Happy Home: Colorful Bar Decor

Earlier this week, I showed you how to make easy and affordable book art. Today, I wanted to show you how I styled my bar! We've had this piece of furniture since we lived at our small apartment, so it held all our drinking glasses and acted as an entry table. Now that we have a larger home, it's only the bar. It's been a bit neglected, so I wanted to spruce it up after I added our artwork. 

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We bought our bar at Home Goods, but I found similar ones here, here and here. I wanted to set up my bar so that it would feature all my favorite items, while still being really colorful and simple to use. You don't really want to cover it in junk that needs to be removed every time you want to make a drink, right? 

I started by using my zebra tray for a drink station. I added some cute cactus glasses and my adorable confetti shaker. I love paper straws, since they are more colorful and better for the environment. I added some of my faves for easy access, and stored them in a tall shot glass/champagne flute. I put the cups on my cute glitter coasters and added painted animal and disco ball drink stirrers. I also featured my adorable Life is the Bubbles champagne flute that's handmade and oh so cute!

Since there was a random empty spot in the middle, I needed something with height that didn't block the light switch. I decided to add some fun and colorful books. I don't really read these books too often (if at all) so I thought they would look nice featured on the bar instead of stuffed on my bookshelf for a change. I also added my painted sketch book that I use a lot to sketch blog post ideas, home decor ideas, etc. It added some color and pizzazz to the whole thing.

In the corner, I featured some of my favorite liquors (or are they liqueurs?) and my favorite drinking glass, a pink ombre wine glass (similar). I had two but one sadly broke, so it's extra special to me now haha. Some Polar seltzers as mixers help guests to serve themselves, while fake flowers add some elegance without any upkeep.

I placed these items on an extra placemat I had from my dining table, and a C (for Cardona) statue thingy that I usually put on my entry table. I thought it looked really elegant amongst all the colorful bar items. For a finishing touch, I added my pineapple garland to add a bit of whimsy to the space.

To fill in the gaps, I gathered some random decor items from my home. I had these fake potted plants from an Easter DIY so I added them in for some color. I love these candles that I got from Ikea so I added those as well. Some appropriately themed napkins added a finishing touch and an extra pop of color.

If you want to have a bar in your home for parties but don't have room for a permanent piece of furniture, I highly recommend this foldable bar cart. It's really compact, sturdy and it works indoor and out! It's really versatile and I love mine. It's also a great add-on for bigger parties.

Do you have bar cart at home? How do you style it? Let me know in the comments below!

DIY Affordable Book Art

As I mentioned in my last post, I've got a serious lack of artwork in my home! I wanted to find some cute and colorful cocktail-related images for above my bar, but everything was either cheesy or expensive. Also, the space is a weird size- there's a light fixture above and a light switch below, so I only had about 2 feet in between for art. I had a book of cocktails that I rarely used, which had some GORGEOUS photos inside. That's when it hit me- why hide the images in the book, when I could display them proudly on the wall?! I went to Michael's to pick up some cute and simple white frames with a mat so the images would take up enough space while also "popping" against the frame. I'm sooo happy with the result that I decided to show you guys exactly how I did it.

The best part is that you can use any type of book or magazine that you have. My suggestions? HGTV books and magazines for cool and colorful homes, Cooking Magazines or Recipe Books with tasty recipes for the kitchen, and Artwork Books and Magazines for the rest of the home. Even National Geographic would be great with its artistic animal photos!

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You will need: 

Frame (from Michaels, similar here)
Books (here)
 

Directions:

1. Flip through your book or magazine to find your favorite images. Tear them out as close to the spine as you can.
2. Remove the back of your frame and take out the placeholder image and the mat.
3. My mat was double layered white and gray, so I carefully pulled off the gray one from underneath to leave only the white one. It worked perfectly!
4. Position your artwork within the mat, and tape in place if needed.
5. Place the mat and artwork into the frame, and close up the back. Make sure there is no dust or hairs on the inside of the glass before you do!

I mean... how cute does this artwork look?! This is such an affordable way to add some artwork to your home, especially if you have gorgeous books that you occasionally look at but don't use. This way, everyone can see the beauty within- right there on the walls! I also styled my bar with some really cute, colorful stuff. That blog post is coming later this week, so stay tuned!

