Monday, July 28, 2014

Summer Weddings




Summer is always busy with
weddings and showers and
fun celebrations.

I made these cookies for
a wedding shower for 
my dear friend Rylie.  I have
known her since she was two.  What
a lovely and loving person she is
so I wanted to make something special
for her wedding shower which was
held at my house.


When I had gone to Cookie Con this
spring I thought of buying cookie
cutters in collections, like
a wedding collection, a baby shower collection, etc.
So this collection has a wedding show, a diamond
ring, a couple of wedding dresses, and a temple.


I topped the cookie tier with a wedding
cake topped with a heart and a larger wedding
dress that my DIL Audra had given me.
These were take home gifts for the bride.



All of the cookies were covered in white
flavored with almond
and then covered with pearlescent spray.


Little rose hearts adorned the dresses and pearls
adorned the shoes.


Then this week I was asked to make a couple
of wedding bouquets.
My niece had asked me to do it for her 
roommate.
I had only done my daughter's 
bridals photo bouquet 

so I was a little
nervous, but we bought a selection 
of flowers in the bride's colors and just
started playing with them.


I thought they turned out beautifully.
This was the bridal bouquet.


This was the toss bouquet.


They were finished off with a wide
wire ribbon and then smaller organza
ribbons with pearlized pins.

So Purple Chocolat Home
has been enjoying weddings!



Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Lake Powell Living Tablescape


Summer at Lake Powell!

We have had our new houseboat for
three summers now and this is 
the first time I have gotten 
around to doing a tablescape here.


We were here with 12 friends
and the custom made table
by
fits 12 perfectly.



Soft neutrals make up this
waterfront table situated in
Labryrinth Canyon.  Any of the
many canyons at Lake Powell 
make a beautiful setting for outdoor 
dining.


These fun plates and bowls
were from Target the year we
launched
(yes, we spell it with a Z - it is definitely a prize!)



You might remember my makeover of the
outdoor chandelier that centers over 
the 8 foot square table.
Click here if you didn't see that.



We don't use cloth napkins at
Lake Powell, but I had a couple
that matched that are here for
baskets of bread.
These lovelies were from Pier 1.



The tray and shell bowl and orchid
normally sit on the ottoman in the
cabin but we brought them out 
to create a nautical centerpiece.

They look so lovely, I may have to find
something else for the ottoman.




We do use placemats for dining 
on the boat so I chose these tan
woven ones.


The glasses are blown glass that 
I found in Cabo.


My friend Aly took a lot of
these beautiful pictures.

It has been so fun to see friends
become interested in tablescaping
and photography.  Aly is a graduate
of BYU in photography.  She volunteered
to always photograph my tables.  Unfortunately
she lives in Phoenix!




I love how soft her photos look
using her 50 mm lens especially
with all of these silver accessories.





The plates are fabulous.  They have a 
hand made texture and a thick edge so you have
to pick them up to realize they are melamine.



I love this modernized damask look.


What a fun stack they make.  I had to collect them all
that summer to get 20.

Notice the etched flatware.  I found that
at Dillards that summer too.  It is so elegant.




So glad you could share a meal
with us at Lake Powell,
our favorite place to be during the summer.

I will be posting this with


Monday, July 21, 2014

J Dawg Sauce - A Copycat Recipe


Now I am not a hot dog fan
so it took some convincing to
get me to try the local
J Dawg that serves
only beef hot dogs and Polish dogs
but they really were fantastic.



Hubby wants their sauce on
everything and although they
will sell their sauce to you,
I had to come home and try
to come up with a copycat
recipe.

A little taste testing and a
little intuition and I think
I nailed it!




It is three simple ingredients
ketchup and mustard,
of course,
and brown sugar,
lots and lots of it!

J Dawg Sauce Copycat Recipe

3 C. brown sugar, packed
1 C. ketchup
1/3-1/2 C. yellow mustard
(I like the 1/2 C.)

Mix all three ingredients together
in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Turn down the heat and heat through
until the sugar is dissolved.

If necessary run through a sieve to
remove any lumps.

Let cool and serve on hot dogs,
Polish dogs, and anything else
your little tastebuds crave.  Hubby
loves to put it on pizzas as his sauce
and just about anything else he 
might be dipping!



It has just that perfect punch
of sweet and sour and really compliments
the dogs.  I like mine with jalapenos
and pepperoncinis - gives the dog a
little kick!  They also serve it with
a huge pickle slice.  



