Sarah Hearts

Today I day dreampt that I was at the beach. I felt the warm of the sun and the sand in my hair. Do you ever dream that you’re lying out on the sand? For all you daydreams and beach goers, here’s what I would wear if I could take off to the beach right now.

Are you planning on hitting the beach one last time before summer is over? I’m planning on visiting the beach for the first time this summer. You may think it’s crazy that a Florida girl has not yet gone to the beach. Unfortunately busy schedules and an hour drive have kept me from the shoreline. In the meantime, I will dream of wearing these cute things and dipping my toes in the ocean.

1. Roses are best tote from Modcloth.
2. Collecting Leaves Tunic from Modcloth.
3. Mint Tea Mini Heart Earrings from Fred Flare.
4.  Butterfly Nadine Sunglasses from Fossil.
5. Adriana Strappy Sandal from Crocs.
6. Rose Floral Bandeu from Anthropologie.

Once again sorry for the lack of updates. I have been very busy with design work (which I am extremely grateful) and it has not left any blogging time. I am going to try my best to get back into this swing of things around here, but I do apologize in advance if I don’t keep on track. I am going with Kevin to LA this week for a YouTube convention so deadlines are kinda tight right now.

In the meantime, I am so excited to share this color palette with you. It reminds me of sherbet, which definitely reminds me of summer. I stumbled upon Aran’s work on here gorgeous blog. She’s a very talented food photographer and stylist. Spend some time looking through her photos, you will want to run out an buy props or bake, at least that’s what happened to me. I mean, isn’t this photo of apricots delicious?

This color palette would be so cute for a summer party. How would you use it?

Photo by Aran, color palette by me.

One year ago today I decided to start blogging on a regular basis. My goal was to blog Monday through Friday or 5x a week. I am pretty proud to say that I blogged 267 posts in the past year! That exceeded my goal! It’s been though and has meant a lot (maybe a million) of late nights but I’m pretty proud of myself. I am hoping to maintain and maybe even exceed this goal this next year.

In honor of my “blogiversary” I am giving away 10 fill-in party invitations with envelopes to one lucky reader. To enter, all you need to do is comment on this post and tell me what you would like to see more off on my blog. Is it DIY tutorials? Maybe recipes? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I will randomly choose one person and send them a set of 10 party invites of your choice (the colors available are shown above). When you comment, please include your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

Update: The winner was selected randomly using random.org. Thank you so much to everyone for who commented and provided feedback. I will try my best to apply all the things you mentioned and the new site should be ready by mid August!

I love the colors of summer. There are so many great color palettes inspired by this season that work so well year round. I instantly loved this photos and the colors in the gorgeous bouquet. It uses some great saturated hues and pairs them so well with the soft butter yellow dress. This color palette also reminds me of the delicious lemon cake I made for Easter.

Photo by Divine Light Photography (our amazing wedding photographers). Color palette by me.

Now that we’ve been in our house just over a year we are finally almost done with our bedroom. When we moved in we immediately began working on the den (formerly called the “wood room“). Then we moved to the living room, office and guest room. We left our room for last because we wanted to focus on the areas guests would see.

When we moved in the bedroom walls were ivory and all the trim was a dark khaki. We wanted to lighten up the space and I had long been in love with yellow and gray so it seemed like the logical choice. We used yellow and gray (plus orange) for our wedding back in 2008 and I loved it. We purchased the gray and white Marimekko duvet right when got married. We wanted to save some money so we kept the same bedding and furniture when we bought our house. Because the duvet is white and grey yellow was our first choice for the wall color. We went with Buttered Sweet Corn by Glidden in an eggshell finish. The coverage was great! We only needed one coat with minor touch ups.

One weeked my father-in-law was in town he hung the ceiling fan for us. It’s Hunter and we purchased it from Home Depot (I can’t remember the model name of hand). It’s simple and looks so much better than the once was white now yellow and grayed fan that was there.

