La Petite Bloom Workshop Grand Rapids

A few months ago we kicked off our 2018 Bloom Workshop year (my second business!) with our half day La Petite Bloom workshop, where we brought in two teachers in different creative industries and gathered at the Lofts at Luna in downtown Grand Rapids. Sweet Heather Anne taught our attendees how to watercolor on sugar cookies (and gave them her delicious recipe!) and Rhiannon Bosse taught the gals the art of floral arranging. It was such a special day together and I think I speak for everyone when I say we all left incredibly inspired. I thought I'd share the recap with you here, since we all love beautiful things!

Our tasty food was made by The Everyday Chef and Wife, who we absolutely adore! Both their personalities and their food are amazing and sweet ;)

 Our new friend Caitlin, of Third Clover Paper, designed the sweetest recipe cards for our guests to take home! She is a super talented illustrator, so it was fun to see what she came up with. She also calligraphed our student's names which we tied with ribbon around the recipe cards. It's all about the details!

 Heather began by sharing her background and going over watercolor wash techniques, using big fondant cakes to show the girls up front. It was so cool to see the artist at work! It comes so second nature to her and she makes it look so easy!

After her demo, our attendees got to practice on 8 of their own cookies! Can you even believe some of these cookies?! We were stunned!

 After a quick photography and styling session with Ashley and I, we welcomed Rhiannon up to teach our guests about floral arranging. It was really fun to hear about and see her process before our very eyes. She is so talented! Everyone learned so much! After her demo, it was time to set the girls free to pick out their own blooms at the flower bar. We always love seeing the gals' faces light up when they see all.the.flowers!

 It's so amazing to watch our attendees, most of whom have never taken professional flower arranging classes before, create gorgeous bouquets! I guess you really can't mess up flowers (well, I'm sure you can-- but our girls never do!) Take a peek at some of the attendees' work below, along with some headshots of the gals. Ashley takes everyone's headshots at the end, which is a huge added bonus to the workshop! Everyone leaves with fresh pictures for their portfolio and website.

That was our only La Petite Bloom Workshop for the year (unless we add another local holiday workshop!) but if you're interested in learning floral design, photography and design tips, you can get all those sessions and tons more at any Bloom Bash workshop. We have Bloom Bash Austin and Bloom Bash Grand Rapids coming up this year! I'd love to meet you :) xoxo Michaela interior design website / services / portfolio

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Our Holiday Traditions

We are driving to Disneyland today because my husband has never been before! We're so excited. But I wanted to share some traditions with you that we cherish at the holidays...
Part of the reason I think a lot of us love the holidays so much, is because of the memories created surrounding traditions we do with our friends and family this time of year! As a newly married couple (well, sort of...a year and 4 months in ;)) I love thinking of traditions we can start for our new family, even before adding kids to the mix. I thought I'd share some of my family's traditions + some that my husband and I are doing now.

- Getting our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving: this is one my husband and I have started, though this year we got it just a few days early! We always take a timelapse of us decorating the tree and save it so see how each tree turned out. Kinda fun!
- We decided last year that every year we will get each other an ornament. Last year I got him a beautiful sea turtle to remember our honeymoon in Hawaii, when he got to see them up close while scuba diving! This year it's more generic, but still cute. This way we will be filling up our tree a little more each year with meaningful ornaments! 
- Growing up my mom and dad got us an ornament every year, too. This stopped when we both got married, so now we carry on the tradition. My grandma gave me a Precious Moments ornament each year, all the way from my very first Christmas to when I was 25. I have 25 beautiful Precious Moments to look back on. They are some of my most precious things I own! I can't wait to pass them down to a daughter one day.
- The other fun thing we always do, ever since I can remember, is open a pair of new Pajamas on Christmas Eve from my parents. We all change into them and wake up in our new jammies on Christmas Morning. My mom has already let me know that the tradition will carry on this year -- even spouses get new PJ's now! ;)
- Every Christmas Morning my mom makes the most glorious breakfast. A delicious egg casserole and sweet cinnamon coffee cake. If I ever smell or eat either of these two things in different times of the year, I'm immediately transported to Christmas Morning with my family. The recipe for the casserole is below! When we were here in Michigan for Christmas last year, I made the casserole myself and it turned out great. I even made it a few weeks ago for a girls Christmas brunch. It's easy!
- I would always make sugar cookies with my grandma when I was younger. Now I make the recipe on my own, but this year since we'll be in CA for Christmas, I'll try to go over there and help her make them like old times. The recipe is here. 
- A few years my mom has hosted a Christmas Eve party at our house for my family. This year all of our extended family will be in town so there will be somewhere around 30 people in our home. We can't wait to see everyone from all over the country! Sweet family time :) I usually think of a game or two we could play.
Quite a few Christmasses ago (like 2012), I made a video of our celebration with my dad's side of the family, then the next year made one for my mom's side. If you care to watch them, then there are the links!
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Here's the Egg Casserole Recipe: (you need to do part at night and part in the morning!)
Ingredients 6 cups Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded and divided 1/2 medium onion chopped 1/4. cup sweet red and yellow pepper, thinly sliced 8 oz cooked sausage (the recipe says ham, but we use sausage!) 1/4 cup butter, melted 8 eggs beaten 1 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup all purpose flour 2 tblspoons fresh or dried basil, tarragon, thyme, oregano
Directions Sprinkle 3 cups of cheese in a bottom of a 13x9" baking dish. In saucepan, cook the onion and peppers in the butter until veggies are tender but not brown. Drain well. Sprinkle veggies over the bottom layer of cheese. Cook the sausage and arrange on top of veggies. Sprinkle remaining 3 cups of cheese over the sausage. Cover and chill the refrigerator over night. To serve, combine eggs, milk, flour and pour over cheese layer. Sprinkle spices (along with some salt and pepper) on the top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes - an hour. Let stand 10 minutes or so. 
Serves 12.
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Hope you try it and enjoy it as much as we do!


