A bustling life inside the snow globe.

Living in Chicago this weekend was like living inside a snow globe that's just been violently shaken around and set back down, leaving the snowflakes twirling in a swift sideways motion around the cluster of jolly Christmas carolers up at the North Pole or whatever. Sure, it looks quaint and happy sitting on your desk, but think for once about the poor little carolers living inside who now have to deal with the blizzard you've created! Come on!

Though Chicago's nickname of "The Windy City" has nothing to do with weather patterns and everything to do with politics, by god was it windy and cold this weekend! It was most certainly a time to stay inside, bake cookies or brownies or creampuffs or make stew or chili while watching, at full length, the 6 hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Alas, I did none of these things.

Because while it's true that this is an all-but-dead time of year for wedding flowers (at least in my experience, most people in Chicago tend to put their weddings off until after the deep freeze of winter) holiday party time is in full effect! Gather ye your bottles of wine and adorable hostess centerpiece gifts and head on out into the cold to go celebrate with friends!

(Aforementioned adorable hostess centerpiece gifts.)

(The deep freeze hits the street where I live -- but even that can't stop the holiday cheer!)



(As always, Maddie remains upbeat and frisky. Nothing gets her down!)

So I spent my weekend making bundles of cute winterberry holiday arrangements and out in the company of good friends. Now we're heading full-tilt into the holiday rush and it's time to hunker down for a long cold winter! Of course, all those annoying "OHMYGOD HE WENT TO JARED!" commercials are telling me that people are about to get engaged in droves, so I'm steadying myself for a flurry of wedding inquiries! That would be fantastic! I would be 200% okay with that! My spring wedding schedule is already starting to fill up and I couldn't be happier about it.

Because if there's one thing to keep you warm during a cold harsh winter, it's the promise of a happy and productive spring!

What's up, cream puff?

I need to have a serious conversation with you. About cream puffs.

Well, first, let me back up a bit. Some of you may remember from a few blog postings back, my lovely friends Annie and Becca? I did flowers for a sort of dual baby shower for them? Remember? Yeah? Okay, well GOOD NEWS! Annie just had her little baby boy yesterday! He is SO cute! Roughly the size of a football. Or a very large burrito. I love him!

Look at that happy family!

I got to see him at the hospital last night, but I wanted to also drop by and bring the glorious family something today. Flowers, you assume? YOU ASSUME WRONG! Haha. I do adore flowers, and I will most definitely bring her some flowers once she's all set at home. In fact, I will fill her house with blooms to the point where she may feel a bit confused and overwhelmed! But for now? Cream puffs.

I have, you see, what some may call an "unhealthy" obsession with a Japan-based cream puff company called Beard Papa's. About a year ago they opened a Chicago location and I started frequenting their store to stuff my face -- and the faces of those I love. Today I figured, what better treat for a proud new papa and mama, than a Beard Papa!

Their cream puffs are like heavenly fluffballs of creamy creampuffy amazingness! Not too sweet, mind you... just sweet enough. Light, flaky, perfect.

Sweet Jesus look at those puffs.

I WANT ONE NOW! Alas, I left them all with Annie, her hubs and baby. They deserved them, after all, not I.

Anyway, while I was waiting for my puffs to be made, I got chatty with the store manager. It occurred to me that cream puffs could -- and SHOULD -- be the new cupcake! So I asked him if they've ever done any weddings. He said, "Acutally, yes! We did one during the summer... all strawberry puffs. We brought our machines out there and were making & filling puffs to order for the reception. People loved it!"

OF COURSE PEOPLE LOVED IT BEARD PAPA PUFFS ARE AWESOME. (!!!)

Brides. If you're reading this. Check out these puffs, please! They'd be such a deliciously different alternative to cake or cupcakes! Your guests would remember it forever! I am being totally and completely serious!

Man. I want a cream puff.

Baby, it's cold outside!

This weekend marked the first official snowfall of the 2010 Holiday Season. It. Was. COLD! Of course that doesn't bother Forget me Knodt's fearless mascot, Maddie. She's got enough fluff to keep her up and running even in 12 degree weather! Yes, I said 12 degrees. And that's without the wind chill factored in!

Wind chill makes a big difference when you live literally 5 minutes by foot from Lake Michigan. This Saturday miss Mads demanded a romp in the snow, so I bundled up like mad and took her out along the harbor.


It's times like these, when my nose is running due to the cold, and my face is stinging from the harsh Chicago wind, and I can't even move my lips to tell Maddie to stop trying to pick up old Burger King wrappers and other such refuse, that I think to myself, "Why did you leave California, again?"


But then I stop and look around, and realize that there really is nothing like a White Christmas! The holidays feel decidedly more holiday-tastic when there's fluffy white snow all around. Twinkle lights on the street seem to twinkle a bit brighter.

And there's really something to showing up at a holiday party with a hostess gift like the one below, when it's absolutely freezing outside! You do a little "I'm so cold it's ridiculous!" jig while you wait for them to answer the door. Then you walk inside, hand your gift off to a smiling friend, who immediately offers to take your coat and scarf and... "please go ahead & leave your boots at the door, then come inside and get warm this INSTANT! There's hot mulled wine in the kitchen..."


Happy Holidays, all! I resolve to deal with the cold and even be upbeat about it...


Until the holidays are over, at least! Then all bets are off and I have free reign to complain until March comes, and 35 degrees feels tropical! :)

Silver Bells...

