Coral and Persimmon Decor Inspiration

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I have recently been inspired by the color palette of coral and persimmon.

I have been debating about painting the cabinets in the office kind of like so, in the picture below… with coral/persimmon interiors and either a shade of blue/grey or even black exterior!

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Doesn’t it look pretty?

I love the way it makes a cabinet pop!

 It is a little unexpected and kind of fun!

 When I told my husband this, he asks me, “Are you okay? Are you ill?” because he knows how much I *hate* orange.

Yes, I’m fine I replied! I said the reason why it is interesting because most of the house decor is shades of blue, and this is the opposite side of the color spectrum, so adding hints of it here and there makes the blues look even better!

It can be used in modern rooms, like below…

Or in traditional rooms, like on the books and the chair below!

We could go bold and paint the entire bookcase like so, below:

Or more subtle with the accessories in the room adding the color…

 

 

 

Here are the various shades of coral and persimmon from Pantone.

 

I still like it best inside a cabinet though…

 

 

 

But I find myself even liking this color of accessories!

I don’t own *single* piece of orange-shade *anything* in my closet.

You see this color group usually looks terrible on me! But, a bracelet can’t look bad on me, right?

Hermes bracelet

Or a tote..

Gemini Tote – perfect for the beach

Clutch

Or some shoes… Coral Shoe

 

drool worthy…

Goyard…

Hermes blanket…

Actually, that reminds me… some of my favorite nail polish I wear on my toes is coral!

So I DO have one thing that I wear in that color group!

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Finding French Country Style in the Napa Valley – Napa Valley Trip

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One of my favorite day trips is to head to the Napa Valley.  

Today we are focusing on finding French country style in the Napa Valley.

As you head into Napa, first you can stop off at this beautiful French inspired Chateau!

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When I first saw this building I squealed in delight! For a moment I thought I was in France!  We did a U-turn and found ourselves at Domaine Carneros.  Yes, this is technically a Domaine and not a Chateau.  I blogged about the difference here. For a refresher, basically a Domaine is a Chateau with a vineyard!

 The grounds were beautiful but unfortunately the interior of the Chateau was nothing special!

Although, they did carry chocolates from Angelina’s Paris, if you find yourself in a need for some!

 They do have a terrace to sit and enjoy the view, and a little bar (of course) for those who drink wine.

Our next stop is in Yountville, at Bouchon Bakery.

There is *always* a line but it is worth the wait.

Word of advice – never buy a croissant after 11am.  Not just here, but *anywhere*. 

Hmm…. which sweet do you pick out?

We *always* get a pain d’epi baguette.  It is the BEST.  I could eat a whole loaf by myself.  I strongly recommend you stop here. 

There is also Bouchon Bistro – a great place to get lunch and dinner and then the famous three-michelin star French Laundry restaurant.  All of these are by Thomas Keller.

 Our next French inspired stop is Peju Winery.

Isn’t the building so cute?

 I loved their entrance gates!

 And their garden statues. This leads to a little Koi pond.

 During this time of year the mustard is in full bloom. Even Winter in Napa is beautiful!

The tulip tree was blooming… I just love this tree! Aren’t the blooms beautiful?

After Peju, head to Dean & Deluca, a gourmet food grocery.  They carry Mariage Freres Tea, amongst many other specialty items.

Next, we do some shopping in St. Helena.

This horse head has been sitting in this antique shop in St. Helena for a long time, and every time I go I stare it at it… but it is too expensive!

One of my must-stop shops in Olivier Napa Valley. They carry Pillivuyt and many other French products!

 Some glasses came home with me…

 I smelled a bunch of these soaps. Isn’t the antique butchers block neat?

 Yes I brought home some plates too…

Next, let’s head to Napa Valley Vintage Home.  

I LOVE this shop. Below is a collection of Astier de Villate.

A collection of Cire Trudon candles. I always smell them all when I am there!

Grab a sandwich either at Model Bakery or my FAVORITE sandwich shop (ever!!!), Giugni’s. If you are eating a Giugni’s, you must bring cash!

There is a little park nearby, you can take your sandwich and have a picnic or take your sandwich to a beautiful winery and have a little picnic there.

