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! 

funk

the past few weeks i have been in a funk. my normal creative outlets such as this blog, and my business have been bringing me this feeling of i have to do these things instead of wanting to do them. i normally never feel this way especially when it comes to throwing dinner parties, coming up with menus, and occasionally blogging. but i find myself staring at empty menu proposals,  empty blog screens, and so on. the inspiration and motivation just have not been there. at least not on the level it normally is. not really sure what has been going on, but i think im slowly on the up and up. last week I had a small dinner party for 6 to do and for the first time in the last few months i have had that feeling that i am in the right place doing the right thing. sometimes when you have these big things you are trying to accomplish in your life and things don't seem to be going as planned you sometimes loose sight of why you are doing what you are doing. but as i had the dessert baking, and linens going down, and designing menus cards i actually had a moment of appreciation for myself and what i do. i know that sometimes people don't think my life aspirations are anything to pursue and sometimes i wonder if i am even any good at what i want to do but i think i am probably my biggest critic. i always feel like it could have been better, it could have looked better, the food could have been even better, i could have done more. if i only had more time, more money, not a full time job, not a social life, not a life period then it could have been so much better. then i remember that i am juggling all of those things plus some. we all can be so hard on ourselves instead of stepping back and seeing everything we do and the appreciating all the effort we put into things. so hopefully the funk is coming to an end. and hopefully we can all learn to be a little less critical of ourselves sometimes. 

from last weeks holiday inspired dinner

hope you have a simply thoughtful thursday

i wish i was just busy

busy doesn't even begin to explain what life has been the last few weeks. hence my silence in the blog world. as i have mentioned before this last month as been JAM PACKED with different dinners and events, and weddings, and on top of that a full time job, oh and not to mention a whole lot of life events just happening to be going on at the moment to. haha. sometimes i think i might be crazy. then i look at my now 3 page to do list and it confirms that i am indeed crazy. but honestly, even though i am feeling the pressure of the wedding im doing next weekend i have never felt more at home. things are coming together, and even if my to do list is never ending things are slowly but surly getting done. And I am SO thankful for everyone who has been stepping in and helping out. They may seem like little things but you have no idea how helpful they are. I thankfully have had a couple good nights of sleep and today i am feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to make this final push. at the end of the day i oh so realize just how blessed I am to be able to do what I love. and i am proud of that. 

i will leave you with some instagram shots of what has been going on the last couple weeks! 

have enough moss to last a lifetime 

also covering everything in moss

had my first experience staining

i think it turned out pretty well

finally got this beauty a frame 

got to celebrate with this hottie for her bachelorette party

we obviously had to go to Darcelle's! 

indulged with this amazing oreo cheesecake at the cheesecake factory on a roomie date 

did a small dinner party for 6

menu was asian influenced 

Hope everyone has a simply wonderful, productive thursday.

100 degree dinner parties

This last weekend Cinta Events did a dinner for a dear family friend. She wanted things to have a tuscan/ italian/ wine feel. The dinner took place in her gorgeous expansive backyard. We hoped for good weather and sure enough Oregon pulled through with excruciating 100 degree weather. Not exactly ideal temperatures to be cooking in but thankfully I was able to do a lot of prep early in the morning before it got super hot. 

The menu for the dinner consisted of some classic italian fare along with some modern updates. The menu came together quite nicely but to be honest, the look of things did not. There are so many different ways this could have looked and for some reason i just could not commit to any of my ideas. I usually have one item, linen, vase, or something that i absolutely want to use and therefore it helps guild the look of things. But as the week came to a close i still was in a sea of  confusion. It wasn't until friday when i was designing the menu cards that things started to click in that brain of mine. And I am happy with the simple, organic feel of things. My bottle and crate collection has thankfully been growing the last couple months and they were perfect for staging. 

Over all I am pleased with how things turned out. Everyone had a great time. The wine was flowing, along with the conversation, and taking back cleared plates is always a good sign. There are always things that i would change if I were to go back and do it again, but every event, every dinner is just more experience and another place to learn how to better things the next time around.

Now for some pictures.

Hope everyone has a simply lovely Tuesday! 

more pictures from grandma's 90th

remember like two months ago when i gave you all a little preview of my grandma's 90th party? and then never posted any more pictures? umm yeah I apologize for my extreme tardiness with these but I finally was able to go through them again. Here are some of my favorites! warning: there are a ton of pictures today! 

couldn't do any of this without such a great team! 

it was a great evening. and i do believe she loved it.
Thanks to Leah Banick Photography for the great pictures.

They have been amazing to have for the new Cinta Events website! 

hope you have a simply wonderful tuesday! 

cinta turns 2!

2?! I honestly have no idea how Cinta Dinners has officially been happening for over 2 years now. Granted I have been doing dinner parties and planning for over 4 years now. But being an official tax paying business is something that I am proud of. This business is something I truly am proud of. This last year was off to a fantastic start. We were averaging at least 1 to 2 dinners a month. And that was a perfect amount considering I have a full time job and Jereme was still in school and working another job as well. When we approached summer we got the amazing news that my business partner Jereme would be off to Thailand to teach for the next year. I was so excited for her and such a fantastic opportunity. However, the way Cinta looked would not be the same without her. I stopped really pushing for dinners but was more then happy to do them when asked. With her decision to stay another year I am truly saddened but know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and Cinta will always be here when she returns.

Now that we are into the next year Cinta Dinners is now evolving into Cinta Events. A complete redesign of the website, business cards, and all materials is happening. I know I have been talking about this redesign for months now but I truly do not want to go public with things until I am absolutely in love with every aspect. I will still be doing dinner parties, but really want to shift my focus to event and wedding coordination. It is truly my passion and love. I am excited for what opportunities are to come in the next few years. I will still be working a full time job to pay the bills but I do have an ultimate goal of being my own sole boss someday. And someday that will happen. But for now I keep trucking along and gaining the experience and hands on work that comes with this industry. 

we did so much more then pictured here but it indeed was a fantastic year.

excited for what Cinta will do in 2012! 

Hope you have a simply lovely Tuesday