Are you planning to create your own book art for your home? Let me know what you plan to use in the comments below!

Colorful Easter Brunch Party Idea

Welcome everyone, to what is probably the last Easter party/DIY of the season. In all fairness, I’m Greek Orthodox so my Easter is next Sunday (April 8) and so for that I’m right on time! It’s always weird to get the timing right, since I’m always thinking I have an extra week. For this reason, I wanted to keep this Easter table really simple and colorful. And best of all, affordable! I realized a lot of blog posts and parties can break the bank, and I know us millennials are on a budget. Like, always... so, here’s a very cheap, easy, and gorgeous Easter setup made for any budget! 

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I kept the table setup simple and glam by using this sequin table cloth. My sister got it for my bridal shower, and I’ve been using it ever since! It’s seriously gorgeous while not being too expensive. If you want to keep it even more budget friendly, opt for a white tablecloth (or whatever pastel color you have, really) and add a sequin table runner. At only $9 it’s a steal! All the glam, a fraction of the price. 

For the table settings, I stacked some inexpensive plastic plates as sort of “charger plates” and added a cute Easter plate on top. This plate was from the dollar store! Holla for a dolla!! I’m sure you could find something equally cute in your local dollar store but if not check Target or even Party City for another option. I got my napkins from Home Goods. Did you know they have a party supplies section?! With some awesome, hard to find brands as well. These are from Meri Meri and only cost me 5 bucks. Score! I added some gold utensils to make the polka dots pop and I just love how they pick up all the rainbow colors. 

Speaking of rainbow colors... how cute is this streamer paper backdrop?! It’s so easy and cheap to make. I got my crepe paper from, you guessed it, the dollar store! Then I measured out one piece to find the length, went color by color and cut out a whole roll of each. I had a lot extra (like, a lot...) so unless you’re doing a big wall, you may only need half a roll. Mine didn’t go all the way down either, so that would affect how much you need as well. Once I tore all the pieces to the right length (that’s right, tore with my hands... like an animal) I taped them up in color order. Super cute, super easy, super colorful. 

Now, to spruce up that table! I added some dollar store flowers I got last year and added the bunny ears I made last Easter. I put them in a simple milk jug vase that I got from (you guessed it!) the dollar store and placed that on a “placemat” that’s actually artwork! You can find the easy DIY for that here. I added some holographic Easter eggs (what?!) from Target filled with smaller Easter eggs. A small white crate from my wedding was filled with colorful rainbow Easter eggs and honeycomb balls. And, we can’t forget about bunny ears! A pile of headbands ensures that everyone is in the holiday spirit. 

And, let's talk about those blocks! I really wanted a set of pastel rainbow blocks for an Instagram project I was going to do. Unfortunately, they were impossible to find so I made my own! I have a DIY for these coming soon, but I couldn't resist adding them to my Easter post. 

And that’s all there is to it! A simple, affordable Easter table setup that will wow your family without breaking the bank. A lot of the items I either had on hand, used last year, or purchased very inexpensively. 

Pssst. Looking for some assistance planning your next big event? I can help! Visit my virtual party planning services page for more info and pricing.

Our Wedding, Part Two

Welcome back! Last week I posted the first half of my wedding update and it felt really good to get the pictures out of the vault and onto the world wide web! Now let's get to the second half of the wedding- the reception! It was super fun and definitely the most fun wedding I've never been to! And I'm not biased or anything, haha.

We did the typical bridal party entry, and I decided I wanted to do that things they used to do in the old days when the bridal party would stick their arms and bouquets up and the bride and groom would walk through it. We didn’t have a real “bridal party”. We had my parents (short), John’s mom and her escort (short), my sister (short), the officiant friend (short) and John’s sister and her boyfriend. So, they all basically stuck their arms up in the air sort of like a bridge and we walked under. Honestly, I was so happy that we got to do it (cue the fist pump of joy) that I didn’t even notice that they weren’t actually touching.

We moved into the dances afterward, and John and I swayed to Say You Won't Let Go. We don’t slow dance (ever) and I found it to be sweet but repetitive, so I asked him to twirl me. He asked if I was sure, then gave me a whirl, which was really fun!