Next, head up to Calistoga to Calistoga Country Antiques (1117 Lincoln Ave).

 Now, open the windows up and enjoy the scenery on your trip home.

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Spring Fashion Must-Have, Pretty Spring Couture and More

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Spring Must-Have Accessory… a small silk scarf!

Yes! I LOVE scarves and I am so excited to see that for this Spring companies are coming out with silk scarves at reasonable prices! No longer do you have to pay $$$ for a nice silk scarf!

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

The silk scarf is wonderful because it can be worn is so many different ways – like a scarf, or a necklace, or a hat, or a belt…

Here are some 100% silk scarves that I found for a good price!

It comes in White w pink edge, Navy, Pink, and Red. – only $29!

Travel Scarf

“Chapel” Scarf – love the colors in this one!

 Swan Skinny Silk Scarf

Polka Dot Scarf

Tory Burch Sailboat Scarf – only $65 (good for TB!!)

Striped Scarf

Tour Rose Uniacke’s London Home

Rose Uniacke is a London antique dealer-turned-designer who decorates for the Beckhams and Jo Malone. Tour her London home here.

Giambattista Valli 

Thought I would share some of these close ups of details of Giambattista Valli’s Spring 2017 Couture. All pictures are from Vogue.

I am in love with all of the beading. Imagine how many hours it spent hand sewing all of these!

Favorite Instagrams

Here are my favorite photos from the week.

I decided to go back to doing screen shots because when I embed them they never seem to load!


From the Blog

Did you miss the table setting I put together celebrating Pantone’s color of the year, Greenery?

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Gardening Ideas for Spring – AND a new hostess for TFT!

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This week I was inspired by all of your gardening tips! I am itching to go clean up the garden outside but it needs to stop raining!!  And also, this week we are excited to announce a new hostess! But first, my features…

The Country Chic Cottage shared this Burlap Bunny Flag tutorial.

 Organic Garden Dreams shared her Winter roses! How lucky to still have her roses blooming! 

 Consumer Crafts shared this garden supply organizer tutorial.

 Taylor Made Homestead shares her vegetable garden updates – including a clever graph on how she plans her garden!

We love all of your posts and enjoy visiting you – there is something for everyone at this party!

Don’t forget to check out our Thursday Favorite Things Pinterest Board I pin my picks for the week to our board as well as others!


ANNOUNCEMENT – We are so excited to welcome Bev from the Eclectic Red Barn.  She loves DIY projects and likes to mix the old with the new for decorating!  Sounds like my type of gal! Please give her a warm welcome and stop by her blog!


Please take the time to get to know ALL of your hostesses!

Thursday favorite things hostess

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Thursday Favorite Things blog hop co-hostess

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Macaron Fails and Troubleshooting

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I thought I would share about some of my fails of baking macarons.

I have been making macarons for several years and I can tell you that they are a very picky pastry.

Yes, a pastry – this is no cookie!

Recently on the blog, all you see are my pretty macarons – but let me tell you, it doesn’t always turn out as such!

Even from one piped sheet to another, things can change!

One tray will turn out perfectly, the other… who knows what happened! It was from the same batch, after all! 

I do know that frequently my fails have to do with how I folded (aka stirred) the almonds into the meringue. 

I find my first piped batch is often under folded (aka I didn’t stir it enough)… so then I stir a few more times and the consistency becomes perfect. 

Below, an example of underfolded macarons – should have stirred more!! Although, under folded macarons can be saved – just use a knife and either pat down or take the tops of and voila! Your macaron is saved!)

At least though they formed feet. Well, some of them.

Here we are, with the same shell recipe, but with everything done right. Folded perfectly, rested perfectly, cooked perfectly. It’s nice when they turn out perfectly. Although, the ones above do taste the same as the ones below. They just aren’t as pretty!

Here’s another fail below. WHERE ARE THE FEET?? Guess what though, these are not massive fails. They still taste the same. Also, don’t wet your finger and try to dab the pointy part away. Lesson learned.

Let’s assess one of my recent creations that I made this year. I was trying to make a vanilla bean macaron.

Nothing went right.

It was lumpy. I had underfolded it and I knew it. And I kept stirring and stirring and it just didn’t want to deflate.

