Happy Hour: Elderflower Raspberry Lemon Twist

We woke up to a saturated ground this morning, which means we got a needed heavy dose of rain overnight. Perfect for our newly sowed seeds and the peony plants sprouting up in our kitchen garden bed! Hooray! Amidst a client calendar that’s brimming {yes!}, we’re working feverishly on our {new} 1920s Green Lake home – we’ll be posting some of our projects and progress soon – we’re also plotting Nick’s birthday bash and our 10 year wedding anniversary. That’s right, folks. 10! So naturally that means taste testing some of our tried and true cocktails and new ideas. We can’t let our guests be guineau pigs, can we?

One of our favorite cocktails involves St. Germain, a delicious liqueur made from hand-picked elderflowers from the hills in Southern France {also one of our favorite places on the planet!}.

   Photos + recipe: Valley & Co.

 fresh raspberries || lemon juice || elderflower extract {alcoholic or non} || soda water || lemon wedges || ice

Muddle 3 fresh raspberries in the bottom of a bistro glass. Add ice. Add 1 tbs. of lemon juice, 1 oz. elderflower extract and top with soda water, more raspberries and lemon wedges. Want a cocktail version? Add 1 oz. vodka! Cheers!

What fresh mock or cocktail is your go-to for the spring?

 

In the Kitchen: Whipped Cream Phyllo Bites

The months of entertaining outdoors are upon us and we are giddy with excitement! For us spring and summer months mean dining al fresco with our loved ones, whipping up fresh seasonal cocktails and experimenting with new desserts and refreshing bites. It also means entertaining to our hearts’ content and wowing {we hope!} our guests at our own celebrations and our client events with tasty and refreshing ideas that are true to the season and will make them say yum. Today’s recipe is oh-so simple, which is a key ingredient in successful entertaining. Check it out {we shared this recipe in our contributor column on Nook & Sea, too!}:


whipped cream {fresh is best!} | sugared mint {damped mint leaves with water and roll in sugar – let dry and harden on a baking rack} | fresh raspberries | phyllo cups

Layer whipped cream in a phyllo cup and top with raspberries and a hardened sugared mint leaf. That’s it! We told you this was super easy!

Photos and DIY: Valley & Co.

What refreshing springtime bites are on your mind?

Party Time: European-Inspired Flower Market

Nothing says successful entertaining to us like elements that create a true experience for the guests and host or hostess. We dreamed up a flower market concept as a fresh way to show guests a fun time with springtime bits and pieces. From burlap-wrapped pots to a daisy garland and seed pouch take-home favors, with a handful of blooms like hydrangea, ranunculus, daisies and sunflowers you can make a sunny statement with market style.

We dreamed up this European-inspired flower market a while back for Nonpareil Magazine and are still so in love with the concept today. When we travel to European cities we love checking out food stalls and walking markets that feature the freshest blooms and greenery perfect to pluck for a lazy dinner or evening of entertaining.

So we turned this concept into a party and wedding idea – think about serving up a seed station for guests as their take-home favors. Not to mention, blooms en masse wrapped in newspaper or butcher’s paper set atop tables effortlessly would look so incredible. Fill up galvanized buckets or tins, too, with water and floating blooms to add to this fresh garden look.

burlap || muslin fabric || ribbon || twine || loose seeds 

Step 1: cut your muslin and burlap to 12″ x 12″ squares and place the muslin atop the burlap.

Step 2: place a heaping spoonful of seeds in the middle of the fabric

Step 3: take two opposite corners and bring together and pinch. Take the other two corners and bring up, collecting all corners together.

Step 4: tie your pouches with ribbon {or twine or baker’s twine} and secure with a knot

Stock your buffet with your favorite blooms in galvanized buckets, newspaper and ribbon so your guests can wrap up their own assortment and terra cotta pots wrapped in burlap cinched with a brooch.

Concept, design + flowers: Valley & Co. || Paper goods: Momental Designs || Photos: Shannon Lee Images for Valley & Co. || As seen in Nonpareil Magazine

Are you in spring mode? We’d love to hear what spring projects you’re up to or any special events you may have planned!

Happy Hour: Grapefruit Limoncello Punch

We shared this recipe in our contributor article on Celebrations at Home earlier this week in celebration of kicking off spring. Cocktails {or mocktails} that can be accented with fruit wedges and garnishes are some of our favorites as they can lend to your party ambiance or table top decor. Lemons set the tone for a bright and cheery feeling! 

Spring entertaining is the perfect chance to dust off your tools that may have been collecting dust since the holidays. Think: easy, tasty, fresh and colorful when planning a spring party or wedding menu and vibe. Go en masse with your menu and serve cocktails like our Grapefruit Limoncello Splash that can be made in batches. It keeps the kitchen or bar cart less cluttered and guests don’t have to wait to mix up a libation.

 

 limoncello || grapefruit juice || vodka || mint || lemon || sparkling water || ice

 

Muddle a few leaves of mint in the bottom of a low ball glass. Add ice, 1/2 oz. Limoncello and 1/2 oz. vodka. Top with grapefruit juice and sparkling water. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a sprig of mint.

 

Cheers and enjoy the Easter weekend, friends!

In the Craft Room: Watercolored Tissue Flowers

Happy Spring! It’s arrived alongside the cheery yellow daffodils, the purple hued crocuses and the robins bustling about. Gosh, and Easter is next weekend, too. This season seems to be flying by and if just arrived! We’re so looking forward to a number of exciting events, a fresh blog look {you know we love rolling out bits and pieces each spring to accent the blog – this one is going to be stunning, we must say – and here’s a peek, shhh} and quality family time savoring our favorite things to do in Seattle in the spring:

 

 

We’re entertaining for Easter as well and, in dreaming up a sweet centerpiece idea, we created these water colored tissue flowers perfect for your Easter centerpiece. Water coloring is one of those pastimes we remember as kids and, painting as adults, it was relaxing and calming. We highly recommend it! Here’s the scoop on today’s how-to:

water colors | floral wire | tissue paper | a paint brush | scissors

Step 1. layer white or cream tissue paper by folding into a rectangle so it’s about 6 sheets thick {most tissue comes folded like this} and brush wide strips of watercolor in whatever colors you like. Go crazy! 

Step 2. gently unfold the entire sheet once the paint is dry and cut in half.

Step 3. fold the two pieces back together into little rectangles. Editor’s Note: take note here – the first ones we made were a little too floppy for our liking. They were cut from about 6″ x 6″ squares. We folded these down again to 4″ x 4″ squares.

Step 4. once you’ve folded the sheets down to your squares cut out a rounded edge from one end around, making a curve. You can choose to scallop the edges or leave them as-is.

Step 5. take the whole corner of the tissue flower and insert one end of the floral wire through, pulling nearly to the end. Take the second end and do the same so they meet like a stem.

Step 6.  fluff up you tissue and you’ve got blooms! Here are our first beauties. While we love them they were just a bit too floppy so we trimmed them down and scalloped the edges.

…and we made a little stem wrap. We couldn’t resist!

Here are the scalloped babies. So springy and fresh, right?

Photos and DIY: Valley & Co.

We hope you enjoy this project as much as we do and whip some up for your Easter table. It’s a really fun project and when replicated en masse these tissue flowers would be so magical!