Author: empadmin

It’s almost Fat Tuesday! You know what that means. Beads, beads and more beads! It has become a tradition that my youngest daughter, Grayson, take a sack full of beads to school to celebrate Fat Tuesday and my easy version of a King Cake.

Before we get too deep into decorating, I wanted to go over the colors and what they symbolize. Purple stands for justice, green stands for faith and gold stands for power. Now, let’s do a simple tablescape. Layering works best for Mardi Gras tables. Start with either a white or gold table runner or tablecloth then let the Mardi Gras decorating begin. Grab your handy dandy cylinder vases of varying sizes. Fill them with beads and arrange them on the table. You can either group them together or line up in a row to create a table runner effect. Next, you want to layer on the masks, doubloons, more beads, and candles. Mardi Gras decorating is one of the rare occasions that more IS better!

It’s time to move on to our favorite tradition—the King Cake and the little tiny baby Jesus (purchased in the baby shower section).

Here is my easy version of the King Cake:

2 (8 oz.) cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp vanilla or ½ tsp almond extract

1 Granny Smith apple

¼ cup chopped pecans

Cinnamon sugar

Purple, green and yellow colored crystal sugar

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange crescent rolls in a circle on a cookie sheet.

In a bowl, mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Spread the mixture evenly over the dough. Thinly slice and peel apple, place the apple slices and chopped pecans over the cream cheese mixture and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

After the cake is baked, before you ice it, insert the tiny baby Jesus into the bottom.

 The person that finds the baby Jesus will have good luck all year.

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It is always such a dilemma for me when this time of year when Fat Tuesday comes so early. I am torn between Valentine’s Day decorating and Mardi Gras decorating. Let’s face it the two couldn’t be more opposite when trying to combine the them.

Valentine’s Day is frilly pink, hearts and roses and Mardi Gras is crazy party it up with beads, purples, greens and golds. I have yet to figure out how to combine the two and not look like Cupid got into a fight with a member of the Krewe of Krazo!

Speaking of the Krewe of Krazo, I don’t know if you are aware of the Mardi Gras festivities going on in Eureka Springs, Arkansas or not, but it looks to be a really great time and we’re planning to go this year. Ok, ok, back to the matter at hand….the dilemma. Here’s how I choose, whichever one comes first, I decorate for and then as soon as it’s over I’ll put up the next one and leave up for a week or so after. I know, genius, right?! Admittedly, if my back were against the wall, I would have to choose Mardi Gras for a couple of reasons. The first being that’s where my heart is. We lived in Pensacola, Florida for several years and I had a flower shop/wedding business in Orange Beach, Alabama and let me tell you down South knows how to do Mardi Gras. There are so many fun and awesome events like balls and parades. The schools are dismissed and businesses close. It’s fabulous and once that’s in your blood, it never leaves you. The second reason sort of goes back to the first, I mentioned I used to have a flower shop and if any of you have ever worked or known someone in the flower business, their take on Valentine’s Day is quite the contrary to frilly hearts and bows. It’s absolute madness that simply can’t be put into words. It was not uncommon to work for 24 hours without leaving the shop. Upside, I do attribute my ability to not meltdown in front of customers and my employees to working all those Valentine’s Day. I can’t tell you the number of times I was crying and praying on the inside and smiling on the outside. There were many times that I know only Jesus got us through it, but that’s for another day. I could literally go on for days about flower shop tales, maybe I’ll write a book someday.

I went waaaay off track, so let’s get back to it. Both of these holidays are awesome reasons to throw a party! We’ll start with Valentine’s Day, because my seventeen-year-old just mentioned the other day how much she missed exchanging the little Valentine cards like she did in grade school.

In my normal fashion, speaking before I think, I said, “Then why don’t you have a party and go old-school and exchange Valentines?” She, of course, was thrilled and started planning right away! Fortunately, planning a Valentine’s Day party can be very simple or very extravagant, I feel like we will be somewhere in the middle.

Decorations are a snap when you stick with reds, whites, and a hint of pink. To give it a more glammed, grown-up look use a hot pink rather than a light pink. One of my favorite wedding bouquets I’ve ever created was a mix of red and hot pink roses similar to this red rose and pink peony bouquet by Tomobi Floral Art.

The various hues were beautiful and sophisticated looking. Next, you need, what else? Flowers! Everyone thinks of red roses at Valentine’s Day, but don’t dismiss the carnation. They make fantastic “roundy-moundy” arrangements and there are beautiful hues of carnations available In addition, scatter vases filled with red hots and candles for fun.

Red paper lanterns and fans are a nice addition to any style of party.

Last but not least, hearts. You need hearts to decorate for Valentine’s Day.

The food is even easier than the decorations, because Valentine’s Day is all about chocolates and sweets.

Do something fun like a chocolate bar like this one from Catch My Party. You can also serve chocolate fondue with things like cubed pound cake, strawberries, and graham crackers, anything you can think that would be great dipped in chocolate. I like to add fun little Valentine’s Day-themed picks to food to add a little extra detail without too much trouble.

It appears, I have been a bit long winded in this blog, so I’ll continue this blog next week to focus on Mardi Gras!

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