A New Year

Last year was a great year for Loda and my family and I'm sad I didn't blog about it so I've promised myself 2012 is going to be the year I get back into it (ok I know I'm 2 months behind already). I loved blogging and sharing with the world what I was up to and it made me sad that last year I didn't find the time to do that. This blog is not just going to be about flowers, however I'm sure there will be a ton of that but I also want to share what it's like to be a stay at home-working mom, raising an almost 2 year old all while trying to keep the house clean and have dinner on the table. I left my job as an Architect last April because I wanted more balance in my life and I felt like 2011 was a good transition year to get me to that balance. I feel good about 2012 and the direction my family is headed, my business is thriving, my daughter is amazingly smart, adorable and most of all happy, our new house is starting to feel like a real home and I have a great husband who works incredibly hard at everything he puts his mind to.

To make myself feel better about my lack of posts in 2011 I'm going to briefly showcase what we did last year.

I started out the floral season with an event at the Newseum for the University of Southern California, their new Dean was touring the country and made a stop in DC. Of course the flowers were in their school colors of yellow and red.

In late April it was off to Portland Oregon for JSConf2011, an event that my husband and I spend all year planning. My husband is a huge JavaScript fan and for all us non geeks out there, that is a coding language that is used a lot in website design (he may correct me when he reads that part)

Portland was beautiful but I needed a little sunshine so my mom, sister, daughter and I took a girls weekend to Amelia Island Florida.

After a relaxing few days on the beach it was time to kick off wedding season. My first wedding of the year was for a bride that loved irises and jewels tones and insisted on no white.

Heading into June I did a wedding with a bride who collected 22 antique candelabras, each one being different and unique. She was also in love with purple lilac which I got extremely lucky in getting since it was the first week in June.

Quickly came my sisters June wedding, something I was very nervous about since she's very picky and was being vague about what she wanted. It turned out to be a wonderful night and we are so happy to add her husband Steve to our family.

My baby turned 1 ! How did that happen! I had a great time planning her forth of July themed first birthday, she was born the day before the 4th so she will forever always have fireworks to celebrate her birthday.

August brought relaxation, we spent a week at Nags Head with my in-laws.

Labor Day was spent relaxing along with a small royal purple and green wedding.

Mid September Chris and I put on Capitol JS and DojoConf of which both had a Spy theme complete with a top secret envelope with their mission.

Mid September Chris left for Ireland and Germany for FunConf and JSConfEU while I stayed to work on 7 weddings in two weekends.

Mid October rolled around and I had to switch gears from flowers to conferences. Chris and I were off to Miami to run Pycodeconf. Waiting in our room at The Epic Hotel was a Miami specialty, the mojito.

I had one last wedding to do before my season came to an end. This classic Washington DC wedding featured fall colors and an iconic view of DC.

October finished up with a great neighborhood Halloween Parade and my adorable daughter trick or treating as a her favorite fruit, a strawberry.


November brought my best friend's "Milkoholic" baby shower for which I provided the flowers of course.

Thanksgiving was at our house this year, getting 15 people around the table was the biggest challenge.


As a Thank You to all my 2011 brides I delivered each one of them a fresh Christmas wreath.

We barely made it to go see Santa but I am so glad we did, Virginia is wearing a handmade smocked dress made by Chris's mom and her favorite red glitter shoes.

Christmas Day was here before we knew it and we enjoyed every second watching Virginia open her gifts.

Welcome Virginia Abigail

She's here! She came on July 3rd at 2:49 am, which yes... that means she's more than a month old! She was a big baby at 9lbs 8 oz and with the great support of my coach (my loving husband) we made it through 9 hours of labor with no drugs. Chris and I took 12 weeks of The Bradley Method to prepare for the birth, but no matter how many classes you take, nothing prepares you for that moment when they hand you your baby and your whole world changes. I am loving motherhood and we feel so blessed to have Virginia in our life, some mornings I'll spend the whole morning just snuggling up with her in bed thinking how did I get so lucky to have this little angel in my life.

At 5 days old we got these photos taken by LitteMoonPhotography. It's amazing how much she has changed in the past month, I'll make sure to post more photos later.

40 Weeks

I'm officially due TODAY! We've pretty much finished up everything we need to. We hung these Alphabet cards in her nursery this weekend and all we are waiting for is the bedding to arrive on Wednesday (it was on back order for months).

The mobile is hung.

The mural is done above the changing table.

The Bookshelf is built (I still have a few finishing touches left to put on it).

So Grateful

A few weeks ago my friends Ashley and Ranchel threw me a wonderful baby shower, I can not thank them enough for all the effort they put into it, they truly outdid themselves and it exceeded my expectations. . Here are just a few details:

Ashley made the wreath and hanging tissue balls, I thought they were so adorable.

Peonies from a local grower in Great Falls (this was the only thing I did, the girls did all the rest)

Diaper cakes made by Ashley and my sister, Elise, how adorable and useful:)

So creative, sugar and cream in sippy cups with baby spoons!

Most of my guest painted a onesie for Peanut, some were better than others, let's just leave it at that.

After is was all over I got to relax and enjoy some time with my friends, Ranchel and I go way back to middle school and Ashley and Kristen and I met in college through ADPi.

I also want to thank my sister who wrote down all the gifts and helped "hurry" it along since apparently that's the most boring part of a shower and no once wants to sit there for hours.

Good Belly shot, she's a big one!

I also want to Thank everyone who came to the shower and brought a gift for Peanut, Chris and I are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and we can't wait introduce Peanut to you all.

One of the most special gifts we recieved was this handmade quilt from Chris' family. Each Whinnie the Pooh character was hand stiched from 4 generations of women in his family. The Pooh Bear was done 10 years ago by his Great Grandmother, it is a tradition in their family that each great-grand-child recieve a blanket for their children, I know Peanut will love hers!