Then it was also bumpy – the little fine particles didn’t mix together. Sometimes that happens when you don’t sift your ingredients. But I sifted. So I don’t know.

Then, look at the bottom shell. The feet developed on one side… but what happened to the other?? Where’d the feet go?

Just when you think, okay, finally, let’s get to the filling, I can’t screw that up, right? WRONG.

Here I was trying this wonderful vanilla bean white chocolate ganache filling by Pierre Herme.

Vanilla Bean White Chocolate

165g cream

180g white chocolate

3 vanilla bean pods

1. Cut the pods in half and seed them.

2. Bring cream to a boil with the vanilla seeds AND pods in it. Then remove from heat and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Melt the white chocolate, preferably over a double boiler.

4. Remove pods from cream. Then stir the cream into the white chocolate.

5. Put in the fridge until cool.  

You see, after it’s cool… it’s supposed to be something that is creamy and pipe-able. Clearly, below, it is too runny. 

I don’t know what I did but it is not right.

It tasted ridiculously delicious though. 

But the macarons kept sliding apart when I filled them. That didn’t stop me from eating them… but I had to pull them out of the fridge and eat them immediately otherwise they all slide apart.  That’s why I’m holding one in my hand – it’s because it would slide apart otherwise!

Food Nouveau has a good troubleshooting guide for macarons.

 These pastries are so picky. It can depend on…

perfectly clean bowl for meringue not made of plastic

silpat or parchment paper

age of egg whites (it is said aged egg whites are the best, but I have never had a problem)

temperature of egg whites

consistency of meringue

weight of ingredients

sifted ingredients

type of food coloring used

overfolding/underfolding the almonds into the meringue

resting time

oven temperature

convection bake vs regular bake vs crap oven

and lastly, the humidity. If it’s raining outside, just don’t make them.

Well, I thought you might enjoy seeing behind-the-scenes that not everything is perfect over here even though I make lots of macarons. 

Yet, even though most recently I had a fail, it won’t stop me from trying.

I read in a the Bouchon Bakery book I received for Christmas (thanks guys, you know who you are!) that Thomas Keller states that you should not try to learn a lot of new recipes but instead work on perfecting one.

So that’s what I do.

Oh, did I mention they were gluten free? But diabetics beware.


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Modern French Country Table Setting in Pantone’s Greenery

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I was inspired by Pantone’s color of the year, Greenery, when I was putting together this table setting.

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

I don’t know about you all, but I am ready for Spring green and this table reflects that!
I was a little uncertain about Pantone’s color of the year this year, but now that it’s getting near Spring…. I am READY and find that it is perfect!

My mom is very good at sewing and whipped up these placemats for me in one night! (Thanks, Mom!) Don’t they look nice with the pops of green on the tulipiere?

I love the tulipiere, which is the name of the tall vase in the center of the table. It takes about 3 dozen flowers to fill it up!

I chose white mini lisianthus and white tulips to go with the fuzzy filler.  

I honestly don’t know the name of these fuzzy branches, but aren’t they fun? 

I thought the modern ikat print of the placemats and the out-of-this-world fuzzy green branches added a modern touch to an otherwise French country table!

Are you including Pantone’s “Greenery”, the color of 2017 into your home decor?

I thought this was a perfect way to add the fashionable color without investing too much into the trend! Shop the post:

A Modern French Country Table in Pantone’s Greenery color of the year.

This would also make for a great St. Patrick’s Day themed table!


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linking up at:  amaze me monday The Scoop! BNOTP Mon Inspire Me Tuesday  Wow us Wednesdays!Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsHome Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else Best of the Weekend 

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Spring Shopping for Home and Clothes, and more Five on Friday

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I was busy shopping away this past weekend and thought I would share some Spring shopping finds as I know some of these items will sell out!
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

Shopping for the Home

White Ceramic Bunny with Basket – will sell out guaranteed.

Basket Egg Cup will also sell out.

Floral Bunny Salad Plates – will sell out

Bunny Basket Serving Bowl

Pictured above: 

Bunny platter

Large snack bowl

Small snack bowl

Wheelbarrow bunny

Bunny Bowl with Butterfly – will sell out

Mackenzie Childs Black and White Rabbit

Shopping… Clothes, Shoes and Accessories!

