warm up here.

It’s January in Minnesota!  Brrrrrr….

But we don’t complain, do we?  No, we embrace the cold.  We build castles out of ice to celebrate the frozen beauty that is all around us.

This year Stillwater is home to an Ice Castle, if you haven’t heard about it, check out {this video}.  On Christmas Eve my family and I stopped by to check out the progress on the castle and it was looking pretty awesome.  It’s scheduled to open tomorrow.  Be sure to {buy tickets online} in advance if you plan to go see it.

Snow boots and warm clothing are recommended.  And if you do go see it, be sure to stop by Reclaiming Beautiful afterwards (see their hours at the end of this post).  They are just a couple of blocks up the hill from the castle.  They’ll be serving up free hot chocolate this weekend for anyone who needs to warm up after being outside for a while.

Just to get you in the hot chocolate mood, I stopped by the shop last weekend and Susan and I had some fun putting together a few different hot cocoa bars starting with this farmhouse style set up.

Isn’t the little cow creamer adorable?  If you haven’t tried adding a flavored creamer to your hot chocolate, you don’t know what you are missing.  I recommend a white chocolate raspberry creamer or peppermint.  Yum!

I love these green dishes, they have such a vintage farmhouse vibe.  There is a whole set of them for sale in the shop.  And who says you can’t serve hot chocolate using a vintage silver coffee pot?

We set up this cocoa bar in a rustic barn wood tray that was placed on this gorgeous blue sideboard.

I whipped up a couple of chalkboards for our photo shoot (and they are for sale in the shop).  I used one of them for this next holiday themed hot chocolate station.

I know, I know, Christmas is over.  But the shop still has some holiday merchandise at bargain prices.  I thought this set of red and white dishes was totally charming.  I love the gingham trim.

Why not use a rusty old caddy and some vintage canning jars to contain your cocoa ingredients?

I love the combination of the almost industrial looking galvanized tray with the soft furry faux sheepskin.

It’s all set up on this gorgeous empire style dresser that is marked down to $150.  Yep, you read that right, $150.  It almost sold right out from under me while I was staging it for these photos, but at the last moment the potential buyer walked away so you may still be able to nab it.

For our third hot cocoa bar we decided to get a little classy.

Silver, gold and white is always a classic winter-y combo.

You won’t go wrong serving up some treats in stemmed glasses.

This set up was perfect on top of this beautiful sideboard painted in a silvery grey.

We set up one last hot chocolate bar for you in the shop window.

There is a charming little red dresser in the window, so it was perfect for some more red and white.

Check out the farm animal knobs!  Adorable.

I couldn’t resist using that galvanized metal tray again here, and adding a sweet little ironstone plate full of cookies.

So remember, you have two options for warming up after visiting the ice castle.  Stop in at Reclaiming Beautiful for some free hot cocoa, or stop in and get some fantastic vintage supplies to set up your own hot cocoa bar at home!

Reclaiming Beautiful is open Thursday thru Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.  They are located in Stillwater at 216 Myrtle Street West right next to the post office!

 Please note, inventory moves quickly at Reclaiming Beautiful and each piece is one of a kind.  The pieces I’ve featured were all available as of December 31, but may have since sold.  If you would like to inquire about a specific item, please feel free to send an email to Monique@reclaimingbeautiful.com.