Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Beach and garden themed party

Today I finished styling a clients beach house for a luncheon for 8 of her friends.    This decor would also be fun for a birthday party or a ocean themed bridal shower.


For this floral ocean themed centerpiece... I cut hydrangea and sea grass from my garden (I have poison ivy on my calves to prove it :-(  )  .  Then I circled the sea grass into the container, cut the hydrangea to the height of the glass, filled with water, then tucked some sea shells into the grass.
For decorating each place setting, I took some faux tea roses, a star fish, and raffia to represent dried beach grass.

After cutting some of the roses off the stem, I tied them to the starfish with white thread to secure, then with the raffia for a finishing touch and to hide the thread.

For a little touch of whimsey, I folded some napkins and tucked sunglasses and set at each place setting.


For the bar, I used one of the star fish creations, with shells glued around white lights and more shells and glass gems were scattered on the bar leaving space for mixing the drinks.




For the dessert station, we put some joke napkins into each coffee mug.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A bubbly refreshing drink for the summer



Gather with friends and treat them to a celebration with the Barefoot Beach Cup, a refreshing bubbly treat. This refreshing blend of summer fruit and bubbly wine adds the perfect spark to your summer entertaining.

BAREFOOT BEACH CUP


Description: A light and refreshing blend of seasonal fruit, lemon & lime and Barefoot Bubbly.

Glassware: Pint glass

Garnish: Mint leaf

Ingredients:
1 strawberry, hulled and sliced
4 grapes, cut in half
3 orange slices
4-5 mint leaves
3 oz sour mix
3 oz Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvee

Directions:
Combine fruit and sour mix in a pint glass with ice.  Shake well and top off with Barefoot Bubbly. Serve with straw.  Serves

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

An early morning walk

Yesterday was one of those mornings I just could not sleep, so I got up at 5:00 and decided to take a walk down to the river that is just a couple twists and turns from the ocean.  I live in a town that has the largest amount of antique homes, still standing, in the country, and I enjoyed looking at the architecture, the gardens, and window boxes. By the time I got home, I was so relaxed and refreshed, I was ready to take on my day.



Thursday, June 24, 2010

Peacock themed party


I have compiled a page full of peacock themed party ideas and inspiration boards from some very creative blogs and web sites.  The one above happens to be from Weddings Unlimited Magazine.  For the full collection of photos, click here to be transported to our web site.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

There was no liquor in the chocolate liquor!



New England Fine Living.com


One of the reasons I started New England Fine Living was to share my experiences with you, especially when I learn something wonderful and new.  I am going out of my comfort zone, sometimes getting embarrassed so that you can learn through my faux pas.   Here is the latest example of one of those "situations".  Oh and trust me, they happen almost daily. 

Yesterday I took a press tour of the Lindt Chocolate Factory for the grand opening of their chocolate liquor facility.  You see the word liquor right???   (I will post that information soon).

Silly me…. I actually thought there was going to be liquor in the chocolate and bragged to my friends that I was going to try a delicious spirit infused chocolate after I read the press release.  Nope!  Liquor is just the name of the chocolate once it is turned into a pure liquid form.  Duhhhhh!  And I was so glad to hear others say the same thing during some chatting with others. 

This is the definition from Wikipedia:  Chocolate liquor (cocoa liquor) is pure chocolate in its liquid form.  Like the cocoa beans (nibs) from which it is produced, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion.

It is produced from cocoa beans that have been fermented, dried, roasted, and separated from their shells.  The beans are ground into cocoa mass (cocoa paste).  The mass is melted to the liquor, and the liquor is cooled and molded into blocks (Lindt makes theirs shaped like hearts) known as unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate).  I got to see this process and it was amazing.

Chocolate liquor contains roughly 53 percent cocoa butter (fat), about 17 percent carbohydrates, 11 percent protein, 6 percent tannins, and 1.5 percent theobromine

I wish I knew who took the photo or for what event it was used  for, but can you imagine wearing that in a fashion show!  How cool!