2013 Henri Bendel Holiday

My 2013 Holiday Catalog came in the mail from HB!!!  *drool*

 



 

 

One of the reasons Hubs is lucky I had to stop going to NYC for work...

I hadn't seen the Henri Bendel flagship in the daylight yet!

Hosting: Stock the Bar Party

A couple of weeks ago I co-hosted a Stock the Bar for a couple getting married a few weeks after P and I are due down the aisle.  I've talked about how fun it is to have someone I can bridezilla my heart out to, that totally gets the ridiculousness of negotiating over linens and flowers and such, trying on dresses multiple times to get the right alterations, feeling up a hundred kinds of paper and design to find "the invite"...  It's been crazy but so nice to have a partner in crime!  


I couldn't have been more excited to play a part in throwing the happy couple a little shower to get them started on stocking their house and bar and kicking off the multitude of festivities coming their way!

My co-zilla has the cutest color combo picked out - yellow and gray, super chic and trendy yet classy.  

It was a lot of fun finding fun ways to incorporate their colors into the party, starting with the shower invite I DIY'd here.

My co-hosterita and I went through a bunch of ideas to find fun gifts and favors, which ended up including a traditional bar set, paper goods and these adorable Mr. and Mrs. glasses: 

For food we kept it really simple and toothpick/finger friendly:
Slow cooker meatballs
Pulled pork from the bride's fav spot: Fat Matt's
Spinach dip
Rotel-velveeta dip
Salted caramel cheesecakes (I made mini ones in a mini muffin pan!)

We toasted the future newlyweds with some really cute and fun S'mores Shooters:

Wish I'd had my blowtorch to light up those mini mallows!

DIY straw flags (in Word!)

Paper straws, dishwashable stadium cups and cocktail napkins featuring
the new couple's monogram (all from Etsy)

A chalkboard welcome!

Balloons floated around dangling the couple's engagement photos at eye level 

Signature mojito cocktail and water jugs
Why do lemons float and not limes?!

The spread!

The adorable happy couple opening their gifts!

Valentine's Wishes & Wants and a Timeline of Awkwardly Forced Romance

The season of Cupid and all things dopey and dripping with desires for affection and attention and overstimulated sweet-tooths.  It's funny how this season evolves over your lifetime.  A synopsis:

Kindergarten

Mom strings a red paper heart around your neck and sends you on your mini festive little way.

Probably with heart patterned skivvies.

Elementary

You're forced to make the difficult decision of which trendy super hero/cartoon character wrapped up with a lollipop and a clever, if not inappropriate  quip to your classmates, many of whom you never talk to on the playground.  One (or three in my case) you hope will translate into fairy tale romance under the swingset.  Extra points if you make your own receiving box.

Middle

This is just awkward.  No two ways around it.  Boys, girls, adults.

This is just a terrible time in romance land.

High

Now you're just showing off, a la Mean Girls.  My school on Hilton Head actually did do the heart-shaped lollipop candygram business.  They were fabulous - swirly white and blue/red/purple life-save style goodness.  

I bought in bulk and kept for myself.

College

Half-priced red shots all night!  Single?  Mingle here and don't go home alone!

And there's a run on the VS lingerie, so now you're stuck wearing an orange nightie.

Real World

Crap.  Presents?  Does a night on the couch with different patterned PJs count as romantic??

At least you can now afford to sub an expensive bottle of wine/champagne for the shots...

(Except last year, where P got confused on my pink champagne request and brought home a raspberry flavored Andre-imposter... That's right, knock-off Andre.  He tries so hard.)

P and I actually have done a good job of staying away from the V-Day hype.  We usually just cook a nice, romantic meal and give some good cheesy presents and enjoy each other's company sans TV.  This year we each have a trick up our sleeve apparently, as Friday is surprise date-night a la Patrick, and I took it upon myself to make some secret plans for Saturday!  

Here are some fabulous things I'd love to have in time for this season of silly pinks and reds:

J. Crew Blazer | Parisian Chic | Pretty Note Cards

Kiss & Tell Compact | Tory Studs

Bath Salts | Glittery Bobbies | Pretty Silky Shirt

Gift Thy Neighbor

So we moved in to our new home 6 months ago and I still only know a couple of the neighbors!  Eek!  Between traveling all week to Birmingham, out of town almost every weekend for weddings, Clemson games, and otherwise and being DIY house project-attempters in every other waking minute I haven't exactly been the most open-door policy newcomer!  

To be fair, my neighborhood literally is 90% couples with little bambinos, all of which seem to have paired off into teams of roaming stroller gangs.  Besides taking Finnley for her walks, our only neighborhood social outings have consisted of a couple of sunset booze cruises in the golf cart - still working on our theme song.

It's a convertible.  No big deal.

So I made some gifts to spread some holiday cheer!  Seriously only 2 people out of 12 were home when Patrick, my brother and I wandered the streets handing out our hot cocoa mix, one of which had literally no idea who we were.  Ha!  Thought that counts - good thing I put our address on the label!

Hot Cocoa "Snowman Soup"

1 cup unsweetened hot cocoa mix
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (mini melt better!)
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies
Lots of marshmallows!  More marshmallows!

Fashion some tags and write some instructions (I happened to have hot cocoa stamps and cutesy things in my grandma stash of scrapbookables!)

1.  Mix ingredients in a large bowl
2.  For each serving, stir 1/3 cup cocoa mix into 1 cup boiling water or warm milk

Yummy and adorable!



But then again, maybe this is why we have no neighborhood friends...