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

Sip of Summer

"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right" ~ Mark Twain

*Cheers!*

I had a lovely visit this weekend from my friend Claire over at Gibson King and we enjoyed trying out a recipe she had saved on one of her amazing Pinterest boards.  Lately, I've been obsessed with these refreshing cocktail ingredients: Champagne, St. Germain, Cucumbers, Mint - so why not throw them all together for the perfect Summer Cocktail?!  Yes please!!  Whip some up and save me a glass:

Toss 4-6 thin cucumber slices and 2-3 "bruised" mint leaves into a glass with a few ice cubes.  Fill glass a bit more than halfway with Champagne and top with a splash (or two!) of St. Germain.  Give a quick stir and enjoy!

I also got to try out my new cocktail ice cube tray - ah the little things!  I'm sure this could be made "pitcher" style too - fantastic for brunches and showers!

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!

Happy 4th of July!

A beautiful weekend with great friends and a few American classics...


Plus my favorite cocktail this summer: The Dark N' Stormy...
(1/2 can ginger beer, 1.5 oz. Dark Jamaican Rum, mix with ice & lime)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Cocktail

"Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles."~ Unknown

I love how this is the most festive time of the year! It seems like no one can resist adding a little sparkle to their homes - and themselves - sounds like the perfect reason to throw a cocktail party!! So I got to making some elaborte decorations, overstocking the bar, and cooking up too much food!

Decor

As soon as I walked into my new apartment with its double height living room ceilings I knew it was meant for a party! My sweet boyfriend agreed to the task of stringing up dozens of foam snowflakes at varying heights so they could cascade down over the guests. My collection of old Christmas cards came in handy and I selected my most favorites to hang from ribbons at intervals along an evergreen garland the length of the apartment. Sparkly gold and red ornaments and candles clustered together with (free!) evergreen scrap trimmings from the tree lot in glass jars placed throughout the apartment created a cozy glow!

Signature Cocktail

My friends and I love mojitos so why should they be just a summer drink?! I mixed up a batch (see recipe below) and poured it into martini glasses hooked up with mini candy canes and voila! Peppermint Winter Mojitos!


Simple Mojito Recipe:

• Muddle together fresh mint leaves & lime slices with sugar in a tall pitcher
  
• Add 1 parts Bacardi Rum and 2 parts Sprite
• Stir in ice and pour through slotted spoon
  

Sassy Soiree

Birthdays she believed, were no time to exercise restraint. - Ann Taintor

One of my best friends is a real firecracker, so when my girlfriends and I were hosting a birthday party for her, we were inspired by artist Ann Taintor and her retro women with their sassy thoughts! What’s more retro than the clinking of glasses and the sampling of treats at a home-spun cocktail dinner party?  We decided to incorporate Ann Taintor’s style into the décor but with a personalized twist: we would make posters featuring our best friend’s picture in place of the 40’s women! Through Adobe Photoshop, one of my fellow hostesses was able to doctor up the photos to make them look more like retro illustrations and we matched them with A.T.’s funny quotes that reminded us of our feisty best friend!

To help my apartment look even more festive, I wanted to craft something with very little effort and a lot of impact. After Googling vintage party images, I re-discovered paper chains! I flipped through my stack of outdated magazines and picked out the most color saturated advertisements and articles. A few hundred recycled strips and staples later, and it looked like a party!

We knew we wanted to serve our guests dinner, but we also wanted to maintain the cocktail party vibe. So we scaled down some classic dinner foods and combined them with retro hors d’ oeuvres! A major source of recipes and ideas was http://www.epicurious.com/ which features great menus and a wide range of recipes for all skill levels and tastes. Another factor for us to consider in our menu selection was that this party would be on a chilly fall evening so we wanted to provide hearty fare as well as seasonal produce. One of my other fellow hostesses combined all of these ideas into one fantastic menu: We served Mac & Cheese Cupcakes, Swedish Meatballs with Cranberry Compote, Velveeta Salsa Dip, Spinach Onion Dip, Deviled Eggs and a delicious Fall Harvest Salad with a variety of apples, pears, grapes, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts! When serving up our feast we used lots of crock pots and pretty dishes. We also provided fun (pom-poms!) cocktail picks and Ann Taintor cocktail napkins for an added retro cocktail flair!


One of my favorite things to do is create a Signature Cocktail for parties. This one was inspired by both the retro theme and the Fall Harvest menu. I modified Martha Stewart’s recipe and combined 1 part chilled Sparkling Apple Cider, 1 part chilled Pear Nectar and 1 part Spiced Rum. An apothecary jar with some ice provided the perfect dispenser! For how to set up the perfect party ready bar, check out this past post: Raise the Bar For extra fun, I picked up some old time hard candies that reminded me of the ones my Grandmother always had out and filled up a vintage candy jar (garage sale find!) for guests to enjoy!

Happy Birthday America!

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July weekend! It was the perfect weather to enjoy with friends and fireworks! My boyfriend and I decided to go against the traditional F.O.J. BBQ and host a deliciously lazy brunch instead! We had some friends down to our beach apartment and it made more sense to kick the day off with some grub rather than trying to lure everyone off the beach later! It worked out great and everyone slept it off in the sun and sand!


Even though we were hosting an indoor brunch, I still wanted the feel of an outdoor picnic. I chose easy breezy things like paper lanterns, a handmade banner, and wrapped red/white/blue ribbons around some candles. Since the meal was the focus, patriotic touches worked their way into the buffet table too... I used the same ribbon to tie up napkins around plasticware and piled them into a white summery basket. I found other fun things like stars and stripes muffin liners and little flag toothpicks!

