Best Food Blogs- Event Inspiration February 24, 2009

Sick and tired of the same old stuff being served at events these days?

Why not turn to the blogsphere for inspiration.  I have been testing a couple recipes out here and there, giving my cookbooks a break and I have to say, I am impressed with the results.  Soon my cookbooks will become mere coffee table decoration (just joking, I don’t think I could ever abandon/retire my collection!).

To help navigate one food blog from another, the London Times put out a “Top 50″ food blog list that I discovered while reading Dori Greenspan’s post last week (her blog was one of those nominated).  I started browsing through the list and I have to say, I was impressed that I was able to recognize a handful (aka 5).  However, the rest are open for discovery, trial and error in the kitchen and sharing new food with good friends.

To check out the list and fuel your new event recipe ideas click here:

Vin Volo February 21, 2009

For all you winos out there.  There is no correlation between events and my post on Vin Volo, unless that is you envision having your own wine party at an airport.  Now that I think about it, that may be a really cool, alternative venue.  I digress.

Vin Volo is a wine bar/retail brand that is starting to pop up around the US in airports.  The interior design of the concept is beautiful, modern and clean looking and what is best is that you can have a glass of wine in a nice environment and if you have time to kill can even do a tasting flight between connections! I wish something like this would open up in Canadian airports.  I am excited already to go back to the US just so I can visit a Vin Volo outlet.

Vino Volo exterior (photo courtesy of Food Rockz)

Catering Website with a Sense of Humour February 20, 2009

Quick little post on a catering website that I find amusing.  Not in a “hahaha” way, but in a “wow- your smart web design makes me want to call you up and book a tasting if I ever have to organize an event in NYC” type of way.  AKA smart web layout for marketing purposes.

The company is called Creative Edge Parties.  Go to their site and you’ll see what I mean.   On their site you can see all the fabulously creative things they do with food!

Home Page

Aussie Design: Dinosaur Designs February 19, 2009

Great colour, great design, great materials is how I would personify Dinosaur Designs, an Australian design success story.  Started by three  students from Sydney, Australia’s, City Art Institute, back in the 80s. The team of three have been going strong with their resin designs and have expanded their stores internationally.   

In my humble opinion, Dinosaur Design plates and candle holders would look great on anybody’s table, if your budget can afford the price.

Calder Plates (via dinosaur designs)

 

Brunch with Dinosaur Designs (via dinosaur designs)

Orange Vase Dinosaur Designs (via Dinosaur Designs)

Book Launch: Following the Goods February 19, 2009

Author signing the book (photo credit Kate Larue)

I did a book launch a couple weeks ago for a friend of mine who wrote a book on personal financial management for young adults called “Following the Goods: Financial Management for The Young and Ambitious.” 

The venue, Kultura, provided the perfect raw, artsy, cool space my author was looking for in downtown Toronto for his cocktail party/book signing.

Food was a mix of hors d’oeuvres and a massive sweet table replete with two kinds of brownies, pecan squares, mini cupcakes, mini chocolate cheesecake bars, butternut crunch bars, and chocolate white chocolate chip cookies.  There was also green candy scattered around in various glass containers to highlight the green theme.

Here are some shots of the evening courtesy of our fabulous Toronto based up and coming photographer, Kate Larue:

Theme: green for money!

Kultura Book Launch (photo credit Kate Larue)

 

Following the Goods (FTG) Cookies (photo credit Kate Larue)

 

Candy (Green apple flavour!)

Green Jelly Beans in Martini Glass

 

Author at Kultura Restaurant

Creative Containers February 17, 2009

I am in the process of working with a friend to help plan her cocktail party wedding reception.  The topic of flowers has come up several times in the past couple weeks and specifically about how to add colour to a room if you want to work with white or green flowers against a white backdrop. 

This prompted me to think of containers- a great and underutilized means to inject colour and draw attention to a focal point.  It is quite common to go for a clear glass container, a silver container or white porcelain. 

How about these alternatives I have found; everything from antique tins, to tea cups, coloured glass goblets to textured material:

Moss and Rose Centerpieces (photo credit marthastewartweddings)

Tea cup vase (photo credit Domino Magazine via Duet Weddings)

Antique Tin Vases (photo credit Domino via Duet Weddings)

Antique Tin's Martha Style (courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings)

Tinted Shot Glasses (via Duet Weddings)

Floral Centerpiece (via countryliving.com)

Bamboo containers (via style at home magazine)

Transatlantic Floral: UK company Mcqueens February 16, 2009

My goal is to keep this blog as international as possible by featuring people who excel at creating beautiful events around the world. 

