Hostess Jo at Home

Simplified Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is on a Friday this year!  Yay!  I could eat Mexican food everyday.  Could you?  It's my favorite.  Along with margaritas, sangria, Corona...you get the idea!

Why not have a few friends over this year?  Below is a super easy way to make your table look more festive.  All I did was grab a few empty Corona bottles and fill them with Carnations!  Ole!

(excuse the photo quality, this was years ago!)

Grab some brightly colored serving ware, plates and napkins and you're set. 

Chips and salsa, quacamole, mini tacos, quesadillas and a batch of margaritas or sangria... 

Check out this recipe  for Frozen Sangria!  Yum

For a sweet treat try these Mini Key Lime or Lemon Pies.  They are super simple and NO BAKE!

You can see I used regular pie crusts but they would be better with graham cracker crusts.  Either way they are super tasty.

I found the same recipe I used here.  I just did a mini version.  That way you aren't slicing pie.  Everyone can serve themselves.

Well I'm ready to celebrate!  How about you?

 

XOXO,

Jo

What happened to April?

April has flown by!  Sorry I have not posted in awhile!  I do have some pretty exciting updates for you.

Yesterday I attended a creative women's brunch.  It was for creatives like bloggers, artists, shop owners, photographers and many other female entrepreneurs. 

The venue was right up my alley.  Exposed brick and old chippy walls!  It was held at The Nest in Birmingham.  The perfect spot for a gathering like this.  The wood table tops with the white metal chairs made my heart skip a beat.

The brunch was hosted by Natalie from 11th Thread and the name of the group is Dream Catchers South.  So cool that dream catchers are so popular in décor right now too!  She put this whole thing together to help and inspire creative women to chase their dreams!

She did a beautiful job on the table settings!  The greenery just popped against the natural wood and white with a little sparkle from the mercury glass candle holders.

We each received our own mason jar of delicious Piper and Leaf tea that we got to take home with us.  I love mason jars and they fit right in with the décor.  Even better we got to sample from a local company.

There were so many incredible sponsors and creative women all pursuing their own small business goals (I'll have a list at the bottom of this post for you to check them out)!  They filled our goody bags with awesome samples and coupons.  We also had a great speaker named Bill Todd, President of o2 Ideas.  He really taught us a lot about marketing and stepping out with our ideas.  Which leads me to a few updates for Hostessjo.com!

I've been wanting an updated design for the blog and I think its time to move over to Wordpress.  I keep hearing great things about it and I think it will be great for both you and I.  So, I'm in the process of doing that.  Hopefully everything will be good to go in May.  I've also started my photography classes and really enjoying them.  Reese's room redo is complete so please check back for that! 

Also, my husband and I have purchased a lot and will be building a spec home this summer!  I'm so excited to pick out paint, flooring, lighting etc.!  I'll be blogging about all of our choices along the way and answering any questions you may have.

I'd love to hear from you about what you'd like to see more of on our new blog!  More diy?  Home décor?  Crafts?  Styling?  Please send me an email or leave me a comment here!

xoxo,

Jo

Check out these cool small businesses and sponsors from our brunch: 

Naughty but Nice Kettlecorn,

Wholesome Soda Co.,

Dixie Fresh,

See Jane Write

Harp of Birmingham,

Piper Vine,

Baby Cakes Birmingham,

House Peace,

Down in the Ham,

Nikki Blakes 

Elizabeth Jaimes Boutique and Salon

If I left anyone off, please leave me a message and I'll be happy to add you!

Football Fare

With the Super Bowl coming up Sunday you may be looking for some appetizing food to feed your family and friends.  I am not a fan of NFL football I'm more of a college football fan (War Eagle!), but I can always appreciate a gathering that involves food and drink!

This is my most popular dish to date!  Ham and cheese sliders.  They are yummy and easy to eat.  Everyone loves them.

Click here for recipe.

 

This is a super easy cheese plate I made into the shape of a football!  Just place your cheese and crackers around the edge working your way to the center.  Then layer pepperoni in the middle.  Top it off with string cheese to make the laces.

 

This recipe was really popular when I posted it years ago!

 Football Deviled Eggs

 

And for a sweet treat what about these cute football brownies from The Simple Parent?

 

To wash all this down, I'd suggest a Moscow Mule.  They are my current favorite cocktail.  To the standard recipe I added fresh cranberries and a splash of cranberry juice.

Recipe from Exclusively Weddings Blog

 

For more ideas check out my Pinterest board-Football Fare!

 

XOXO,

Jo

 

 

B is for Baby Shower

Here are the photos from the baby shower! The baby shower was hosted at a local cafe, which decor happens to be yellow and orange. I really lucked out with all the decorations. The vases came from Micheal's for about $1 a piece. Notice the one with the honeycomb pattern! The birds, butterflies, and bees were on sale, too. The tissue paper balls hanging from the ceiling were found at Marshall's for $2. I also incorporated Lena's paper goods as confetti and tags. The guest book is actually a photo album, which we put the photos from the shower. This was given to the momma to be as a gift. I hope this gives you some ideas for your next shower!

