Creating a Candy Bar

Being that I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friends' wedding not all that long ago, it also necessarily involved throwing a great bridal shower. Along with all the decorations, games, and regular food, we created a candy table that ended up looking really great, if I do say so myself. :)

If you've never done it before, it can seem like somewhat of a daunting task with all of the different elements, but I think I've now got a good handle on the best way to get all of them to come together and look really great. I decided that it might help someone else out there to have some tips on making this aspect of a bridal shower, wedding, or really any event come together as smoothly as possible, even when you are on a budget like me.

Candy Buffet!

1) Ok, so you've decided to do a candy bar for your event. Wonderful idea. Your first task is to keep your eye out all the time for whimsical glass jars, bowls, and containers to use. If you go to some of the more expensive places, you can end up spending your life savings on glass containers... so don't. Enlist the other event helpers to check out their local thrift stores for unusual-shaped glass items. You'll want ones of different heights and shapes, so keep that in mind. The display will look the best if you can keep all the containers with the same clear glass theme. The places I had the most luck finding these items at reasonable prices were:

• Thrift Stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.)
• Craigslist (make this website your best friend! it really pays off -- make your own "looking to buy" ad, as well as checking ones from sellers.)
• Your mom/aunt/friend/other person who already has these items for you to borrow
• World Market
• HomeGoods Store -- I had never been into one of these stores before this project, and it's got a lot of cool stuff! The glass containers are some of the most reasonably priced with the largest variety you'll find at any regular kind of store.

2) Choose a color scheme. The presentation will be much more eye-catching if you stick with 2-3 color options. Our colors were blue and green, obviously, but it can be a bit of a challenge to find candies that are in that range -- you'll just have to think outside the box for that one and come up with unique ideas to stay as close to homogeneous as possible with the colors.

3) Find scoops to scoop up the candy! This was the hardest thing for me to find. Everywhere I looked online seemed to have very expensive options. In the end, I found very nice metal scoops at World Market, along with a few others from a local dollar store and thrift store. You may also need tongs or a cake server -- so check with friends and family, or go to World Market for those too.

4) Create or find labels to label each candy type. Our maid-of-honor found a really cute set of labels made especially for a candy table from a local party supply store, with three different display formats: cards folded into a "v" to place directly on the table surface, labels attached to popsicle sticks to place directly into the candy, and ones with ribbon to tie around the outside of the container. Obviously each display format will not work for every type of candy, so it was easier for us to go through the options the night before and pick which containers would have which labels and candy type, so that we didn't have to worry too much about figuring that out the day of the party.

• A great place to purchase labels or get ideas is Etsy, like these cute printable labels you can order.

5) Find the candy and other items for the candy bar! Depending on where you live, it can be a bit of a challenge to find bulk candy to put in the containers. Living in Virginia, we had the most luck at Wegman's and Martin's. It got a little annoying at times to pick out the candies with the blue or green wrappers from the bulk bins, but it looks a lot nicer in the end, so it's worth spending your time doing that. I spent a lot of time figuring out if it was more expensive for me to purchase the candy in-store or online, and by far it was cheaper in-store. Even with certain websites offering discounts and/or free shipping, it still wasn't worth it.

Here are some helpful ideas for items that you can make for a candy bar, and the ingredients/colors used can be interchanged depending on your color scheme:

• Double Blueberry Pie - I actually made this with blackberries for the party, but again with blueberries later. It's a really delicious pie and very refreshing with fresh berries on it. If one of your colors is red or pink, try raspberries or strawberries.
• Cookie Balls - Use food coloring to make the white chocolate coating the appropriate color for your scheme. I used regular double stuf oreos instead of the mint, but either would taste great.
• Chocolate-Covered Pretzels, Sugar Cookies - Do the same thing with the food coloring as for the cookie balls.
• Mochi - This is a delicious Japanese dessert that is really easy to make. Use the basic mochi recipe with food coloring to make it whatever color you want.

6) Set up the display, and enjoy eating your creation! Yum!