Yup, even a non-dog lover can love these!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Elsa's Frozen Party Tablescape


In the wondrous land of little
granddaughters, nothing is quite
as popular now as Disney's Frozen
and Elsa tops the list of popular
Disney characters
so when I volunteered to help with
the birthday parties of two
granddaughters, we of course
chose Elsa and Frozen.


I never planned on getting myself
into a huge party but I can blame
it all on this great ice cream cake
that I found at
Baskin Robbins.  
We weren't even in the market for a cake
but while getting an ice cream cone I
wandered over to the pre-made cakes
and saw this one and I just had
to have it, thinking I had some
granddaughters with birthdays 
coming in a month.


So I securely wrapped it in plastic wrap
and popped it in the freezer to await
the parties.  

Unfortunately, someone left that outside
freezer open and the poor thing melted
(only two things melted and it had to be
one of them!!)

So off to the store I had to go again.
The clerk and I had a good laugh over it.
She said she was at least glad I hadn't
put it in the fridge as some people had.


Grandma Jackie had been very lucky
in that she had purchased all the costumes
and a lot of toys before the movie
came out last year so I had lots
of Frozen items to decorate with.

If you have anyone interested in
Elsa costumes or toys you will know
how difficult it is to find them.
We count ourselves very lucky.


I purchased the Frozen castle
at Thanksgiving last year and 
decided to keep it at Grandma's house
so it is special when the kids come to play. One side is Elsa's 
frozen side


and the other is Anna's Erendelle side.


I told people that this was my first
(and probably last) full-on Pinterest
type party, where I went all out
on food, decor and theme.  

I hung a fabric tube between the two 
chandeliers and covered it with white
and then aqua fabric to make a
backdrop on the counter.  Then white
tablecloths went on the counter and they
were covered with aqua and purple
organza toppers to represent both
Elsa and Anna.

Posters that I purchased from Wal Mart
filled in the back side of the tablescape.


My niece Shaunna
created the food cards.





(Chocolate covered peanuts)


(Cotton candy - I had to buy a little
cotton candy machine, but the kids loved
it and I am sure we will get lots of use from it.)






I saw this at
I made blue Kool Aid and added
frozen lemonade concentrate and 
diet 7 Up and topped it with vanilla
ice cream.





She also told how to make these
darling cups on her blog.
I just used a Tulip puffy fabric
paint and while it was still
wet I sprinkled it with glitter.  



Andi made these white chocolate
dipped strawberries.


and these mini cupcakes.



We made sparkling fondant snowflakes
to top the cupcakes.


Jessica made these wonderful 
Ham and Swiss Sliders
and she made snowflake
cookies to decorate later.


(Sparkly bubble gum from Zurchers)


Grandma found these huge Elsa dolls
at Toys R Us a while back so 
after they decorated the tablescape,
each
birthday girl received one.


Here Jacquelyn is looking at the
tablescape.  She just turned 2!


I was lucky enough to find napkins
and plates and cups at Zurchers
and Partyland.



The first guests arrive dressed as Elsa
and they are surprised to find 
Grandma has made an Elsa dress for herself
too.


More Elsa granddaughters arrive.


We were so lucky to find a
singing Elsa who also face paints.
She was amazing and the girls
were enchanted.  
She also appears as other
princesses.  Find her at 
And see her sing as she
sang to the girls on
youtube.  You have to
search Let It Go Kat Nelson.

I couldn't get my video to upload
and I couldn't get youtube's to link
but she is fabulous.

She wears these amazing
contacts to make her eyes
unbelievable.  What a great
singer and performer besides
facepainter!




The girls were just clustered around
her, pushing in to be close to Elsa
and asking her questions about
herself and Arendelle.


This is one of the birthday girls, Goldie.
Elsa first sang to all of the children and
asked them to sing on "Let It Go's"
chorus.  Then she had a coronation
ceremony for the birthday girls
where they both got crowns.


She was busy all night and
stayed in character the whole time.
She painted 28 faces!!
Whew, exhausting!

She was great with the boys 
at the party too.


Many happy customers!



Besides dinner and facepainting,
we had cookie decorating,
snowman building and
a game of pin the nose on Olaf,
but most of the kids had a hard
time leaving Elsa's side.


When all 28 faces were painted it was 
time for the birthday cake.  

We lit 2 candles for Jacquelyn and had her
blow them out and then 4 for Goldie and
she got to blow them out.



Yum!


The cake was a wonderful ice cream cake.


Finally both birthday girls got to
open presents with these huge
Elsa dolls from Grandma and Grandpa
which I found just two weeks before
at Toys R Us.


A fabulous
Frozen Party 
for a lot of special little children.

For more Frozen ideas
visit my Pinterest Page.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

I will be posting this with


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