B is for Baby Shower-Invitations

Lena from Zeina Lena Design did these wonderful invitations for the "B" themed baby shower. FYI-Lena also did Jo's invites for her baby shower. The invitations really set the tone for the shower. The papaya and poppy colors were used throughout for the decorations. She also did these wonderful circles to use for cupcake toppers. I ended up using them for confetti. Lena designed the thank you cards and the return address labels to coordinate with the invitations as well. The envelopes are from Paper Source.

Nesting Baby Shower

I'm so excited to share with you the photos from my Nesting Baby Shower my wonderful friends threw me this past weekend!  The decorations were gorgeous plumes, birds, nests and butterflies- all pretty in pink and green.  I am so lucky to have such great girlfriends to throw me such a lovely shower. 

Look closely... there are so many special details!  Enjoy!

 

Welcome Wreath

 

Wishing Tree-this was so fun to go back and read everyone's well wishes! 

 

More lovely bird decor.  I got to take the bird cages home and display them in the nursery.

 

The hostesses borrowed my manzanita branch trees and they looked great with the nest eggs hanging from them.  These trees were the best decoration I've ever made!

"Reese" spelled out in paper circles.

There were butterflies everywhere!

Gorgeous food table.

So cute- nest cupcakes, tags and circles made by my friend Nicole.

 

Feather centerpieces

Nesting bird centerpiece.  Love the plumes.

Jelly bean "egg" favors with coordinating tags by Nicole.  Notice the heart hole punch!

Hope my shower gives you even more Nesting inspiration for your next baby shower!  

Nesting Details

My dear friend Ashley sent me a couple of pics of the decorations she is working on for my Nesting Baby Shower in June.  I just had to share them with you- of course!

These birds are just spectacular!  I love all of the plumes.

You know how I love butterflies!  So cute.

These are already so adorable I can only imagine what everything will look like that day-beautiful! 

I am a lucky girl. 

Stay tuned...
  

Love in Bloom

This weekend we celebrated the upcoming wedding of our two friends, Bonnie and Paul, with a lovely cherry blossom themed bridal shower.  My friend Ashley styled the event-I was in charge of drinks this time ;) 

This theme was light and airy with spring blooms and shades of pink.  Perfect for spring and perfect for LOVE.

Enjoy some pics from Saturday....

 

The pretty invitations that gave a sneak peek to guests of what was to come.

The all important food table with a pink cherry blossom centerpiece and pink accents.

Adorable cupcakes Nicole made.  She also made the circles-I keep telling her she needs to start selling these!  The "B" was for the bride's soon-to-be last name, and of course more cherry blossoms.

Delicious fruit cups that not only taste great but look so pretty displayed.  Recipe to come in a later post-they are so EASY.

  

A close up of the coordinating pink cherry blossom ribbon that added a special touch.

More cherry blossom accents for outside. 

Hope this shower will inspire you to try something new for your next celebration!  This is a great example of how carrying through a color or item can really tie everything together!  This theme would also work well for Mother's Day or a spring party.
  

Nesting Instincts

Hi Everyone! 

So sorry for the long break.  I have a good reason though-I am expecting a baby girl come August!!  I have no other excuse for not blogging besides being totally wrapped up in all things baby!

I have really missed you in the meantime.

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Spring.  I have a couple of events coming up I can't wait to share with you.  First is a cherry blossomed themed bridal shower for one of my friends. Then a tea celebrating the arrival of my baby.

Next, is my "Nesting" Baby Shower.  I have been in love with this theme since I started blogging and am so lucky to have friends who have let me be involved in the creative process.  I can't wait to see it all come together.  Here is a sneak peek of my amazing invitations designed by my friend Lena.

 

We gathered tons of great inspiration from around the web for this shower.  We are going for a Anthropologie-ish feel.  We shopped for grapevine wreaths, nests, bird cages, birds, butterflies, feathers etc.  We took major advantage of all the Easter goodies on sale! 

Here are some links I love:

Modern Nesting-Hostess Blog

Vintage Nesting Part One-Pepper Design Blog

Vintage Nesting Part Two-Pepper Design Blog

Oh How Tweet Part 1-Hostess Blog

Oh How Tweet Part 2-Hostess Blog

More details coming soon!

Christmas Party

This weekend we had our Christmas Potluck Party.  I kept decorations simple and went with a red and aqua snowflake theme and it looked great!  The colors were fun and really popped against each other.  I ended up using one of my manzanita branch centerpieces.  They are just so versatile, I couldn't resist.  Hope you enjoy the pics!

Dining Table/Centerpiece

Plates from Hostess Jo

Red and aqua snowflake napkin rings from Print Your Party.  These were a big hit.

Red glitter snowflake ornaments.

Peppermints made the perfect filler for the base.

Drink Station
 

Pretty AND tasty Champagne Punch-get the recipe here.

Check out more photos on our Facebook page.  

Hope this inspires you to try different color combos for the holidays!  These colors would also be great for New Year's and winter themed parties.