For Caitlin’s floral bridal shower, I made these roasted beet whipped feta goat cheese crostini. Cait loves beets, and I wanted the pretty pink color. I decided to use both whipped feta, because it’s my favorite, and goat cheese, because Cait loves it. These crostini got rave reviews at the shower, both for the taste and how pretty it was.

You can make this to serve as a dip or to spread onto crostini, either way, it’s delicious! And topped with edible flowers, it makes such a pretty appetizer that’s perfect for spring and summer parties.

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Roasted Beet Whipped Feta Goat Cheese

Serve this roasted beet whipped feta goat cheese on crostini or just as a dip, it's delicious either way! Topped with edible flowers, it's a pretty appetizer perfect for spring and summer parties!

Course Appetizer

Ingredients

• 5 ounces roasted beets*
• olive oil, salt & pepper, for roasting beets
• 6 ounces feta
• 4 ounces plain goat cheese
• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• fresh ground salt & pepper, to taste
• veggies, bread, pita crackers, pretzels, for serving
• edible flowers, for topping, if desired

Instructions

To Roast Beets:

• Preheat oven to 400ªF.
• Remove top from beets, and scrub well.
• Place each beet on a square of aluminum foil that’s slightly large than the beet. Drizzle beet lightly with olive oil and salt & pepper.
• Wrap the foil around the beet and place on baking sheet.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until fork tender. (Time will vary, depending on the size of your beets).
• Remove beets from oven and unwrap foil. Let beets cool to room temperature.
• Run beets under cool water, and the skin should peel easily off while washing.

Whipping Beets, Feta & Goat Cheese:

• Cut beets into chunks.
• Place the 5 ounces roasted beets*, 6 ounces feta, 4 ounces plain goat cheese, 2 ounces cream cheese,2 tablespoons olive oil, and a dash of fresh ground salt & pepper, in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. (About 3-5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed).
• Spread mixture into dish to use as dip and serve with veggies, bread, pita crackers or pretzels. Or spread mixture onto crostini to serve as an appetizer.
• Top with edible flowers if desired.

Notes

I found that the beet flavor was quite strong immediately after making the mixture. However, as the dip sat in the refrigerator for the next couple of days, the beet flavor really mellowed and was not very noticeable. So if you are looking for a stronger beet flavor, serve dip immediately. If you do not like beets, but want the pretty pink color, make the mixture ahead, and refrigerate until ready to use (you may want to let the mixture sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes to soften for easier spreading).  

 

*I think I roasted 4-5 beets and was able to get two batches from that amount of beets.

Be sure to follow our Food & Recipes Pinterest Board for more inspiration!

-Manda

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Last weekend, our family threw a bridal shower for Caitlin! I was so excited to be able to celebrate Cait in this way! I knew this would be a tough one, because Caitlin & I are usually working together to put on parties and showers, and I wouldn’t have her helping me in all the ways she normally does for these events. Thankfully, we have amazing family who stepped up and helped put together this beautiful floral forest theme bridal shower!

When planning this shower, I was thinking about all the things Caitlin loves: flowers, vintage things, moss, and mushrooms. I wanted it to feel a bit whimsical and like you went for a walk in a flower filled forest! So that’s how we ended up with this floral moss woodland theme with a good amount of vintage items thrown in too.

I’m probably sharing way too many photos, but I love a good party inspiration post, so I couldn’t help myself! And I wish I had had more time to capture photos with my real camera, I feel like there’s so many details I missed, even with all these photos. But alas, it’s too hard to both host a party and be a photographer, so we’ll have to settle for these photos quickly captured by phone before things started.

Decor for Floral Forest Bridal Shower:

Much of the decor is thanks to Mike’s help. We foraged grapevines from the woods out back, and since I was recovering from surgery, Mike had to do all the manual labor from that excursion. We attached the grapevines to tension rods in the doorways so that we didn’t need to put holes in the walls.

The greenery on the vines and chandelier was also foraged from out back and a little bit from my mom’s house as well. The greenery on the windows is dripping ruscus garland from Michaels, and it was perfect for this and looks pretty realistic! The flowers (and the eucalyptus on the mantel vines) came from Trader Joe’s and Wegmans.

Mike hand carved some wood mushrooms too, you can see those in some photos below.

Floral Moss Table Setting:

The tables were covered with vintage thrifted lace tablecloths (and maybe a few lace curtains that work just as well!). For the centerpiece, we lined the tables with moss and then added in candles and flowers. The taupe candlesticks were from Walmart. We also bought votive candles and covered those with moss. Sadly I didn’t get a great photo of those, but they were so cute tucked in with the moss (I might need to share a DIY on that)!

The green floral plates are actually disposable (but you can wash & reuse them too!). These were one of the most loved items at the party! (And unintentionally, did match my dress, which you can see in the last photo, haha!). I used embroidered lace handkerchiefs for the napkins, as well as lining the baskets we used for a few other things around the house. (And no, we do not believe in ironing around here, haha!). We used gold plastic silverware, with a vintage look. The drinking glasses and vases were all thrifted.

Could not be more excited for Cait and I loved being able to celebrate her with this shower! Hoping to share a few more projects in the upcoming weeks from this shower…

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I saw this beautiful twine holder at Target and I knew I needed one because I use my twine for DIYs allll the time and I can never find where I’ve hidden it. Alas, $30 for a twine holder seemed a bit steep. So I decided to make my own version – a DIY twine holder. And I made 4 holders for half the price of one! Plus, now I’m ahead on some DIY Christmas gifts!

