My Seattle Trip!

Last weekend I ventured to Seattle for the Seattle Home Decor and Gift Show and for a merchandising seminar. I really did not know what I was going to get out of the seminar... often times they arent what you think they are and you don't learn as much as you had hoped. This was NOT the case!

The Seminar was given by Alec Puskas who was the head of merchandising for Nordstrom for 10 years and the founder of a merchandising and interior design firm out of seattle called Visionart. The best part of the seminar was that there were only 12 of us!! We all got to pick his brain about how he does things... it was beyond cool!

Without going into an entire essay on how brilliant this man is let me just show you some of his work...

The Bravern, Bellevue Washington

Christmas Decorations for the Space Needle and City of Seattle, WA

Lulu Yang, The Fairmont Seattle

Trophy Cupcakes, Bellevue WA

Christmas Decorations, Bravern

The Nordstrom Corporate Rally, Seattle WA

The man is amazing... I came home so inspired it was nuts! I completely ripped apart my shop and re merchandised it when I got home! 

OK... enough about the seminar... I could go on and on!

I stayed at the Alexis while in seattle... one of my favorite hotels, I highly recommend it!!

Love their headboards!

While I was only in seattle for 24 hours I was able to meet up with my friend Emily and samples some yummy treats while in Seattle!

Happy Hour at Nijo Sushi and Grill! Lychee Martini, 

Dancing Shrimp, and vegetable croquettes!

Those jokesters at pike place!

Went to Lowell's! Don't be fooled by Sleepless in Seattle... The Athenian is not even close to being as delicious as Lowell's! 

Le Panier... Why do you do this to me every time?? 

I cant say no to those delicious macaroons!

SOO... that was my trip!! It was a quick one but a good one... 

I hope you are all having a marvelous memorial day weekend!!!

The day this man was born deserves some serious celebration...

Happy Birthday Matt!

 The best boyfriend any girl could ask for... I am so lucky! :)

I went with an ice cream pie... but this looks pretty good too! :)

It must be good luck to have rain at a bridal shower too...

Hello All! Sorry for the hiatus! I have been pretty busy... I am back in seattle! Here for a merchandising seminar and the Seattle Home Decor Show! Its been a lot of fun... more on that later..

For now I want to share with you the photos of a lingerie shower that I co-hosted last weekend with my friend Kayla. We had a blast! The party favors were P&P monogrammed wine glasses, which will be available on etsy my the end of the week... I have perfected the design thanks to this shindig!

Here are the pics!

The Setting!

The cake that matched our invitation! :)

Everyone got one! It was so much fun designing these...

Yum!

The hosts kickin it before the guests arrived... we popped a bottle early! 

Call me a cliche... but you cant have a party at a vineyard without gourmet cheese...

Kayla's Smashed pea and pesto crustini 

(I need to get the recipe. so yummy and colorful!)

My salmon puffs! They are so good and a total of 4 ingredients. pretty clutch. 

Everyone settling in before gifts

The beautiful bride all set!

Such pretty things.

My gift to Lynne... every bride has to have one!

A closeup of that detailed cake...

and after... completely destroyed!

So is it good luck to have rain at a bridal shower?? I think so!!

Have a fabulous day! I am off to my merchandising seminar and then to Pike Place Market! :)

All My Favorite Flaws...

I feel like I have been so busy recently that I haven't had the time to just relax... thank goodness I was able to go away a few weeks ago to carmel. I had a week to just relax with my family. It made me think about the things about myself I wanted to work on... but then again... It also made me think of my flaws that I don't want to change. All of the little things that might not be perfect, but that make me who I am. Which kind of made me laugh... I have never been someone who has strived for perfection. I have strived to be different. I hate cookie cutter. I am not into new construction, the white picket fence lifestyle is not something I want... unless there is a messy art studio in the back and dirty laundry in the mud room.

I love that about myself... so I have decided to do an entire post on... All my favorite flaws- because perfect is boring.

1. My desk will never be clean. My coffee mug will always be dirty and there will always be an extra pair of flip flops strew about under my desk. My papers are at best 70% organized and its good enough for me!

Imagine it like this... only after an earthquake... 

2. The dent in my car. I have a 2007 red ford escape. Someone hit the back of the car the summer I bought the car (2007) and I STILL haven't fixed it. I have grown accustom to saying "its the red ford escape with the Sun Valley sticker and the dent in the back".

