Full of Whimsy: May 2013

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

DIY Glass Bottles {Tutorial}

This is super simple, but here is how to turn Starbucks bottles into glass craft bottles:

1. Drink or pour out the frappuccino.

2. Peel the labels off the front and back of the bottles. They should come off easily, but some residue may be left behind from the adhesive. We’ll get to that in the next step.

3. Spray the goo gone over the sticky adhesive left on bottle and scrub with sponge.

4. Once you have removed all sticky adhesive, wash bottles thoroughly in warm soapy water.

5. Let dry, and decorate.

6. Display your new glass bottles with cute paper straws (found mine at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePartyFairy )

Monday, May 13, 2013

Recipe for:

Cranberry-Pecan Cheese Balls

Adapted from the Cheese Log recipe from the side of a Lucerne Reduced Fat Milk carton and inspired by Mom It Forward and The Kitchn

Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 0 minutes | Total time: 20 minutes

Yield: 16 pops

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
2 teaspoons honey

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the pecans and cranberries in a shallow dish.
Mix the cream cheese, feta, Swiss and honey in a food processor until it’s combined. Measure out the cheese mixture a tablespoon at a time and roll each spoonful into a ball with the palms of your hands. Then roll each ball into the pecan-cranberry mixture, coating all sides evenly. Place each ball on a tray lined with parchment or waxed paper. Cover the tray in plastic wrap and transfer it to the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour.
Remove the tray from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving

We did it! Mother's Day came and we had a great time! Loved how the theme came together and how pretty and rustic it looked! Thanks you to my family for their help and support putting this together :)
I wanted to do a Mother's Day theme but wanted it to be different and unique, so I came up with a Rustic theme. I used lots of burlap and lace, twine and grapevine twigs to tie the rustic feel in.. My center piece was cupcakes embellished with fresh flowers and greenery. I wanted the color palette to be simply yet, have just a hint of color, so I used peachy pink paper straws and ivory with hints of pink roses.

I used personalized ribbon for embellishments through out the set up, like the cake stand and utensils. We served brushetta, cranberry-pecan cheese balls (recipe is on our blog) Moscato and almond cupcakes, chocolate dipped strawberries and pretzels, white rose cake pops and strawberry lemonade. We also have a 5 generation photo included, which is unique and very rare as well. Everything was yummy and turned out great!

<3 Annmarie