This Breton ‘Mon Amour’ Striped shirt is sure to sell out! I bought it and LOVE it!

Tory Burch Fringed Miller Sandal

I *almost* bought these but I decided to hold off (pretty sure I’ll regret that decision)… I know these are going to sell out in this color because it is CUTE!

Franco Sarto Penny Loafer

This loafer is super cute and comes in 10 different colors!

AGL Penny Loafer

I recently bought this shoe and it is soooo comfortable and right on trend for slip-on penny loafers this year!

A cute Paris Apartment

How cute is this apartment in Paris? I was just daydreaming and was looking around on the website Paris Perfect.

Almond Flour!

I was at Costco this week and found that they are now carrying almond flour for a good price!  If you bake macarons this is a MUST have.  This is also used in many other French or European desserts so if you like to bake those things check it out!

Favorite Instagrams

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French Decor Style in this week’s Thursday Favorite Things

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I hope you all had a lovely week celebrating Valentine’s Day.  There are tons of sweetheart posts this week, but I found a few French-style posts that made my heart flutter!

Botanic Bleu shared French architecture design – specifically looking at slate roofing material!

Pret-a-Vivre shared a trip to Beziers, located in the South of France.

By Dreams Factory shared a tutorial on how to make a lavender diffuser from essential oils.

Rosemary & Thyme shared a book about a newly renovated Chateau!

And that’s it for this week’s features!

We love all of your posts and enjoy visiting you – there is something for everyone at this party!

Don’t forget to check out our Thursday Favorite Things Pinterest Board I pin my picks for the week to our board as well as others!


Katherine’s Corner
Peonies and Orange Blossoms
Reinvented Collection
Marilyn’s Treats
Vintage Mama’s Cottage


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Valentine’s Day – Love is in the Air!

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Today I am participating in a Valentine’s Day Magazine Challenge!! 

I am joining Katherine from Katherine’s Corner for this challenge and blog tour.  The challenge was to create a romantic style, Valentine inspired magazine cover.  We could use a magazine cover was like as inspiration or just create our own!

My magazine inspiration was a Victoria magazine with a soft romantic Valentine’s Day theme. And of course, I *love* macarons!

Below is my interpretation:

And this was my inspiration:

Here is a look without the wording on it below.

I had fun recreating this magazine cover! It allowed me to practice some photography skills. 

Take the tour with us!  There is no voting for this challenge.  

Katherine is drawing a name at random and the winner will receive a hard copy or Kindle copy of the book, The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to be Beautiful by Myquillyn Smith.

It made me appreciate how much thought goes into every picture that is shot for a magazine!

Enjoy the tour and Happy Valentine’s Day!! (if links don’t load, click the “An Inlinkz Link Up below)

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linking up at:  amaze me monday The Scoop! Make it Pretty Monday BNOTP Mon Inspire Me Tuesday  Wow us Wednesdays!Share Your Style Thursday Favorite ThingsHome Sweet Home Feathered Nest Fridays Foodie Friday & Everything Else Best of the Weekend 


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A French Chateau, Neato Botvac Review, Bouchon and More – Five on Friday

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Bouchon Bakery

About two weeks ago we went to Bouchon Bakery in Yountville in the Napa Valley.  I thought I would share a few pics I snapped.
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

*to die for Pain d’Epi bread*

Their bread is seriously THE BEST I have had outside of Paris.

*sipping a yummy salted caramel latte*

*First time I had a Paris Brest and I LOOOOOOOOOVED it.*

A peak at some chocolates at Dean & Deluca…


A French Country Chateau for Sale

I regularly follow Sharon Santoni’s blog, My French Country Home, and I just had to share this 18th century property she featured that is for sale.  Isn’t it lovely? For some reason not all of her pictures load, but the few that do are fantastic!

Neato Botvac Review

We have had our Neato Botvac for just over 1 month and I feel like that is a long enough trial period where I can give it a proper review.

The Neato Botvac is a robot vacuum, just like the original Roomba, however per other reviews that I read, it has more suction power than the Roomba.  

It has a square shape on one side which allows it to clean corners better than the Roomba. 

Pros

It cleans while you are not home

It cleans when you are home and you can do other things and not vacuum!!