Materials Needed for DIY Twine Holder:

• 4″ wood plaque
• 3″ wood disc
• ruler
• pencil
• drill + bits
• stain
• rag
• gloves
• lamp stem
• rub ‘n buff
• paint brush
• hot glue gun
• E6000
• twine

Follow along with the video below for step-by-step instructions:

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I recently heard about dying eggs with silk fabric and I knew I had to give it a try. I love how these silk dyed eggs turned out! (Although last year’s decoupage eggs are still my favorite way to decorate eggs for Easter!).

My original intent was to thrift some old silk ties for this project (you need to make sure you are using 100% silk), however I didn’t like the colors or patterns I saw at the thrift store. And they were a little on the pricey side. So I did end up buying these silk fabric scraps, and I love the colors and patterns of the scraps. Plus, they were already cut to size, so a little less work! So while I think it’s a much better idea to thrift ties, if you’re going to buy, these are a nice set.

I also decided to try using plastic and real eggs, blown out. The other silk dying projects I saw all used real eggs that were just boiled. I wanted to be able to keep mine to use for decor from year to year, so I blew out my eggs before dying them. I also wanted to see if silk dying would work on plastic eggs. And it does, but the colors weren’t as vibrant on those eggs. So I would recommend using real eggs. And blowing them out first, so that you can reuse the eggs from year to year.

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These giant plaster Easter eggs are such a fun craft to do and they turn out amazing! They can be used as Easter decor, a vase (my favorite) or even as an egg Easter basket. Any would look so cute as a centerpiece for an Easter table setting!

They do break very easily though, so keep that in mind when making these (you can see it in the video). It’s a good idea to make extra, so that if they break, you still have something to show for it!

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It’s almost Easter and I’m way behind on projects because wedding projects are taking over my life. (Which is amazing but also geez louiseee!) But the least I could do is revamp my mantel after my Valentine’s Day decor. So a simple DIY fabric carrot garland was in order! Since our local craft store has a bunch of vintage-inspired fabric, this was perfect! These types of fabrics always remind me of my mom, which I love. I used the fabric carrots, some moss, origami bunnies, and some of the old string eggs to decorate.

Materials Needed for DIY Fabric Carrot Garland:

• fabric (various orange and green)
• iron
• carrot template
• pencil
• scissors
• sewing machine
• poly-fil
• embroidery thread

Follow along with the simple sewing tutorial in the video below!

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I’m deep in wedding planning these days – so you’ll probably see more wedding projects coming at you soon! The first thing I finished was this sweet bridesmaid proposal box for my bridal party! I have known the majority of my bridal party for over 25 years so I had a bunch of photos and memories to use to make these boxes extra special. I didn’t want to spend too much money on them… because wedding budgets are wild. So I personalized each box with letters, a framed magnet photo, a mini bouquet, photos of us all throughout our friendship and some small gifts of things that remind me of them. I think they turned out great, they felt really special and they gave me a chance to reflect on these beautiful friendships. If you want to make something similar, I’ve shared a bunch of links and ideas below!

Materials Needed for Bridesmaid Proposal Box:

• gift boxes
• filler
• handwritten bridesmaid proposal on handmade paper
• personal letter on kraft paper stationary
• printed photos edited to look like polaroids and tied up with twine
• gold frame photo turned into magnet – frames, magnets, glue
• mini bouquet of dried flowers
• cotton bags filled with small gifts – or you can use kraft paper to wrap up slightly larger presents. I bought things like our favorite childhood candies, games, or little minis that remind me of them.

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It seems as though I’m on a quest to try decoupaging any and everything! Last Easter, I shared the decoupage eggs. At Christmas, I made decoupage ornaments. And now a decoupage pleated lampshade! What’s next?!

I saw a decoupage lampshade on Pinterest, and knew I had to give it a try. I already had quite a few thrifted lamps with plain white pleated lampshades, so the only thing I needed was paper napkins. The blue floral napkins are from TJ Maxx, and the beige gingham napkins from Michaels (linked below).

This project is so easy and quick to do! Up close, you can see some of the wrinkles and imperfections in the napkins, but from further away, the lampshade looks perfect. And I don’t mind the little wrinkles, it just adds texture to the shade. And for only a few dollars, I think it’s a great way to to update a plain lampshade!

My gingham shade was a little bit more of a struggle. I didn’t realize as I was doing it that I was slowly going downward. So it has a slight slope to it. But I still love it and the extra pattern it brings into the space!

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If you’re looking for a really simple, easy way to decorate for Valentine’s Day, this heart paper chain garland is for you. It almost feels a little too simple to share, but I also think it’s really cute. And a good reminder that crafts don’t have to be overly complicated, and can be budget friendly too! 

I decided to make this heart chain garland because I had leftover strips of paper from making the paper bow garland. And rather than just tossing them in the recycle bin, I decided to make something with them. I also found this cute gingham paper and couldn’t resist making a couple strands from this paper too!

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I stumbled across these little heart charms on Etsy a few weeks ago and I knew I needed to turn them into something sweet for Valentine’s Day! You know we’ve always loved our brass projects, so I turned these into a sweet little brass heart garland and hung it up with some velvet ribbon and a crocheted yarn garland. Paired with my giant bows, my Valentine’s Day decor is coming together! This one is super simple and I’m for sure going to use it every year – plus I got two long garlands out of one order of the brass hearts. Perfect!

Supplies Needed for DIY Brass Heart Garland:

• brass hearts
• 26 gauge gold floral wire
• pliers/wire cutter

Follow along with the video below for the tutorial!

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