The Perfect Shade of Pink- Hand-Dyed Ribbon

One of  our customer's daughters is getting married soon.  I was asked to hand-dye 350 yards of ribbon to tie on to the menu cards.  And the color chosen just happened to be my favorite color of pink!  As I began planning  the process of dying this massive amount of ribbon, one of my friends sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for my birthday. And it just happened to have the inspirational color! Stunning David Austin roses- my absolute favorite.

 

I knew that this was the perfect shade of pink -

Pretty good match - don't you think!  Using an ivory color French seam binding, I used two colors of pink dye to get the multi-colored effect. 

 The roses are starting to wilt now, as  it's been a week since my birthday. But I think they are lovelier as they begin to fade and gave me more inspiration to create that shabby chic pink.

 

390 yards later- all piled on the kitchen island- dried and ready to pack.

 

The mother of the bride purchased this rhinestone birdcage at our last sale.

 I wonder how she will use it- 

 

 

 

Yes- it the perfect shade of pink!

4th of July - Lake Bluff Style

It is a fabulous day in Lake Bluff for the 4th of July- 75 degrees, sunny and a slight breeze. The lake is bright blue and soft waves are gently coming on to the shore.  It's perfect!

The houses in town are decorated to the nines for the holiday! 

 

Here are a few of my favorites this year!

 

                  These homeowners even painted their lawn with red, white, and blue stars!

 

                      Time to get a few red, white and blue touches out on my porch-
 I love to unpack these vintage "Old Glory" pillows every year for the fourth of July.

 

Add a few more touches -

 

Pull out the flow blue platters and dishes.

Couldn't resist putting flowers from the garden in this British tea caddy- very red, white and blue too!

 

Some patriotic cupcakes from Goodfellows in town.

 

A big bowl of strawberries for munching.

 

And an old fashioned favorite- so American-

 

Strawberry Pretzel Salad served parfait style in American eagle compotes.

 

 

Finally time for the annual parade -

 

 

 

So from our house to yours-

 

Happy 4th of July!  It's great to live in America!

 

Recipe for

 Strawberry Pretzel Salad

 

CRUST

2 2/3 cups crushed pretzel sticks

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted

3 T. sugar

 

Mix crushed pretzels, butter and sugar. Press into a 9 by 13 baking dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Cool

 

 

FILLING

 

 

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 c. sugar

2 c. Cool Whip

 

 

Blend cream  cheese and sugar together.  Blend together with Cool Whip.  Spread over cooled crust and chill.

 

 

TOPPING

 

6 oz. pineapple juice

6 oz. box strawberry jello

2 10 oz. unsweetended boxes frozen strawberries

 

 

For the third layer, add enough water to pineapple juice to make 3 cups of liquid and bring to a boil.

Add Jello and stir until dissolved.  Add frozen strawberries and mix well.  Refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is mostly conjealed.  Pour on top of Cool Whip layer and let chill for 4 hours. Serve that day or next day. (Pretzels get too soft after that) Serves 12

 

 



Rehearsal Dinner- Italian Style

My friend, Christy, is hosting a rehearsal dinner in September.  It is out of town, so the challenge is to create  simple, easy to transport, décor for the event!  She is having the dinner at an Italian restaurant and the menu sounds divine!  In addition to having the dinner at an Italian restaurant, Christy is Italian!  So a theme was born! Yesterday, we spent the day creating the invitations, menu and centerpieces.

First we designed the invitation.  Christy chose the words for the invitation and we typed  them on a red background.  We then had them printed on a 4 by 6 photo paper in lustre finish.
13 cents a copy- not bad!

We stamped and embossed the black envelopes with an Italian postmark in gold.

 

Finally, the invitation was glued on to a gold border with a black background! 

Now they are ready to address with a gold pen and go in the mail.

 

 

Next for the menu card.



Using the Italian flag as inspiration, we used each color stripe  to list  a different course.

And to keep the same feeling as the invitation, we again backed it with gold and black cardstock.

 

 

Placed on  a white starched napkin, it will look crisp and festive.

Next for the centerpieces. 

They had to be easily transported and quick to assemble on the night of the party.    So in keeping with our Italian theme, we decided to use wine bottles and create our own special label for the bride and groom.



 

I found hand dyed red and tan silk ribbon in my ribbon stash, along with a spool of gold vintage French thread. And I spotted a package of sealing wax with a crown stamp!

 

What to do with these we asked ourselves???

 



 

We created a wine label out of a copy of an old map of Italy and edged the borders in 18 kt. gold.

They were applied with a glue stick to the front and back of the bottle, so the bottle would look good from both sides.

Next the sealing wax was used to create little crown seals for the bottles.

 

 

 



 

 

The ribbons were tied on the neck of the bottle and the crown seal was applied with glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now- what flower is readily available in most parts of the country?  A red rose!

We knew that with a Costco nearby , that we could easily find lots of long stem red roses.

And a red rose was the perfect color for our Italian theme.

Imagine lots of these bottles down the center of a long table with votives placed in between.

It's a simple set up- water in the bottles, roses in the bottles,  then placed on the tables with votives.

Place the menu card on the white napkin and voila!  It's a set up that her friends can easily quickly do, while  she is at the wedding rehearsal!

 

 

 

 

Now- we only need to drink 18 more bottles of wine to get enough empty bottles to finish the project!

Now that's not a problem!!!