Note: The holidays are often a sweet time of family and celebration, but I want to take a moment to note that I also understand this time of year brings up a lot of emotions and sometimes sadness, yearning for a person who might not be at your table this year, or grieving another form of loss. We have experienced that loss with my husband's father passing away almost two years ago now, so you are not alone if that is you. We try to do a few things to remember his dad in the month of December, as it was his birthday month. This is a sweet way to keep his legacy alive.
xoxo


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Recipe: My Favorite Avocado Toast

I just HAD to share this delicious Avocado Toast recipe with you today! It's half a real recipe I found somewhere for inspiration and half my own test. But I assure you, it's delightful! I put my own spin on it by adding some parmesan cheese + a drizzle of honey and oh.my.gosh. The honey makes it!! Four of my favorite foods are on this toast: bread (#noshame), avocado, cheese, and honey.

Ingredients:
- baguette
- olive oil
- avocado
- lemon
- salt, pepper, and I used "everything seasoning" from Trader Joe's
- parmesan cheese
- honey (mine is from Little City Honey)


First I sliced up the bread into small pieces, put a THIN drizzle of olive oil on them, then put them under the broiler to get them a bit toasted.

Next I sliced up my PERFECT avocado. I couldn't believe how amazing this one was! I also cut my lemon to great ready for a few steps from now.

Here's all our ingredients!

Once toasted, I laid a few slices of avocado on each piece of bread, topped with a pinch of salt, pepper, and everyday seasoning. Sprinkle with some parm cheese!

Next I squeezed a dash of lemon juice on top.

Then finished off with a drizzle of honey.

I have to tell you about this honey really quick-- it's a new-to-me company called Little City Honey and I was SO happy to find them because they are local to Michigan! I've heard that it helps your allergies to consume honey that is local. I got a few different types of honey from them to try-- lavender (makes my tea soooo delicious in the morning!), regular honey (used here) and cajun honey (my friends used this on their shrimp they grilled for Memorial Day weekend and said it was great! I don't eat seafood ;))

If you're getting married, they do honey favors in really sweet bottles! Check them out here.

So that's it-- all done! Quick and easy and scrumptious!

What's your favorite avo toast recipe? Please share!!

Happy Wednesday!
xoxo

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Recipe: 10 minute Chinese Chicken Salad

I'm excited to share one of my favorite spring and summer recipes with you today! It's a Chinese Chicken Salad recipe that my mom taught me and it literally takes 10 minutes to put together. #winning

Ingredients:

Chicken (can be a rotisserie chicken, chicken breasts that you grill up or Trader Joe's precooked chicken, like I used this time)
3-4 green onions
A bunch of grapes
1 can mandarin oranges
Butter lettuce
Romaine lettuce
Crispy noodles
Slivered almonds
Sesame oil
Sesame vinaigrette
Champagne dressing (my fave! we use it on everything!)

Here's the chicken I used this time, but I do prefer using rotisserie:

The only prep you have to do is slice your grapes into smaller pieces, cut your mandarin oranges in half, chop your green onions, and toast your almonds. I put them in this baking dish for 5 minutes in 350 degree oven. (This worked great, because I also baked some rolls to go with dinner :))

Once everything, except your crunchy noodles, are in the salad bowl, I do 1 tablespoon of each of the following to make my dressing. If you really want to go for the authentic Chinese Chicken Salad taste, then skip the champagne dressing, but I think it brings a lightness to it. I love the taste of the mix.

Healthy and delicious! I love the crunch this salad has. Give it a try and let me know what you think! We really enjoyed it this past week :)


Happy Wednesday!
xoxo

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