a little more than 100 days ago, the first wong baby was born in our family. his name is brayden and he smells like sugar! :)

*stolen from jeannie's facebook...hehehe

to celebrate the first 100 days of b's life, edwin and jeannie took our family out to dinner at the universal hilton. my brother thought it most fitting to go here in memory of my pops as well. the hilton buffet, with it's prime rib, lobster tail, shark's fin soup, and king crab legs, was almost like a testament of how far my dad had come from rags to riches. I don't know if that makes sense to you...but it makes sense in my head. :)

We got B some blue balloons...and a balloon that says '1' because there weren't any that said '100'.

*my bro and his diaper dude man bag - you CAN be a father and be stylish!

*the parentals looking good and fresh faced

*the happy grannies

*reya in her cute dress

*as a kid i HATED these jackets...i still don't like them but it's nice to know i can fit reya's jacket.

*david + me

I haven't had a whole lot of time to spend with Brayden so i'm glad i got a chance to kick it with this kid.

*let the corruption begin!

I can't wait to tell this kid stories about his dad. I have memories filed away...beware! Happy 100 days little buddy!!!!!!!!!

V DAY

Personally I hate holidays because I have to work. Professionally I LOVE holidays because I GET to work. I'd like to consider myself low key (although some may beg to differ) but that doesn't mean David didn't make an effort to make me feel special for Valentine's. He has a tough time because he can't buy me flowers, but he CAN (and did) buy me cupcakes!

*double chocolate, raspberry cheesecake, red velvet, caramel apple, and lime coconut goodness

The days leading up to vday were pretty busy with prepping flowers for thoughtful guys and a wedding as well. This is what our store looked like during the week, in all it's glory:

*a mock up of the arch for a garden wedding

And here are some of the arrangements that we sent out for Valentine's:

We did one delivery where the girl wasn't at work when she should have been...but we don't get paid to ask questions.

I spent the majority of Saturday on a wedding set-up with my other life partner. We lunched at McDonald's while waiting to pick up our rentals. Who says french fries and mcflurrys aren't special? On the way back , Kendra picked up monchhichi, who had been shoved between the slant of my windshield and dashboard. This is her current state:

*poor monchhichi, she has dashboard head

The wedding ended earlier than expected so I was able to catch dinner with David.

*meet David

Went to a so-so sushi joint in jtown, as every other place was crowded (as to be expected). The best thing about dinner was that our volcano roll arrived ON FIRE:

*poof

After any long, tiring week, I try to sleep in as long as I can on Sundays. This usually means waking up at 8:30am, then trying to go back to sleep. I actually slept in til 11am and woke up to David making me breakfast!
*heart shaped french toast, over easy eggs, an orange with ice cream (the best part!), and a bud vase of peonies. hehe

David hates waking up early, so this was an extra special feat. I guess I should stop being such a hater of special days since I am so loved. You may barf now.

another wedding show

it's been an insane last two weeks with weddings, meetings, orders, proposals, & a wedding show. I'm so glad it's almost all over (one more wedding to go this weekend until i get a day off!). I've been a slave to fleuretica for the last few months and though i've had my ups and downs, i have to say this past weekend validated all the work that has been put into fleuretica for the last 4.5 years.

last sunday was our first time exhibiting with the Festival of Brides, a more upscale show than the previous ones that we had done. we were at the langham hotel in pasadena (formerly the ritz...have you been? kekeke) and frankly, i was at a standstill as to what we were going to present. i had a creative brain fart...(not meaning that the fart was creative...but you know what i mean) and i was thrown off by people telling me this was "upscale, upscale, upscale". Not to mention that we'd be exhibiting with the likes of Bob Gail, Shirvan Designs, Luna Gardens, and whatnot. We're a small operation...and walking into the Crystal Ballroom, my heart sank to see their 12ft tall trees, backdrops with mouldings, tented canopies, etc. But i did what was true to my heart and what i felt was right.

The color palette was created using Cheryl, my dear childhood friend, as my inspiration. She is getting married in April and mentioned that she liked oranges, coppers, and peaches. I used that as a starting point, and collected trinkets from the Salvation Army, the fabric district downtown, and some tchotchkes around our shop:


And this is how it all came together:


Up close:

*peach, pink, sand, blush, and ivory roses, accented with burnt oranges

*hydrangea, succulents, roses, and orchids in a wax vase. we placed some LED lights inside to illuminate the container. the grouping of the flowers brought it up to date.

*poppies in a beveled glass vase (used to be a kerosene lamp)

*sahara roses with mini pears in a milk glass, with bleached peacock feather. set atop an illuminated wax vase, adorned with rustic metal peony

*demitasse cups filled with 'soot bokays' on a vintage plate

*this little vignette was made up of palm leaves, which i thought were fitting as fans in an old world theme. i tried to recreate the landscapes painted on the fans and also made a corset, as suggested by marsha.

*mini lisianthus buds with hypericum berries, wrapped with ruffles

*mini boutonnieres on a capiz shell

*an antique pink bouquet using 'quicksand' roses as the focal flower

*a bird's nest topiary, fitting for our fleuretica brand and perfect for a flower girl to tote

*kendra, me and the awesome staff who helped out for the day

And of course, all work and no play makes us dull, so here are some fun things we did during downtime of the show:

me and my cousin vicky (who i love and hate like a little sister lol)
and one of david and me, which some of you may not want to see:

We had great feedback from fellow vendors and brides and got to network with great people! We have a bridal show coming up in march...taking suggestions for themes now. :)

p.s. all pictures were taken by joshua yeh...all blurry ones were taken by me. yay!

p.p.s. i forgot to add a picture of the 'giveaway' at the bridal show - a candy bar entitled "Chock full of Love", in which we added golden tickets so that brides could win different things like bouquets or centerpieces from fleuretica. My cousin Melissa, another little sister of mine that i abuse :), graciously helped me wrap 400!!!! she's awesome!!