How to Host a Mimosa Bar

What do I love most about the weekends? Brunch. 

And my brunch game has been on point lately! Nothing beats sitting outside in the shade at home with good friends, good food, and good mimosas! But since the heat is so ridiculous right now (mind you, it was 115 degrees today) we can't all have brunch outside and be comfortable. I decided that it was time to take our weekly brunch indoors, and then I put together a mimosa bar for everyone to enjoy!

Our mimosa bar was filled with all kinds of juices--orange, cranberry, grapefruit, passion fruit, watermelon, and pineapple juice! We made sure to keep some chilled champagne close by, and we invited everyone to make their own customized mimosa and kick back to enjoy some lunch with us.

Today, I'm sharing all of the details and step-by-step tutorials for the table decor and two special mimosa recipes: watermelon mint mimosa and gummy bear mimosa!

DIY Moss and Leaves Table Decor

We love to have friends come over to enjoy mimosas on the weekend--but this time of year, it is just too darn hot outside to sit out on the patio and enjoy drinks together. I figured what better way to bring some of the beauty from outside than with a table decorated with moss and leaves inspired by some of the lush plant life here in the Southwest!

To put together our DIY moss and leaves table decor, I gathered an assorted collection of faux palms, leaves, and moss. I trimmed the branches from their bunches and separated all of the leaves so that I could design my table specifically how I wanted.

The first thing I did after I separated the leaves was I laid out moss on top of our party table. I grabbed the biggest palm with a stem on it and made that the centerpiece of the table. Since my table was against the wall, I simply placed a small amount of tape behind the palm and let it stand up on its own.

I tucked four tall pieces of leaves between the wall and the table, and then I collected small bunches of the smallest leaves and placed those in-between the tall pieces. 

All of the lush desert plants found around the valley here in Phoenix inspired me to create this tablescape for our mimosa bar! We're so fortunate that our city is beautiful and well-landscaped, and not just a big pile of sand like most people would imagine Phoenix to look like. Sure, once you reach the outskirts of the city it's mostly dirt, sand, and cacti but all around our neighborhood you'll find plants that look just like the ones from our table decor!

DIY Print to Chalkboard Transfer

I have a confession to make--I have terrible handwriting!

That's right. And I'm not afraid to admit it! Honestly though, my handwriting is so atrocious I almost didn't pass one of my teaching courses at ASU (and for the 1 year of teaching I actually did, I would constantly have students complain how they couldn't read what I wrote on the board). Recently, I've really been trying to improve how my handwriting looks and I even attended a local handwriting class through Printable Crush Workshops. 

When I knew I wanted to make my own decorative chalkboard signs for our mimosa bar, I knew I had to find a solution. Rather than doing everything by hand, I discovered that you can transfer an outline of something from a piece of paper onto a chalkboard in only a few steps (and I am way better working on something with the computer, like a printout, because of a magical tool I use on the computer known as Control + Z!)

To throw together my decorative chalkboards for the table, I used: miniature chalkboard easels, white chalk, a fine point white chalk marker, a sharpened pencil, and a printout of what I wanted to transfer. 

To start, choose a design you want to put onto the chalkboard. Print it out on regular printer paper.

Place the piece of paper on top of your chalkboard face down (have the design touching the chalk and so that you are looking at the blank side of the paper). Rub a piece of chalk all over the paper and concentrate the chalk around where your design is on the other side. 

Flip the piece of chalk-covered paper over, and place it onto the chalkboard (design facing up). 

Using a sharp pencil, trace the design and gently press the pencil down as you trace along the lines (this is what leaves an imprint onto the board). Once you've finished tracing the design, gently lift the piece of paper up and off of the chalkboard.

Fill in the outline with a white chalk marker. Allow the chalk to dry for about 10 minutes, and then you can clean up the excess chalk (I recommend wetting a Q-tip and using that). 

Watermelon Mint Mimosa

Ingredients:

• 4 oz of watermelon juice
• 2 oz of extra dry champagne 
• 3 mint leaves
• 1/4 cup of watermelon

Directions:

1. Pour the watermelon juice and champagne into the flute.
2. De-seed the small pieces of watermelon and gently drop them into the champagne flute. 
3. Place the mint into the glass, and gently stir. Allow the drink to chill in the fridge or on ice for about 5 minutes. 
4. Enjoy!

Gummy Bear Mimosa

Ingredients:

• 4 oz of passion fruit juice
• 2 oz of extra dry champagne 
• 3-5 pieces of candy gummy bears

Directions:

1. Pour the passion fruit juice and champagne into the flute.
2. Gently drop some gummy bears into the champagne flute, and allow them to sit in the drink for about 5 minutes. Keep the drink chilled or keep it on ice.
3. Enjoy!

#FirstWorldProblems Survival Kit

"Because Adulthood is Hard" 

Being a functioning adult is pretty difficult 99% of the time. Adam and I joke all the time and say "I don't want to adult today" when we're just not feelin' it. And we know we're not alone!

That's why I put together a #firstworldproblems survival kit for our friends to take home after we enjoyed some mimosas! Our survival kit tackles everyday obstacles that make adulthood just that much more difficult to manage--like when your phone dies and you've lost your charger cable for the millionth time. Or when you're having the kind of day when all you want to do is toss a table because nothing goes right, so you resort to squeezing the living daylights out of an emoji stress ball to feel better. 

Sometimes being an adult is so difficult I can barely manage to take good care of myself. That's why we thought it would be nice to give everyone some sort of package with a bento box, so they can do a better job of meal planning and having more servings of fruits and vegetables.

Each survival kit comes with: a chic bento box with a plastic container, two emoji stress balls, a decorative extra-long phone charger, a to-do list pad, blank notecards, and a succulent.

Our Life-Hack Key to Eating More Fruits and Vegetables

We gave all of our guests a bento box as a part of their take-home survival kit because we know it can be difficult keeping track of whether or not you've had the right amount of fruits and vegetables! 

Adam and I shared our tutorial on how we like to meal prep to ensure we get the right amount of fruits and vegetables during our meals--with a bento box! This plastic food storage container is great for preparing fruits to snack on and we use our bento boxes to meal plan for the entire week during the weekend. 

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