Beautiful gift ideas for Valentine's day for mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends are beauty products, especially if they come in heart shapes.
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Valentine's Day Gift Ideas
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Friends live in your heart forever.
A Paper Series Post
Paper is a versatile, inexpensive medium useful for wide-ranging projects. What better way to begin a new series than to celebrate friendship since this paper series post, and more to come, are offered as tokens of friendship to you, Botanic Bleu readers and followers.
Any gathering of friends for whatever the reason is a good time to share small hearts as tokens of friendship. Whether the gathering is for book club, a friend's birthday, a Bible study, a Valentine's party, a retirement luncheon, or a bloggers' luncheon, party favors with hearts are a good way to recognize special times together with friends.
I made these DIY envelope/place card party favors for friends who attended my retirement luncheon as an educator, but can be made
for any occasion celebrating Friendship
Today's post is a tutorial with templates for creating a beautiful glassine do-it-yourself (DIY) small envelope to use as a place card and to hold a party favor.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Hearts are some of my favorite things and are scattered all around our house. February is the month of love... for both family and friends. Later this month I will host a friendship lunch for some good friends who volunteered to help work during the annual Regional Academic Decathlon Competition that I have been coordinating for the past six years, and I'm spotlighting the hearts to send some friendship love to all of them.
To go with the hearts on the white bookshelf in the sunspace... aka as my makeshift indoor potting table... I added a couple of small clay rose pots to the hearts, but the arrangement looked rather bland.
Remember the hand-stamped-with-gold French script feathers that I made? They are just the right size to fit into the rose clay pots and add a little flair to the arrangement. Stamping feathers is super easy to do and only takes a few minutes. Try it.... you will love it!
If you are decorating for February and don't have any hand-stamped French script feathers, a small 4-inch starter herb plant would be another great filler in a clay pot to add some zing to the grouping. A couple of years ago, fresh mint starter plants were what I planted in rose clay pots for the Friendship Luncheon that year. Each of the friendship honorees got to take home one of the mint plants. Yes, those are the very plants in the photo in my blog header.
Adding just that small cluster of feathers makes all the difference. Hmmm... perhaps the little feathers would be a nice touch to add to a small favor for each of this year's attendees.
Any suggestions for other things to put in the clay pots to give the arrangement of small hearts a special touch?
❦
Have you heard?
There is a new linking party that starts
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Four of my friends who are also Texas bloggers
will be hosting
Thoughts of Home on Thursday
Everyone is invited.
Their button grabbed me right away... all that beautiful blue.
Hope to see you there.
Botanic Bleu will be....
celebrating friendship, decorating, recipes, gardening, and inspiration.
~~~~❦~~~~
~~~~❦~~~~
Please join me at these inspiring sites...
SUNDAY
Table It @ Rustic and Refined
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Friendship...
In appreciation of friends who helped with the
Academic Decathlon contest in January,
I hosted a small
Friendship Lunch.
Preparations took place over several days with many details
to create an ambiance of friendship.
Since Valentine's Day was the Friday before the lunch,
hearts and flowers were a perfect way to say,
"Friends!"
What makes a lunch special?
Makes friends feel special?
Details!
Table Setting with Flowers
Individual Plants as Small Gifts
Fabric Tablecloth and Napkins
Sterling Silver Flatware
Printed Friendship Prose
Room Decor
Heart-Shaped Homemade Individual Quiches
Heart-Shaped Butter Pats
Dessert Served on Cake Stands
A key to tying together all the parts of a lunch is
to repeat design patterns and motifs.
People often do not know why they
enjoy a setting,
but chances are the reason is
continuity derived via a theme.
Disjointed images are unsettling to the mind,
causing it to "jump around,"
but repeated patterns with variations
create harmony,
allowing the mind to connect the images
and to form an overall soothing setting.
White snapdragons tied with a wired ribbon
and standing with their feet in a bed of clear glass hearts
were the centerpiece for the simply set table.
By tying the flowers with the ribbon,
the arrangement looks fuller than
one with the flowers freely leaning in the vase.
The clear glass hearts in the base of the vase help set the tone as a friendship lunch
and help anchor the flowers so they do not slide around....
a loose "frog" that helps support the flower stems.
An inexpensive gift for each guest is a small herb bedding plant.
Although winter is still raging, nurseries and hardware stores
begin offering small plants in our area in February.
Later the plants will be larger and more costly.
By repotting the herb into a small clay pot,
the lowly mint plant adopts an air of élan.
Easy to buy in advance, repot, and set aside...
Just be careful the plants do not dry out.
To my dismay, that is exactly what happened to me
a couple of days before the party.
Placing them in a large oval baking dish,
I was able to soak them in water and revive them.
Whew!
Remember to include plant care directions that come with the plants.
How to connect the small gift to the party?