It goes under furniture that the regular vacuum does not routinely get to

GREAT for those with pets – as it goes under the furniture (where the pets hang out) it picks up tons of fur/hair!

It can be programmed to run when you are not home, it can spot clean a certain area, or you can just pick it up and place it in a room and will clean the room!

It isn’t TOO loud as far as vacuums go.

Good size dirt catcher

Cons

It is not good at picking up sand/cat litter

It can get stuck on the thick rugs or sometimes under furniture (like under the bed)

battery life has been about 2 hours – depending on the size of your house it may not be able to clean the whole house on one charge.

It does lightly tap the furniture.  It comes with a magnet strip which allows you to block off a certain area if you don’t want it to hit your antique furniture or if you don’t want it to go into a certain room.

We got ours on sale for $400 and I think it was well spent! We bought this model. I had pretty much no expectations of it as I had never had a botvac before, but I really love it.  

Our house is much cleaner than it used to be and I learned our little Chloe cat sheds way more than I previously thought! 

I also love the lines it makes in the carpet… looks like a professional cleaned it!

We named our vacuum Rover. Felt like it deserved a name given how much work it does for me!

From the Blog

Did you miss the little macaron tower tutorial I shared? 

Andddd I don’t have a FIVE today. 

Oh wait, I know.

I’m sick of the RAIN! I moved to California to get away from the rain of the Northwest!

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Home Decor Inspiration – Thursday Favorite Things

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Did you all watch the Super Bowl this weekend?  I watched part of it and part of the Puppy Bowl. 

This week I am choosing a few home decor selections…

Chatfield Court shares a post about choosing throw pillows.

Suzy at Worthing Court Blog shared 5 basic decorating rules to live by.

 Simple Nature Decor shared a $100 room makeover! 



And that’s it for this week’s features!

We love all of your posts and enjoy visiting you – there is something for everyone at this party!

Don’t forget to check out our Thursday Favorite Things Pinterest Board I pin my picks for the week to our board as well as others!


Katherine’s Corner
Peonies and Orange Blossoms
Reinvented Collection
Marilyn’s Treats
Vintage Mama’s Cottage


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French Farmhouse Mudroom Ideas

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We’ve been *finally* moving along with our French Farmhouse project and I am having to design the cabinets in the mudroom, kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms.

Today I am focusing on the mudroom.

source Becki Owens

Here’s a drawing of the mudroom wall I am debating about how to arrange the cabinets. Okay, first, let’s get over the fact that this drawing is terrible.

I plan to put a bench under the window.

But then there’s a space between the window and a door.

What should we do with the space in between??

Should we… build open cubbies like below?

source Home Adore

Should we put a little bench in the middle with doors covering the cabinets, like below?

Should we…. leave it all open?

source Creek Line House

Or leave it all open like the configuration below?

source Brooks and Falotico

Or something like this?

source Country Living Mag

 I kind of want at least one door to hide stuff so I don’t have to keep the area super tidy all of the time. But it isn’t necessary.

I do need a space to put our muddy boots.

 

As for the design style of the room, I go back and forth… should I shiplap it or should I not? Is shiplap just a trend? Does it fit in with my overall style? Does it really go with the rest of the house? Does it have to go with the rest of the house?

As I write this, I think I have decided against shiplap. Is shiplap in France? No! So I won’t do it.

Let’s talk about floors…I initially wanted to brick the floor in a herringbone pattern, but brick is rough on your bare feet and snags socks so it has me thinking against it.

I love Arto Brick and considered this tile below

or this tile from Arto as well…

But I worry about the floor hurting my feet!

My husband says “but your feet are always cold and you have slippers on, why do you care?”

I say, “it snags my socks!”

But I just discovered Arto has a smooth brick which might work for me..

I like this floor a lot too.

It looks to me like a tumbled travertine in brick size.

source roses and rust bloggerAny suggestions regarding the cabinets?
Do you have a mudroom with open vs closed cabinets?
There are so many decisions it is very easy to get decision fatigue and just settle.

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How to Make a Macaron Tower

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I have been wanting to make a macaron tower for a little while, so I set out to create one. It was surprisingly easy!

I was delighted when I saw my finished product – how pretty!

