{mini valentine's garland}

Over the weekend, my mom and I picked up a pair of mini rose bushes from the flower mart.  I dont normally buy potted plants besides succulents at the Flower Mart, but we got there a little too late in the day and the selection of fresh flowers was dismal.   We potted these little rose bushes in a white ceramic vase I have.  This vase is not intended for houseplants since it has no drainage so we will see how long these actually last. 

While Chris was making us dinner, I whipped up this mini garland using some construction paper, baker's twine & two bamboo vegetable skewers.   Simply cut the triangle garland and fold it in half; you can see more in depth tutorial along with some free printables here.  I attached the little hearts with a glue stick and then hot glued the triangles onto the baker's twine.  This would be a really great addition to a Valentine's cake- similar to this previous post.

{friday cocktail: the root rx}

Our friend Josh recently told us about these new liqueurs by the small company on the East Coast called Art In The Age.  They currently only produce three flavors; Root, Rhuby and Snap.  This stuff is not easy to find, currently it is only sold in two locations;  the Cask online store and ONE store in Southern California, Hi-Times in Newport Beach.  Lucky for us, we spend time in Orange County often and picked up a bottle of Snap and Root before the holidays.  After playing around with a few different recipes, we decided on this one for today's post:

Cheers!

{the host your own series}

{image via Dylan Ho}

I am really excited to announce a new feature coming up on Mint Love Social Club in collaboration with my good friend Kevin Van of The Dining Society which we are calling The Host Your Own Series.

 {image via Dylan Ho}

A few years ago, Kevin decided to start an underground supper club which he named The Dining Society.  The very first of these dinners was held for 16 people on a ping pong table in our Silverlake backyard serving 7 courses along with wine pairings for only $50 a person.  The Dining Society dinners were meant to bring people together in a casual setting and give sous chefs at many of LA's best restaurants a platform to try out dishes that might not usually make it onto the menu in their restaurants.  Since then the Dining Society dinners have grown in size of up to 45+ people and have included all star guest chefs from Melisse, Providence and Red O.  You can read a little bit more about those dinner parties here.


I have always had a love for entertaining; everything from throwing large cocktail parties to intimate dinners.  After hosting the Dining Society dinner in our place and attending many more in other locations, Chris and I were inspired to start hosting our own dinner parties where the focus on food was elevated yet casual at the same time.


Kevin and I decided to start the Host Your Own series to highlight all the different aspects of entertaining not just the beautiful photos from the end result of a successful dinner party, but everything in between. 

The first part of this series will center around a dinner party I am throwing in early February in my loft and next week Kevin will be back with a post about the menu planning for this type of dinner party...

{all images are from Dylan Ho - who has shot almost every Dining Society meal}

{wedding projects sneak peek}

 If you follow me on Instagram (user name: mintloveblog), you have probably already seen that we have been knee deep in wedding projects over the past couple weeks.  While I will be waiting until after the wedding share the full tutorials on most of the projects, I thought it would be fun to show a little sneak peek today...

{butternut squash & kale pizza}

I'm always looking for quick weeknight meals to try out that require minimal prep, but feel a little more elevated than a pre-made Trader Joe's salad or some sort of frozen dish.  I came across this recipe on pinterest (follow me here) and since I love anything with Butternut squash as an ingredient, I knew it couldn't be bad.  This recipe did not disappoint, the dish itself is colorful and vibrant as well as being full of flavor.   Because of the lack of sauce of and only a fraction of the cheese normal pizzas use, this dish also feels very light which makes it great for a weeknight meal or even a great vegetarian appetizer.

{friday cocktail: the brown derby}

Last Friday, I picked up a bunch of different citrus so that Chris and I could spend the night in with some friends trying out different cocktails.  We have made a Brown Derby cocktail in the past, it is one of a few whiskey cocktails that someone who doesn't really care for whiskey can still enjoy.  This time we mixed it up by using the juice from a Pomelo, which is apparently a larger type of pink grapefruit.  The Pomelo offered an interesting flavor, but I would recommend sticking with regular grapefruit and using this modified recipe we followed:

Cheers!

{some new additions}

With the holidays and some recent shopping, we have lots of fun new additions around our place (and my closet).  I thought I would share a few of my favorite new things with you...

