They say to use yellow to suggest freshness and citrus fruitiness.  Perhaps this explains, in part, my recent obsession with lemons.  If you have been following me on Facebook or Twitter, then you know that I have had a case of “Lemonade-itis” lately!  Two recent posts were recipes for Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes and Cherry Lemonade with vodka!!  OK – I’m sorry, but they just sound delish!  And guess what.  I found yet another recipe for Lemon Cupcakes (just wait until you see how cute they are)!!  Oh my – Someone please stop me!  Did I mention that yellow is also “the color of… insanity”?!  Seriously. ( Oh well.  Sanity is SO overrated!!)  OK – No more lemon “food”.    Let’s think “SPA”.  How about a wonderful lemon scrub to exfoliate and smooth away dead skin???  Ahhh…  There we go.  And since we’re at the spa now; how about some refreshing lemon water… Simply slice several lemons and add in your choice of other goodies.  Some of my favorites are lemon and fresh mint, lemon and cucumber or a combo of lemons, limes and oranges.  Fill your pitcher with fresh cold water and ice and you’re ready to be refreshed.  Calorie free!!! 

Yellow, by any other name ( banana, cadmium yellow, chiffon, cream, golden, goldenrod, lemon, mellow yellow, saffron, chartreuse,  topaz, yellow ocher) is still yellow.  So maybe yellow isn’t your favorite color (Hmmm… trying to process) - but perhaps you are redecorating a room or planning a dinner party, and you would like a few tips when it comes to mixing yellow into your color palette…  Well look no further.  Here we go:

• Use yellow to perk up a more subdued cool palette of blues and grays.  Perhaps an end of summer “pool party”?  No pool?  Me neither.  Just call it a “Beach Party”.  I live in Kansas.  Enough said. 
• Use lemon yellow with oranges to carry out a healthy, summery, citrus theme.  Nothing is simpler than a bowl of fresh lemons, limes and oranges!
• Very pale yellows can work as neutrals alongside darker or richer colors.
• Yellow and blue are a high contrast, eye-popping combination.  My choice of colors for our guest room.   A classic combo and “gender neutral”.  It just works.
• Mix yellow with neutral gray and a dash of black for a high-tech look.  Suddenly I’m thinking about New Year’s Eve.  And champagne.
• Try a hot, exciting mix of red and yellow.  Anyone for a Mexican Fiesta?? Ole’
• For an earthy palette, especially for fall, mix yellow, olive green, and brown.  Thanksgiving at your house this year??
• While yellows and bright or light greens can be part of a natural, fruity color palette, be careful not to use colors too close in value or they will appear washed out.

All natural “General Cleaner Upper Spray”

• 1 tsp Liquid Dish Soap
• 1 tsp Borax
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Vinegar
• 1 Spray Bottle
• Essential oil; like lemon (optional)

Add dish soap, borax, lemon juice and vinegar to bottle.  Fill bottle with 1 quart hot water.  Place the spray nozzle on the bottle and shake until all ingredients are well mixed.   A few drops of your favorite essential oil will make it smell yummy.  You could  use lemon, lavender or tea tree oil (All three are antiseptic and antibacterial).  If you have a problem with hard water stains, use 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp vinegar.

 Well –  I think you’re pretty much ready for the party.   Just one more thing before I go.  Do you believe in serendipity?  I was in the middle of writing this blog when the phone rang.  It was my neighbor, Deb, and she needed a missing ingredient for her dinner.  Any guesses?  Yep.  A lemon.  Make that two lemons.  I quickly took a pic of the three lemons on the plate for this blog, so that I could share them with her.  When she walked down to get the lemons, she told me that she had a little gift for me.  Something she saw and thought of me.  It is the tea towel in the pic.   She had no idea that I was writing a blog about lemons or that I would post a recipe for Cherry Lemonade – with vodka on Facebook and Twitter.  That’s just how friends are sometimes.  True friends.  They just know.

Oh – and one last thing that I forgot to mention.  

Yellow is also “the color of  friendship”…  but, then again,  I already knew that.

So my husband and I recently turned 50 and our kids were turning 21 (Yep – they be twins).  Huge family milestones; right?  Now we all know that there is no better city on the planet for turning 21… at least that’s the general consensus of those who are actually turning 21.  If you fall into that 50-something range… well, let’s just say that napping is a requirement.  Seriously.  And I can’t nap.  “Houston – we have a problem”. 

