candy

Easter candy is currently on sale. Stock up while you can. We sure did! All this was $2!!

my wiener has a first name...

We packed in the little car Friday morning and headed South. This is what we were up to...


My wiener has a first name... this is what we woke up to! Can you imagine driving through the US / Canada in this? Awesome! Can you imagine the gas this thing takes? Oi!


An A-board with a squirrel drinking bubble tea! I HAD to take a picture. So cute!


Have you heard of the bins? I have heard of the ones just outside Portland (they are all over the states), but I had never been until now! So what are the bins? Basically, this is the goodwill outlet. This is where all of the items that did not sell at the Goodwill shop end up. Tons of bins in this warehouse (almost the size of Costco), trucks pull in, people wait like hungry wolves, trucks dump the stuff out into the bins, people rummage like their life depend on it. It is pretty much one step up from dumpster diving. I was quite scared of the things I saw.. food.. underwear.. trust me.. if you go.. bring gloves.. preferably gloves that go up to your elbow! Don't get me wrong.. it is cool and you should go to check it out. Especially if you love books. I have read about people that just scour these joints and sell their items to local vintage shops for $$. You can find furniture, toys, clothing, basically anything you would find at your local thrift store. I have heard of people finding designer items still with their tags on, but you have to be willing to look. Prices are based on weight (except for books) so if you find some really light items, it could cost less than a dime! (picture is the outlet in Seattle).

If you like the bins, you should check out Tuesday Morning. Tuesday Morning is the largest closeout gift chain in the US. Never been, but sounds cool.

The Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival is coming up on April 7th and goes for the entire month, so we better get back to work. Interested in volunteering? Contact us for more details!

me again

We are off for a little adventure this weekend. I will have the computer with me, so drop us an email if you need us. Otherwise, we will be back Sunday!

What are you guys up to this weekend? Check out Portobello West at the Rocky Mountaineer Station on Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 6 pm. This is the kick off for 2008 and they have an amazing list of vendors including Toodlebunny Designs, Granola Girl, The Lemonade Tree and Flight Path Designs!

Happy Weekend.

our kitchen rocked

This is the very first heavily themed decor event that we have ever done and I think that we rocked!

So our mission was to design a space with a 1950's theme. We had two areas with a walkway in the middle. One side of our set was the 50's diner. We had coke floats, glass soda pop (no longer available in Canada for some reason), milkshake machine, ice cream freezer, chevy couches, Elvis and even a golden apple pie on the stand next to the cash register!

The detail that we put into this event was ridiculous. I was this close to finding bakery / bread / baking scented candles for our kitchen, but didn't want to compete with our caterer.

The other side of the set was a recreation of a 1950's kitchen. Rob built and tiled the two cabinets and the other props were from my Grandma (seriously.. she had items that looked exactly like the ones from the prop house!), Vancouver Props (amazing, but elusive place - Blue Olive.. if you thought Can Am was cool, this will blow your socks off!), a local junk seller for the kitchen and washer and of course Can Am Importique for the fridge, stove and kitchen table and chair set.

Thanks so much to everybody for coming out. Professional photos our on the way!

Congratulations to Diana from ISES for winning the challenge and we look forward to being a part of this event next year!

where will YOU be tomorrow night?

Come see us at..

(click on the image to make it bigger)

lotus events is one of the event production teams to be chosen to participate in this years' theme decor challenge. Our catering team members are the lovely gals from Ab Fab Catering and our chosen theme is .. you guessed it... the 1950's. There is another team doing the 1960's and another one for the 1970's.

This is our first decor theme challenge and we are so excited to be a part of it. It was a great opportunity to let our creative side out! Our set is really unique, very fun and very 1950's. Of course, this is a challenge, so I can't tell you what exactly our plans are, but it's good... REAL good!

There is also some kind of prize or bragging rights for the best themed station so keep your fingers crossed!

happy easter

I love daffodils. Daffodils mean Spring and Spring means warm weather and sunshine!

It is quite a dreary looking Easter Sunday in Vancouver. Started the morning off by sleeping in, going for some Pho soup and french sandwiches and a little walk through Ikea.

Other than that, I am finishing up a custom crochet order (6 down, 6 more to go!) and Rob is outside building the custom pieces for our decor challenge on Wednesday. Sorry.. no pictures yet. Our front entry way isn't bright enough for the pictures to turn out well.. plus.. it IS a challenge so .. you know.. in case our competitors our spying on us or something =) haha

Happy Easter and have a great long weekend!

and the verdict is in...

Kit Kat Matcha is delicious! A lot of packaging though for two little sticks... just saying...

shopping

These items were definitely not on the grocery list, but sometimes you just have to try new things!

One tube of condensed milk for my little moo's b-day!
One package of Matcha Kit Kat!
One package of Ribena gummies!

If you like Ribena, these gummies rock! Seriously... they look like hard candies, but they weren't. So yummy! Do you know what else almost made it home!? Cappucino Maltesers! The Kit Kat won this round, but there is always next time.


After some red and raw thumbs and stabbing myself with an awl... I have finally finished my covered pony tail holders! Check them out! My favourite are the Wizard of Oz ones that are peeking out at the bottom left hand corner in red.

i am strong.. and repeat

So I wasn't sure if I should blog about this, but since this blog is all about us.. here I go!

I am strong.. and breathe... and repeat.

