Ross turned 27 on May 27th, so it was his “golden birthday”! We surprised him by making some of his favorite foods and inviting friends to join us at our house to celebrate. To really Rossify this party, we threw in some Zelda references for good measure. Triforce piñata? Yep, that happened.
P.S. Lady Zelda fans out there, please get these earring because they are awesome.
gold pinata, triforce earrings, apple cheddar hand pies, chicken wings, golden birthday card, rhubarb mint iced tea
We had such a wonderful evening hosting a girls game night with Bethany and Whitney of The Twenty-Something’s Table. Drawing inspiration from modern geometric shapes, we designed our invitations and planned our decorations. We served tapas, two types of sangria, lemon lime spritzers, and a wide array of cookies. Appetizers, tasty drinks and a little healthy competition created the perfect combination for an awesome evening. Head over to the The Twenty-Something’s Table to get the recipes for all the fabulous food!
With our invitation design in mind, we created a hanging geo garland, food cards, table runners and a huge fringed tissue triangle. Every lady received a card of elastic hair ties on their way out. Here’s our condensed version of how to make the decorations.
Make the tissue triangle:
1. Cut a triangle of your desired size from a heavy stock of paper. Piece and tape multiple pieces of paper together if necessary.
2. Cut strips of 3 colors of tissue paper 12″ x 4″.
3. Using scissors, create the fringe by cutting straight lines from the bottom of the tissue strip to 1″ from the top.
4. Starting from the bottom of your paper triangle, use double sided tape to attach each strip of fringe to your paper triangle. Switch colors 1/3 of the way up and 2/3 of the way up. You may need to use more than one layer if your tissue color is light. Trim the tissue along the edge of the triangle with scissors.
5. Attach two easily removable hooks to the wall. Tape two string loops to the back and hang on the hooks. Voila!
Make the garland:
1. Using a ruler and exacto blade, cut 15-20 2″x10″ strips of colorful paper in your desired color scheme.
2. Cut 50 2″ x 2″ squares from colorful paper in your color scheme.
3. Fold the strips at the 2″ mark 4 times.
4. Create a cube from the folded piece, attaching the remaining fifth side to the fourth side of the cube with glue or tape.
5. Glue or tape the paper squares to random sides inside or outside of your folded cubes.
6. Hang the cubes from a ceiling fan or light at varying heights using fishing line. Hang each cube from the corner to create diamond shapes. Beautiful!
Make the runner:
1. Print our free template here! Print to 11×17 paper or scale down to 8.5×11. Line them up along the middle of your serving table or coffee table and tape them together on the back.
Make the elastic hair ties:
1. Order bulk elastic here in your desired colors.
2. Cut into 7″ pieces.
3. Tie the ends into knots. Such an easy and inexpensive project!
Thanks to all of our guests and to Whitney and Bethany for making this such a memorable night!
photos by Bethany Terry
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…Who doesn’t love a good homemade pizza? Make your dough with Domata’s beautifully packaged gluten free mix. Or, pick up some fresh pizza dough from your local pizzeria or Trader Joe’s. Better yet, make your own with this recipe. Add toppings, throw on some red stripes, set the table with some gingham place mats and you’re good to go!
1. DECORATE with gingham place mats
2. MAKE this pizza crust mix
3. DRINK a glass of your favorite red wine
4. EAT with a drizzle of flavored olive oil
5. WEAR this red and white striped top
We recently hosted a Girls Night Party with the ladies of The Twenty-Something’s Table! We played games, ate tapas, and sipped sangria with a group of some of our favorite ladies. We used an unexpected color palette of mint, papaya, blush, and caramel. Our decorations were inspired by modern geometrics.
Bethany and Whitney from The Twenty-Something’s Table put together the menu, while Mandy and I focused more on decorations and favors. We then worked together to bring it all to life. Bethany is also a photographer at Joy Studios and beautifully documented the evening for us. We are so excited to show you guys how it all came together!
Stay tuned.
geo mobile, color block dress, sangria, cake toppers, hair ties
As the temps heat up and as the nights become milder, we’ve been getting nostalgic for some of our favorite summer treats. Take the s’mores: chocolate and marshmallow melted between two graham crackers, right? While there are plenty of methods for roasting and toasting, just think about all the other possibilities that may arise when combining graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow! Add a floral element to homemade marshmallows, use a rich, dark chocolate or switch from sandwich to layer cake. Guests will be delighted by a new take on a summer classic.
ultimate s’mores cake, graham cracker cake, campfire bars, s’mores cookies, adult s’mores, marshmallow & peanut butter cookies (gluten-free!)