To make the morning as simple (and lazy) as possible, the brunch was served buffet style and the menu was limited to two main dishes - one savory: Breakfast Burritos and one sweet: French Toast Bake! I prepared the French Toast Bake the night before and kept it in the fridge. In the morning, I threw the French Toast in the oven while my girlfriends and I cooked up scrambled eggs and burrito toppings, placing them all in seperate bowls for self-serve ease. Burrito toppings included crumbled sausage, diced ham steak, tomatos, potatoes o'brien, shredded cheese, and salsa.

My absoulte favorite morning cocktail is the infamous Bloody Mary! While the girls were busy in the kitchen, the boys set to task with whipping up the perfect batch. They were armed with V8, horseradish, celery seed, tobasco sauce, lemons, limes, salt, pepper, celery stalks, olives, and of course, vodka. After much "taste testing", they shared with the rest of us!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Birthday

Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven! - Lord Byron

We celebrated one of my best friend's birthdays this month with a wonderful Spring evening gathering out on the patio, under the stars. My friends and I share a love and facination of stars (3 of us have star tattoos!) so this motif worked its way into the party setting!


I love things that are high on impact, yet low on time, so I decided to focus on one element to make the party feel special. I picked up 5 glass containers from the $-store and got out the craft supplies, including my favorite star punch. I cut bright colored paper into strips the height of the containers and gave them a simple smattering of star cutouts. Then I simply taped the paper around the container and added a few tea lights to each of them.

Since it was a Spring birthday, the signature drink for the evening was a white wine Sangria. I chose cantaloupe and honeydew melon for the fruit and gave them a special upgrade... using a small star-shaped cookie cutter, I cut them into colorful stars to float around! I had also made star shaped ice in a flexible mold to mix into the pitcher. I should name the drink "Shooting Star Sangria", because it went quickly!!

Party Shoes

Give a girl the correct footwear and she can conquer the world - Bette Midler

One of my good friend’s birthdays was coming up and I wanted to make the affair extra special. Meanwhile, my friend was super excited for her birthday and told me all about the perfect pair of shoes she had treated herself to in honor of the occasion. The fabulous birthday shoes were hot pink with tiny purple polka dots and inspired birthday drinks and desserts infused with pink, purple, and high style!


Sweet treats really indulged in the party colors! We kept it simple with colored M&Ms but got a little fancy with chocolate covered strawberries dressed up in pink and purples. One of our friends whipped up “confetti” cupcakes iced in pinks and purples and topped off with the perfect pink high heels and purses picks from online baking supplier Fancy Flours. (Hint: confetti cupcakes are created by throwing jimmies into any white cake batter before baking – we chose pink and purple ones of course!)

The birthday girl deserved her very own Signature Cocktail, and if it coordinated with her shoes, so much the better!  I mixed up a batch of “Stilettopolitans” in a glass pitcher and poured it into glasses rimmed in purple sugar.

Cocktail Recipe:

Mix 4 parts cranberry raspberry juice, 2 parts premium vodka, 1 part amaretto and add sliced limes. Swipe lime slice along glass rim and gently twist glass upside down in sugar on a small plate, fill with cocktail and enjoy!

Raise The Bar

I drink with impunity...or anyone else who invites me - W.C. Fields

Hosting a party is a wonderful opportunity to bring together different friends for a fun evening of mingling and clinking of glasses. And at any successful party the glass should always be half full... Set up a self-service bar in an area that won't get too clogged with traffic - this is going to be a popular spot! The bar itself can be a hutch against the wall, a kitchen island or even a sofa table along a wide hallway. A great bar set up starts with the basics: liquors, mixers, garnishes, wines, beers, and plenty of ice. The variety and amount is up to you, the party, and the crowd you've invited. Use the following lists and links as a guide...

Liquors
The basic 5 "well" liquors of any bar are a great staple and can be mixed and garnished into an unlimited number of drinks and cocktails. They are...

~ Vodka
~ Gin
~ Rum
~ Whiskey
~ Tequilla

Other flavored liquors such as Triple Sec and Peach Schnapps, can be included as well. If its a martini crowd, you will need Vermouth both sweet and dry too. Display liquor bottles together at the center of the bar.

Mixers
A selection of juices and sodas at the bar will allow guests to make anything from Cuba Libres to Cosmopolitans! Some classic options include...

~ Cranberry Juice
~ Orange Juice
~ Pineapple Juice
~ Coca-Cola
~ Sprite
~ Tonic Water
~ Club Soda
~ Gingerale
~ Lime Juice

Group mixers together at one end of the bar by the ice bucket and shakers.

Garnishes
Nothing finishes off a drink like a wedge of citris or an olive pick!

~ Lime wedges
~ Lemon wedges
~ Orange slices
~ Marichino cherries
~ Olives
~ Onions
~ Strawberries or Raspberries

Prepare/ slice garnishes ahead of time and arrange in various little bowls. Include festive picks and swizzle sticks for professional polish!

Wines and Beers
A red and a white wine help round out the bar selection. Beers can be seasonal or from microbreweries to introduce something new to guests. Keep white wines and beers chilled in a large tub of ice.

*Extra Festive Touch*
To set the bar apart, tie in the party's theme with cocktail napkins, glassware, and picks! Place a small book of cocktail recipes on the bar or display some classic recipes in frames to help inspire guest's creations.