A small heart cookie cutter was just the right size
for tracing a heart on white watercolor paper,
one of my favorite papers to use for any project.
The texture and thickness of watercolor paper
add depth, and the paper is another way to create élan once again.
Decorative-edged scissors give the hearts yet another layer of élan.
Why white?
Several reasons...
The snapdragons are white, the dishes are white,
the tablecloth and napkins are white, and
Martha Stewart makes
the cutest little white sticker hearts
that added a more defined heart shape to the card.
The watercolor paper allows other colors to be used
by watercoloring the background whatever hue matches the theme.
Other sticker shapes can be used.
Individual mint plants at each place setting dress the table
and provide a heavenly mint fragrance.
Since the lunch was served buffet style, the plants
keep the table from looking bare.
For lunches served family style, the plants grouped
in a clear baking dish could be set on a side table
within view to enjoy and within easy reach to
present to guests as they leave.
A small paper coaster protects the tablecloth while looking pretty.
Printed on wausauPAPER metallics,
each place setting has my favorite quote about friendship.
Four quotes fit onto one 8.5"x11" sheet.
The specialty paper is for inkjet, laser, and copier machines
and comes in more than one metallic finish.
Champagne pearl is shown,
and it has a soft shimmery texture.
Office Depot carries it in my neighborhood.
White plates, white fabric napkins, and sterling flatware
complement the white snapdragons and mint plants,
recede into the background, and
allow the flowers and plants to be the main attractions on the table.
Small individual-sized preserved boxwood heart topiaries
are near the buffet served on the kitchen island.
The shelf holds hand-thrown pottery with vine designs in soft colors.
Under an etched-glass cloche, the heart topiary is in a miniature clay pot,
repeating the clay pots of the mint plants.
A large preserved boxwood heart topiary and a vase of hyacinths
preside over the dessert table in the kitchen.
Pear tartes from France made dessert quick and easy.
Trader Joe's stocks these ready-to-eat tartes from France.
Just thaw for about 30 minutes to an hour.
Such an easy dessert gave more time for making
homemade bacon and onion quiches
in a baking dish with six individual wells.
Since the recipe can be made up to three days in advance,
multiple batches of individual quiches can be made,
stored in casserole dishes in the refrigerator,
and reheated in the oven the morning of the party.
Also, an easy dessert allowed time for cutting individual
heart-shaped butter pats using a pastry cutter.
Friendship...
Thank you to all my wonderful friends,
both in the real world and the virtual world.
My life is much richer because of you.
❦
~~~~~~~~~~
Information about sources is included
for my readers, and I did not receive any
compensation of any kind for my information.
I like to know these kinds of things so
I know where to find items, and
think others do, too.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Valentine's Day
is not only a day/time for expressing
romantic love.
Valentine's Day is a perfect time
to celebrate
Friendship.
During January,
many of my dear friends and retired colleagues
responded to my pleas for help
with the Regional Academic Decathlon Competition
that I coordinate.
Long story, but due to an unexpected
realignment of the schools in each region,
I found our region had lost over forty of our usual volunteers
to help conduct the contest.
Many of my friends stepped in
to fill the slots for lost volunteers, and helped
to organize materials, to provide food for hospitality, and
to judge the speech event.
The contest was a huge success.
Now I am preparing for a
Friendship Lunch
to show my love and appreciation to them.
Perfect timing for the week of
Valentine's Day
to use hearts and flowers.
This week I have been busy cleaning and decorating,
the first step for preparing for a party.
The pine chest at the end of the fireplace that separates
the living room and kitchen
will be very visible during the party.
Valentine's Day and French-inspired touches
set the tone for friendship love.
Flowers, pink, France, beloved books, and a heart-shaped ivy
portray a feminine, romantic theme.
The ivy heart, an early Valentine's Day present
from my sister, reminds me of family love.
The beautiful magnolia-decorated gift bag
was part of my birthday present from her last year.
All the details on the bag bring wonderful memories.
FRANCE...
she and I have traveled there together many times.
A lavender-edged wire ribbon bow...
her favorite color is peach.
Magnolia blossoms...
a traditional southern flower that filled the
window ledges of the church at my wedding.
A fleur-de-lis stand holds what could be a Valentine's card.
Another symbol of friendship...
The trio of silver-plated forks was found
at a small neighborhood flea market in Paris
during one of those trips my sister and I shared.
Tied with a two-tone silk ribbon, the forks are left unpolished
to reflect their vintage heritage.
Since the chest will be viewed from three sides,
a little glass jar of French-script
sits behind the stack of books.
There is still more decorating to come,
invitations to create and to send,
small favors to make,
tables to set, and
food to prepare.
What fun it is to show
others how much they are appreciated.
What fun it is to share
the party preparations with
all of you,
allowing you to be a
virtual guest.
❦
~~~~~~~~~~
Please join me at these inspiring sites...
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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