friendsday night DIY cocktail bar.

Can I gush for a moment here? San Francisco has been so darn good to me in the friend-making department. I’m still amazed that I’ve been able to meet such awesome people in the six months since we moved out here – making friends is not easy! It was definitely a much slower process when I first moved to Chicago but in SF I really feel good about the gals that have come in my life and threw a little impromptu get together a few weeks ago to celebrate the awesomeness that is friendship with a few cocktails and snacks. I mean, why not throw a little rooftop cocktail party on a Wednesday night?

I mean seriously, how cute are Andi and Aimee?!

*Photos by Tory Putnam (another great friend who unfortunately was behind the camera for these shots ;))

As much as I’ve loved the idea of entertaining in the past (uh, have you seen my Pinterest boards?), I’ve also stressed myself out way too much about it thinking that every detail had to be perfectly planned – it got to the point where I’d always dismiss the thought of having friends over or throwing a little party because I was ultra intimidated by the amount of work that had to go into it. I’m amazed by the people that can pull off a sit down dinner party for 20 with centerpieces and gorgeous calligraphy placecards but that girl ain’t me and let’s face it, it probably never will be. My new approach? Small, causal and hands-on. It’s much more fun that way!

For our little rooftop cocktail party I made a quick stop at the grocery store for snacks (Trader Joe’s is THE BOMB for this. Grab some hummus, veggies, cheese and whatnot and you’re all set!) and pulled together a DIY cocktail bar for everyone to whip up their own custom concoctions. We started with IZZE’s new Organic Sparkling Waters as our base – I’m a huge fan of IZZE and the light flavoring and bubbles got our cocktails off to the perfect start. We had a few fresh juice options to pair with the IZZE Sparkling Waters – lime, orange and raspberry – which added a fun pop of color and went well with the interesting flavor combos in the IZZE. We finished things off with vodka, some fresh citrus as a garnish, some cocktail glasses with ice and adorable paper straws and voila! Easy cocktails that were tailored to each person’s individual tastes.