About 2 months ago Kevin decided that he wanted to mounted the tv in the living room and the one in the bedroom. He cut the wall, ran the wires, and cleaned up after installing the living room mount in less than 2 hours. Then we tried to mount the one in the bedroom… 2 days later and 4 trips to Home Depot and it was complete. We came across an obstacle, a 2″ x 4″ obstacle to be exact. We ended up using a flexible drill bit to cut a hole though the piece of wood (which we later learned is called a fire wall… I think…).

Remember how I drew our silhouettes for our birthday decorations? We will loved them so much I had them giclée prints made on thick, ivory colored Reeves BFK paper. I found these frames at JoAnn Fabrics a couple of weeks ago for only $9 each.

The last project we have in the bedroom is changing the door handles on the accordion closet doors. The previous home owners installed door handles that are brass die-cut Chinese characters. Not quite our style and unfortunately, they are not a standard size. The holes they cut in the doors to install them are not in a straight line. So it’s been impossible to find replacements. When that project is done, I will definitely before and after photos.

Do you happen to have a gray and yellow bedroom? If not, what color palette did you use in your bedroom?

I made toothpicks with our silhouettes and ages on them for our birthday party. I thought they would be a fun way to incorportate the party colors and theme while being functional. We only served appetizers and finger foods so they ended up being very practical.

They were very easy to make and only require a few supplies. Now I want to make them every time I serve an appetizer! I also think they would be really cute as cupcake “flags.” You can download the Word or Pages template I made and make your own. Here’s a little tutorial on how to make them.

1. You will need the following supplies:
- Toothpick topper template for Word
- 8.5″ x 11″ sheet(s) of colored cardstock (each page makes 8 toothpick toppers. Simply multiply this times the number of toothpicks you want)
- a 1.5″ circle paper punch (I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby for a while back, you can get a similar one at Michaels or JoAnns)
- PVA glue (other glues will work, but PVA is the best for bonding paper because it doesn’t wrinkle and is super strong, you can purchase it at your local art supply store or here)
- Paint brush to apply glue
- 4″ skewers (if you making cupcake toppers, I would recommend using toothpicks)

2. Customize the template then print the file on cardstock. Once the desired amount of “toppers” are printed, cut the “toppers” into 4 rows of 4. This is going to allow you to punch them out. The use the circle paper punch to punch out each topper. Sorry I forgot to snap a photo of this step. I found it easiest to turn the paper punch upside-down so you can use the printed lines of the circle to help you align the paper punch.

After you punched out all the circles, use the paint brush to apply PVA glue to the back side of one of the paper toppers. I made the toppers have our silhouette on one side and our respective ages on the other side.

3. Place one toothpick or skewer in the center of the glued topper. You may want to pick it up and check that it will be displayed correctly (for example, if you typed a number or date, you don’t want it to appear upside-down).

4. Take another paper topper and firmly press it onto the glued topper. I found it helpful to pick it up and use my fingers to help align the edges of the two circles. Repeat steps 2-4 and until you’ve made all the toothpicks you want! Super easy and so cute!

How would you use these? As cupcake toppers or toothpicks for small bites?

I have been on a blogging hiatus this past week. And if you were just asking yourself, “Yeah, where have you been, Sarah?” here all the details. Well, most of them.

Kevin and I spent the 4th of July holiday visiting my family in Miami. I will share our 4th of July picnic menu with you later this week. We had a great time visiting family and friends.

Last Wednesday was my 25th birthday! Yes, I turned a quarter of a century old. Nothing much has changed and it doesn’t feel different. I am proud to say that I can now rent a car with paying all those extra fees for being under 25. So that’s a plus.

Then on Saturday it was Kevin’s 26th Birthday! You may remember that we were planning a little birthday shindig (the mint and yellow party board may jog your memory).  I made paper straws with custom little flags on them. If you would like to make some for your party or wedding, you can find the tutorial here. I also made little toothpicks with our silhouettes and ages on them. They were so easy to make! I will post a tutorial and a printable template later this week if you would like to make them.

About an hour before the party I whipped up a bunch of paper garland. This was also easy, inexpensive, and so cute! I still haven’t taken the decorations down because they are just so charming.