Today I would like to highlight UK based flower designer/company: Mcqueens.  Kally Ellis set up the company in 1991 with a mission to provide clients with simple, stylish flowers.  Not only has she more than accomplished her goal for the Clerkenwell-based shop  run with the Italian-born florist Ercole Marconi, Mcqueens has a global following, and provides arrangements for the likes of Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Vanity Fair and the Tribeca Film Festival.  She has also expanded the company to offer an education component, Mcqueens Floristry School, stores, Mcqueens Flower Shop and the ever so lovely candles, McQ.

I find Mcqueens floral designs to be modern, bursting full of colour and elegant.  If you are lucky enough to reside in London, England and are in need of a florist- Mcqueens should definitately make your short list.

Enjoy some pictures:

Mcqueens Flower Shop (photo credit Mcqueens)

Mcqueens Focal Grouping of Flowers (photo credit Mcqueens)

Mcqueens Pink Hydraengea

Mcqueens Red Calla Lily and Rose Table (photo credit Mcqueens)

Mcqueens White Calla Lily Vase

Mcqueens Candle (photo credit Mcqueens)

How to figure out beverage quantities February 15, 2009

If have not planned many events, guaging how much wine and liquor to serve at your event may be a daunting task. 

The other day I found a great piece of information to help solve the beverage quantity enigma on the Beringer Vineyard website. 

Under the website section marked “Entertaining” you can find loads of information from recipes, to information about their wine, theme ideas and of course, how to estimate wine/liquor quantities. 

For your convenience, I have included the handy chart from their website in this post.  Hope this helps. 

	ITEM	20 GUESTS	50 GUESTS
	Glassware Champagne White Wine Red Wine Water	20	50
	Napkins (5 per person)	100	250
	8-inch plates (2 per person)	40	100
	Small Forks (2 per person)	40	100
	Food	200 – 280 Pieces	560 – 1000 Pieces
	Beverage Champagne White Wine Red Wine Mineral Water	3 bottles 3-4 bottles 4-5 bottles 12, 10-oz bottles	6-7 bottles 6-8 bottles 11-12 bottles 24, 10-oz bottles
	Ice (to chill wine)	2, 5-pound bags	2, 5-pound bags

Pingg.com: Ultimate Soft Copy Email Invitation February 14, 2009

Move over Evite.com.  There is a new company looking to occupy the email invitation space that was endorsed by Martha Stewart’s company. 

Pingg.com is prettier, easier to use, has fewer advertisements bombarding the screen.  It allows users to personalize invitations with their own jpeg graphics and has an expansive inventory of already good-looking graphics to decorate online invitations and makes creating online invitations fun and easy. 

Wait…. it gets better.  What really impressed me is that you can also elect to use multiple communication channels to send your evites; to communicate to your guests in the mediums they use- Pingg.com has Facebook+ Twitter tie-ins, allows you to SMS invitations (for a fee) and reminders, build your own event websites and print hard copy invitations (for a fee). 

Additionally, Pingg.com also creates reports to help you track and manage your RSVP list so if you intend to throw a big bash or do something for a corporate event, you have all the data in graphs right in front of you on the screen.  Beautiful- who doesn’t like effortless RSVP list management??!!

Valentine’s Day- I couldn’t help myself February 13, 2009

How un-event-like would I be if I did not post something for tomorrow’s big, romantic day? I will admit, I am not a huge fan of the holiday because I believe that you can show how much you care for the people in your life without having to save it all up for one day.  However, Valentine’s day is another day to celebrate and host an event and for that reason alone (and I love the colour red), I write this post.

Thankfully there are a lot of Valentine’s day enthusiasts out there  in the blogsphere that give some great ideas/tips on how to decorate, adorn, create, love, treat and gift for Valentine’s day.  If you are feeling extra creative this weekend, here are some of my favourites that hopefully incite some romance and creativity for your celebration with friends/partners/family/bf/gf’s…..

Valentines Day Macaron

via (Tartlette)

Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

(via Kaboodle)

Chocolate Heart Cookies

Chocolate Hearts for your Sweet (via Style at Home)