valentine party

decor: tissue poms, balloons, and garlands

centerpiece: pink glass, cherry sours, cinnamon hearts, carnations, and sweets

settings: pink depression glass, doily placemats and coasters, red  napkins, and surged fabric as table cloth

party favors: reusable hand-warmers!

treats! red velvet cupcakes, poppyseed cookies, and chocolate dipped strawberries.

infused waters: lemon cucumber, strawberry basil, mint, and strawberry lemon.

drink tags

chair sashes: tulle and doily flowers

a few party attendees

red mugs for cocoa 

If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed I have a Valentine Party pin board. Well, I actually did have a Valentine Party, and I think it turned out pretty adorable. I thought I took some really great pictures, but Now I'm realizing I didn't get great pictures of the food, close up! Oh well, you live and you learn, and you get a good idea of the overall party here.

Attendance was a bit low, but we had a lovely time, and made some good progress.

I'll be posting a tutorial on the hand warmers soon, they were so cute!

I made these cookies, glazed pink. I subbed zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon for the lemon emulsion, added another t of poppyseeds, and only baked for 5 minutes. I also had to improvise the glaze, using juice of half a lemon instead of the emulsion again, and adding a lot more sugar till it was thick enough to hold shape.

I made these red velvet cupcakes, iced with my sister's cream cheese frosting recipe (2 packages cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, vanilla and salt to taste). With a red heart sprinkle a la Trophy Cupcake.

I also dipped strawberries. No recipe needed there, huh? My only advice is to use chocolate that doesn't have to be tempered. I get mine at Baker's Cache and Carry.

To drink, we had infused water and hot cocoa with strawberry heart marshmallows and pink whipped cream. Yum.

I made more Christmas crack, but this time it didn't turn out so great. Last time I used Private Selection brand white chocolate chips, and this time I used Ghirardelli chips. They didn't melt very well, so they didn't coat the puffs as well. I did dye the chocolate pink, which was pretty adorable, and added sprinkles.

So that's it! Happy Valentine's Day!