Fearless Friday, Naughty or Nice?

the Painted Apron

6 years ago

Getting ready for Christmas with so many things on my mind this week,

I was having trouble visualizing the food

for our family feast on Christmas Eve

Naughty or Nice is the theme

with kid & adult friendly finger food

I used PicMonkey online photo editor to design a sign

Creating a blank template and then adding text

and uploading my own photos for overlays

The Naughty Elf and Gingerbread Welcome are done with markers, colored pencils, and pens

Perfect to pair with a Santa face {from PicMonkey’s stock photos}

For the menu, I added overlays from PicMonkey

I also love the convenience of saving things in the PicMonkey “hub” so it’s possible to go back and make changes later

You can use PicMonkey for free, and you’ll find all the tutorials about it here

I’ve been fine tuning the menu for weeks, keeping things nice and easy, but I kept changing my mind

I was desperate for some visualization

Once again I turned to my pal PicMonkey and found some images to represent the dishes I planned to serve,

editing the screen shots and

making a collage to represent the planned buffet layout

The food will be placed on the central kitchen island with a Sweet Shoppe vignette as the centerpiece

I’m getting a little help by serving Chick Fila nuggets and honey mustard, picked up the day before and reheated

Trader Joe’s Almond Kringle, bought last month and frozen

Spiral ham, already cooked and cut into biscuit sized pieces and frozen, will fill homestyle biscuits also from the freezer, baked the day before, assembled and then reheated right before the party

hmmm… maybe I’ll do a quick sketch…

Can you tell I’m stalling?

I would much rather draw than wrap presents…

I ended up having a lot of fun drawing and it really took away the last minute indecision

Whether you sketch your buffet layout or actually create it by placing platters and serving pieces out on the table, advance planning takes away the last minute stress…

My dining room was actually being painted on Wednesday, and a new cook top was being installed in the kitchen…

Nothing like a little last minute chaos!