I danced with my dad to Butterfly, Fly Away by Miley Cyrus and John danced with his mom to All To You by Scott Keo.

Then, we moved on to speeches from John’s brother, my sister, and my dad. I was always curious what my dad would say at my wedding, since he’s a funny and cheesy and crazy guy (see where I get it from?) and he didn’t disappoint. Then, once he finished his speech, my sister came back up and looked nervous. AND THAT’S WHEN I KNEW IT WAS HAPPENING.

You see, months and months before, I had stumbled upon this video and had half-jokingly sent it to my dad and sister on Facebook, saying that if they didn’t do a Disney parody at my wedding, I would never forgive them. Then I completely forgot about it because you know… wedding planning. So when they came up I knew what was happening. They sang several Disney parodies, including “I Owe” sung to Heigh-Ho from Snow White, all about how John needed to work overtime to pay for the wedding. They pulled out these construction hats and marched in place while they did it, which was hilarious. I hope my videographer captured the whole thing. I’ll post it on YouTube!

After that, everything was pretty typical. We ate, danced a bit, and cut the cake, then went outside to take some nighttime photos.

It was raining again at that point, so we got some really cool rainy backlit photos! John wasn’t impressed with the photos at first. I didn’t understand why, because they were GORGEOUS. And he goes, I don’t like that fake starry sky they added. Once I explained to him it was the rain, he loved them as much as I did.

My sister came out to look for us at that point, and told us that we only had about an hour left to the reception. I had decided early on that I wanted to be 100% present for my wedding, so aside from a couple of glasses of champagne, I didn’t drink until after the cake was cut. I figured at that point, all the “important” stuff would be done, and I could let loose and have fun a bit. We went back to the venue, and I gathered a few of my friends to help me get ready to party. One friend went to the bar to get me 2 of my favorite drinks. My sister and a coworker helped me use the bathroom in privacy, then we all dressed me up from head to toe in my party gear. I met John in the bridal suite, he got dressed, and we emerged.

Ok, no surprise that I like parties. But, one of my favorite things is light-up stuff at parties. I’m like a kid at heart. On one of our first dates, John took me to a bar with his friends, and a guy was selling some light up necklaces and he bought me one. I wore it until it broke. So, we decided that we wanted the last hour of our wedding to be 90’s music, full of fun dancing, light up party supplies, and laughter! John and I added some special gear to our outfits- a light-up bow tie and suspenders for him, a light-up flower crown and sneakers for me!  No one knew about our plans for the glow-light “after party” so they were all really excited and got dressed up. It made for some really funny and psychedelic photos. Plus have you ever seen a bride wearing glow sneakers under her dress?! Probably not! 

Everyone loooooved the light up stuff! They all got decked out in necklaces, rings, sunglasses and bracelets. The DJ took requests, so everyone was loving the music! Seriously, the dance floor was so full and it seemed like everyone got up at some point to dance! It made for some amazing and pretty trippy photos.

We added in some Greek line dancing (of course) and watched as some of my parents’ closest friends knew all the moves despite not being Greek, and watched our friends struggle to keep up. Overall Greek dancing is fun either way, since you’re basically in a long, winding line and moving along while kicking.

The last hour lasted a little longer, since we had an extra hour with our DJ contracted and the venue was able to clean up the tables while we played and danced. Another reason why the Woodloch was amazing! So we ended up with probably an extra 30 minutes of fun. The day flew by, so I was happy to get any extra one to relax and enjoy myself.

Photography by Lora Reehling
Dress by Maggie Sottero Bridal
Makeup by Woodloch Lodge & Spa
Shoes by Badgley Mischka

Is HelloFresh Worth it?

Truth time- I hate cooking. I'm a creative gal, so I know I should love it. But, cooking is not really crafting and I seriously hate doing it. I've recently started crock pot cooking, which is awesome because you dump everything in a pot and let it sit for 8 hours and it comes out delicious. But, that doesn't really work when you're at work all day. I'm a lucky lady and my husband cooks for us pretty much everyday, but I wanted to try to cook too. I mean, I'm planning to have kids someday and they have to eat, right?