I spent almost the entire day Saturday cooking small bites and sweets for the party. Here’s what I made:

Black bean and pineapple salsa with tortilla chips
Almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon
Herbed garlic pinwheel pastries
Antipasto skewers with pesto dip
Carrots, snap peas, and cucumbers with feta dip
Turkey burger sliders with all the fixings

Red velvet cake (My favorite cake and I used my favorite recipe via Bakerella)
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting (I used a Martha Stewart recipe. Loved the cake, didn’t love the frosting. Do you have a creamy chocolate frosting recipe?)
Chocolate brownies

Everyone brought drinks but I did make a delicious peach sangria with prosecco and peach brandy

We put my camera on a tripod and made a little photo booth. It was so  much fun! Next time I will encourage more people to use it. Perhaps by making some props. We moved one of our tv’s to the den and placed it in front of the “photo booth” so people could use it was a view finder. I am going to do a little more research and see if we can have it preview the images as well. Anyone have an expreience with this?

I made the photo booth background quickly using this awesome tutorial via Sugar and Charm.

Thanks to all our friends who attended. It was a great birthday for both Kevin and I.

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July! We spent the weekend in Miami and had a great time visiting family. I had been wanting to make new wreathes for the front doors since I still had the neutral holiday wreathes up. I brought some of my crafting supplies with me to Miami so my crafty mom could help me assemble the new wreathes. I used the same process as I did when I made the holiday wreathes.

I purchases the grapevine wreathes at Hobby Lobby for only $2 each! I used some existing felt scraps I had and a glue gun. The entire thing took less than an hour to make and looks so cute. I plan on making one with oranges and yellows for the fall. I think they would be so cute to use as a backdrop for a wedding ceremony or to hang on the church or reception venue’s door. They are the perfect blend of rustic country and crafty charm.

Click here for the tutorial on how to make the roses.

Happy 4th of July! I hope you are enjoying your day! We are in Miami and going to have a picnic with my parents tonight and watch a fireworks show. I just made cheesecakes in jars to bring with us. I will share photos of the picnic with you late this week.

I love the photo above and I think nothing is more patriotic than an American flag and a horse. The color palette above is a more rustic version of the saturated colors you normally see on the 4th. The colors look a little worn and faded and I think they would be perfect for an outdoor party.

Photo by Raanai. Color palette by me.

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, almost! I know I’m a little early, but if you’re anything like me, you’ve got the upcoming long weekend on the brain. I’m looking forward to spending time with good friends, setting off fireworks, and of course, eating!

Fourth of July is one of the biggest days for cookouts, and when the flames from the grill begin to die down, it’s time for everyone’s favorite summertime treat: s’mores!

Oh yeah. S’mores are the greatest, don’t you think? Warm, gooey toasted marshmallows, melty chocolate and crunchy graham crackers, all in one portable package. Pretty much the perfect bite!

Well, unless you’re me. You see, I’m pretty messy. I seem to spill things on me pretty often when I eat, and I’m always covered in crumbs. When it comes to s’mores, I have the uncanny ability to completely coat myself in melted marshmallow and drippy chocolate in five seconds flat.

No matter how dainty a bite I take, or how many napkins I use, it’s just one big hot mess of an experience. You know how a baby smashes cake and gets it everywhere on their first birthday? That’s me, with s’mores. Every time.

That doesn’t change the fact that the s’mores flavor combination is delicious and addictive, so I decided to reinterpret this classic campfire delight: a s’mores mousse tart!

Graham cracker crust, thick and fluffy chocolate mousse, and a plethora of tiny toasted marshmallows on top. S’mores you eat with a fork! It’s perfect!

This s’mores tart can be made in lots of different styles: a classic round tart, a rectangular tart pan like I used, or you could even make it in a standard square pan!

Any way you slice it, this s’mores tart is sure to win you over. It’s a grown-up version of the childhood classic that we all know and love, plus you won’t have sticky fingers after you’re done eating! Everybody wins.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July!

Sweetly,

Jaclyn
www.foodpluswords.com

{Photographs and recipe by Jaclyn. Collage by me. Click here for the recipe.}