Cinco de Mayo!

All Images – Stefanie Knowlton Photography

It’s Fiesta  time! Well almost…

Why not get an early start on your Cinco de Mayo celebration?

 Teamed up with talented photographer Stefanie Knowlton on this one!

Thank you Stefanie!!

Okay, we get it…for some, Cinco de Mayo is an easy excuse to kick back a killer margarita and

consume copious amounts of  salsa. {Like that’s a bad thing, right???}

No matter! It’s  the countdown to the 5th of May and we’re rolling out

Cinco de Mayo central!

Gotta admit I’m going a little loco  over this crazy

colorful corner and it’s so simple to pull together!

Cinco de Mayo falls on a Tuesday this year – but you can create an easy & super fresh mid-week

at home  celebration and here’s the how to:

First, a little furniture move.  I cleared & repositioned my

white entertaining shelves and filled them with Cinco de Mayo essentials.

I  “skirted” a bar height table with fun fabric from a favorite

Southern California shop – Juxtaposition.

{Thank you for introducing me  Miss Jeanne!}

Next, I added festive pieces from West Elm to hold my,

cocktail garnishes, flowers and Cinco de Mayo bites! I also dotted the

tablescape with bingo cards I picked up at a fave hispanic market!

Speaking of flowers – check out the pop of color from

REAL flower magnets!

For the easy fiesta fare –  I whipped up south of the border infused bites like this gorgeous and…

a little tipsy pineapple salsa with fresh pineapple, peppers, tomatoes, chives, cilantro

and a splash of Grand Marnier!

 I baked up a simple cinnamon & spice dessert! It’s just a batch of

cinnamon cupcakes topped with a dollop of

vanilla and Grand Marnier icing then sprinkled with lime zest. 

And now for the all important COCKTAIL!

It’s not Cinco de Mayo without a mouthwatering margarita!

I came up with this fiery blood orange  marg with fresh squeezed blood oranges!

To spice things up, I made a batch of jalapeño simple syrup ’cause…some like it HOT!

Jalapeno simple syrup:

1 cup sugar to 1 cup H2O

3 sliced rounds of jalapeño – seeds removed

Simmer on the stove top for 5 minutes, cool, remove peppers and chill! 

I even fired up my NEW snow cone maker and created spring

snowballs with tipsy blood orange simple syrup! 

1/2 cup blood orange juice

1/2 cup water

1.5 cups sugar

splash of Grand Marnier 

Of course I had to gussy up the glasses! I’m a little obsessed with the papel picado  thing right now so

I created decorative straw embellishments with Martha Stewart’s stained glass punches.

LOVE the Mexican Folk Art vibe and it only took a minute to make!

Thank you Martha!

Cheers to Cinco de Mayo! 

{PS – If SHE looks happy, perhpas it’s because NO photo shoot props went to waste! #BestMargaritasEver!}

More to come….