Today I’m featuring a tabletop that was recently published in Santa Barbara Magazine and Style Me Pretty Living. It was a collaboration with the always amazing Nancy Neil and super chef Ayda Robana of Om Sweet Mama.

We set a simple table; with a god’s eye patter runner from Heather Taylor Home and china and flatware from Botanik.

Simple salads, like the panzanella with Haricort Verts featured farm fresh ingredients (recipe for the salad is here).

Instead of traditional flower centerpiece, I opted to make a flower garlad to keep the vibe relaxed but still very pretty. To make the garland you will need:

2 bunches of bay (depends on length of table)

2 bunches clematis

1 bunch hot pink ranunuculus

1 bunch wax flower

Begin by simple laying the piece of bay leaves end to end. I created a zigzag effect here so you could see the pattern of the linen. Then I simply took the blooms of clematis, ranunuclus, and wax flower and tucked it into the bay. You can wire all these pieces together but its not necessary. And that’s pretty much it! You can see more of this table right here and here.

PS I apologize for my blogging absence. A lot if going in my personal life and I will blog about it once things are more settled. For now, posting will remain on the lighter side. Thanks for hopefully sticking around here and enjoying some pretty .

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I was so happy when Nancy Neil invited to participate in this spring entertaining story with Ayda Robana of Om Sweet Mama. We shot at a private estate in Goleta and setup this table on their private dock (you know to go with their private lake). I used a low wood bowl and placed the centerpiece at the end, so the star of the table, the FOOD would stand out.

A menu of seasonal and local ingredients made up for a delicious feast (post-shoot this was dinner for the crew, it was rough but I got through it). My favorite? The squid ink pasta with eggs over easy…

For the rest of the table, Nancy pulled gorgeous plates & glassware from Botanik in Summerland and used God’s eye linen from Heather Taylor Home.

Wine was generously provided by Cambria Winery. For recipes, and the floral how-to, hop over to Design*Sponge right here. There were two more tables we shot that day, including one that is being featured in the current issue of Santa Barbara Magazine and can be seen here. Thanks ladies for a fun, creative shoot!

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Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope your day is filled with decidely too much chocolate and champagne!

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So last week I showed a more “manly” mid-century hot chocolate bar for Valentine’s Day and this week, we’re getting all fancy and lady-like up in here with a tea party inspired, hot cocoa bar. Jessica Foster made cinnamon milk hot cocoa, cinnamon sugar dusted marshmallows, heart chocolates and of course truffles.

Tricia Fountaine kindly provided the beautiful tea cups and fine china (which are available for rent right here). We kept the hot chocolate warm in Town & Country’s copper coffee urn.

Red toile plates were set with Jessica’s truffles and the most amazing cinnamon sugar dusted marshmallows (I indulged in more than a few of these…)

Invariably, a heart chocolate or two made an appearance.

Thanks to Jessica for the amazing hot cocoa (not to mention those insane marshmallows & of course truffles) and to Anna Costa for shooting (and indulging) in the chocolate-y goodness.

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Ah, I am so late (seems to be the theme this week) but I thought I’d share some inspiring photos that I was using for a top secret shoot this week… The location had citrus up the ying yang, and Nancy Neil, Ayda and I made some pretty things happen with it… I hope to share more soon, but in the mean time, some lemon-licious ideas:

I want some Lemon Coconut Sugar Cookies

A lemon inspired wedding shoot

Let’s spend an afternoon in a citrus grove

Mix up some lavender lemonade

What’s better than homemade lemon bars?

Sinful Lemon Curd

Photos: Top row, left & right: Veronika Studer, unknown, image via Bottom Row, left & right: James Carriere, Anna Williams

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So I don’t know about you, but I loovee eggnogg. I was at a friend’s house and  they happen to have eggnog and were serving chocolate ice cream for dessert. I decided to combine the two, and ended up with an outrageous float that tastes like chocolate dipped in butter and cream. I added a little bit of toasted almonds for some crunch, and bam, tasty-party-time-in-my-mouth. This may be my favorite quick and easy holiday delight… And if you’re feeling super festive you could add a splash of baileys or kahlua (I won’t tell).

To make it yourself:

- Two scopes of ice cream

- Pour the eggnog over the ice cream

- Toast some sliced almonds and sprinkle on top.

To toast the almonds: 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until you can smell the almonds, watch them closely, they’ll burn if you’re not paying attention.

Enjoy! You may hate me for telling you about this later…

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Now that we’ve shared some seriously delicious holiday baking recipes, there might be a few things you’d like to add to your holiday wish list! Here are some of my current favorite baking essentials (seriously how cute is the bottle/measuring cups from Anthro?). You can shop all the essentials right here:

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