A Celebration of Birthdays

My birthday is mid- May and this year it seemed to be one of the best celebrations I can remember. Though 35 isn't a special number I was blessed to receive so many thoughtful messages, cards and gifts, and a few special treats created by some fantastic cooks in my life.

I share a birthday with one of my sweetest friends so we enjoyed a joint celebration with our supper club a few days after our birthday- which only made the celebration last all week long.

 

 



Mother's Day

There are very few people that deserve a celebration more than my sweet Mom. For Mother's Day we celebrated with lunch after church at my house. Since I worked a wedding the day before, I took a few semi homemade options and Jay cooked most of the entire meal. My brother couldn't come home, so Jay and I shared lunch with my parents, and even sweet Annie made an appearance.
The menu:

Provencal Herb Goat Cheese and Toast Points and Bubbly (while we plated lunch)

Orange Butter with Rolls

Ina's Chicken Parmesan Salad

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-chicken-recipe.html

Cheddar Quiche

Miniature Dessert Assortments 



Bergstrom/Pugh Wedding

The second weekend in April was spent celebrating the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Austin Pugh. It was my pleasure to arrange the flowers and coordinate the events. Jessi chose pinks and whites with a pop of navy-the guys suits were a darling blue and white seersucker.

It was a beautiful southern evening at the Reserve at Oak Bowery.

http://oakboweryreserve.com/ 

 

 

The real photographers for the wedding were a lovely couple that I have had the joy to work with on more than one wedding. Not only do they do a beautiful job (see their work at: http://t2photography.com/ ), but they are fantastic people as well!



Let me introduce myself- it has been a while!

Seems so odd to have been a way from blogging for so long. 

Just so I can prove to myself that I really have been busy with fun projects, I feel like I should include a short summation of my fun over the past year.

There have been many celebrations and I do hope to document more of those to come ahead.

I guess it is never to late to get back on track!

 

I was asked to bake cookies for a wedding who wanted a cookie bar. The picture of the cookie bar is not the best, but the idea is super cute. The bride's main color was peach so we opted for peach wedding cake cookies. I think the cookie bar idea is perfect for showers and other parties too. 

 

 

 

 

I helped a dear friend prep for her mother's Surprise 90th Birthday by arranging flowers and making cookies in the honorees favorite colors- yellow and blue. 

 

 

 

I figured out my favorite combination for a cheese board:

Goat Cheese rolled in herbs, cream cheese with pepper jelly, sliced pears and dried okra- nothing about it is difficult, but I like the presentation! 

 

 

Part of this last year has been spent arranging flowers for parties that take place in the home of the Vice President for Development at Auburn University. Jane loves flowers and enjoys entertaining which happen to be two things I love- that combo makes it all the more fun to do this work! 

 

 

The Stanfield Family annual beach trip took place in late September and one of my favorite meals from the trip was our taco night. We prepared the normal options of chicken and fish and pork, but the salsas were so beautiful! I am constantly reminded of how precious my family is, but I'm thankful that I have learned to use food as a tool to make a celebration more special, to make someone feel loved, and to appreciate the bounty of God's creation. 

 

 

I created several fall arrangements for parties at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Lee County's New Class Reception, our church's alter table, more events at AU, and the Adams Wedding at the Reserve at Oak Bowery.

 

 

 

 

 

This one was my favorite from the Adams Wedding.

http://oakboweryreserve.com/  

 

A sweet friend from work granted her daughter's birthday wish by celebrating with a tea party.

I had the delight of creating the cookie favors and the flower arrangements for sweet MG and her friends to enjoy.  

 

 

 

 

I was super pleased with the work for the Norman Wedding in October- mostly white flowers with the occasional pop of hot pink.

Jay helped with the installation and snapped a pic while I was working.

 

 

 

A peak into the mayhem before the work begins.

 

 The same weekend as the Norman Wedding, I was asked to do a couple of bouquets for another wedding taking place up on the lake. I also helped with a wedding shower at church so the house was full of flowers for all types of events.

