the land of Thai

last night we had another dinner party. and this time we had the fun challenge of a Thai themed dinner. Thankfully my business partner is back from spending 2 years in the land of Thai. We had a menu full of traditional Thai food and it was all amazing. Here is what was on the menu for the night.

we decided to go with a non traditional dessert but still keep in mind the flavors of asain foods. 

the coconut cake turned out almost like a coconut pound cake. 

As for the table...i did my best to modernize the asain look. I went with gray linens crisp white napkins and a touch of color with the orange menus and red chop sticks. And to switch things up i got a variety of herbs to stick into my trusty square vases and had another pop of color with red dahlias. it was different but it definitely made a statement. my take on modern asain. 

the first course was a papaya salad with sweet and hot shrimp soup 

pad thai 

so happy Jereme was back to channel her two years in Thailand to pull of this amazing dinner. a ton of work but completely pleased with how everything turned out. and so was the client so win win last night :) 

Hope you have simply amazing thursday! 

stripes and sunflowers

i love stripes. if you opened my closet you could tell im just a little obsessed. so obviously when it came time to choose fabric for this weeks dinner party i was automatically drawn to the dark navy blue and white stripped fabric. Pair that with bright yellow sun flowers and you have a modern, festive, summery look. This dinner was for a small group of six and Jereme's menu worked perfect with everything in season right now. Thankfully everything went off without a hitch! Check out a couple pictures from the set up! 

sunflowers everywhere! 

it was amazing. 

loved turning these candle holders into vases :) 

Hope everyone has a simply lovely Thursday! 

done and done

I have been waiting for this day for a long time. the day that i would check off my last event of this  very busy season. In the last month and a half i have had 16 different events. From big ones to little ones and everything in between. Most of them work events, but a good handful of personal/ business events as well. And to be honest i am a ittle worn out. Last night i had a dinner party and this marked my last event for a few weeks. I am so excited to have a bit of a break and i even go on vacation in a few weeks! The prospect of have a normal week where im not home late or working on some project and having my routine back is so exciting to me i can't even handle it. 

I love what i do but i am excited to have a chance to get things back in order. My house is a disaster zone, along with my car, and office...time to organize and regroup and get myself back together and prepared because as scary as it sounds fall will be here before we know it and that season is so much more exhausting then spring. 

so heres to summer, and maybe even a few more blog posts here and there :) for now i will catch you up on what i have been up to the last month and a half! 

Flowers...lots of flowers

dessert reception

with 200 cupcakes....

celebrated this kids birthday :) that is a giant nutella calzone from Via Tribunali...to. die.for. 

helped celebrate a 90th birthday with some cheerful and simple decor 

with more cupcakes..this time i didn't even have to make them :) 

for ANOTHER birthday celebration I made a chocolate peanut butter birthday cake
from scratch complete with peanut butter cups on top.

had an amazing graduation and got to see this kid officially become a PharmD. so proud 

and finally it all ended last night with a dinner party for 10

with amazing food

and the best news is that this girl is back helping make it all happen! cinta events is complete again :) 

 Hope everyone has a simply amazing thursday! 

a little excited

Owning a small business is sometimes really hard, and seriously it is a constant learning experience for me. Every. Single. Day. However, there are also some really amazing things that happen every once in awhile that make the hard work worth it. 

One of those things was being accepted into the whole sale flower mecca of Portland, The Portland Flower Market. I have always known of the portland flower market, and that you had to be on a certain level to even be considered. You must meet a list of requirements and i honestly hadn't even looked into it until a few months ago because i thought there is no way i could meet them. However, the flower side of my business is ever so slightly starting to grow. Its an area that i never had anticipated doing but a side that i am starting to really fall in love with. And this last week something really cool happened. I got my pass into the Portland Flower Market. Needless to say i am a little excited, no actually im SUPER excited. It is a sense of relief to have a place i can purcahse and order flowers from that isn't a grocery store! i know, a little embarrassing, but i have totally done conference centerpieces all from flowers i have purchased at the local grocery store. But lets be real, where else am i going to find fresh flowers in OREGON, in the winter months???? Exactly, enter the dilema i have been having the last 6 months. After my most recent floral job something had to changed. With a few floral jobs already on my calendar this is truly a blessing. Only thing i wish I could change? I wish i didn't live an hour and a half away from it but i guess its the price i pay for living in a small town with limited resources. 

So this weekend instead of sleeping in saturday morning, i just couldn't help myself. I drove up I5 early in the morning and made my first trip. And it was A-MAZING! Rows of vases, ribbon, and everything you could ever need for flowers, and apparently the big refrigerated room of flowers was quite sparse for it being the end of the week, but honestly, its more access then ive had previously so i can only imagine what it looks like on a delivery day. 

im excited. :) This past week was a good one for Cinta Events. I got into the flower market, my new photo books came from my big summer events of last year, and I finally invested in some business cards that i actually like and plan on using for a long time. 

early morning drives require coffee beverages 

uhh yea...see why im already obsessed? 

was having lunch with my grandma on my way home so picked up a few flowers and made her a little arrangement. 

Hope you have a simply fabulous Monday! 

wheat

wheat. i like wheat. i like bread, pastas....lets be real, all things glutenous. however, one area that i normally don't use wheat in is my floral arrangements. but this last week i had the challenge of doing centerpieces for a Moore Family Center conference, a center that was funded by Bob's Red Mill. I am sure you recognize this name because you can find him in grocery stores everywhere around here. Anyways last week i needed to come up with 33 centerpieces that included the use of wheat. i ordered a giant box of wheat and when it came i opened it up, stared at it, then closed the box and walked away. Wondering, what on earth am i going to do with wheat. i tend to have this bad habit over over thinking things sometimes, especially when it comes to flowers. The last giant floral job i had i sat staring at buckets of flowers for a good couple hours before i finally made any progress on the 75 flower arrangements i needed to make. In my perfect world i would have tripple the amount of wheat, triple the amount of budget and make these full gorgeous arrangements with wheat worked in with the flowers. However, conferences have budgets so we went with a much simpler approach to things. 

Hand tied wheat bunches, and simple white flowers, and everything housed in mason jars. I pretty much wanted it to look like you went into your field, grabbed a handfull of wheat, and flowers and threw them into mason jars. Something homey and simple. To really hammer home the grain theme i also filled the mason jars with a variety of small grains. It A. acted as a way to keep the wheat standing up in a perfect position, and B. added a little out of the box interest to things. 

At the end of the day i was happy with how things turned out. i honestly have moments where i really wonder if i can pull something off but thankfully it really does always work out. phew! Here are a few pictures for you!

hope you have a simply wonderful wednesday 

wait we are already half way through february?

i honestly have no idea where this month has gone. i looked at the calendar this morning and some how its the 18th?! What?! It would be absolutely safe to say that the last couple weeks have been...hell...i mean hectic. i had one of my biggest events of the year Chinese New Year, had a wisdom tooth driving me nuts which ended up in emergency extraction on valentines day, celebrated with ice cream, made a pretty flower arrangement for someone, and finally had a little fun with some good friends. its been quite the month and i honestly just need this month to end already. it has been fast but super hectic and busy. i am ready for just a new month and a fresh start. but for now i am focusing on the next project. 32 flower arrangements for a conference this week and the kicker? i need to incorporate wheat. yep, thats right wheat...

here is what i've been up to lately...

pretty red tulips for Chinese New year 

A LOT OF CNY prep happened

 

along with some testing ( Chinese Scallion Pancake)

cny = red and lots of it! 

  

made an alterative valentines day bouquet for a much deserving wife i work with from her hubby

spent my valentines day at the dentist, on the couch watching movies, and thankfully ended it with a great friend date that included blizzards :) 

got to spend time with some old friends i don't get to see that often  

and now i am in a sea of wheat....wondering what im going to do with these 32 arrangements... lets hope i think of something and think of something fast. 

 what has everyone else been up to?

hope you have a simply wonderful monday. 

absent

I must start by apologizing for my complete absence from this blog the last month. I am completely in love with the blog world and every day I look forward to reading the amazing words of others. The blog world continues to keeps me inspired in every way. And lately I have been coming to this little world I have created and feeling so uninspired and just blank. I stare at the screen with the blinking cursor and just freeze. This blog was started because i wanted a place to share my thoughts, events, and the simplicities of every day life. And maybe it's the fact that this past month has been so simple and so low key that i almost don't know what to do with myself. This past month has been about renewal, about focus, and discipline and about working some of the nitty gritty things out. Things that aren't necessarily fun to talk about in the pretty little blog world. But i am determined to reposition some of this new found focus into this blog. So bare with me. I already have a feeling that this year is going to push me into some new territory and although I often times resist big changes I am going to try my best to roll with the punches and continue to document my little life right here. 

so what fun/ boring things have i been up to the last couple weeks? 

cleaning my garage...i know...that picture on the left is mortifying and i can't believe i even posted it but my garage houses so much event stuff and after a busy fall it just builds up until you can't walk anymore. i still have some more organizing to do but at least there is walking space now :) 

drinking wine...even red wine... im slowly starting to love it

been living at the gym in the evenings. and you will never believe it but i've actually grown to enjoy my time here 

attended my first basketball game of the season

joined VINE...is anyone else on this? still trying to get the hang of it but i can already see that it might become a new social media addiction 

and my biggest accomplishment this month has been LEGALLY transferring my business from Cinta Dinners to Cinta Events. I now officially own the name, am registered with the state, and have a new tax ID. All just in time for my first event of the year coming up in two weeks. 

So maybe not a completely low key month...i guess it has been productive... My day job has been keeping me super busy and I have been able to keep up the productiveness outside of the office as well. well shoot...i guess 2013 is off to a pretty darn good start :) 

hope you have a simply wonderful Wednesday!