Cupcakes Cups

Hey guys! 

When you're looking for a clever way to brighten up a party, consider baking cupcakes & placing them into bright & colorful cupcake cups.  My husband & I made these yesterday for Valentine's Day - even though it was for a party of 3 (hubby, me & our son) I thought it might be fun to try this together! We purchased a fun cupcake cup pack with decorative hearts from Eli's Market here in NYC.  Eli's Market is a great place to get fun & unique sweets for entertaining or just to eat at home! 

How cute are these?

Hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day yesterday!

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Nespresso 'A Cup Above' Gift Ideas

Everyone knows I love coffee, but I've never received coffee-related gifts for Christmas. Well, then why not just gift my friends some coffee related accessories to enjoy?  My all time favorite is Nespresso.  They offer high quality coffee from the world's finest coffee-producing regions.  It is my to-go place for finding gifts that suit everyone on my Holiday list! 

I love that they offer many of the same accessories they have in their boutiques on their site.  So, if you enjoyed sipping your cappuccino from the VertuoLine Cappuccino Cup at their boutique, you can experience the feeling at home by purchasing the cups from their website!  

This Holiday Season feel free to follow my lead & let your friends 'Experience A Cup Above'.  

What do I mean by that?  Well, Experiencing 'A Cup Above' is more than a gift, it's an invitation into Nespresso's elegant lifestyle.  Here are 7 Nespresso Gift ideas for coffee lovers. 

1. Dark Chocolate Squares with Cocoa Bits  (perfect addition to any cappuccino + chocolate lovers.)

2. VertuoLine Recipe Set  (ideal for serving lattes & latte lovers) 

3. Piano Black VertuoLine Evoluo Machine  (for great tasting freshly brewed coffee & espresso at the touch of a button. Convenient. )

4. Indulgent Pack  (ideal for the first time buyer of a Nespresso machine or for a housewarming gift). 

5. VertuoLine Travel Mug (for the constant traveler who prefers their coffee on-the-go). 

6. Premium Espresso Gold Cups (Impress that stylish friend of yours who loves coffee. Hurry though, limited quantities available!)

7. VertuoLine Cappuccino Cups  (this cup set is for the coffee lover who likes to see their coffee & crema)

On another note, here's a great Coffee Milkshake recipe you can pass on to a friend if you decide to gift the lovely Vertuoline Recipe set . 


Ingredients:

• 1 capsule of Decaffeinato or Vanizio

• 2 oz of cold milk
 (or you can add Soy milk if you're looking for a dairy-free milkshake)
• 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
• Preparation
• Brew Coffee capsule and allow to cool slightly in a cocktail shaker, add ice cream, cold milk and cooled shot. Stir with a whisk or large table spoon. Continue until ice cream is melted and mixture is uniformly thickened and smooth. Pour into VertuoLine recipe glass
• Enjoy & Happy Holidays! 

Did you know that Nespresso capsules are also recyclable? They are!  You can bring them to the Boutiques and retailer drop-offs for recycling + they have a UPS mailback program, which provides pre-paid recycling bags for consumers to mail back used capsules. Drop those off at one of the 88,000 UPS drop off locations across the country. Nespresso recently expanded its program with UPS from 20 to 48 states



-post by jen ramos
-In partnership with Nespresso

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DESIGN: Holiday Tablescape Decor

Hello MBG readers, its Lisa with Gem Daily here with a holiday decor post! I just love the holiday season and LOVE holiday parties, they are the best way to get you in the spirit. And although I have never personally hosted a holiday party, it sure is fun to dream up the table scapes and decor. I'm thinking funky place card holders, lanterns hanging from the ceiling, mistletoe at the front door, the whole nine yards!

For some reason, I am also really loving the mixture of black, white and gold with the more traditional holiday red and green. It adds a little bit of sophistication and isn't too played out and
overdone.

1/ coasters via crate & barrel

2/ pinwheels via west elm

3/ straws

4/ placemats via lulu and georgia

5/ highball glasses via lulu and georgia

6/ place card holders via zinc door

7/ peppermint candy lanterns

8/ mistletoe ball via amazon 

-post by lisa fisbeck

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'How About We' Date Night

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be sharing a recent, special experience with you. I recently stumbled across what appears to be the 'evolution of dating' – and I'm here to give you a little taste.

How many of you LOVE the idea of a great date-night but infrequently have them due to the daunting task of planning!??  There are times my husband & I are at a loss on what to do next when it comes to date night. Well, HowAboutWe, the ultimate dating source, found a way to fix that problem! It's basically a company that started out as an online dating site and then expanded to become a destination for all couples seeking a way out of their normal routines. Yup, going out can get stale when you don't have any idea where to go next! Know what I mean??