The shower was beautiful and one of my favorite things about it was the hot chocolate bar that even made it to the wedding reception after the bride's family enjoyed it so much at the shower.

 

 

The weekend via InstaCollage

 

 

 

A major thing happened in November!

The arrival of our new GSP puppy, Annie.

 

And our house has not been the same since her arrival.

 

 

 

 

We celebrated Thanskgiving in a big way with some fantastic house guests, delicious meals, and a big win with a celebration at Toomer's Corner.

This shot was taken by my Aunt Christy at her house on Thanksgiving Night. She is a fabulous photographer: http://christystanfield.smugmug.com/

 

 

 

December was filled with the all the annual Christmas fun; decorating, Gingerbread house decorating, a Cookie Swap, and fantastic family dinners.

 

 

My first wedding of 2014 was for a collegue who was married in a beautiful ceremony at the Auburn University Chapel on the the first weekend in January. Beautiful blue hues mixed with the white and green to make a fantastic wintery mix.

 

 

 

 

The new year brought more opportunities for flowers for AU.

I may have found a few of my favorite color combinations.

 

 

 

 

 

I treated myself to a delightful set of business cards from Empress Stationary. Find yours at  https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmpressStationery

If there is a way I can help you with your next celebration,

I would be honored to have the opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

Serve with a Chilled Glass of Milk

Taking the opportunity to bake for other people has long since been on the to do lists of my family members. My father makes 18 batches of cinnamon rolls to deliver on Christmas Eve every year, my mom cooks for days prior to any family gathering, we have spreadsheets for our beach trips, and of course my grandmothers were always preparing for a shower, a dinner on the grounds, a circle meeting, and a large number of other things. I find it particularly rewarding that I can continue that expression of love to those around me and to take it even further, it thrills me that someone would want to serve something I bake or create at a celebration of their own. Cookie orders are abounding and I am honored that I can help each person with their own celebration.

I started this post at the end of last summer and can't figure out how it has almost been a year since I sat down to blog. Time has flown and the projects have increased. Oddly enough, I can post pics of last summers cookies and the ones I have been doing lately and the paragraph above still applies.
I am thankful to still be making cookies that people want to serve- also thankful for the work I have been doing in the last year that has kept me away. I hope to do better in the future. 

 

Baby Ethan's Shower

Baby Ethan could be here any day now, and though his sweet mommy is only working with us a few hours a week, we couldn't let the occasion go by without throwing even the tiniest of showers for her. A couple of coworkers and I put together a little celebratory moment to help prepare Britni and Blake for their upcoming arrival. The menu was simple- cake and punch- and since the nursery design incorporates a giraffe, I had to use orange as one of the colors. Paired with gray chevron, we were set for a lovely gathering at the end of our work day.

 

Happy Independence Day

I clearly love a holiday, any reason at all actually to celebrate something makes me super happy, so July 4th is not excluded. I think we have celebrated the nations' birthday in several fun ways over the years- from picnics at Callaway Gardens, family pool parties and bbqs, watching fireworks in jeeps, etc. This year we were fortunate to be with some pretty stellar people at the beach. I made a couple of festive treats, found glow in the dark patriotic tattoos for the sweet children who we were with, and even found some crazy red and blue sparkle straws to spruce up our cocktails. There is little more American than the seashore (one of the many things that comes to mind when I think of an all American Celebration) so we took advantage of the proximity to oysters and enjoyed a few dozen  with mimosas for a late lunch after our boat ride. The company was excellent, the funk band was almost as awesome as Parker's Band (my all time favorite local band), and the salty air made even the rain seem pleasant. Cheesy or not, we are blessed to be Americans and that is reason enough to celebrate! Hope you were able to spend the holiday with people you loved, eating something fantastic, and enjoying music, fireworks, or whatever form of summer entertainment you enjoy!