What a city, though.  Wow.  Where else can you visit a  New York deli, stroll the cobblestone streets of Paris and dine by candlelight next to the gondolas in Italy - all in the course of a day.  And then there’s the cocktail.  There are literally people with cocktails in their hand 24 hours a day.   We were up until 3:00 or 4:00 AM every morning; and everywhere you looked during those wee hours… there were cocktails.  After a “full night’s sleep” of approximately 3-4 hours (See “nap requirement” above), we would  manuever our way down the hallway towards the elevator around 7:00 AM for coffee; only to see people stumbling out of the elevator – cocktail in hand.   Guess they decided it was finally time for a little “shut-eye“.  We gambled.  Well, actually, THEY gambled (the boys).  I’m way too cheap for that.  We had a cocktail.  We walked the streets and “people watched” (Oh my, my, my…some GREAT people watching!).   They gambled.  We shopped.  We hit the pool.  We all had another cocktail.  We watched as the Bellagio fountains performed their mesmerizing dance to the crooning sound of Mr. Las Vegas himself - my man - Frank Sinatra.  Pure magic, I tell you.  We all had a cocktail.  They gambled.  We saw two “shows” –  the “Blue Man Group” (fantastic!) and David Spade.  They gambled.  We all had a cocktail.  Three full days.  In Vegas time, that equals about 4 years. 

Perhaps it was the constant bright, flashing lights, the relentless ”ding, ding, ding, DING, WHISTLE, DING…” of the almost 200,000 slot machines (Thank you, “Ask Jeeves”), or the delicious “Pineapple Chipotle Margarita” (complete with Chipotle hot sauce!)  that I was sipping from the “Rhumba Bar”…… but I started having “flashbacks”.   My BABIES were turning into ADULTS!!!  What??  How did that happen?  It suddenly felt like I had blinked…and time had somehow passed me by.  Kind of like a ”Sleeping Beauty” kind of thing… minus the “beauty” part and that feeling of a really good night’s sleep.  ”Someone bring me another cocktail.  NOW!”  And then something suddenly occurred to me.  Nothing had passed me by.  I have enjoyed every part of the past 21 years.  (fine print…OK – Let’s be honest. Some more than others.)  As a family, we have filled our hearts, until they are overflowing, with memories on top of memories – and they are a part of us.  They are what binds the four of us together – and no-one, and nothing, can every take that away. Those memories belong to us… and only us.  It was then that I realized that we were in the perfect place to celebrate their 21st  birthday.  As a family, we have LIVED the “Las Vegas mantra” our entire life… “What happens here (in our hearts); stays here.” 

And so at 12:00 midnight, Vegas time, 2:00 AM Kansas City time (by chance – the exact time they were born), we toasted their transition into adulthood… “21″; with all the joy and pride in the world.  We laughed.  We remembered.  We reminisced. 

Cheers to you, Vegas.  “What happens here, stays here.” 

I was born and raised in St. Louis (1961 – Are you doing the math?  Yes. Just turned 50), the oldest of 7 kids, graduated from MU (University of Missouri – Columbia) in ‘83 where I was an ADPi, moved to Kansas City and married my college sweetheart in ’84, lived in London from ’86-’88, gave birth to boy/girl twins in 1990, started my own business, “Creations”, in 2002, added a website in 2004, an email newsletter in 2007 and a booth at Trendz Market in Leawood in April 2009 – which I expanded in April 2011. Whew!  I laugh too loud, I talk too much… I love my family and friends, photography, wine country, trying new recipes and collecting seashells on the beach.

OK – Wow. This is starting to sound like an application for a singles dating service. Let’s talk about Creations.

First there’s the hand-painted glassware. We’re talking wine, martini, champagne, margarita/daiquiri, goblets, pilsners… You get it. Throw in some hand-painted plates and accessories, cocktail napkins, wine accessories, cocktail mixers. It’s fun, it’s funky – It’s a party!! Then there’s the “giftie stuff” – candles, aprons, Zum bars, cookbooks, fun cupcake “stuff”, recipe cards… along with home and holiday décor, a “giftwrap” section and several lines of yummy and delicious gourmet goodies!  Seriously?  All of this in an 8′ x 16′  space??  Well – I guess you’ll just have to come on in to Trendz and see for yourself!!  Oh ya – and I forgot to tell you about special orders!  Yep – You can order that glass in different colors, and you can get that hand-painted plate with any quote or initial. Check out my website for designs/colors/quotes etc. on my hand-painted wares, as well as to sign up for my monthly email newsletter (full of recipes, wine tips, updates, upcoming events/specials, new products and tons of other useless, but fun, information) at www.creationsbycathy.net.  For more frequent updates – follow me on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/creationsbycathykc  (like when I’m offering a special at Trendz – or a last minute “Sample Saturday”!  De-lish!!)  or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/creationsbycath .

