Floral and Gingham Easter
Over the year’s we have had some fun themes for our Easter celebration. It makes me happy to try and coordinate outfits and table-setting around a theme. Last year, we had fun combining two hot trends: floral and gingham.
The gingham tablecloth from my daughter’s 14th camp/dance birthday party worked perfectly as a backdrop for all of my florals, which included a real garden rose centerpiece picked from our friends’ beautiful rose garden. I had also been wanting to try some of the buttercream rose piping techniques I had seen on-line so we made these little rose cupcakes for dessert and had fun making this mini-tiered cake with my daughters.
The trick is to pipe the roses on to wax paper and let them harden before transferring to the cake. Then you can add leaves.
I am in love with beautiful paper plates. They answer the age old question of fancy vs. convenience. And these ones are so pretty, that people didn’t believe they were paper until they touched them. It took me a while to hunt them down. I am including affiliate links at the bottom of this post to save you some time, if you love them as much as I do.
And since the love is in the details, these floral straws tied everything together perfectly.
Here is our obligatory family Easter picture. There was supposed to be a little more gingham to go with our floral, but son #2 couldn’t find his cool blue gingham shirt that day. But they still clean up pretty well. Who else still tries to coordinate their family’s outfits for special occasions?
For your convenience, here are affiliate links to some of the items I purchased for this occasion:
Truly Scrumptious Tea Party Plates
Truly Scrumptious Floral Plates
Blue Gingham Tablecloth (not the one I used, but looks nice).
Thanksgiving Tablescape Menu and Dessert Bar
We had an awesome Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Sadly my computer crashed shortly there after and I lost the photos, but I still wanted to share our menu and set-up ideas. We had a gourmet-style menu, with a dessert buffet and Hot Cider Bar. For more fun and delicious Thanksgiving ideas, check out my Pinterest. Menu: Bacon Sage Turkey Bobby's Sausage Stuffing Mashed Potatoes Breaded asparagus Sweet potato fries with sriachi Sauce Fruit Salad Pumpkin-style rolls Dessert Menu: Bourbon Pecan Pie (Gigi's) Pumpkin Gingersnap Pie (Gigi's) Caramel Sea Salt Cupcakes (Gigi's) Apple Cider Cupcakes (Gigi's) Strawberry Cream Pie Pineapple Pie Apple Crumble Pie Hot Cider Bar: Fresh Apple Cider (heated in Crock Pot) Caramel syrup whipped cream Cinnamon candies Cinnamon Nutmeg Sources: Copper Plates: Hobby … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]
Homemade Lemon Ice Cream
Is there anything that says summer better than lemon? I know! How about ice cold, fresh, homemade lemon ice cream? My husband's family has a long held tradition of making lemon ice cream when the temperatures rise. He made it for me when we were dating. It might just be one of the reasons we got married. The other day he got a hankering (probably inspired by the fact that I cleaned out the pantry and now the ice cream maker was in plain sight), and made a batch. He has doctored up the recipe a little from what his family did originally. But the end result is absolutely delish! I posted a picture and some commentary on Instagram and based on the response, decided I'd better share the recipe here, with his permission, of course. The recipe I'm sharing is BSB's version. The original did not include yogurt, used heavy cream, and not quite so much lemon juice. So there is room for … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]
Wooden Father’s Day Tie Banner
Many years ago, I created a Father's Day banner out of paper ties. I have loved this banner and used it repeatedly, but it has become apparent that making the banner out of a different material would transform it into something that could withstand the years! Here is my wooden version of the Father's Day Tie banner! This is a fun project for a craft night or to do with the kids. You could give each kid their own tie to paint. You could add letters to spell something--I had originally planned to on these--or you could just let the ties do the talking--which is what I decided to do, since I loved the way the patterned ties look hanging together. You also have the options to leave some the wood exposed--like I did on the striped ties--for a more rustic look, or paint each tie entirely--like I did on the polka dots. But before we get too carried away designing the banner, we should make sure we know what … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]
Cinco en mayo — A Cinco de Mayo Birthday Party for Kids
Hola! My son has a May Day birthday, but rather than maypoles and flowers, I thought it would be really fun to have a Cinco de Mayo party for him, especially when he turned five. I called it a Cinco en Mayo party, because that means "5 in May!" Yes, I admit this theme was all my idea. I don't know that many five-year-olds would know to ask for a Cinco de mayo fiesta for their birthdays. And it was a little bit of a tough sell at first to talk him out of things like robots and transformers, but once I started talking about how this would be his Piñata party, he got pretty excited. This kid loves Piñatas--and the candy that comes inside of them! So true to my word, Piñatas were a main feature everywhere. There is a little piñata on and some of the other recurrent themes I sent out these digital invitations I made with elements from Happy Thought. Mini Piñatas decorated our tables and went … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]
Modern Garden Floral Arrangement
Last Spring my daughter and I were honored to be asked to put together a large-scale floral arrangement to be displayed at the pulpit of our church for an important meeting. We were given a modest budget and instructions that it would be on a shallow shelf, so the arrangement couldn't be too deep. Other than that, we were pretty much on our own to design and put together whatever we chose. I have really been loving the more natural garden-like trends I am seeing a lot in modern floral arrangements. I wanted to use garden roses and other large blooms in spring colors. I used to do flowers all of the time, but things have changed quite a bit in the last decade or so. I first had to find a place to get wholesale bunches of flowers that is open to the public. The guys at Arizona Flower Market were great to work with (This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share their info because I know others … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]
5 Insane people say…