 {mint green embossed leather clutch from Etsy & Othelia Grace grey "stone" necklace- gifts from my mom}

 {Tom Ford book which I have been wanting for years - a gift from Chris' parents}

 {the second Scrappy's Bitters gift set to complete our collection - a gift from Chris' sister}

{Zara plaid swing coat- a gift to myself!}

{blood orange simple syrup}

Even after two cocktail posts using blood oranges (here & here), I still haven't had enough of this richly colored citrus.  Last night, Chris and I made some blood orange simple syrup to use in cocktails or mocktail spritzers and drizzled on desserts.  Regular simple syrup takes all of five minutes to make and most flavored simple syrups (like this one) only take a few minutes more.  I followed this recipe, but I doubled the ingredients which yielded me about a 1 1/4 cups of syrup- enough to fill two of the containers pictured above.  

This would be a great alternative to bringing a bottle of wine as a hostess gift, especially since it looks like you put a lot of thought and effort into it when really you made this in less than 10 minutes and returned to drinking a glass of wine on your couch.

{washi tape from Etsy, printable tags from this post}

{friday cocktail: blood orange margarita}

I'm back this Friday with another blood orange cocktail and just like last Friday, it is a simple twist on a classic cocktail.  This time we substituted blood orange juice in the place of lime juice in a Tommy's scratch margarita.  Here's the recipe:

I have a big weekend of ahead of me as we try to tackle some big items on our wedding checklist so I will probably be having a few of these.  Cheers!

{diy corkboard + planter tutorial from Bourbon and Bleu}

For Christmas, my good friend Heather made me this amazing framed corkboard with an attached planter for succulents.  This was such a wonderful gift to receive and I was shocked to hear how straightforward it was to make.  Heather normally blogs about all things food, restaurants & cocktails over on Bourbon and Bleu.  Since this project doesn't fit with her normal content, I asked her if she would be willing to put together a tutorial for the corkboard to share it on here.  Take it away Heather.... 

I’m so excited to share this fun DIY project with you! I made this for a few friends this holiday season, but now I’m sort of itching to make one for our apartment. It’s a great way to showcase pictures, cards, jewelry – you name it. And I think the succulents bring a unique and special touch. (full tutorial instructions are below)

 

 

 

what you need:

Bulletin Board Materials

• 1 White Wall Frame (19 x 22.75)
• 1 package cork squares
• ½ yard fabric (large geometric patterns tend to work best)
• Glue gun / glue sticks
• Razor blade
• Cutting mat

1. Using the glass from the frame as a guide, cut the cork squares down to fit the frame. 
2. Place the cork on the back side of the fabric. Trim the fabric so there’s about an inch or two extra on each side. 
3. Glue the fabric to the back of the cork board. Line any of the cracks between cork pieces with hot glue so that the cork doesn’t move around. Don’t put any glue on the front of the cork (where you’ll be placing the push pins) or else you’ll have lumps.
4. Put the fabric covered cork inside the frame, place the backing over the backside of the cork and then
5. Fold the clips down. You can discard the glass.

Planter Box Materials

• 2 pieces of 1 x 4 x 19 wood
• 2 pieces of 1 x 4 x 4 wood
• 1 piece of 1 x 4 x 19 particle board
• Nails
• Hammer
• spray paint
• Phillips screw driver
• 2 L brackets
• 4 screws
• Glue gun / glue sticks
• Plastic drop cloth
• 5 mini succulents
• Soil

1. Build the planter box using the 2 pieces of 1 x 4 x 19 wood as the front and base, the 1 x 4 x 4 wood as the sides, and the particle board as the back. I don’t think there’s any exact science to the number of nails or the way to build it. Just be consistent on each side and use enough nails to ensure the planter box is stable.
2. spray the planter box with several coats (I used 3 coats).
3. Once the planter box is dry (I purchased fast drying spray and gloss paint, so it took about an hour), line the planter box with the drop cloth. The drop cloth will make sure the planter box doesn’t leak every time you water the succulents. Line the interior of the planter box (about half way up) with hot glue and attach the drop cloth around all the sides.
4. Affix the planter box to the frame using an L bracket on each side. The L bracket will connect to the back of the frame and the base of the planter box.
5. Fill the planter box about three quarters of the way up with soil and plant the succulents throughout the box.

{the corkboard in it's new home}