>\n

And if you do host\u2014have you simplified, or are you still all-in on the details? Cant wait to hear from you on this….<\/p>\n

Thanks for stopping in, until next time…..<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Our pillow popup is in full swing! You won’t believe how beautiful and reasonable these are! <\/span><\/h2>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Good morning everyone\u2014time for another Let\u2019s Talk, and today\u2019s is one I have a feeling many of you might relate to\u2026 entertaining and hostessing.I will be the first to admit, I absolutely love the idea of a party or dinner party\u2014and I\u2019ve certainly hosted my fair share over the years. But lately, I\u2019ve noticed something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4673],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137787"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137800,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137787\/revisions\/137800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}