A Beautiful Mess

Emma's Peanut-Butter-Themed Wedding Shower

This past weekend we celebrated Emma's and Trey's upcoming wedding with a peanut-butter-themed shower. The shower was held at our favorite local creperie. We landed on a peanut butter theme, since Emma and Trey both love peanut butter—lucky for everyone, because peanut butter is DELICIOUS.We wanted the shower to feel personal and cozy, so we centered the event around what they love: friends, food, drinks and inside jokes. :) Like this table cloth for example, Selena Gomez lyrics. Huh?These are the invites that our brother Doren and I designed.

Emma made peanut butter cupcakes with askinosie chocolate icing. I know what you're thinking: "How rude, Elsie! Emma shouldn't have to bake for her own shower." But you can't stop her! I tried but failed. The girl loves to bake. These cupcakes were absolutely incredible (recipe coming soon, of course!).Congratulations Emma + Trey. We love you very very much!!! xoxo. Elsie 

Fancy Grilled Cheese Party!

One thing we love about this time of year is hosting parties! Last week we hosted a cocktail night with friends and we made a grilled cheese bar for a party snack. We had so much fun picking out interesting toppings for the grilled cheese bar! We had pesto, spicy blue cheese mustard, candied pecans, wasabi sauce and sun dried tomatoes... just to name a few. Everyone had a great time choosing toppings and testing out combinations. I have to say, this was one of my favorite themed food bars we've ever created because it was casual, but still unusual and special! Do you love planning parties? We're excited to ring in the new year with a fun party next week. We have a feeling 2013 is going to be an epic year! xoxo. Elsie  

Friendsgiving

Today Emma and I had so much fun hosting our very first Friendsgiving! We got to try out a bunch of new thanksgiving recipes (we'll be sharing our favorites with you soon!) and spend time with friends. The only problem with Friendsgiving is that I wish I had room for WAY more friends. Not a bad problem to have. Emma roasted her first thanksgiving turkey! It was 20 pounds and locally raised. It was pretty exciting and it turned out beautiful. I enjoyed using my new bar cart! We tried a few new cocktails and also a hot spiced chai. After our gigantic lunch we also ate homemade pies and watched the kids turn our dining room into a giant play house, wrapping yarn around and around and around and around. It was pretty cute! 

We hope your weekend was amazing too! xoxo. Elsie

PS. Special thank you to all our friends who joined us for Friendsgiving! Love you very much Jeremy, Trey, Mallory, Doren, Penny, Johnny, Katie, Hope, Poesy, Becky + Jacob (listen to their band, The Honey Trees, it's beautiful) and Simon (download his new app, Afterglow!). 

Katrina's Honey Themed Baby Shower

This weekend I hosted a baby shower for my beautiful sister-in-law, Katrina. When we first started planning the shower Katrina asked if we could have the peanut butter and honey cupcakes that Emma made for my wedding shower (they are pretty amazing). I loved the idea and decided to use the honey theme for her baby shower! Katrina is expecting a daughter in September and we could not be more excited! Here are a few snapshots from her baby shower... 

The invitations were illustrated by my pal Kelli Murray (you can order them in her Etsy shop). I'm in love with the little honey details. 

The shower was held at my favorite local restaurant, Aviary Cafe and Creperie. They have the most delicious food ever. 

Here's the cutest story of the day... My six year old nephew was told by my mother-in-law that he was going to stay home for the shower because "baby showers are only for girls". He was a little upset that our niece was invited and he wasn't. He disappeared into the other room and came back with his own hand drawn invitation to the baby shower. It was so cute that he got to come to the shower... and all our hearts melted! 

Katrina had plenty of help opening her gifts... ha! 

The kids loved filling their bags with candy. I'm pretty sure this was their favorite part... 

The grownups took home honey favors. I made mason jars with vintage textile details on the lids and honey bears with feather bees. 

It was a very fun sunday afternoon. I love Katrina so much. I will never forget at my bachelorette party she told me about her baby fever and then the day we found out the good news! It's so special to see our family growing and it was wonderful to celebrate together. XO. elsie