bubbly

Happy #WineWednesday! You know those projects that come across your desk and you just cringe at the thought of having to tackle them? This one was it for me. I honestly can not remember being so stuck creatively – ever. When Pantone announced its color of the year for 2014, a part of me died inside. To go from Emerald Green (hello, best color EVER), to a bright purple hue inspired by my least favorite flower on the planet, seriously bummed me out. Fast forward a few weeks into 2014 and our PR firm was asking for us to whip up some sort of Radiant Orchid concoction. WHY.

I spent forever trying to figure out a way to make this happen. I knew whatever wine we used needed to be virtually colorless (Sparkling) and that there needed to be some sort of mixer that was a borderline unnatural shade of purple to make the entire look come together. I can’t say I’ve ever tested, tried and mixed so many ingredients in my life to make it happen, but it finally worked and I was floored with the results. Of course the primary ingredient ended up being one simple, pretty natural thing – Blueberry Lemonade. Seriously? After all of that?!

You know how they say your greatest challenges often wind up being your biggest rewards? This one was it. I could not be happier with how it turned out. Thank you, amazing PR firm for challenging me to think outside of the box… you girls absolutely rock 🙂

Check out a few of my favorite outtakes from the shoot and the full recipe below. Cheers!!!

Prep: 5 minutes
Total time: 3-6 hours

Serves: 8-10 (depending on glass size)

Ingredients
1 (750ml) bottle of ONEHOPE Sparkling Wine
1 liter blueberry lemonade

Directions
1) Pour blueberry lemonade into an 8″ x 8″ glass baking dish and freeze for 1-2 hours.
2) Carefully remove freezing lemonade from freezer. Using a fork, scrape the mixture until the consistency is slushy throughout (lemonade will be more frozen toward the outside edges of the dish when you start).
3) Put the mixture back in the freezer for 1-2 hours and repeat two more times. Scraping the mixture prevents it from freezing into a solid brick of ice and maintains the slushy, icy consistency that is so delicious about a granita 🙂
4) Scoop granita mixture into glasses (we used champagne coups) and top with ONEHOPE Sparkling wine. Cheers!

Happy, happy Monday! I hope you had a lovely weekend and are ready for the short 4th of July week we have ahead! Woohoo!

S0… I’ve been dying to share this party! It’s as cute as can be and was featured on Style Me Pretty Living – pinch me! The last time I posted, I ran through the steps to create your own tissue paper fringe backdrop that we used for Blair Bear’s Birthday Bash. It’s one of my favorite DIY’s to date so if you haven’t checked it out yet, head on over here to see 🙂 Our EVP of Sales at ONEHOPE is a dear friend (you might remember her from here) and just over a year ago, she welcomed the cutest little girl into the world. Blair seriously has the absolute biggest personality and I could not wait to help her momma out with her first birthday party. Tiffany found a Panda Bear print that she loved at the Land of Nod, so we used that for inspiration for the color palate (mint, coral, pink, gold and white) and went from there. AND, since it happened to be around the same time we were launching our ONEHOPE Mimosa Bar, we decided to use it that day for the adults and set up an almost identical version (minus the bubbly of course) for the little ones. We created the tissue paper fringe backdrop for the Mimosa Bar and a fun tissue paper pouf version for the juice bar 🙂 In all, we had so much fun putting this together and not a single detail was overlooked. Check it out and view all of the vendors at the end! Xo

PS: The Mimosa Bar + Bubbly for the party provided over 50 meals to children fighting hunger. Cheers to that!

{The happy family! Yay to turning ONE!}

{The ONEHOPE Mimosa Bar in use with our hand crafted tissue paper fringe backdrop}

{Every case of ONEHOPE’s Sparkling wine provides 25 meals to children fighting hunger – so perfect for the adults to enjoy during a kid’s party}

{Guests mixed and muddled their own mimosas with fruits and juices they loved}

{BFF mommas with their BFF babes}

{Florals were a mixture of peach garden roses, bright pink ranunculus and tulips, and dusty miller}

{The juice and snack bar area was a replica of the adult’s Mimosa Bar (minus the champagne). Kids were able to mix their own fruit juices and grab their favorite sweets and snacks}