~Roses & Champagne Birthday Party~

I hosted a birthday party for my girlfriend, Yuri.

The theme was

 Roses & Champagne!

I decorated with pretty roses everywhere!

The centerpiece roses were real.

I had fun making the pink tissue & crepe paper ones.

If you go online there's lots of patterns to make them!

The purple roses are from a kit from Martha Stewart! 

The centerpiece was fresh roses.

The wine and water glasses are from Anthropologie.

The dishes are Royal Albert, New Country Roses and 

Royal Albert, Polka Rose.

I had little champagne bottles with their name tags on them.

When the girls arrived, 

I served gin & tonic drinks with

 pretty straws & rosemary sprigs!

I found rose paper plates and napkins for the appetizers.

I chopped up some pistachios.

I made Dates with Orange, Pistachios and Goat Cheese

 for an appetizer.

The recipe is from the cookbook,

The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson.

I made small caprese salads on a salt block.

I served cooked shrimp on a bigger salt block with lemon & dill.

I made Crostini with brie, walnuts and drizzled honey.

For lunch

 I made Ina Garten's

Zucchini Basil Soup from her cookbook,

Make It Ahead.

Served with Sugar Crusted Irish Soda Bread.

The entree was a 

Chicken Salad

 topped with candied walnuts & edible flowers.

For dessert, 

I made sugar cookies with rose edible wafer papers from 

Fancy Flours.

Pink Chocolate Bark with Sugar Candies.

I used pink chocolate to write out the words,

Rose & Champagne

 to place onto the champagne glasses.

Mary made pretty Champagne jello shots.

She also made the birthday cake.

It was a work of art and delicious too!

Check out Mary's blog:

La Bella Vita Design & Inspiration

The birthday girl,

Yuri

Virginia, Mary, Tami, Linda and Yuri

Mary, Tami, Linda, Yuri and Me

We also made mosaic hand trowels for the craft!

Lots of fun finding vintage plates for the project!

We all had a wonderful time!

It's always fun celebrating birthdays in our group!

Happy Birthday Yuri!

~Hellebores & Our Garden Shed ~

I love hellebores. 

Stan and I went to La Costa Nursery in San Diego County 

and bought some new plants for our garden!

Hellebores are easy to grow and can live for decades. 

They're deer proof and drought tolerant!

This one is called,

~HGC Love Bug~

This hellebores has longer stems.

~Penny's Pink~

Can't wait to plant them!

I made some new wreaths for the garden shed.

I'm going to add fresh flowers

 from our garden soon to the wreaths!!

Our flower seeds from 

Floret Flower Farm

are getting bigger everyday!!

 Basil plants happily growing in a tomato can!

I made parmesan heart crisps to add to a salad!

We made fried rice with peas and mushrooms for dinner.

Also

Ina Garten's recipe 

Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

Iced Prosecco with fruit for dessert with

Ina Garten's

Parmesan & Thyme Crackers

Ending to a wonderful day!!

We're leaving tomorrow for 

Seattle, Washington's

Northwest Flower & Garden Show

I'll be sharing on Instagram!

~Winter Days in the House~

After the holidays, I was looking for a little inspiration 

from our garden. I wanted to bring some flowers inside to add some color.

 A garden vignette!

Antique silver trays and garden pots with pansies 

add some color to the miniature lights. 

I decided to keep the lights up from the holidays.

They give the house a warm feeling.

I think I'm going to keep my 

star up for awhile.

 I love sparkle it gives the entryway!!

We made a Winter Crostata over the holiday.

I promised to give you the recipe.

It's a Ina Garten recipe.

Crostata 

 I just changed the fruit to winter berries,

 I bought them at the farmers market.

We also made brie in a puff pastry with stars.

I served it with pears and crackers.

I just tried a new recipe from Giada.

Grilled Salmon and Pineapple with Avocado.

Salmon Recipe

Our daughter, Carly, loves her Spinach Pine Nut Pesto,

 so we made that instead with it.

Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

It was so good!!

We are so happy!

San Diego has gotten a lot of rain lately.

I love sitting next to a fire,

 thinking about how beautiful our garden will look!