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CINCO DE MAYO PICNIC

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

My favorite food group has a holiday! Jk, I know it’s about more important things but we Americans have made it into being all about tacos and tequila-I’ll admit it :P

I cannot express how excited I am to show last night’s hard work! Maggie (from my last post, the crazy talented artist) and I combined forces yesterday and styled a Cinco de Mayo themed picnic in my backyard! We used a blanket Dustin and I got on our honeymoon as the color inspiration, the new German beer garden table as a centerpiece, her hand-lettering skills, props from our personal collections and worked as a team creating the cutest outdoor party! Seriously so proud and happy with the turn out! It was planned for Sunday but thunderstorms got in the way so we both did anti-rain dances that it wouldn’t rain yesterday and low and behold we got a pretty night to shoot our visions!

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Pumped to have used my DIY’d indigo napkins from this post and our new wedding porcelain dishware from Villeroy & Boch. As I knew she would, Maggie brought it strong with her prop additions, loved the gold flatware which was something we wanted for our wedding, got but then realized they weren’t dishwasher safe and that wouldn’t work for everyday use. These have re-inspired me to look into adding some to our collection!

The colors popped so much after we added the sheepskin “cushions.”

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Maggie came up with two drinks (besides our crisp, cold, delicious Corona Lights- gotta have those!) that would definitely impress your attendees- a DIY cocktail bar and salted rim shooters!

Rosemary and Jalapeno Palomas—

I love herbs and spice in my warm weather drinks but I find it common at parties that some people lean toward spicy while others prefer fresh cooling flavors, so I love to set up a choose your own path cocktail bar!

Make ahead:
Grapefruit Juice- Juice from about 6 Large Sweet Grapefruits (on average you will get 1 cup of juice per fruit)
Infused Simple syrup- 1 cup of water to 1 cup of Sugar bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved, allow syrup to cool for 15 minutes and add the warm mixture to bottles containing fresh rosemary sprigs and jalapeno slices, refrigerate and use for up to 14 days.

Other ingredients:
Jarritos Grapefruit Soda/ or Seltzer Water
Gold Tequila

For each drink over ice, add 1/4 cup juice, 1/4 cup tequila, the juice of one lime wedge, a splash of the simple syrup(s) of your choice and top with Grapefruit soda or sparkling water, for a lower calorie version.

A traditional Paloma has a salted rim but I also like to give party goers the option to skip the salt by setting a salt shaker with flavored salts (rosemary salt is a great addition!) to the cocktail bar to add to drinks.

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Tequila Shooters—

Chilled Gold Tequila
I cut a tiny slit in a lime slice and ran it around the rim of the mini coupe and then dipped the top of the glass into a saucer with homemade Sriracha salt. Spicy with a warm bite!

Sriracha Salt:
Mix one part Sriracha hot sauce with 5 parts salt, spread out on a baking sheet and allow it to dry for 48ish hours.

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You probably thought we’d go with tacos for this picnic but since Dustin and I have made this chicken 3 times now after discovering it on Budget Bytes figured I’d give it the credit it’s due!  You should check out* her recipes, money-saving and tasting! We’ve tried lots and they are all pretty easy too.

*Since I followed her recipe exactly, please follow link if you wish to know how to make-it’s so easy!

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My version of Mexican street corn—

Peel back husks and remove the silk strings, rub with butter and sprinkle on black pepper, re-put husks back over and bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Then coat with mayo, sprinkle crumbling cheese and top with avocado yogurt ‘dressing’ (Taken from this recipe.)

For the spicy slaw I cheated and got pre-cut raw organic veges, added Sriracha mayo, red onions, radishes and called it a day-very good! We were piling it on chips haha!

The beans were the canned organic spicy kind we buy all the time. Usually eat with yellow rice and green chilies. I prefer black beans over re-fried any day!

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Maggie pulled colors from our blanket and NAILED IT! That peony opened up so much from the time she texted me a photo at 11:00am – it was wild!

The flowers were inspired by your blanket and Frida Kahlo. For the deep pink/red accents, I looked extensively for buganvilia sprigs but had to settle for clippings from my neighbor’s knockout rose bushes (with permission!).

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Hope you enjoyed our collaboration! It was so fun brainstorming with her and then bringing it all to life! I give the table some credit because it was after I bought it at Scott’s I knew it would make for a great backdrop. That and the warming temperatures lit the fire under my rear to get together with Maggie, I can’t wait until we do another!