Just Hungry

One of my favorite foodie blogs is Just Hungry. This is the perfect blog to visit if you have thought about trying to cook Japanese food but don't know where to start. The recipes are all very authentic and cover a huge variety of food types (from the Japanese food you're probably familiar with to things that you didn't even know existed). There are even guides to help you cook rice properly, make your own tofu, or understand the plethora of different types of rice.

Sukiyaki - One of my favorites!

A closely-related side project is Just Bento. I for one get board of packing a sandwich every day for lunch - and this is a great alternative to that. There are some great [healthy] ideas on the site, and not just for what you would assume to be specifically Japanese foods.

Spring vegetable bento with jumping fish - so cute!

And just in case you prefer actual cookbooks to online blogs, there is a Just Bento cookbook!

In the Empire State of Mind

It has been a few weeks now since Michael and I returned from our weekend getaway over Presidents Day weekend in New York. Being one of those great trips that is jam packed with lots of events, the time went by extremely fast.

We took the Vamoose bus from Rosslyn extremely early on Friday morning. It was very convenient that the bus had internet, so I was able to work for a few hours on the bus to save some of my time off. After arriving at Penn Station, of course Michael had to make a stop into B&H -- which has every photography-related item you could ever want to purchase. Of course this can be very dangerous, because it's like taking a kid to a very expensive candy store. B&H even has this cool conveyor belt system that carries all the merchandise to the cash register for purchase. It is also run by a group of Hasidic Jews, so most of them have the really identifiable and neat hairstyle. After dropping off our bags at the Doubletree, we stopped for lunch at Turkish Kitchen. I had my eyelash curling appointment at Lavilash, and afterward met Michael at the flatiron building and had a delicious nutella and banana crepe from one of those food trucks. We strolled over to Vada Spa for my eyelash and eyebrow tinting appointment, and spent a long time after that enjoying the wonderful street performers in Washington Square Park. It was a lovely day and very comfortable weather, maybe around 60 degrees.

On Saturday morning, we grabbed a bagel at Bagel Bob's and went over to Michael's favorite coffee place in the city. I think that a total of maybe 6 people can fit into the coffee shop -- it is so tiny that we were all packed in there. I actually didn't mind though, because it stays nice and warm in there! Saturday was quite a change from Friday, as it was actually quite chilly. After a few hours at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), we met up with my coworker, Shez, and her husband for dinner at a really cool tea house. We all cabbed it over to a comedy show and had a great time laughing at some seriously funny comedians.

Michael trying on the latest NY fashion...

Sunday was the day for me -- I went to have my hair Japanese straightened! I arrived in Brooklyn around 8:30, grabbed a quick croissant to eat from a little bakery on the way, and finished up the process around 1PM. It was definitely a long morning, but completely worth it. My hair is now wash & go -- I absolutely love it. It's straight, but also very silky and not damaged. I won't bore you with the intimate details, but my yelp review is very thorough. I took the subway over to Williamsburg to meet Michael for lunch at the Rabbithole Restaurant and also so that he could show me what he loves about Williamsburg so much -- if and when we move to New York, that's where he would want to live. After heading back to Manhattan, we did some shopping and bought some tea from this amazing little tea shop -- I bought a chrysanthemum tea and a tea that tastes like Christmas. They are wonderful. Craving seafood, we ended up eating at the Mermaid Oyster Bar and enjoyed some tasty oysters and mussels. It was a very romantic dinner, and I had a great time.

It snowed on Monday morning... so much for that beautiful warm weather from Friday! Packing up our suitcase, we headed out to an appointment for teeth whitening at Park South Dentistry. I did not realize this, but apparently my teeth were already pretty white -- before the procedure, they were already whiter than the teeth-whitening scale even went. After lunch at a little bistro (French Roast), Michael and I ran over to DLK skin care for the photofacial -- unfortunately, by far the worst experience of the trip. They were running so late that even though I warned them when I had to leave, I was totally ignored and ended up getting back to the Vamoose bus only 10 minutes before it was leaving to go back to DC! That was a very close call.

Some of my appointments were wonderful (actually, most of them), but then some were less than desirable. Even though some things I would never do again, I think that the amount of money I saved on the other ones makes me feel at least a little bit better about it. You can check out detailed reviews from my experiences through my NYC list of Yelp reviews.

In the Empire State of mind

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