milk & cookies and coffee and cocktails…

… we’ve got it all!

We’ll start with the coffee. As I’ve mentioned here before, Tram and her husband, Steve, own Press Coffee Roasters. They have locations in the Scottsdale Quarter and at Sky Harbor Airport.

Plus … there was a very special third, albeit temporary, location in my backyard on Saturday morning.

Steve came over on Friday and set up all the fancy machinery. I do not drink coffee, I know, weird for an adult, but it is what it is.

This means that I don’t know anything about coffee, except that I enjoy the smell of it and I adore the burlap sacks that the beans are shipped in. Oh, and I love love love coffee ice cream too!

Steve knows everything there is to know about coffee. As he was setting up, he tried his best to teach Peggy and me a thing or two. Peggy “drank it up” – the info and the coffee and she loved every drop of it.

Not only did we have our own Press Coffee station, but we also had our own barista to specially brew each cup for each guest to their specific tastes and requests.

Nanda graciously spent her Saturday morning serving coffee, even though her real job is Head Roaster at the Press Coffee Roastery. Thank you, Nanda, for not only spending your morning with us but for being a great group photo photographer too!

As you can see, the guests loved their coffee!

For some strange and somewhat annoying reason, most of the coffee table was taken up with coffee “stuff” – but I did manage to squeeze out the front corner for some decor to carry through the theme. A massive vintage scale and an old typewriter.

Three ABC flashcards added a pop of color to all that industrial-looking black.

Behind the station, on the kitchen window, I hung a couple of book page baker’s twine buntings. The book pages were taken from a nursery rhyme songbook that I found at a second-hand store.

On to the cocktail…

This photo was snapped at 5:00 AM on party day. You’ve gotta get up before the crack of dawn when you’re hosting 30 people for a 10:30 brunch!

The drink station was set up just across from the coffee station. The big wicker tub was filled with juices, sparkling waters, and lemonade. Glasses were on the tray to the right and the cocktail was in the center.

I called it Peach Rosemary Picker Upper, but it’s really just my popular Papaya-Rosemary “AM Picker Upper” – using peach nectar in place of papaya nectar. Quick Tip – fruit nectars can be hard to find in the juice aisle – they are most easily found, packaged in cans, in the Hispanic section of the grocery store.

Finally… it’s time for dessert!

In lieu of a cake, I decided to go with something I found, and adored, on Pinterest – Milk & Cookies. What would go more perfectly than that with my “school” theme!?!

Not to mention that I bought a vintage crate full of 30 mini-milk bottles, on eBay a couple of years ago.

Plus I’ve collected a few old insulated “milkman boxes” over the years. Are you old enough to remember when milk was delivered to your door? I was born in the ’60s and barely remember it. These boxes are getting harder and harder to come by.

I especially love this box that has the list of available dairy products printed on the inside of the lid.

Anyhow, back to the Milk & Cookies. Peggy and I assembled the bottles, straws, and cookies in my laundry room. I then carried them outside in this towel-lined crate and we transferred them to the milk and soda crates I had set up on the patio.

I mean, seriously …

… how darn adorable is this?

Guests could choose from plain ol’ milk, chocolate milk, or Frappuccinos (mocha, coffee, or vanilla favors) to go along with their chocolate chip cookie, which was sitting on top of the bottle with a straw through the center.

I did not trust myself to bake cookies with a hole in the middle and not have the hole close in on itself when it was baking. So I ordered them from a trusted and talented baker. More on her and her amazing cookies (these and another type that I ordered as party favors) in Friday’s post.

There were dozens of chalkboard signs at the shower, but this was, by far, my favorite. The milk bottles must be 60+ years old and are seriously scarred and even look a little dirty and dingy. Peggy wrote out this sign to assure the guests that the bottles were, in fact, clean as a whistle, having gone through the dishwasher just the night before!

And now for two of my favorite photos of Tram. This one, where she looks so beautiful and positively glowing.

And this candid shot that I’m sure she doesn’t even know exists. She is talking with her two best friends, Leyla and Dar, holding her milk and sharing her cookie with Dar, while innocently showing off that beautiful baby bump! xoxo

Tomorrow – all about the little decor details and some guest photos.

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