paper rosette tips

It's no accident that I'm not calling this post a how-to guide. I don't quite feel qualified to give anyone a guide after the terrible time I had making these %*@&#! rosettes. I wouldn't consider myself an extremely crafty person, but I can usually follow directions and get a pretty decent result. That was not the case with these suckers- they are more complicated than they look! I ended up trying out quite a few tutorials, so I thought I'd share what I learned along the way. Perhaps you can avoid some of my mistakes...

I bought most of the paper I used from Paper Source, so I figured their website would be a good place to find a tutorial. Wrong! Using the measurements they gave, I could barely get the two strips of paper to meet. When attached, they formed a sort of cone shape that would not lay flat without tearing. Fail!

Next stop, Martha Stewart. Oh Queen of craftiness, why is your tutorial even less clear than Paper Source's?! Would some photos of the steps kill you?

OK, time to find some DIYers who know what's up. I found several tutorials using the method explained on Catch my Party. It's similar to the Paper Source method, but you attach 3 fans of folded paper together instead of two. This worked a little better. I could actually get something resembling a rosette shape, but had a hard time attaching the fans with a stapler. I ended up with gaps where the fans of paper were attached (in the photo above, the top white rosette was made with this method). 

The final method I tried worked the best for me. This tutorial from the Broke-Ass Bride produced the cleanest and best-looking rosettes. One VERY IMPORTANT note: in this guide, you're using two 12" sheets of paper, cutting them both in half, and then glueing the four strips of paper together to make one long 6" x 48" strip.  Hopefully your reading comprehension is better than mine, but this wasn't 100% clear to me in the first read-through. I made one using a 6" x 24" strip of paper and ended up with another cone. You can adjust the paper size to make bigger or smaller rosettes, but the length of your paper should always be at least six times the width for this method to work. 

A final note on supplies: I used several types of paper with varying results. A medium-weight paper similar to construction paper will work best. I don't recommend using card stock, it is too thick and really a pain to fold. Paper Source's rolls of solid gift wrap are a good weight, and a good value. The fancy fine papers I used really were mighty fine. They were so soft and had a bit of stretch, but beware- they're ridiculously expensive. In retrospect, I probably should have just used scrapbook paper, but I really, really didn't want to go to Michael's...

Have you ever made rosettes? Am I the only one craft-impaired with these? 

graduation party

My good friend Kait graduated from medical school a few weeks ago, and I helped throw a party to celebrate. I partnered with Oakland Bakes to create a festive dessert bar for the occasion. 

We chose an olde timey apothecary theme with a color palette of minty hospital green, white and silver as a nod to the medical profession. We used apothecary style jars and vases, and displayed the cookies on quarter-sheet trays to suggest surgical instrument trays. I incorporated the colors into the decor by crafting rosettes and pom poms in the same palette.

Read on for more photos:

monday links

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a relaxing Memorial Day. Now that summer is officially here, it's time to start thinking about BBQs! And you know what that means- BBQ cook-offs! Check out my post on hosting a cook-off here, as well the re-cap of our Burger Cook-off from last year. And don't forget the homemade trophy!

The Summer Oh Joy for Target line launched yesterday! I checked it out at my local Target yesterday and immediately wanted to have a picnic. Think I'm going to have to order one of these super cute insulated totes (they were already sold out at my Target!).

Oh hey, Beyonce, you like kale, too? Omg, we have so much in common!
Check out Suburban Riot for your own Kale shirt, as well as other clever tees.


[Oh Joy for Target photo via Oh Joy, Beyonce photo via Suburban Riot]

monday links

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I helped throw a graduation party for my friend Kait (photos to come!), and I've been working on organizing our spare bedroom to make it more of a functional office. I still have a ways to go before it can really be called anything other than "the room where we stash all our crap and close the door" though. 

Fashionable Selby is my new favorite coffee table book. Like the other books in his series, Todd Selby gives you a behind-the-scenes peak into the studios and lives of a really interesting mix of fashion designers, stylists, shoemakers, and more. This book is like an explosion of inspiration- I feel like I could look at the photos over and over and still notice something new each time. 

How rad is this banana-themed birthday party from The Alison Show?! I love her creative use of relatively simple paper decorations (the Arrested Development banana stand reference might be my favorite part!). She really knows how to take a theme and run with it- even if she does spell Allison wrong ;)

The Songza playlist Good Ol' Timey Eatin' is full of fun and hilarious old songs about food. Great for a listen while you're making dinner. Plus, it features this gem from Doris Day, a.k.a my new theme song. Lyrics don't get much better than, "Must admit your kisses would be missed, but how in the world could I exist without tacos, enchiladas, and beans", amiright??

[top two photos from the Fashionable Selby, banana party photo from The Alison Show, taco photo from Chow]

monday links

I'm so excited for the new Oh Joy for Target line! The collection of party supplies will be in stores and online this Sunday, March 16th. From the look of her Pinterest page, the collection is full of bright colors with gold accents- I'm definitely going to be stocking up!

Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel came out Friday- have you seen it yet? The NY Times review features some great behind-the-scenes photos of the miniature models they built of the hotel.

I didn't get to see any Manatees when I was in Florida, but I did get to meet lots of sea turtles at The Turtle Hospital. If you're ever near Key Largo, I recommend a stop to see little Zippy (pictured above) and support the great work they do rescuing and rehabilitating injured sea turtles. You can see a video of one of their permanent residents, Bubble Butt, on my Instagram (he was struck by a boat and now his back end floats- poor guy!).

Interesting article about our addictions to our electronic devices and the anxiety of unplugging. A few years ago (before I had a smart phone), I remember getting annoyed when my friends were constantly checking their phones, but now it seems to have become the norm to be on your phone 24-7. Looks like I missed the National Day of Unplugging last Friday, but I think I may need to start unplugging more. Would you give up your phone for a day?


[Oh Joy for Target photo by Thuss+Farrell via Oh Joy, Grand Budapest Hotel photo via the NY Times, Phone died image from someecards]

superbowl snacks

Are you planning to watch the Superbowl this Sunday? I'm not much of a football fan- I've had many people try to explain the rules to me, but I just don't care enough to try to figure out what's going on. 3rd down? Who cares. I'll tell you what I am of fan of though: snacks! Football is a great excuse to eat all those unhealthy foods that only seem like a good idea after you've had a brewski or two.

We've hosted quite a few Superbowl parties over the years, but this year, I've decided to drop the pretense of "watching the game" and just invite a few friends over to watch the Puppy Bowl and eat snacks (OK, we might watch the half-time show). Here are the guilty-pleasure Superbowl snacks I'll be making:

Buffalo wings! I have a not-so-secret love of chicken wings and have tried many recipes for making them at home. Serious Eats' recipe for Oven-fried Buffalo Wings requires a few steps and some planning in advance, but is still way easier than trying to deep fry them on the stove. Oven frying is a great way to make wings for a crowd, and they turn out super delicious. Serious Eats has really done their homework on this one, you can read all about the extensive R&D behind this recipe here.

Nacho Cheese! I'm telling you, these Serious Eats dudes are really serious about their eats. Their ingenious Cheese Sauce recipe is so simple and delicious I want to make it every day (except I might have a heart attack). This recipe doesn't require you to make a bechamel, or use any fancy equipment- if you can melt cheese and stir, you can make it. And it's made with real cheese and only four ingredients, so you can feel a little better about eating it (at least better than eating that weird nacho cheese that comes in a jar). Pro-tip: don't use pre-shredded cheese, the extra starch it's coated with will mess things up.

What are your favorite guilty-pleasure snacks? Any good recipes?


[Top photo from Blisstree, center and bottom photo from Serious Eats]

burger cook-off

We held our annual Burger Cook-off on Labor Day, and the competition was pretty fierce. Everyone really stepped up their game in the burger department this year- maybe because they wanted to bring home one of these magnificent specimens:

I was able to modify these thrift store finds (see the before photo here) into official burger trophies with the help of some gold foil plaques. I found some gold foil card stock in the (shudder) scrapbooking section of the craft store, and was shocked that I was actually able to print on it (note: I did use a fancy office laser printer, an inkjet might not be as successful). Once I got the printer to print on the gold foil, it was only a matter of glueing the plaques on and voila! Official USA World Champion Trophies!

burger time

We're hosting our annual Burger Cook-off next weekend and I've got burgers on the brain. Last year's winner was a Spicy Lamb burger, so I'm on the hunt for an extra special burger recipe to beat the competition. I think there could be some contenders in Food & Wine's round-up of 10 Favorite Burger Recipes. I've got my eye on this Chile-Stuffed Cheeseburger- hard to go wrong with a burger stuffed with cheese and peppers, right??

I've also been working on the homemade trophies for this years contest. Lucky for me, the thrift store did most of the work this year- just look at these beauties! Who would ever give away such a magnificent eagle trophy?! Now I've just got to figure out what I'm going to use to cover up the bottom to turn these into 1st, 2nd and 3rd Best Burger trophies (and maybe try to cover up their minor flaws, like the one in the center who is missing an eye...)

I found some great burger paraphernalia in the dollar bin at Target earlier in the summer, so I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate those as decorations too. I'm thinking the beer cozies will make good runner-up prizes.

You can check out last year's trophies and the how-to here.


[top photo from Food & Wine]

a spectrum of napkins

For a new twist on ombre table linens, I thought it would be pretty if the ombre effect ran the full length of the table, with the napkins getting progressively darker from one end to the other. To achieve this look, I dyed a set of napkins in a spectrum of shades of pink.

I started with a set of twelve white napkins. Its important to wash them before dyeing to remove any finishes that could interfere with the absorption of the dyes.