Valentine’s with the Girls

Oh sweet lovely Valentine’s Day. Most will say it’s a hallmark holiday, set up to make businesses money, or to just make those who don’t have a significant other feel bad. I’ll agree with it for the most part, but essentially it’s about love, to yourself and those closest to you. Although, I will be spending the day with J, I wanted to gather up my favorite ladies for a Galentine’s get-together, with sweets, sips, and cookie decorating, mostly an afternoon to show them how much I like them and love spending time with them.I choose simple blooms – spray roses, alstroemeria, tulips and gerber daises in ombre shades of white, soft pink and fuchsia. Please don’t mind the lack of photos from our get-together. It was a cloudy, dark afternoon and there isn’t much light to begin with in the living room, so the few shots I did manage to capture just before guests arrived came out on the darker side, not my style, but the few snippets will hopefully show you the lovely afternoon me and the girls had.

I served up a bountiful cheese platter with brie, manchego, midnight moon “goat’s milk, {which has become one of my new favorite cheeses} alongside honey, dried figs, dried cranberries, almonds, and olives I seasoned with olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and oregano. Guests created their own crostinis, and everyone’s favorite was my staple – brie topped with figs and a drizzle of honey. Yum!

There were chocolate covered strawberries, sweet candy treats, mouth-watering Rocq Macarons {found at Whole Foods markets}, and a Champagne ombre cake {recipe coming this week}. The ladies sipped on water chilled with raspberry ice, coffee, tea, and a Cupid’s Cup Cocktail. 

The afternoon was about decorating cookies, where the girls sprinkled pearls, wrote love messages, and dusted glitter on gingerbread and sugar cookie hearts, which they either ate on the spot or bagged up to take to their special someone, but mostly as a treat for themselves. In the midst of showing different piping techniques and being covered in icing, I didn’t manage to capture any shots…I definitely need a photographer. But the laughs and great comments each gal had at the end of our Galentine’s was well worth it.

Cookies weren’t the only thing the ladies went home with, they were given a personalized take out container to fill with candy, a nail polish color of choice, one of these bead keychains, and a recipe card for the sugar cookies and icing. 

I had plans to create a backdrop and a balloon display but didn’t have the time due to feeling under the weather the week leading up. But I realized that like Valentine’s Day with your love, sweet and simple is always the best way to go. It was perfect and lovely enough to forget the cold and piles of snow outside, and made all of us ladies feel like girls. It’s great what just two hours doing something creative with friends can do, so if you have no plans this Valentine’s, call up your closest girlfriends, serve up some cheese, wine or champagne, macarons and chocolate. Laugh, dish out on all your broken hearts, and go ahead watch all those romantic movies, we all deserve a little love and there’s nothing better than the love of your friends.