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The Little Prince First Birthday Party Invitation
Hi everyone! Just a quick housekeeping note before we jump into today’s post: Registration for the Blueprint Model 2018 closes at 11:59 pm TONIGHT! Check out my blog post with all the details from earlier in the week, or go here to register!
We can all agree that The Little Prince is one of our all-time favorite children’s books, yes? I love that artist Kristy Rice of Momental Designs used this beloved book as the inspiration for her son’s first birthday party invitation! If you’re familiar with Kristy’s work, then you know that she always goes the extra mile to create the most special and thoughtful invitations. You’ll just have to read below to see all the details she incoporated into this “The Little Prince” first birthday party invitation – it’s absolutely dreamy!
From Kristy: Izzy’s beautiful and unique first birthday invitations were a high art twist on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved children’s story “The Little Prince.†All of the artwork for the stationery was developed in a more detailed and realistic style compared to the original book’s illustrations.
Perhaps the most special piece for the whole event was a calligraphy backdrop written by Sarah of Flourish Grace. We wrote a letter to Izzy and gave her the text, so all guests could share in our sentiments to him. Here is what we wrote:
“Dear Isaac our Izzy Wizzy baby guy,
You’ve shown us what it is to live, really live…to love bigger, to trust more, to make time for what matters, to pay attention, to put our phones down, to listen to God more, to love mornings, to marvel… to blow raspberries and let it be the best part of the day.
Love, Mama and Papaâ€
For the invitation itself, we created a custom game board-style box inspired by the Little Prince. At 17 inches by 10 inches, it was even the size of a board game! A spinner asked guests “What will the Little Prince teach today?†and allowed them to indulge in a bit of play as the explored the invitation. Each box had specially sized compartments to hold a copy of the book, a sheet of custom watercolor stickers, and small trinkets inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved words.
And we could not send our guests home without special favors! We curated a case full of fun stuff, with the title “A Visual Map and How-to Guide to Seeing with Your Little Kid Eyes.” Each mini suitcase was stuffed with time-honored goodies guaranteed to turn back the hands of time, even just for one afternoon; candy cigarettes, garbage pail kids, balsa wood airplane, bazooka bubble gum, Lip Smackers lip balm, Pop Rocks and a Slinky!
In the lid a watercolor map was custom fitted, calling out the “steps” to revisiting your childhood fun! To name a few: “Pop some rocks and swig some soda if you’re brave”, and “Read The Little Prince, it’s weird and wonderful and witty, just read it…k?” We really wanted our guests not only to read the book, but to experience the lessons of this classic story in a fun and interactive way, and to take a child-like perspective on life, even just for a few minutes.
Thanks so much Kristy! BTW – you can see Kristy’s whimsical adoption baby shower invitations right here!
Design: Momental Designs
Calligraphy: Flourish Grace
Momental Designs is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of their beautiful work right hereor visit the real inviÂtaÂtions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!
Photo Credits: Dolci Momenti Photography
Blackberry Aperol Spritz
Sometimes, you want a complicated drink: lots of ingredients, fancy garnishes, intricate preparations. But sometimes it’s August and it’s hot and you want a cold drink without a lot of fuss and that’s ok, too. I always try to stick with Peggy Olson’s definition of a cocktail: you need at least three ingredients, because anything less isn’t a real cocktail, it’s an emergency. (This isn’t really what makes a cocktail – that’s spirits, bitters, sugar, and ice – but that’s neither here nor there.) And there are few drinks more simple than an Aperol Spritz, especially when it includes one of our favorite summer ingredients: blackberries! Let’s make a Blackberry Aperol Spritz. – Andrew
Blackberry Aperol Spritz
3 oz Sparkling Wine (we used a sparkling Rosé!)
2 oz Aperol
1 oz Soda Water
Blackberries
Add a handful of blackberries to the bottom of a glass, then add the Aperol and muddle the blackberries. Add ice and top with the soda water and sparkling wine. Give it a stir and enjoy!
Aperol is a bright red, mildly bitter Italian amaro. It’s filled with bright flavors of orange and rhubarb, and it clocks in at a gentle 11% alcohol by volume. Combined with sparkling wine – we used a sparkling rosé – and a splash of soda water, you have a refreshing, effervescent cocktail with lots of bright orange flavors and a low proof that won’t knock you out on a hot day. You might even have two, if you’re feeling adventurous.