HowAboutWe prides itself in helping couples not only fall in love, but stay in love.  It allows you to discover new experiences and date ideas you may never have considered.

With DATE options like:   

• 'Dumpling Making With Bite Size Kitchen' 
• 'Roll Like VIP's at Jay Z's Club'

You can pick & choose your activity and location from a curated collection of local date experiences and just go – it's that easy!!  This is a company that def takes care of all the details. They basically just say "Hey, I've got this" and give you a wonderful date night you won't forget!  I've had the pleasure of trying it out, so can you! Feel free to check out the HowAboutWe site to discover some interesting dates!

And if the whole idea of a readily prepared date isn't great enough –  now you can take $50.00 off your first-date booking! Just click here to start browsing, dating & falling in love all over again!

Now onto OUR DATE:

My husband & I chose the, 'Veggie date at SuiteThreeOhSix Supper Club' here in NYC.

Even though we're not vegetarians, we thought this would be a pretty healthy way to spend our date night. At first glance the location seemed like a regular apt./loft building. We were buzzed inside and got into the elevator. Walked down what seemed like a residential hallway, then arrived at suite 306. When the door opened, I was surprised to see this gorgeous white loft with a long white table waiting for the guests to arrive. We sat down with some wine as the guests continued to arrive.  We were served a 5 course meal with some amazingly unique veggie dishes by chef Daphne Cheng.  I have to say,  we loved the idea of glancing over at the food being prepared as we sat & waited at our table. 

This was a fantastic experience because we normally wouldn't have tried vegan dishes & date night would've never consisted of us sitting at a table with several other couples. Both of us enjoyed the feel of the place & trying something was definitely exciting!

Shoes are by ShoeMint // Black denim with ankle zippers via Anine Bing // Popoche animal print Clutch via Jerome Dreyfuss

....who's that handsome guy on his cell phone?!

photo below via eat big apple

P.S. The $50.00 promotion is for new members only and expires 12.31.13!

How About We for couples!

this is a sponsored post

-first 7 images by jen ramos

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DIY: Chalkboard stemware

Hi All MBG Readers, Jana here to share a chic & super simple solution for entertaining: stemware with writable chalkboard bases.  A sophisticated way to distinguish ones champagne cocktail when the event is too engaging to keep track.

Materials:

Chalkboard Paint 

Stemware

Paint Brush

Chalk

 

Paint the base. I recommend using short brushstrokes. This layer will be thin as you want just enough coverage to create texture for the second layer. This layer will not look attractive but do not worry, it will turn out!

Let dry overnight. Then paint on a second layer of paint. It will look goopy, but again, do not worry, as it dries the paint settles into the shape of the base.

 Let the second coat dry overnight. Now entertain away!

Something to note - do not get the bases wet as the paint will chip. To preserve, wash only the bowl of the stemware. An upside to the somewhat delicate nature is that you can easily wash all the paint off if you want your stemware only transitioned temporarily. 

-post by Jana Bek

-images by Erik Melvin

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Reiko Kaneko Collection

For those of you who love interesting ceramic pieces, I'd love to introduce you to Reiko Kaneko from the UK. She's a British-Japanese designer who creates figurines of modern shapes & Japanese inspired forms. It's like traditional fine dining with experimental & theatrical presentation ideas as she says on her site.

They have a ton of clever pieces for your dinnerware or teaware needs. My fave set is the DRIP TEASE collection. 

This is so clever, don't you think? I bet it would get a ton of looks at a dinner party!  Also, the drip cups are pretty unique, I like how they also have the tea mugs to go with it. One of the best features has to be the gold rim on each piece...what do you think?? Which do you like best?

-images via reiko kaneko

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Design: Bar Cart Obsessed

Hello everyone! It's Katie again, from H2 Design. I've been a bit obsessed with bar carts lately. They are quite functional and can add so much charm to even the tiniest of spaces. I am actually thinking of using one as an entry console. Who says they can only hold liquor? (Don't get me wrong... liquor works too!)

Lucky for us, there are many stylish options available these days. I've collected my top 7 for you to ponder. Number 4 might just be the coolest bar cart I have ever set my eyes on, but alas, it's out of my budget. Sigh...

1 / High Street Market

2 / Serena and Lily

3 / Clayton Gray Home

4 / Pieces

5 / Crate and Barrel

6 / Zinc Door

7 / Zinc Door

images via Apartment Therapy, Habitually Chic, and Because I'm Addicted.

-post by katie hackworth

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