MONICA’S 34TH BIRTHDAY SOIRÉE

[bigletter]It’s the pinnacle of summer, the warmest month of the year, when most of the world is too hot to do anything other than relax, gather and indulge under the sun. Luckily for me, it’s also my birthday and as you might expect I happen to love it for this very reason. August 12th is always a good day to celebrate something, including yours truly. So I hosted an intimate dinner party with some friends on my recently renovated rooftop garden. The inspiration essentially being the same as every year, all things summer, but with a twist; an orange twist!?[/bigletter]

Dare I say orange might be the new pink?

Not exactly, however, they do compliment one another well and given my fondness for citrus, aka aperol spritz, I allowed the theme of my soirée to be the profound Italian words I became most familiar with during my time abroad in Italy:

Cin Cin!

Cin Cin is simply cheers in Italian, and I believe French culture as well. With origins in Cantonese the phrase for me just reminds me of being in Verona and relaxing every afternoon along the piazza with my girlfriends, an aperiftivo in front of us to share and absolutely nothing else to do. It’s not exactly the way I want to live each day now but it’s most certainly a recipe for what summers nights like this should feel like.

As were my perfect party favor find, these amazing aperol spritz flavored candies

And despite the typical rush of adrenaline I tend to get when executing my lengthy vision board of a tablescape or event details I actually am proud to say that for the first time, in a long time, I actually took my own feedback as a therapist and reminded myself to enjoy the process. I slowed myself down by allowing ample amounts of time to execute calmly and intently, letting things happen as they may and not sweating the small stuff.

And the result of perhaps five years of de-perfectionism work just so happened to pay off in these very moments. I finally managed to LET. IT. GO.

The results of course, magic.

Both on and off screen I must add!

Despite Parker’s insistence on stealing multiple olives and chips from my display and his last minute decision to head the table on my lap, Parker stole the hearts of my guests in addition to my favorite fromager d’affinois, a perfect distraction while Arthur whipped up the main courses on my menu.

Speaking of menus…. I made this one all by myself!

After hours of etsy scrolling I finally just decided to make my own mid-summer menu with all the Mediterranean inspired dishes I love and beautiful watercolor designs to go with them using Canva.

Included are all my favorites this time of year, fresh veggies, my absolute favorite brie cheese and pasta with clams! The granita al limone is essentially Capri’s version of Chicago’s Italian ice, which I grew up savoring every summer growing up. So I scooped out lemons and stuffed them with an amazing sorbet I found at the store and made the display my birthday treat, sparklers and all!