I thought this pretty pink tower was perfect for a Valentine’s Day post.

Finding a cone to as a base for this was not super easy.

I first went to a specialty cake supply store – but they did not have any.  I thought, great, I will just have to make it so they stack up on top of each other without a base. *rolls eyes* like I am skilled enough to do that. Nope I am not.

Then my Mom had the idea to get one of the floral foam cones – so off to Michael’s we went.

And we found one! Or two actually. I bought two sizes but decided to use the smaller one in this post.

Materials Needed

Foam floral cone

parchment paper

toothpicks

macarons

First, pictured below is the foam floral cone that I used.

I wrapped parchment paper around the cone because the foam flakes off.  If you do not intend to eat the macarons off the tower, then you do not need to wrap the cone in parchment paper.

 Here, I cut the paper and taped it to the cone. The paper didn’t hold very well with tape, so eventually I just put a few toothpicks in it to hold it in place.

 

Next, cut your toothpicks in half.

Then poke one hole into the cone where you want your macaron.  It needs to stick out about halfway – you need enough toothpick sticking out so that it can fully support the macaron otherwise it will fall off.

Then, gently stick the macaron onto the toothpick. *gently*. It does not take much pressure to place it onto the toothpick!

Then, row by row, work your way up until you reach the top!

This tower was approximately 4 inches wide at the base by 9 inches tall.

 It took approximately 50 filled cookies to fill this size of cone in the pictures. I estimate, depending in the size of your cookie, it could take 50 +/- 2 cookies.

I used several different sizes of cookies – the largest ones are on the bottom and the smallest ones are at the top. You don’t have to do that… it just had to do with my inconsistent piping and it worked out well in the end!

You could also using frosting to attach the cookies to the foam if you do not have toothpicks. Or you could do both.

I would recommend making this the day of and just before any party you bring it to!

This is *perfect* for bridal showers, tea parties, birthday parties, or fun celebrations! It is a pretty centerpiece! I would love it if you pinned this image.

How to Make a Macaron Tower - a DIY tutorial for French Macaron Towers!
How to Make a Macaron Tower – a DIY tutorial for French Macaron Towers!

Also, if you are not up to making your ownmacarons, you could just get some store bought ones – for instance, the ones from Trader Joe’s in the freezer aisle would be perfect! It would take several boxes but you could do it!

How to Make a Macaron Tower

You might also enjoy these Valentine’s Heart Macarons

 

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7 vanity tables that make getting ready extra luxurious – From Veranda

Spotted… Valentine’s Day 

Cute Cupid Necklace for $30

Eau Rose Parfum Travel Size

Heart Pillow

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A cheery spot of color is much needed around these parts of Narnia. This photo is from last year but I never shared it here on IG. I’m thinking a trip to the store to see what I can find in the floral department is much needed. 💕 Sorry, but #notsorry 😉 for jumping the gun on springy photos but I think in feeling a little blue since putting away holiday decor this past week. . . ⚜️Don’t forget to join #FrenchDecorGirls for #MondayDecorStyle. Anything home decor is welcome. 😍. Just follow the hosts – Me- @reinventedcollection . . @bellebluinteriors . . @lepetit_macaron . . @larissa_jenkins

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From the Blog

Revisiting these pretty hearted shaped macaronsI made last year. The rose raspberry filling was delicious!


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Romantic Decor Ideas – Thursday Favorite Things

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This week there was a lot of beautiful Romantic Decor Ideas that were shared! 

Old Things New Blog shared this pretty dried rose and moss heart

Belle Bleu Interiors shared this lovely Valentine’s table for two.

 Rosemary and Thyme shared Romantic bedroom decor ideas.

 Blue Sky Kitchen shares this red romantic table for two.

 Everyday Living shared this beautiful red roses table.


Although this doesn’t fit with “the theme” for the week, I just had to share this powder room makeover from a Thoughtful Place. I love the gold gallery wall with the bold blue wallpaper!


And that’s it for this week’s features!

We love all of your posts and enjoy visiting you – there is something for everyone at this party!

Don’t forget to check out our Thursday Favorite Things Pinterest Board I pin my picks for the week to our board as well as others!


Katherine’s Corner
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Marilyn’s Treats
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