The Aperol Spritz, the flagship drink of the Aperol brand, is a simple affair that officially includes just three ingredients: Aperol, sparkling wine, and soda water. But what do we do when we find a simple drink? We play with it. Cocktail recipes are templates; they’re not carved into stone. They’re not meant to sit pretty on a mantle and never change: they’re meant to make you happy, whatever that means today. So we added some muddled blackberries because they’re in season right now and when blackberries are in season, wow, you should be eating them by the handful and throwing them into every drink in sight. Bursting with juice and dark fruit flavor, they’re perfect for adding notes of stone fruit to any drink.
So muddle in some blackberries, or whatever you have on hand, as long as it’s fresh and in season – and see what that does to your drinking.
Glassware by Liquorary
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Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper
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Six Margarita Cocktail Recipes!
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Between today and the Kentucky Derby this weekend, this is a big weekend for cocktails! It turns out we’ve made a LOT of margaritas here at OSBP, so I thought I’d round up six of our favorite margarita cocktail recipes for those of you looking for ideas – along with a few margarita alternatives (including a couple of seriously delicious tequila smashes! You can’t go wrong with any of the recipes below, especially as the weather starts to heat up. Enjoy one or two today, and bookmark your other favorites to enjoy later this summer!
2. A Parisian Margarita with St-Germain
3. A Watermelon Margarita (perfect for parties and larger gatherings!)
4. A Frozen Salted Watermelon Margarita
As much as we love margaritas, tequila (and it’s smokey cousin, Mezcal) are delicious in other cocktails, too! Throw in some fresh fruit or citrus to make a smash, combine it with grapefruit soda to make a Paloma, or brew a homemade syrup to create your own delicious concoction. So for those of you who might be looking to branch out a bit from the margarita, here are some ideas for you!
3. Blackberry Tequila Smash (one of my personal favorites)
5. The Spring Fling with tequila and hops syrup (which you can make at home from an IPA!)
Feel free to browse our cocktail recipe archives for even more recipe ideas!
p.s. We haven’t really explored Juleps as much (although we’re working on fixing that asap), but for Derby folks – you can find our favorite Basil-Mint Julep recipe right here! It’s seriously so good. You can also find a ton of Bourbon recipes in our cocktail archives!
A Matcha Coconut Mocktail
Now that March is here, and with it a very early spring, we thought we’d spend some time with non-alcoholic mocktails, something we haven’t done since last January. So let’s start off with a bright, fresh Matcha Coconut Mocktail recipe that is perfect for this weather and all the buds that are just starting to pop on our trees. –Andrew
Matcha Coconut Mocktail
1 oz Matcha Syrup
1 oz Coconut Milk
1 oz Mint Tea, Unsweatened
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
Powdered Turmeric
To make the matcha syrup: combine a cup of white sugar, a cup of water, and a tablespoon of matcha powder in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved and give it a whisk to make sure the matcha doesn’t clump. Bottle and refrigerate.
To make the mocktail: combine the syrup, coconut milk, mint tea, and juices in a cocktail shaker filled two-thirds with ice and shake well. Strain into a coupe glass and sprinkle powdered turmeric on top.
This drink is richly creamy and sweet-tart, with a vaguely tropical feel. The matcha – made from a finely ground green tea leaves – lends some verdant, astringent notes and a beautiful green color.
Without the turmeric garnish, this is a tasty drink, something like a funky smoothy. But the turmeric (which looks, appropriately, like pollen) adds just enough exotic spiciness, just a hint of bitterness, that the drink comes together as something complex enough to stand toe-to-toe with a cocktail.
Making good mocktails can actually be harder than making good cocktails. Liquor brings all sorts of complex flavors – sharp, astringent, bitter, bold – that are tricky to recreate without the real deal. But mocktails don’t have to be limp glasses of sweetened juice with a bit of soda. They can be complex and rich and layered too – they just require a little bit of extra work to find those magic ingredients that turn a drink into a real mocktail. And so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time, hold on to those ingredients – sharp spices like turmeric or bitter, astringent coffee are two good ones to remember!
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Glassware by Liquorary
Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper