A New Business Website

As some of you may know, several years ago I started a wedding flower business. Flower arrangements are one of my passions. I can't imagine not working with flowers, even if it's more of a hobby at this point than a source of income. It's a fantastic creative outlet and it's certainly provided me with great opportunities.

In an effort to continue bringing in those opportunities, I created a website for my business. Initially I used Wordpress to help me build what I wanted, but I found the interface to be too difficult to use. So recently, I made the switch to a website builder called Wix and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Here is the URL for my business, Big City Blooms - www.bigcityblooms.com. If you know anyone looking for a budget-friendly florist in the Pacific Northwest area, please send them my way!

What Have We Been Up To?

Well hello everyone! Long time no post, right? Life has been crazy busy lately and I feel like I've treated the blog like a bit of a redheaded stepchild - it just hasn't been a huge priority compared to everything else going on in my life. What the heck has been going on, you might ask? Here's the rundown:

I've been working on decorating our master bedroom, which I'm ridiculously excited about. For the past two years the room has basically been a blank slate with zero personality so I'm looking forward to completing the transformation. I should probably share before and after photos, but I'd like to wait until I'm a bit farther along in the project.

We also ran our first 5k as a family. To be honest, the incentive for me was the free donut at the end of the race (Top Pot Donuts here in Seattle sponsored the event). Still, it felt good to complete something together and I'm sure there will be more races in our future, possibly even another marathon.

Let' see, what else... The boys turned 7 months old. I can hardly believe it! They are finally on solids as well. So far the only foods that trigger automatic gag reflexes for them are broccoli and blended meats. Can you blame them? Here they are enjoying squash puree. Mm... squishy mush.

I was also part of a friend's wedding in California back in April. Man did it feel good to have somebody throw me in a nice dress and then do my make-up and hair. After months of looking completely disheveled, which comes with the job of being a stay-at-home mom, I finally felt like I looked semi-presentable. Of course I bawled my eyes out through the entire wedding ceremony (it was beautiful) and quickly smeared away all of the make-up, but it was nice while it lasted. P.S. I'm convinced that tears flow much more freely after you've had kids, but that's a debate best saved for another time.

We also somehow ended up hosting one or two dinner events at our house PER WEEK during the month of April, which was insane, but also a lot of fun. Then there were trips to the zoo, birthday celebrations, and multiple twins club gatherings.

*Exhale*

Here's to getting back into the swing of things with the blog this week and sharing inspiring things once again with you all!

My Floral Portfolio Finds a Home

With a little help from one of my friends who specializes in graphic design, I've finally been able to build a website for my floral business, Big City Blooms. 

There are still a few updates to be made, but I'm satisfied with the product overall. Have a look and let me know what you think!

Candy Cakes

January is a busy month for birthdays in our family and with our oven out of service at the moment, baking cakes isn't an option for creating celebratory sweets.  I got to thinking about alternative solutions and somewhere in my Internet searching, I came across Sweet Servings.  She created a candy cake, you guys! Maybe this kind of thing has been around for a while, but it's news to me. What a neat idea!

The one that Cindy from Sweet Servings created.

Doesn't this candy cake look like fun? I love the addition of noisemakers.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013 everyone!

We'll be staying home and doing what we usually do on New Year's Day: building puzzles in our pajamas and sharing snacks and cocktails. This year, this ginger champagne cocktail from Martha Stewart is on our to-do list. Doesn't it sound delicious?  How will you be celebrating the first day of the new year?

Ginger Sparkler

2 teaspoons of peeled, finely grated ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 bottle of Prosecco or Champagne

In a small saucepan, boil the ginger, sugar and 1/4 cup of water until syrupy (or for 2 minutes). Pour contents through a sieve over a small bowl. Discard solids.

Pour 1 tablespoon of syrup into a glass and fill with champagne. Gently stir then serve. Cheers!

A Desire to Inspire's Top 12 Posts for 2012

With the new year approaching, it's time to count down all the amazing things that happened at A Desire to Inspire in 2012. As I've looked back on a year of posting, I've been filled with such an immense appreciation for all the blessings in my life. It's been quite a ride and I look forward to seeing what's in store for next year.

Without further delay, I present to you this year's top posts/happenings/accomplishments:

JANUARY:
We rode snowmobiles for the first time - and at night!

FEBRUARY:
We helped my parents take apart their cabin to ready it for a remodel. I'd never used a sledgehammer before. Demolition work is fun!

MARCH:
We bought a house!

APRIL:
Our appreciation for cheese grew by leaps and bounds after we learned how to make the stuff from scratch. Delicious, but a lot of work!

MAY:
I traveled to the MIT campus in Cambridge to put on an event for Cheezburger centered around memes and Internet culture. I even got to meet some of the people behind popular memes, like Scumbag Steve  (pictured) and Chuck Testa.

JUNE:
It was a month of fun. We discovered Ballard, I made a heavenly chocolate bourbon pecan pie, and we celebrated Mike's 39th birthday. Yippy!


JULY:
My company, Big City Blooms, did another fabulous wedding!

AUGUST:
With the Olympics in full swing, we felt inspired to be more active. While Mike picked up rowing lessons, I tackled the jogging trails at Green Lake. By month's end, I hit 5 miles with every run.


SEPTEMBER:
My in-laws visited and we took a relaxing trip to my family's cabin in Leavenworth, Washington.

OCTOBER:
We were lucky enough to watch Glen Hansard (of Once, The Frames) jam on the streets of Seattle after his concert.

NOVEMBER:
I was published in Ruche's annual holiday cookbook.

DECEMBER:
I think I've saved the best for last with this month. I've thought very carefully about whether or not to go public with this little secret I've been keeping, but after recent conversations with friends and family, I feel I must.

After years of preparations, multiple visits to the doctor, medical ups and downs as a result, and lengthy discussions about our options, I'm excited to announce that this month Mike and I have started the initial phase of IVF treatment (in-vitro fertility treatment).  Who knows where the journey will take us, but we'd sure love to be parents. Needless to say, we're thinking lots of happy thoughts as we enter the new year and wishing for the best.

Here's to all the blessings that 2013 has to offer everyone!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I don't know about you guys, but I did a whole lotta living over the weekend and I'm feeling pooped going into this week.  It's definitely a multiple cup coffee morning, which feels about right going into a Monday.

Tiredness aside, it was a fantastic weekend filled with friends, family and holiday festivities. One of the standout highlights for me was a trip to Craven Farm to pick out our Halloween pumpkins for carving. The farm itself is adorable and a lot of families came dressed up in their Halloween costumes, which was a hoot for people watching. They also have a fun slingshot tool that you can use to send miniature pumpkins flying into space (see video below). We will absolutely make this pumpkin patch visit a family tradition when we have kids someday. It's so fun!

The friendliest pumpkin farm on the planet!

Craven Farm's corn fields looked gorgeous against the stormy sky.  

They had so many pumpkins to choose from and all of them were huge!

We settled on a short and tall combination. Kudos to hubby for doing the heavy lifting.

South by Southwest, Austin Bound!

It's almost Friday, readers!  For most of you, this means you're one step closer to enjoying the weekend. For me, it means I'm one step closer to taking one of the most demanding work trips of my life. In just a few hours, I'll be heading down to Austin, Texas, for their Interactive festival called South by Southwest.

Over the last few months, I've worked on planning several big events for my company while we're there, including a panel discussion with some very well-known Internet consultants, and one giant party that I've co-planned with folks from Bing, the search engine. In addition to booking a chart-topping, super secret band for one of our events, we're also having the following to entertain our guests:

The Bumbys!  They evaluate you for a few seconds and
then they write an appraisal (a haiku) about you.

MRI light painting! We're having this in a photo booth
instead of your standard photo booth stuff. Cool, huh?

Exciting stuff!!

Anyhoo... this will be my last post for the next five to six days so I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll be back at it and posting by Wednesday next week. See you then!

Happy 100th Birthday, Oreo Cookies!

The Oreo cookie turns 100 years old tomorrow! 

To celebrate this birthday milestone, Kraft will be releasing a limited-edition cookie filled with colorful birthday cake sprinkles.  If you're one of Oreo's 23 million Facebook fans (what a reach!), then you no doubt already know this special cookie will be hitting grocery store shelves very soon.

Happy dunking!

So THIS Happened on Saturday...

We made an offer on this Seattle farmhouse and it was accepted!

DIY Adorable Tooth Pillow

The Brown Eyes Have It has this cute idea for creating a tooth pillow for kids. I love that it's actually tooth-shaped, which makes it fun to use. Plus, it's something you can keep it in the family as your kiddos lose their teeth.

For those who don't sew (like me), my guess is you could probably even hand-stitch this?

Snowmobiling - A Great Winter Sport!

My parents Christmas gift to us this year was a weekend of snowmobiling and fun at the family cabin. We chose last weekend to kick things off.  What a blast it was!

None of us had ever been snowmobiling before, but we all got the hang of it quickly. I think the best part of the whole excursion was that we had a paid trail guide who rode ahead of us (so we never got lost) AND we rode in the dark. Nighttime tours are the best!

With Katie and Marshall, preparing for our tour! 

We took very few breaks along the 2-hour trip so it was tough snapping any action shots. 

At the end of the tour. I was ready for another ride!

Inside the cabin where we enjoyed a steak dinner after our snow adventure 

Top 10 Blog Posts of 2011

Thank you loyal readers for following me all year long, for commenting on my blog posts and for generally being awesome. I'm grateful for your support! As a way of saying thanks, I'm counting down the top ten most favored blog posts this year. These are the posts on A Desire to Inspire that you loved the most, either through direct engagement or through site visits.

Here's to the best of 2011 and to even better moments in 2012!  Enjoy!

10. January 2011 - "We've All Been There"




9. February 2011 - "Monday Morning Fun"



8. April 2011 - "Our First DIY Floral Project"

7. May 2011- "Minion Cupcakes"

6. July 2011 - "Blogging Begins Again!"

5. August 2011 - "Celebratory Sangria"

4. September 2011 - "Floral Favorites - Amanda's Wedding"

3. October 2011 - "Halloween Cookie Pops"

2. October 2011 - "Inspirational Doggies"

1. December 2011 - "Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies"

A Christmas Caroling Tradition

Happy Monday everyone!  We're inching our way closer and closer to Christmas. Can you believe it's only two weeks away?!

So one of the things we did last night to spread some holiday cheer was join an annual Christmas caroling community event.  It was so much fun!  The best part was seeing those around us who weren't part of the event smile and listen as we sang along. It was also a great way to get to know members of the community and there wasn't a time commitment so people were able to come and go as needed.

The Clemens, Luxa, Roth and Davis families gathering for a quick photo.

So how did we do it?  Easy!

1.  Pick a date. We picked a Sunday evening when people were less likely to have holiday parties. Sunday is also a great night for caroling because it sets the tone for the week ahead.

2.  Reserve space at a local restaurant; we picked a pizza joint because it's low-key and cheap so cost wouldn't be a factor for anyone.

3.  Contact your neighbors, friends, family or other members of your community and let them know about the event. Encourage anyone without a singing voice to participate. If you have a large enough crowd, people without a solid voice (like me) will feel more comfortable singing along.

4.  On the night of the event, pass out song books (see below for resources). Call out the page numbers prior to beginning each carol and sing until your heart is content!


Christmas Carol Resources:

http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/caroling-with-kids
http://www.bluebonkers.com/song_sheets/christmas_lyrics/
http://www.futurebound.com/elfhats/mainpages/christmasongs.htm

Handy Headphone Storage

Today my husband and I celebrate three years of marriage together.  Also, in about 7 weeks, I turn 30.  With these milestones in mind, we thought it would be fun to do something memorable to celebrate so we're taking a little vacation next month.

Since we'll be flying, I was thinking about all the ways to make our time in the airplane more comfortable.  Then I stumbled on C.W. Frosting and found this awesome DIY project for keeping headphones wrapped-up and safely stored. It's cheap and efficient - I must make this!

Check it out!

All you need is velcro, scissors and ribbon

Attach the velcro pieces to the ribbon and wrap.

Fun Friday Things: Let The Weekend Begin!

Well folks, I'm officially signing off for the weekend.  I'm doing the wedding flowers for a family friend this Sunday and there's still plenty of prep work ahead of me today.  Not complaining - I'm actually pretty excited about it!  I'll be sure to post pictures on Monday.

Have a good one!

Sneak peek of the bridal bouquets

Blogging Begins Again!

Readers, it's been WAY too long!  I apologize for the extended absence.  We are finally settled into our new place and loving life in Seattle.  The summers up here truly are spectacular - you can't beat 'em!

Needless to say, I'm feeling a bit rusty as I get back into the swing of blogging so I'm going to begin with something easy. To get things started, here's a summary of our life over the last four weeks via photos and miscellaneous links.  Enjoy!

One of our first stops after we moved was Old School Frozen Custard in the Capitol Hill district.  Delicious!  For a
look at other places we've tried, see map.

Hubby Mike also celebrated a birthday.  He could hardly contain his
excitement when he received this bag. ;)

Taking a stroll through Portland, OR.  That's our nephew, Jack, in the background
and our brother-in-law, Rory.  

The Waterfromt Blues Festival over 4th of July weekend and the beautiful Willamette River.

The Mac Potts Band gave us a set of amazing, funky blues.   These guys can really jam!

View from Lake Union on the 4th of July.  We spent the day on a boat with family.

View of the Fremont Bridge on Lake Union before we docked the boat.  The fireworks over the lake were incredible.