I am the first to admit I am a Pinterest addict! With 162 boards and over 13,000 pins, there is no denying it. My boards include recipes, party ideas, yard and garden, blogging tips, inspiration for clients, and articles I want to share with HHM. My memory has never been great and it continues to spiral downward with each passing year. Pinterest keeps all the great ideas I see on the web in one place for me.
So, when I started planning a wedding shower for a dear friend and his fiancée, Pinterest is where I began. My Mason Jar Board had many ideas that I have been wanting to try so that was my jumping off point. I did a quick search of Mason jar invitations and fell in love with this one.
A quick change of wording, a click of a button and my invitation digital file arrived in less than 24 hours. Thanks Sprinkles of Sugar Etsy shop! Not only did I have an inspiration for my decorations, I now had the color scheme: coral, gray and white. Be warned if you choose this color scheme - coral paper goods and fabrics are few and far between in local retail stores.
After browsing through my Mason Jar Board, I decided to bake apple crisp in mason jars. Although I used my Mom's recipe, I checked several different pins for converting the cooking time for the small jars. (Approximately 30 minutes, then broil for 2 or 3 minutes to brown topping).
Using four ounce jelly jars, I found it took about one chopped apple per jar. The apples need to be mounded high as the they will cook down. Growing up in Michigan, my Mom always used locally grown McIntosh Apples and they are still my favorite.
After a little experimentation, I found packing the crumb topping on over a bowl prevented it from spilling everywhere!
Six pounds of apples made about 24 individual jars of apple crisp. That's a lot of peeling.
The finished product was worth it! Notice the great tablecloth my trusty intern found on sale at Williams Sonoma. The colors were perfect!
This pin from Décor 8 was the inspiration for the floral arrangements. (I repined this from my future daughter in law's board. Thanks, Ashley! Yes, we will have both a daughter and daughter-in-law named Ashley)
I substituted canning jars for the bottles. The scrapbook paper on sale at Michael's and the striped string came from Hobby Lobby. And of course, Trader Joe's is always great for fresh flowers.
The extra paper made cute decorations for the mason jar drink glasses. The striped straws are from Michaels. HHM made a great apple cider drink with vodka and sour apple schnapps!
We feasted on mini chicken waffles in the chafing dish (inspired by this pin), almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, homemade caramel apple dip, mini corn muffins, home made cookies and goat cheese & fig preserve bruschetta! Thanks to all my PB friends for their yummy food. The groom to be added some caramel sauce to his apple crisp, delicious!
Can't go wrong with goat cheese and figs!
Bacon wrapped, almond stuffed dates: not pretty, but oh so delicious.
Self serve beverage service
This cute ribbon banner, again found on pinterest, was the inspiration for my fireplace fabric banner.
Entertaining is such a motivator. The day before the party I exchanged my summer mantle artwork and display. I was quite pleased with this arrangement composed of items I already owned - - pays to be a pack rat antique dealer.
The white eyelet was a remnant from sweet Emily's nursery. I purchased five fat quarters - - two gray and three coral. Again, the selection of coral fabrics was limited but I was very happy with the end product.
Well, that's 5 pins out of over 13,000 I used for the shower! Look for a post next week on another pinterest inspired project.
Wendy
This looked like a lot of fun! Can't go wrong with Mason Jars!
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