Apres Ski

For our annual winter cocktail party we decided to celebrate 'National Hot Toddy Day'!  I wanted our place to feel like a cozy chalet that invited you to curl up with your Hot Toddy after a long day on the slopes.

We filled the place with rustic touches like old snow shoes and sleds and classic activities like jenga, connect four, and a custom puzzle which were all a big hit.  To add to the snowy atmosphere we projected extreme sking films on the wall by famous skiing filmographer Warren Miller.

But the best part of any great Apres Ski event is the food and drink!  I dreamed up some twists on classic comfort foods including chicken sausage slices on mini waffles and smoked salmon on sweet potato waffle fries.  We also served 3 different classic Hot Toddies with the crowd favorite (and easiest!) being hot apple cider mixed with Fireball Whiskey!

Cocktails and Confetti

Happy New Year!!  After moving from the beach (and chased away by Sandy) we are all settled into our new place.  We celebrated with our annual Winter Cocktail Party which doubled as a great housewarming!  Last years theme focused more on silvery snowflakes but this year I decided to warm it up a bit.  I am obsessed with the look of gold confetti dots, they just scream glamorous party to me!  Check out my Pinterest board for this party and you'll see the trend.  So from the invites to the buffet table - everything had a healthy dose of confetti!

I'm also getting more into champagne and aside from a signature cocktail, we offered up mini individual sized champagnes for guests to grab up - encouraged by a lipstick message on the mirror.  Liquor bottles were available for mix-your-own and kept neat in a gold tray.  Garnishes were elevated and classy in martini and wine glassware.  They included white rock candy swizzles and gold rimming sugar for guests to sweeten up their cocktails.

This year's all white dessert display featured candies and cookies including candied grapefruit, white chocolate covered gummi bears and champagne bubble gumdrops!!  I upped the glitz by laying a long mirror on the dining table before parading out my display towers, mercury glass ornaments, winter scenes in cloches, traditional poppers, candles, and a sprinkling of 'snow' and hand punched confetti.

Photo Credit: my wonderful friend Joan Tsen of Applesky Photography

Winter Cocktail Fete

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake… - Sir Francis Bacon

This winter we gathered some friends and threw a cocktail party at our little apartment.  I love extending the sparkle of the holidays into the New Year to help brighten the darkest days of the year!  We have lots of great things to look forward to this year and this was a fantastic way to kick it off!

For a frosty effect, I pooled together my most sparkly Christmas decorations and my white and metallic everyday items.  This included my ever expanding mercury glass collection comprised of candlesticks, vases, and ornaments.  I used the pieces in little groupings on the food table.  To continue the winter effect into the living room, I created a tall arrangement for the coffee table using found sticks and white carnations.  It was very easy and was inspired by this post from Gibson King!

Outside, we lined the driveway in luminaries to greet guests and lead them to the back entrance.  They were simple to assemble: LED tea lights from the dollar store in white paper favor bags from the party store with some sand from the beach to weight them down.

Our tree features more of my Mercury Glass collection and glittery snowflakes plus some ornaments inspired by our beach side home.  This year I upped the frosty feeling by weaving in white feather boas among the branches - it was a beautiful glowy snowy effect!!

Awhile back I had scooped up some beautiful multi-tiered serving dishes from Home Goods and couldn't wait to use them for a beautiful dessert display.  For this party, I was very excited to use them to create an all winter white Dessert Bar!  I paraded them 3 in a row down the center of a runner so they could double as decoration!

Here are some "Winter White Dessert Bar" Suggestions...

• Sugar Cookies
• Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
• Powdered Donut Holes or Mini Donuts
• Merangues
• White Chocolate Covered Pretzels
• White M&M's
• White Chocolate Truffles
• Kettle Corn

My latest cocktail obsession is St. Germain liquor!  For the feature cocktail of the evening, I poured up glasses of chilled Champagne, topped them off with some St. Germain and dropped in a few raspberries!  The drink was refreshing and a huge hit!  While sipping cocktails, nothing is better in the winter than a cozy fire!  We don't have a fireplace, but my boyfriend was excited to get the bonfire pit going for guests to gather around!

Paper Party

"My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky." ~ William Faulkner

'Tis the Season for Holiday parties!! This past week, I felt as though my annual work party needed an extra festive touch... despite no budget and no time, its amazing what you can do with a pile of scrap paper, a lunch break, and enthusiastic coworkers!

Besides traditional snowflake cut outs, I did a quick internet search for paper crafts and found a few that could be whipped up in a snap... paper rosettes and paper ornaments. For the rosettes, cut two long rectangles, accordion fold them, and fold in half. Open up the accordion halves, making a fan and staple both fans together to form a whole circle. For the ornament, cut two long strips of paper, to medium length strips, and one short. Stack the strips together, long, medium, short, medium, long and staple the one end together. Bunch up the strips to align the other end and staple it as well. We had a lot of fun as we transformed the plain white scrap paper for a wintery look but you can use colorful paper such as wrapping paper scraps, magazine pages, etc. for any occasion that needs dressing up! Once they were all hung by rustic jute string, I added some white twinkle lights, and the company library was finally ready for a party!

*Rosette*

*Ornament*