Loving this palette of dark teal with pretty shades of peach and pink. Doesn’t it feel so perfect for the season? I think it’d make a gorgeous wedding palette as well.
pattern, 13 wives design, maeven collateral, ice cream cone art, flowers, living room
Now for the decorations! Our areas of focus were the food table and place settings. We made almost everything ahead of time so that we’d have time to put everything in place the day of. All watermarked photos by Jamie Brill.
We made tissue poms to resemble clouds and tied them to the chandelier above the food and then strung rain drops cut from paper. We also made little picks for cupcakes by cutting little clouds from paper and gluing them front to back on tooth picks. If traveling with poms, it might make sense to actually open and fluff them when you arrive.
For each place setting, guests received a small potted plant in plastic cups that we painted with acrylic paints in our color scheme. We also painted the ends of bamboo flatware. This was easy to do, just make sure the paint isn’t too close to the part that you actually eat from! Colorful plates were layered with the forks and set on cloud place mats. Download the printable file here!
We played a game to create as many baby names from the mom and dad’s names. You can download a free printable for that here as well. Just type or write in names inside the cloud.
We finished off the day with a craft for the baby’s room. Guests were able to personalize frame fabric squares with cute fabric cutouts. Can’t wait for our little niece or nephew to arrive!
For Tracy’s rain shower themed baby shower, Sue, my mother-in-law, and I decided to serve a wide array of finger foods and sides that felt unique and would subtly tie into our theme. We brought in our color scheme with a mix of vegetables, pasta salad, pink and blue cupcakes and pink and blue punch. We cut bread into clouds using this cookie cutter (adorable right?) and used cloud picks on the cupcakes.
Ross’s cousin, Jamie, kindly photographed the event for us. We were so glad to have her awesome shots to remember the day! All of the watermarked images are her photos. Check out her beautiful work here.
The shower was hosted at Ross’ Aunt Sally’s lovely home. Since Sue and I would be traveling, we chose foods we could make in advance and that required little assembly and prep the day of. Sue is a wonderful cook and made a ton of the food ahead of time. It felt great to be able to focus on decorating day of, instead of scrambling to finish food! Here’s what was on the menu (recipes are linked):
tortellini salad
veggies served in cups with dip on the bottom
prosciutto, goat cheese, fig butter and arugula on ciabatta
curry chicken salad on white bread clouds
feta, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach mini quiches
date, walnut, cream cheese spread on mini rye
lemon cupcakes with berry butter cream frosting
We served the food on a borrowed mix of modern white serving pieces with vintage floral and glass pieces. Raindrops, clouds, sunshine and flowers made for a light, happy, easy to mix and match shower theme. Hopefully some of this inspires a baby shower you are planning in the future. More details on the decorations to come later!
Here’s a selection of my most recent cooking successes. The gyros and quinoa salad are great for dinner parties or potlucks, and I’m still dreaming of this amazing french toast and this delightful cake. Happy Friday!
Chicken Gyros - Such a hit! I made the tzatziki sauce with 24oz. of greek yogurt, kept the rest of the ingredients and their measurements the same and it turned out just fine.
Buffalo Chicken Quinoa - Love this recipe too! I’d err on the side of less sauce, you just don’t need it all.
Honey-Vanilla French Toast - It’s all about the challah bread. I used two loaves of it, and used up every last drop of egg wash perfectly.
Lemon Cake - I made this for Mother’s Day, with a few revisions. Instead of the black tea frosting (which I will have to try in the near future), I made a simple raspberry buttercream.
I recently helped my mother-in-law, Sue, plan a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Tracy. We are so thrilled for the new baby on the way and wanted to throw a shower that matched our excitement. We decided to go with a rain shower theme: focusing on clouds, rain drops, sunshine and flowers. We kept it gender neutral with a twist on a primary color scheme (red, yellow, navy, teal, pink and green). We incorporated Tracy’s love of cooking and sewing with a wide array of food and a fabric craft. Here’s the tone and inspiration. Check back to see how it all came together and details of the celebration. We have some beautiful shots of the shower from Jamie Brill.
tissue clouds, cloud cookie cutter, tea sandwiches, bamboo utensils, invitation