3. I love solitude. Some people would call this a flaw. Sometimes I will take a month off from being social. I workout more, I hike, I read, I get caught up on whatever showtime historical drama they are featuring (was the Tudors... now the Borgias). Its the best! I own a shop in a small town... my job is very social. Its nice to go home at the end of the day and be alone... or just throw on my yoga pants and grab a pizza at Mezza Luna (the pizza place below my apartment) with Matt.

4. I laugh at inappropriate moments. I cant help it. Its usually when people are arguing in public or in the middle of dealing with a crisis. At times when people are already really irritated that little voice in my head goes off "whatever you do... DONT LAUGH" and then I am done for.

I would like to take this time to apologize to my family and friends who have encountered this... Mostly my mother... and a few sorority sisters- you know who you are and I love you for putting up with me. :) 

5. I am hopelessly addicted to caffeine. Everyone already knows this. I go from moody to serene in a matter of a single sip of a cappuccino. I have a problem... I get it. But until they build some kind of a spa like rehab facility for a caffeine addiction I don't plan on doing anything about it... and even then I will probably relapse.

this brings me to my next favorite...

6. I...at any given point, will have no less than 10 empty starbucks, allan bros, dutch bros, etc coffee cups in the back of my car. 

More character for the spicy escape with the dent in the back.

... or just throw them in the back of my car... its fine. 

7. I can't really grasp the concept of efficient grocery shopping. Its like deer in the headlights when I am at the store and I just start pulling things that look good... Toward the end of the week I end up having meals that don't go together... such as tacos with steamed asparagus and asian ginger salad or Chicken parm with veggie fried rice.

I am such a planner... but I just cant get it together.

8. I am easily distracted. I love this one because I am never bored! I mean you may have to snap your fingers in front of my face when we are trying to focus on something that is time consuming (and well... boring). But other than that... It really doesn't effect me. I am going 10 different directions at once at work all the time anyway... things are NEVER boring there and I am constantly working on new things so it almost caters to my ADD-esque lifestyle.

(Goldfish on average have a 15 second memory span and are easily distracted by shiny objects... 

I can relate)

Thats all I can think of... but make no mistake there are plenty I need to change as well. But who wants to focus on the negative??

What are your favorite flaws?? 

My Summer Reading List... and one more monogrammed item I didn't need...

I am so excited about my recent trip to Borders... I am tired of my workout music and I have decided to read while working out. Somehow I think it will be a little more fulfilling than Lady Gaga (no offense to Gaga...) I went a little overboard and bought quite a few for the summer! Heres hoping I have time to lay by the pool and read a few as well!

1. The Girl Who Chased the Moon

2. The Shadow of the Wind

3. The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Thanks to my sis Molly for the recommendation!)

4. The Devil in the White City

5. The Intellectual Devotional Biographies (Thanks to my mom for the rec!! This is more of a refresher course in world history and is kind a cool book to look through. Its a book of 1 page essays of notable people throughout history...From Henry VIII to Lizzie Borden. Will make a fabulous coffee table book when I have breezed through it)

Lets keep our fingers crossed that I will have time to relax this summer! 

also...

I received my Daninotes iphone cover in the mail this week...

So cute! I love it. 

Check her out if you haven't already:

www.daninotes.com

which one will I order next??

Oh my goodness gracious! Tiffany and Co giveaway??

Lindsey at Dolce Vita is giving away one item from Tiffany and Co to celebrate her 200th follower... its pretty spectacular. I am considering something similar when I get close to 200... I mean hello! How amazing!??

So all of you lovely bloggers scoot on over to the link below and sign yourselves up!

Lindsey's Dolce Vita Tiffany Giveaway!

... or even if you are not a Tiffany lover (no judgements)... scoot over and follow anyway because her blog is really cute and obviously she is fabulous to be doing something like this! 

Hooray its Friday!!

Today is going to be awesome!

Not only is it the last day of the work week, BUT ALSO

MY wonderful boyfriend and I are having a really fun date night tonight...

FIRST: He is taking me to a ducks baseball game at PK Park, which I have yet to go to one this year so its going to be really fun!

Then! Matt is taking me to see Water for Elephants because I finished reading the book last week which was amazing! It only took me 2 days to read the entire book... I couldn't put it down.  

Yay! So excited... I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!