I had a hair colouring / hot dryer incident which burnt off a section of my hair. Yup.. right off. Then it got infected and was super gross. It was obviously not noticeable though as I have so much hair. So since no one could tell, I could not decide if I wanted to do anything about it such as hair transplant. Mainly.. I was scared to death which was why I kept putting it off. The hair salon (by the way.. no hard feelings.. I have been going there for almost 10 years and still love them) offered to cover all my expenses for medication and the surgery, so.. one and a half years later... I finally did it. Rob's advice was.. if you are not doing it only because you are scared... then you should do it.

Holy cow! I was freaking this morning. Nervous giggles, butterflies and everything! Two hours later, I have a swag bag filled with tylenol 3's, antibiotics and medical pads, but to be honest.. it wasn't that bad. Not the greatest, but not as bad as I tricked my mind into thinking.

I will spare you the pictures.

Now.. countdown.. 8 more days until the staples come out. EWWWWW.

shamrock

For years I have been hearing how great the Shamrock shake from McDonalds is. Since it is only available for a limited time.. it makes it extra special. So I finally tried one today... maybe there was too much hype surrounding the shake and I expected something that was going to knock my socks off.. but it was o-k. Nothing spectacular... do you care to disagree?


more buttons! Yes... I brought home 4 new bags to sort! My current obsession are buttons and toadstools and I found these beautiful ones here. I think I picked up the last pair, because they are currently showing up as out of stock. Some great stuff in this etsy shop too!

I love the 1950's

This is the first time that we have ever participated in a theme decor challenge. The International Society of Special Events in Vancouver is hosting their annual Buffet Blowout and they asked lotus events to be a part of it. The theme is 1950's / 1960's / 1970's.. 3 event planning companies... 3 catering companies... we each pick one decade and compete for Best Decor and People's Choice!

Since we were last to sign up, we were assigned the 1950's. Ok.. so we are 80's kids, but that is ok.. we are going to rock! We have some awesome ideas. The big thing for me is that I didn't want to do cliche 1950's decor. I wanted to do something out of the box and I think we have some good thoughts brewing in our busy minds.

The event will be taking place on March 26 at Can Am Importique Lake City Studios between 6pm to 9pm. More information can be found here. Our catering team is the lovely Lynn and Lisa from Absolutely Fabulous Foods. We make a great team and we are very excited to be working together!!

Does anybody know where I can get a 50's kitchen counter?

If you have never been to Can Am, it is a movie prop house. It has tons of stuff.. like super crazy stuff! Here are some pictures of just a sampling of their warehouse.

The secret revealed

So did anybody play Nancy Drew and solve the mystery? I didn't want to jinx ourselves and reveal what the surprise was before we were sure that it was all ours! Rob and I met with Melissa and Chris on Friday night to talk about their upcoming wedding in 2009. Once our meeting ended, we hopped into the car and drove down to Shoreline.. about 20 minutes North of Seattle. First thing Saturday morning, we met Doug and picked up this beauty!

It is originally from the University of Washington and has been sitting in Doug's (he is teaches Fine Arts there) garage for quite some time now before he decided that he just didn't have the room. I have wanted one of these ever since I saw it here and then here. Supposedly they are really hard to find, especially one the West Coast without having to pay a fortune in shipping. We found one HUGE one at A Baker's Dozen on Main Street, but it was 3-4 times what we paid for this beauty.






I'm not sure what I am going to use all the drawers for use. Crafty things I assume. Maybe a recipe card drawer?

Rob plans to sand, polish and generally spiff the unit back to its glory days. I will then make some pretty coloured tags so we can actually find stuff that we put in it without opening up each drawer!

There is a second unit that sits below it. It is exactly the same as this one, but it doesn't have a top lid. We will most likely sell the other half as I really have no idea what to do with 30 drawers! Rob wants to hold onto it until we move and see what our new space looks like (more about the move later). However.. if you REALLY REALLY REALLY want one, then please inquire within :)

top secret post

We are going to Seattle soon.. like maybe early tomorrow morning type of soon... I can't tell you why though. Currently it is top secret! However, I can tell you that it is very exciting and will definitely be worth the wait!!

In other news.. tomorrow is our early bird deadline for Got Craft vendor applications, so if you haven't popped yours in the mail, then please send me an email to let me know if you are interested in coming out! All the information that you need, may be found on the got craft website.

PSsst.. have you heard!? CRAFT magazine is a confirmed sponsor of GOT CRAFT 2008! We are so excited! This is the first event that CRAFT magazine has been involved with North of the border. So make sure you come to the event early! Each swag bag is going to be filled with the newest copy of CRAFT magazine! That's a $20 value on top of all of the goodies that is going to be stuffed in there!

Whoever came up with the idea of making (Yup.. cutting then sewing) cloth swag bags this year... all I can say is Oi! That was a lot of work. It is also probably why you haven't heard a peep from us lately. We have been chained to the sewing machine churning out bags like a mini sweat shop! After drooling over a gocco for a few months now, I finally ordered one with enough supplies to last a long time. We plan to gocco our reception invites as well as the swag bags. I have never used the gocco machine in my life, so fingers crossed that it works.

More news about the trip down South soon... fingers crossed :)

PS. I have no pictures to post. All the pictures on the computer seemed to have been moved to make room for disk space. I couldn't post without loading a picture so here is a picture of Rob and I on the tea cups at Disney World.

we are alive

So we have been missing in action ever since the website went up. We are here and alive! Just busy in our own little world... went for a short de-stress break to Portland - love it there! Some images from the past few days.