I’m so happy my farm to table editorial was published on Snippet & Ink yesterday (check it here) so I can finally share some of the gorgeousness I captured with the amazing photographer, Karen Wise.

Nestled just before the foothills of Carpinteria a variertable flower wonderland of dahlias of all types and varietes trive under the Santa Barbara sun. On this day, I was picking up flowers for a little engagement dinner for Samantha of Could I Have That.

Varieties grown here range from dinner plate to petite red lollipop dahlias like these guys.

For Samantha’s table I picked a variety of bright summer colors, bright reds, yellows, oranges, and fuchsias.

Thanks so much to John of Greenwell Floral for hosting my little editorial project. I will be sharing more of the farms we shot and, of course, the delicious dinner catered by the Duo in the coming weeks.

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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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You all know how much I love Jessica Foster’s truffles (remember this editorial?) and now she’s offering hot chocolate bars for weddings and events. With Valentine’s day around the corner I thought it would be fun to show two different ways you could style a hot chocolate bar. This version, is my “manly” version, lots of brass, decanters and, of course, vintage 60′s glasses. (And yes, there will be cocktail ideas with hot chocolate, check back on Friday for those ideas).

Vintage heart shape plates from Tricia Fountaine, layered with mid-century glassware and of course a few of Jessica’s truffles make for one delicious looking plate.

For this setup, Jessica made a spicy dark hot chocolate and we kept it warm in a copper round chaffing dish from Town & Country Event Rentals.

And of course what hot chocolate bar would be complete without marshmallows? These are made by Jessica and are so light and airy they’re like eating a cloud. Stay tuned for the “lady-like” version of a hot chocolate bar next Monday and of course cocktail ideas this Friday.

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I’m absolutely smitten with this old world elegance editorial photographed by KT Merry and styled by Style Serendipity and shot on location in Ireland. How awesome are these Irish wolfhounds with their garland collars?

Castle Leslie is a fully functioning hotel and wedding location. I would seriously die and go to heaven if I got to a design a wedding here.

In keeping with the old world vibe, invitations were printed on pretty handkerchiefs, crown book marks served as favors, and lace up shoes from BHLDN captured the timeless feel.

A delicately beaded Jenny Packman gown added to the elegant feel…

Soft blooms such as peonies, roses, veronica, and astilbe made up the bride’s bouquet.

An elegant scroll nailed to an ivy covered tree serves as seating chart.

The ivy covered walls of the castle makes a beautiful background for the dinner table draped with a garland over lace and accented with velvet details.

Thanks KT for sharing this beautiful editorial!

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I’m so excited to share this merry floral crown idea that is featured in the current issue of Flutter Magazine. You can check out the feature here and here’s how to re-create the look yourself.

First up, lets assemble the materials. You will need:

- straight wire

- floral wire

- pretty ribbon

- floral tape

- floral shears

- flowers, I’m using red dahlias, orange ranunuclus and dusty miller

Begin by making mini bunches of flowers and tie them together with floral tape.

Take the straight wire and cut to about 9″. Attach ribbon with a glue gun on either end so you can tie the floral headdress around your head.

Then, working in one direction, attach you flower bundles until you’ve completely covered the wire.

And ta da! You’re done, now you can sport flowers in your hair whenever you feel like. Enjoy!

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Today I’m super excited to welcome Camille of Modern Day Designs to Santa Barbara Chic! Camille was kind enough to design this soft wintery blue tablescape featuring peonies, succulents, astrania, and muscari. Patrick Moyer came out to capture the pretty on film, Town & Country set the table with their pretty rentals and Florabundance provided the pretty blooms.

Camille used a soft palette of peach with touches of blue and white.

A glass dome held a succulent in a footed silver container.

White peonies and chocolate queen anne’s lace created texture in the arrangement. For the place setting, Town & Country’s provence china and pearl handled flatware created a slightly French feel.

My white garden chairs just happened to work perfectly with Camille’s design!

Containers were a mix of silver and glass and held gorgeous winter white peonies from Florabundance.

My personal favorite, muscari, was arranged simply in a glass vase.

And finally a single strand of Astrania was placed at each place setting. Thank you, Camille for desiging this pretty winter table just for Santa Barbara Chic!

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I’m so excited to be contributing to this issue of Flutter Magazine. I’m sharing how to make a floral headdress which you can check out right here. Also, my chocolate editorial with Jessica Foster is right here (photos by the sweet Josh Gruetzmacher). And a big congrats to my girl Joy on the cover!

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