It’s officially after 5 o’clock here which means CINCO DE MAYO HAPPY HOUR! And since you’re just now seeing our awesome idea, feel free to do this for any Summer day, no holiday needed!

Enjoy the evening and be safe out there!

BAR MAKEOVER

Dustin came up with the brilliant idea to transform our hosier cabinet into a bar and before he could even tell me the full thought I was taking out the stored bowls and knickknacks and moving over the booze.  SO PUMPED ON THIS! It really took our dining room up a notch.

Bitters on point but need to restock our alcohol. Dwindled down :P

Bought this ornament at West Elm for mine and Dustin’s first Christmas and never put it away because I love it so much. And now that it’s got this sweet flare from Floral Asheville, it’s pretty much never getting put away!

I realize a bunch of the photos look the same but I could not pick my favorites and these are even the narrowed down ones! The lighting was too good this morning.

Tomorrow I’m hitting up Scott’s Antique Market for the first time. Bringing some ladies and my camera. Hoping to find a few treasures. Keeping an eye out for brass candlestick holders, sugar molds and anything mid-century. Blog post to follow our adventure!

DIXON RYE

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Dixon Rye is the Westside’s newest retail addition carrying an array of items for your home and tables.  It resides in the old Atlanta Iron Works building between tons of really great restaurants and the Westside Provisions District.

They invited media and friends over to take a peak at all their hard work and oh my did they do a fantastic job with the building’s makeover, it’s unreal dreamy – inside and out!

My date for the night was my Maid of Honor, the trendy Ashleigh-

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These chairs! I watched everyone pause and admire these beauties.. I may have gone back to them around eight times, so good!

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Bradley the owner, a Mississippi native, has helped opened 80+ West Elms across the US then he went back to school at SCAD Atlanta when he was 40 to get his interior design degree – Impressive resume right?? It’s no wonder Dixon Rye is stunningly curated!

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The indigo pillows were my favorite accents.  I’m not surprised since they look like our cyanotype wedding invites as well as the indigo table napkins we made, I don’t stray far from what I like!

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My comfy outfit: Billabong kimono, Zara tank, Matt Bernson shoes, Madewell tote, TOMS sunglasses and Madewell necklace

Dixon Rye opened to the public yesterday so if you’re in the area, head over!

1085 Howell Mill Road

RECIPES | COOKING FLOURISHING FOODIE


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For Saturday’s football watching meetup with friends I made a roasted cauliflower leek and carrot soup by Flourishing Foodie, recipe can be found here.

Overall it was easy it just got a little tricky when I transferred the soup into the blender since it had to be done in batches. Her recipe yielded about 6 servings – we shared with friends, had one small helping and then another medium size helping. Perfection!

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She said to serve lukewarm, we ate it both ways. I preferred warmer.

Very much recommend!

Tonight I’m checking out Dixon Rye, a new homeware and design shop on the Westside in the old Atlanta Iron Works building. I’ll have the camera in tow so stay tuned for a peak inside the store!

THE HOMESTEAD ATL

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When my friends saw that The Homestead Atlanta needed a photographer for their Indigo Dying Workshop they recommended me for the job. Though I was pooped from filling up all my weekends with photography gigs I took it on because, well, who could resist an indigo dying class at Serenbe?! Thanks for looking friends!

The workshop took place at a spot I had never been before called the Art Farm at Serenbe which is a shipping container that’s been turned into a mini studio that has a porch that’s also connected to a house.  The whole set up is really cool!  I attended as both the photographer and participant so I got to leave with my own set of napkins and place-mats.  If you recall, I recently shared a blog post of my first time dying indigo napkins and since I had enjoyed that so much, I thought it’d be a lot of fun to give it a go once again.

The class was lead by textile and natural dye extraordinaire, Gretchen of Thrive. Here’s a glimpse into the class.

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The pole wrapping technique. Simply wet the material, tightly wrap around pvc piping, wrap string around making X’s then scrunch down making sure the fabric is tight. Dip into dye then take off and rinse. Gives the below zebra stripes-like effect!

 

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My favorite look out of all the designs made that day were the above ‘moon’ napkins. The gal who made these said she folded each napkin then used the circular plastic discs to block off the dye. I was obsessed with the result and now must try, guess third times the charm!

More information on The Homestead’s class schedule, click here.

This weekend I’ll be at Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  I’l be shooting music, fashion and all the fest shenanigans since I was approved as media! Until next weekend, follow along on my Instagram feed!