Man. The holiday season hit Chicago all at once on Wednesday, with snow flurries, sub-freezing temperatures and a seemingly-overnight sprouting of Christmas tree lots! I love it! I'm in heaven! Every time I visit the wholesale flower mart I spend entirely too much time back in the holiday greens area, taking in all the fragrant pine!

I am a total geek for Christmas.

Anyway, I've been so-so-so busy, and now I'm behind on my blog! I've got two great events yet to post here -- one was a fabulous wine tasting soiree, and one was a super cool corporate event. I'm hoping to get them both up today because there are fantastic photos for each.

Looks like I need some helpful, hard-working blogger elves, eh?

El vino will flow!

* Author takes a healthy gulp of Malbec...*

Every year around the holidays, Michael and Christopher throw a fancy-shmancy wine tasting soiree at their fabulous condo. It's a fabulous event full of fabulous people, fabulous cheeses provided by the super-rad genius Chicago cheese artisans at Pastoral, and a fabulous wine tasting by certified sommelier (lookit me getting all French here! The fabulous is catching!).

It's a great idea because attendees can taste a variety of wines, learn official facts and tidbits about them (such knowledge makes one "great at parties"!) then snatch up enough bottles to last all holiday-party-season long. Fabulous idea, right?

And this year, the event got a little extra fabulous, with flowers provided by Forget Me Knodt. :) And when the challenge is a wine tasting, how could one resist working with grapes? My first stop, then, was at the grocery store, where I purchased grapes in every variety and color!

I did a few large centerpieces in oversized wine glasses, with some grapes and lush amaranthus draping down. Our cup runneth over!

I also whipped up some smaller versions in actual wine glasses. How could I not?

Forgive the blurry image. The first rule of a fabulous soiree, after all, is low lighting!

Thanks so much, Michael and Christopher, for such a fabulous opportunity! Time to go refill my wine glass now...

Operation Flowerbomb 2: A Socio-floral Success!

After this morning's rough start, I decided to take the show on the road for the lunch hour!

I hopped on the El and rode to Chicago's quaint Lincoln Park neighborhood. Sadly, the streets were dead...I'm thinking today's cold snap is keeping people huddled up indoors for lunch! A bit downtrodden, I hopped back on the train and decided to try my luck at the Merchandise Mart. The train car was crowded and I saw plenty of opportunities to hand bouquets to people, but I really clammed up for some reason! I think it was mostly that things so far hadn't worked out smoothly, that had me gun shy.

But there's nothing like the kindness of strangers!

A man sitting across the aisle from me asked, "How much are your flowers?"

Brightening, I responded, "They're actually FREE! I have a little floral events business and was just trying to hand them out to people in honor of Thanksgiving this week! But for some reason I've gotten nervous on the approach!"

Super Awesome Nice Man: "Dang! Let me have one of those for my wife! What a great idea!"

That's when all the people around me began to chime in, asking for a bouquet and a card of their own! Everybody was so sweet, telling me they really appreciated it and wished me all the best, etc. It was one of those great experiences that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about the nature of people.

With renewed confidence I hopped off the train and finished passing out all my free bouquets at the Merchandise Mart, and people were delighted! It was a great, feel-good kinda experiment. Fun stuff!

Oh. And when I said I passed out all of my bouquets, that's not entirely true. I actually kept one for myself -- the runt of the litter -- to remind myself of the fun I had, and of how friendly people can be once you open up a bit.

Just in time for Thanksgiving. :)

Operation Flowerbomb: A Socio-floral Experiment!

I have always loved trying to figure out what makes people tick, and will go to great lengths to satisfy my curiosity.

For example, one time around the holidays I came into a surplus of oranges. (Don't ask me how... I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you!) Anyway, I had more oranges than I knew what to do with. So I decided I'd try handing them out to people on my way to work. They're healthy! They're sweet! They can't really be poisoned, because they're encased in a rind, right? They prevent scurvy! People would want them, maybe? I thought to myself.

So on the El and on my walk to the office I'd try to give them out. Some people would take them, others would simply avoid making eye contact with me, while others still would get super annoyed -- one homeless man threw my orange at me and called me something terrible!

Another time a coworker and I had a surplus of books to unload. We'd put a post-it note with an encouraging message ('Page 306 of this one is a DOOZY!') on the cover, then leave them in random locations throughout the city. At bus stops, on top of mailboxes, etc. It was fun for me!

And now I have this little flower business. So of course, how could I resist trying to give people free flowers during the week of Thanksgiving? I mean, WHO wouldn't want free flowers right now? (Any time, for that matter!) Right? Right! So last night I made 30 or so adorable bouquets:

And created some cute cards with a simple message: "Just something to brighten your day"...



And the plan was to hand them out to people as they walked to work in the morning. So, what do you think happened? Remember -- they're FREE and they're CUTE!



Nobody wanted them! I think either people were too rushed to get to work, or maybe they thought I was selling something, or maybe they thought I was pushing some cause, like the Hare Krishnas and activists in the classic film, Airplane! (Ha! The thought of people thinking I'm an activist makes me giggle.)

Whatever the reason, I could scarcely get people to look at me!

So, I was bummed. The morning rush ended and now I'm left with a bunch of adorable bouquets. I'm not going to give up though... I think I'll head to a different location for the lunch hour! Maybe someplace less business-y, where people are more relaxed. And maybe I'll have to add "FREE!" to my greeting as I try to hand them to people? Harumph!

Of course there's one question on your mind as you read this: Where is Maddie, my fearless mascot, through all this? I'm not at liberty to say.

But I can say this. She is elsewhere, tackling a challenge of her own.


Stay tuned for Operation Flowerbomb, part 2!