Through a friend, I got a free trial of HelloFresh and I decided to give it a go. HelloFresh is a meal delivery service, where they send over the ingredients and instructions and you get to cook it. Before I dive into my thoughts, here's a few fun facts about me:

1. I hate cooking. It's confusing, boring, and doesn't taste as good as I expect it to.
2. Cooking takes way too long. Time spent cooking is time I'd rather spend on anything else. Ordering in takes about 10 minutes with zero cleanup.
3. I hate measuring and trying to manage 18 things all at once and not burn them.

Any of these sound like you? Please tell me I'm not alone here! Haha. So, I'll talk about HelloFresh from my perspective as the casual cook. 

Packaging:

Each meal comes in its own little box, which is nice for keeping everything organized. Each box came labelled (except the chicken for some reason...) and fit nicely in the fridge. All the ingredients inside are packaged nicely and labelled as well. The meat comes outside the box, which is more of a fun fact about it than anything else.

Monty definitely wanted to try some food!

Selection:

If you choose their classic plan, you get 6 meal choices. For the vegetarian and family plan, there are 3 handpicked meals but no choices. For the classic plan, they have a variety of meats and fish. to choose from. Personally, I don't really like seafood, and I don't eat beef or pork, so this really limited my options. I wish you could mix up the vegetarian and meat selections, since I don't always want meat. If you're trying to transition to being a vegetarian, I think signing up for this program would be great! You'd get a whole bunch of new and tasty recipes, so you're not just eating mac and cheese everyday. Yea... that's what I did when I tried to be a vegetarian years ago!

Since everything is individually packaged, you can replace or omit any ingredients you don't like. For example, we got a shrimp dish and a beef one that we replaced with chicken and turkey. Also, I HATE onions, so we didn't include them in any of the recipes that called for it.

Portions:

At first glance, my fiancé said the portions seem really small. He's a big dude, and he eats a lot. He said the chicken seemed like enough just for him. However, once we made it he said that it felt like a good portion. I found that it was just enough food for the both of us without any leftovers, which was perfect for me. I'm not a big fan of leftovers!

Time: 

I started cooking at 7:30 on the dot, although I preheated the oven while drafting up this blog post. Or at least... I thought I did. I think I turned on a 4 hr timer instead of turning it to 400 degrees. I hate cooking... Anyway, it took about one hour to cook. I did take some occasional notes snd snapped some photos, but most of that time was spent prepping or cooking. I think that an hour to cook isn't the longest time, but I was kinda hoping it would only take about 30 minutes. After 1.5 hours commuting home, I don't really want to cook for an hour too! However, I will say that having everything nicely together and not having to rummage through the cabinets to find things was great, especially since I usually find that I'm missing an ingredient I thought I had. With this, I never have to worry about that!

So I'm not sure if this is done on purpose, but some of the items are just enough for you to have, and others have some extra. Like the pistachios, which were not chopped. Maybe this is to give you that whole "look, I'm on a cooking show! vibe, but I found it to be time consuming. I finished chopping the pistachios just in time for the oven to heat up, but by the time I got the chicken in the oven, the quinoa had just finished cooking. Not the greatest timing, since the chicken needed 20 mins to cook. 

Look ma, no hands [were harmed while chopping the pistachios].

Pricing:

Depending on which plan you choose, Hello Fresh is $8.74-$9.99 per person, per meal. If the price is too steep, you have the option to switch to a monthly or bi-weekly delivery. At $10/person, I found that the cost was almost the same as ordering in. While it's definitely healthier than ordering in, it still requires me to cook, which I don't really enjoy. My main reason for not ordering in is the cost, so ordering from here doesn't really help that. However, compared to similar services, HelloFresh is a good deal. It's in the median price range and the food is good quality.

Final Thoughts- Is HelloFresh worth it?

I think this depends. If you're looking for a huge selection to choose from, are a very picky eater (like me) or trying to stay within a budget, then HelloFresh might not be for you.

If you're trying to start cooking, transitioning to being a vegetarian, and not very picky, then YES! HelloFresh is definitely for you. I also think if you don't have the time or desire to go to the supermarket, but still want to cook, this is definitely a great service. If you're trying to stop ordering in so much but need something to break the habit, I think it's a great start!

The long and short of it?

YES- busy professionals, new vegetarians, those learning to cook, non-picky eaters, those trying to explore new recipes

MAYBE NOT- those on a budget, extremely picky eaters,