home decor – In Good Taste

How To Stock a Basic Bar Cart [Plus: Cocktails!]

Corinne Hanshaw — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:18:44 +0000

We’ve talked about how to style a basic bar cart for your home, but how do you make stock your basic bar cart to make it practical and functional, too? A good assortment of spirits, mixers, garnishes, glassware and a few pieces of key barware are paramount to getting your at-home bartending game on. Whether you’re stocking your first basic bar cart or replenishing your spirits for upcoming entertaining needs, here’s how to do it without breaking the bank. What You Need Spirits Mixers Garnishes Glassware Barware Spirits Buying a variety of spirits is important when stocking your first bar. When entertaining guests, it’s good to have some choices. It is unnecessary to have every type of liquor available but there are basic liquors that can be used different ways to suit many pallets. Here are the basic liquors to keep on hand: Vodka Tequila Gin Rum Bourbon Scotch is also a somewhat common liquor, but not one that is necessary to keep on hand unless you or multiple individuals that you entertain are fans. If you do decide to stock scotch, make sure you spend a little extra money for the good stuff — it is generally drank on the rocks. […]

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10 Beautiful Place Settings for Summer Dinner Parties

Maris Callahan — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 05:00:39 +0000

These 10 beautiful place settings for summer dinner parties range from fun an festive to easy and elegant; all the summer entertaining inspiration you need. I really, really like summer entertaining. If it were up to me, I’d have a dinner party every weekend, but of course in order to have that dinner party, I would need a beautiful penthouse condo — or maybe a beach house…or maybe both! Ha ha ha we can dream, right? I love to host because it means cooking and decorating and mixing cocktails and overall, making people happy in the moment because there isn’t much I can do about world peace, or racism or any of the other horrible things going on in the world, but when someone is holding a strawberry basil martini or sitting down to a coastal seafood dinner party, everything seems pretty perfect, even for a couple of hours. As much as I love cooking and menu planning, a dinner party is that much more special when you pull out all of the stops decorating a table. Now, before I lament on this, I’m going to fully disclose that in my tiny apartment, I don’t have an actual dining room table. I […]

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How to style a basic bar cart for your home

Guest Post — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 03:04:04 +0000

By Alexandria Heinz, FTD An everyday, basic bar cart may not have all the glam and pizzazz as one that’s decorated for a party — but it should still sparkle with basic bar cart essentials that reflect your own personal style. No matter what you choose to accessorize your bar cart with, there are a few things to consider to make it a decorative yet functional staple in your home. Style the shelves The top shelf of your bar cart should be stocked with the essentials. Do you pour yourself a glass of wine or whiskey after a long day at work? This is where you’ll place your wine glasses, whiskey glasses, decanter, or any other everyday essential. Don’t forget about the bottom shelf! Here is where you can store extra supplies such as liquor bottles, glasses, and other accessories. You can also use this space to store cocktail mixing accessories such as muddlers, shakers and an ice bucket. When choosing bottled ingredients such as bitters and mixers, opt for bottles that have a vintage-inspired look to add a touch of class. Include fresh ingredients Fresh fruit will make your bar cart pop with bold color. Citrus such as lemons, […]

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Six Household DIY Projects I’ll Probably Never Do

Maris Callahan — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 19:06:47 +0000

This month, Brad and I moved from our respective homes into the rear apartment in a big, beautiful old house in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Before this, I lived in a convertible studio in a downtown high rise (translation: beautiful apartment, minimal space) and Brad in a smaller apartment in a different big beautiful old house with his roommate of the better part of the last decade. Suffice to say, we have more space than we do stuff, so we don’t know what to do with a lot of the extra square footage. What we do know, is that both of us are filled with grandiose DIY ideas for how we’d like to fill said space. I love to buy pretty things and Brad loves woodworking and is excited about all of the different projects we’ve been scheming. It’s pretty much perfect. The thing is, we have some limitations. And I’m going to be blunt here: I’m one of those limitations. My creative ability and vision is decent, but my executional abilities are, well, lacking. As we’ve been crawling every corner of the web to look for ideas and inspiration, I keep finding things that, well, we’ll just never do. Now, I know, […]

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Five Feng Shui Tips for Your Kitchen

Guest Post — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 05:07:58 +0000

Laura Carillo of Narrative Space offers Feng Shui tips to help you enhance your kitchen’s energetic potential. By Laura Carrillo In Feng Shui, a system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy, the kitchen is considered a power center. It represents both health and prosperity. The concept of Narrative Space Feng Shui is simple: your home and in particular your kitchen is telling a story, your story. Every object in your environment is a physical affirmation of your present situation. Your kitchen is one of the most important “power centers” for your personal “chi” or energy in Feng Shui. It is where you nourish yourself and your family. Feng Shui is more than a practice, but a physical language that allows you to have a positive relationship with your environment and your personal chi (energy). I’m going to share my top 5 tips for enhancing your kitchen’s energetic potential. Stock the Fridge Have a fully stocked fridge with fresh produce and healthy ingredients. This symbolizes abundance and health and in turn supports your abundance and well-being. Let it Burn Utilize all of the burners on your stove equally as they represent metaphorical sources of abundance. […]

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