Flowers: Bridal Bouquet

Hello all! It's been a busy season here at Christoffers, hope everyone as been having a very happy holiday so far! On a different note here are some photographs of a bridal bouquet that we created recently. I  really love the color scheme, it's rarely used and is therefore all the more special! Yellows, whites and greens are a perfect combination for Spring or Fall Weddings!

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Christoffers 12 Days of Christmas

This year Christoffers is celebrating Christmas in a whole new way! Each day we will be featuring different giftware in the store, make sure to check our blog or facebook everyday, there might be a few surprises for our customers along the way!

Food: Five Spice Gingersnaps

Here's a recipe for the cookies that I made last year for Christmas! They're tons of fun to make and taste good as well!

yield: Makes about 3 dozen cookies

active time: 1 hr

total time: 10 hr

Ingredients 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg

• Special equipment: parchment paper; a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter; a piping tip with a 1/4-inch plain round opening (if making cookies into ornaments); pastry bags or several small heavy-duty sealable plastic bags (optional)

• Garnish: decorative icing (optional).

Dicrections

Make dough:
Whisk together flour, five-spice powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Pulse ginger with 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground.

Add syrup, butter, egg, and remaining 3/4 cup sugar to processor and blend until mixture is thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add flour mixture and pulse just until a dough forms. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 8 hours to allow flavors to develop.

Bake and ice cookies:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Quarter dough. Keeping remaining 3 pieces wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled, roll out 1 piece of dough on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper with a lightly floured rolling pin to 3/4 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on wax paper until firm.) Cut out rounds with cutter and transfer to 1 lined baking sheet, arranging cookies about 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until slightly puffed and a shade darker, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheet. If desired, make holes with piping tip near edges to hang cookies, then transfer cookies (still on parchment) to a rack to cool completely. (Cookies will flatten slightly as they cool.)

While first batch is baking, roll out and cut another batch, arranging cookies on second lined sheet. Bake in same manner, then gather scraps and chill until dough is firm enough to reroll, 15 to 20 minutes. Make more cookies with scraps (reroll scraps only once) and remaining pieces of dough, cooling sheets and lining them with fresh parchment before using.

If using icing and coloring it, transfer small batches of icing to small bowls, 1 for each color, and tint with food coloring. Spoon each color of icing into a separate pastry bag, pressing out excess air. Twist bag firmly just above icing, then decoratively pipe icing onto cookies. Let icing dry completely (about 1 hour, depending on humidity) before serving or storing cookies.

Cooks' notes:•Cookies are best when dough is chilled 8 hours to allow flavors to develop, but if you're in a hurry, dough can be chilled just 2 hours. Dough can be chilled up to 3 days.
•Using a pastry bag fitted with a piping tip results in cleaner lines of icing, but you can use small sealable plastic bags. Spoon each color of icing into a separate sealable bag, pressing out excess air, and snip an 3/4-inch opening in 1 bottom corner of each bag.
•Cookies keep, layered between sheets of parchment if iced, in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.

Recipe courtesy Epicurious.com

DIY: Print Your Own Gift Tags

For me wrapping gifts was always a drag, that was until I made it into a sort of creative challenge. Now every year I discover new and fun ways to decorate the gift. And no gift is complete without a cool gift tag! Below I have a few different ways/concepts/inspirations for your gift tags this season! You can also click here to view our Pinterest Board!

Here are some great ones that you can print out at home that I found on Poppytalk! (Click on image to enlarge and print)

If you don't have a printer but happen to live near a Trader Joe's this is a great way to recycle those festive brown bags! (Click on image for more information)

Or if you're tight on time you can always stop in at Christoffers and purchase this lovely pack of twelve Christmas Tags!

Handy Tips

Every summer we grow herbs in our backyard, it's a great and very easy way to save money. But then winter rolls around and the plants are gone, leaving us only with one option, to buy them from the grocer. I just found this amazing idea on Pinterest where you can freeze your herbs in olive oil and just throw them in the pan as needed! Really can't wait to try this!

Just in at Christoffers!

Look at these gorgeous Southern Magnolia leaves that just arrived!

Paper Art: Paper Shades

I've always been a fan of paper art, mostly because the materials are so readily available to me. If I'm in the mood for a cool DIY I can just grab a few pieces of paper and an X acto blade and I'm ready to start creating! I found this series, Paper Shades on Pinterest the other day and fell in love with the simplicity  of it. What's your favorite kind of paper art?

Music: Christmas Playlist

It's December, which means that it is, with out a doubt Christmas Season! All the radio stations are playing those tracks specially saved for this time of year, helping you get in the mood for Christmas! For some of you it means attending parties and getting ready for that long car ride to a relatives house, but for others it means hosting and creating just the right atmosphere for the occasion. One of the major elements to any party is the music, it can be hard to compile a couple of hours of holiday music without the tracks starting to repeat themselves. And there are always those house guests that detest holiday songs. So I have compiled a playlist of music to help you out, there are some decidedly holiday songs in here but a lot of them just have that merry spirit that you want for your party. Take a listen below! What song means Christmas to you? Mine is Cyndi Lauper's Early Christmas Morning!

Food: Pistachio Pesto

Photographs and recipe courtesy of SPROUTED KITCHEN.