Gift Show

July 25, 2013

It's been a LONG two weeks ---- the LA Gift show has finally wrapped up and thanks to much help from Brian and my family visiting (well, more like a working trip!) from VA, I was able to be there A LOT.

This show was a personal bomb for me. Not as many of my customers as I thought were going to show up. I have to say I'm really not a fan of tradeshows. I get why they're important but since I have a small territory I end up doing more orders for my coworkers than myself. Needless to say that gets old very fast.

Anyway, the good news is that our lines looked pretty darn great! We have a new vendor called HENLEY which is very very cool. The person who designed for Restoration Hardware developed this line and it got tons of attention. Hopefully this will put some great products on the shelves and commissions in my pocket!!!

Happy 4th

July 9, 2013

This was our first 4th of July in El Segundo and it was also our block party. It only validated how lucky we are to live where we live and have landed with such great neighbors. This town LOVES the 4th of July! Every house was decorated --- seriously, one house had a mini-statue of liberty. Loved it!

We had big plans to go to the rec center where they had a little carnival, but the kids were really enjoying the set up time --- putting out chairs and bikes, etc. Brian made the Byrne Family Ribs and I made my Moms Pasta Salad recipe. By 2:00 the barricades were up and the kids were running free. One house had a bouncy --- another neighbor coordinated water balloon games, and cornhole was played. Lots of food, lots of drinks.

And then we walked down the the rec center where our blanket was waiting and watched the fireworks!

We were pretty tired by the time we got home and got settled, but it was a great day!

Hope everyone had a great one too!!

Chive Potatoes

July 7, 2013

Tried a new reciipe ---- creamy, cheesy, chive potatoes.

I thought they were delish --- William, who mistaked them for "pineapple", said he hated them and after more tears than you could imagine, he refused to put a tiny speck into his mouth. Emily also refused to try them.

Brian gave them a thumbs up.

New recipes and meal planning

June 29, 2013

I am telling you --- I love to cook but hate to plan. Which is funny because I am such a planner in so many other ways. I just find that once the weekend rolls around the last thing I want to do is sit down and plan meals, go grocery shopping and cook. Again, I'm sure that I could and should find the right time for me to commit to this........but I am in a funk right now. So........

Have you heard of pepperplate.com ??? AMAZING. One of my vendors.....the woman who created SoYoung --- a cool lunch box/cooler/backpack company --- and a mother of three, gave me this tip. Turns out a few of my friends use this already. I haven't completely gotten into the swing of things, but I did load a few recipes and printed out the shopping list last week. I wanted to do something different with salmon --- so I decided on a lime butter sauce. Aside from the caloric intake --- it was delish.

I also took the opportunity to try out the garlic press produced by a new line I'm carrying -- SAVORA. Worth every penny --- fits several cloves, easy to use, easy to clean and has a nice weight to it......