So there we go.  I feel better now.  I’m Cathy – And it’s so nice to meet you…

Well – First of all – I have got a recipe here for a “Double Berry Margarita” that is calling my name… Loud.  And it’s not even noon yet.  (Houston – we have a problem…)  Anyway, I’m going to share it with you- and then I want you to make it sometime this weekend, and share your “results” with me.  Well, maybe not ALL of your results.  Keep it to a “G” rating, please. 

Double Berry Margarita

1 oz. tequila blanco

1/2 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz Chambord

1 splash sweet and sour mix

2 raspberries, muddled

2 blackberries, muddled

2 lime wedges, muddled

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass.  Shake hard and serve in a glass with a salted rim.  Garnish with a lime wedge, raspberry and blackberry.  Oh my, that sounds good!! 

Doing a little “last minute” entertaining?  Need something quick & easy in the beverage department??  Well, icy cold lemonade – or pink lemonade – works great for any outdoor entertaining… perfect for the kiddos, and even more fun for the adults (Hint, hint:  Keep a bottle of citron vodka in the freezer for an icy little “adult lemonade cocktail”!!)  Then – to make it even MORE festive, check out these darling little straws – perfect for festive cocktails or non-alcoholic beverages alike!!     OK;  now that we are thinking sweets, let’s move on to desserts!!   I’ve got the PERFECT suggestion for any Fourth of July get-together… a RED Velvet Cupcake, of course!!  I have the cutest little Red Velvet Cupcake mixes at Trendz – and even better… red, white and blue cupcake liners to bake them in!!  Woo-hoo!   For the final touch of “festiveness” (new word), I have got a simple little DIY cupcake topper idea from my friend, Martha Stewart…a little toothpick flag.  Too cute.  Martha thinks of everything!!!

Need something for the kids to help with while you are sipping on your “Double Berry Margarita”??  Staying with our “sweet” theme – a little project that will give an ordinary blue napkin a festive feel in a simple way… Starlight Spangled Napkin Rings!!   Not a lot of supplies and simple directions.  I get it.  You are sipping on your margarita…!!

OK – so there are a few “sweet” little ideas for your holiday weekend!!   Be proud, be safe, be American, keep calm and eat a cupcake!

Happy Fourth…

Cathy

OK – so I’m late…

So – the old phrase “kill two birds with one stone” comes to mind – I’ll work in the yard while I think about what I’m going to write about in my first blog.   Let’s see – likely topics for my blog would revolve around entertaining, parties, gourmet foods, cocktail recipes, daylillies…  Wait – What??  Daylillies?  Yep.  As I was pulling off the yellowing leaves from the underside (a never ending task!), I started wondering what God was thinking when he created a flower that provides a beautiful bloom that lasts for just a day… hence the name, Daylilly. Why not a “Weeklilly” or, better yet, an “All Summer Lilly”. And then a thought occured to me – perhaps the DAYlilly was, after all, intentional. Perhaps we need a reminder to enjoy TODAY while it is here – to be 100% in the present moment. After all – the harsh winter is behind us – and summer is but a fleeting moment. Time to whip up a batch of Wine-A-Ritas, heat up the barbie, invite some friends over and chillax…. Sometimes we let ourselves get so wrapped up in all of the “planning” when it comes to entertaining. We feel like we need to research just the right combo of recipes, create the perfect cocktail, figure out the cute little outfit and anguish over a guest list… At the end of the day, some of the best get-togethers are the impromptu “Hey - What’cha doing tonight – Wanna stop by?” You wear what you’re wearing, and you eat whatever is in the house.

We actually did that last summer with some friends… It was a “clean out the refrigerator and come as you are” party! It was so funny to see what we came up with, really. One person had chips, but no salsa; someone else had – you guessed it – salsa, but no chips! Since I sell all the delicious gourmet tapenades, chutneys etc – everyone else brought over cream cheese and different meats and cheeses. We started pouring a little of this over that, adding a little of that into this. In the end, it was a true gourmet feast!! (Sidenote: An “on hand” must have for the “impromtu” party… “Dr. Pete’s Praline Mustard Glaze“. I always have this in stock at Trendz!!) As the evening progressed, we lit some candles, got the fire pit going and laughed and talked until the sun was just peeking up over the horizon…   OK – so that last part isn’t exactly true – but for “middle-agers”, we were up pretty darn late!!! 

 I stood there on the patio the next morning watering the Daylillies, as I do every morning. I’m sure there were a million laughs going through my head from stories shared with friends the night before. Reaching down to pull off yesterday’s old bloom, a gift. A new bloom had emerged overnight. A subtle reminder that there truly is a kick off your shoes and relax – it’s summertime way to “entertain”… I’m calling it “Daylilly Entertaining“, and I suggest you give it a whirl.

Carpe Diem…!!