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We've been nominated for the San Francisco Chronicle SFGate.com BayList Best for BEST WEDDING FLOWERS in the Bay Area!!
Please click on the following link to cast a vote for us! http://baylist.sfgate.com/annie-siu-floral-and-events/biz/111554
If you've already voted for us, please forward this link to all your friends/family/coworkers as well! THANKS SO MUCH! It's because of your vote that we've already inched up to 10th place!
First there were gift cards, then there were bags...now there's Starbucks. I'm still collecting the recyclable grocery bags (currently at 8) and the gift cards (currently at 54), but now I'm into Starbucks cups/mugs/and even their Starbucks barista bear (SO cute! =P).
It all started when I was at Starbucks on a normal day and was just peering at their gift display shelves, and I briefly noticed the plastic cup with the green straw. It's just like the grande plastic cups that they use to fill your ice cold drinks/frappaccinos, etc, but it's made out of hard plastic, (even the green straw) so it's reusable. I thought, 'I'll just get it another day. I'll look at it more closely then.' And from that day on, I've been to at least 10+ different Starbucks and have NOT found it ever since. Unlike most people who go to Starbucks everyday to get their cup of coffee, I go to each and every Starbucks I happen to walk by, not to get their coffee, but to look for that cup. I even take the time to ask the barista, but all I get is the same answer, 'those sold out fast. Maybe they'll send us another shipment soon.'And to this day, that shipment has not come.So to compensate for the 'should've bought it at that moment and not being able to get it later' syndrome, if I see another Starbucks cups/mugs that I like, I buy it, without hesitation. I just can't deal with another 'not being able to get it ever 'cup. But don't worry, I haven't gone too crazy yet, like with the gift cards. I only buy ones that evoke a 'I have to have' feeling. Although every time I go into a Starbucks, I always find something different and unique and one that I think I won't see again, so the IHTH feeling just takes over. But I only allow myself to get ONE per day, not per visit.Currently, I've collected 4 Starbucks items. I didn't even know they are collector's items...are they?!
After setting up a wedding, I can never resist to take a million pictures. Everything always turns out SO NICE at the end that I still take pictures as if it's my first wedding! But at this particular wedding, I knew I didn't have to take too many pictures because one of my favorite photographers Chung Li was photographing the wedding. It was at the same venue, City Hall, where we met at around this time last year. He already has pictures up on his blog and I've grabbed some for here: (can't wait to see the rest of the pictures, Chung!)
I finally know what they were all trying to say to me...
"you just wait...when they start walking, they'd be walking everywhere and you'd wish they hadn't"
It's evident that the baby doesn't like to be in the stroller anymore, that's why we bought the Radio Flyer wagon last weekend to change things up. But you can't use the wagon everywhere, especially around tight spaces like the supermarket, so we have to resort back to the stroller.
There's no more of the leisure strolling around, running errands in a stroller. Now he wahs and he wahs until you get him out of the wretched stroller and you know it's because he'd rather walk. You let him walk around because you'd rather he not wah, but he's walking everywhere, and of course always in the opposite direction. Is this what they were saying about walking?!
So my first obsession is bags, my second is cooking. As everyone obsesses over which restaurants to go to and reads and makes reviews, I am obsessed with finding recipes, reading reviews on them and trying them out. I never really had such an enjoyment with cooking until I was without a kitchen for 2 years. Then when we were toying with the idea of buying a house, we decided to stay where we are at for the time being and put in a small kitchenette instead. Our place is the typical San Francisco in-law unit - small, yet livable - and surprisingly, putting in a full sized refrigerator, stove AND oven, plus a sink and full-sized cabinets actually made the place a lot more cozier!I love it!I love spending the time to find recipes online, watching the foodnetwork and trying other's people's recipes. I love buying all kinds of kitchen gadgets, especially from Crate & Barrel, that make life easier in the kitchen. It's the one-hour time in a day that I have complete bliss from the baby and am not working. It's a new venture for me that I think I will keep at until I feel like I've got it - when I know why you add certain ingredients to certain things and where I can just whip up a meal without referring religiously to step-by-step recipes.
Besides being obsessed with the color green, cooking (more about that another time) and gift cards, I am now infatuated with recyclable canvas bags! I've been conscious of "BYOB" (bring-ing your own bag) for sometime now - especially to the grocery stores - because I have been so tired of getting an endless supply of plastic bags everytime coming out of a store. I've even made it a habit to have used paper bags handy in the car. (Plus, some stores give you .03 or .05 cent back for every bag you bring!)
But now, I'm even more conscious of the kinds of recyclable bags they have at the stores. They're the ones that you can purchase at the checkout for usually 99cents. The first bag I bought was the greenbag, one that folds into the size of an index card, so you can put it in your purse, in case of those unexpected buys when you forget to bring a bag. Then I couldn't resist the khaki tote that looks like my friend's yelp.com bag (which I'm still hoping to get a hold of one day), because those have become my favorite type of bag - with the long handles, it's sturdy and even has a backing for the bottom. Then I was at Whole Foods, who I think are the ones who made this whole revolution a phenomenon, and I was going to just check out their original dark green "Whole Foods" labeled bag, but I fell in love at first sight with their lime green "-1" bag instead. "-1" meaning one less plastic bag used to bag my grocery! I had to have it!
I think these grocery bags have become more than just recyclable bags that you use. It has become such a fad that you don't just use them to carry groceries. SO many stores have produced like bags of different sizes, colors, styles, that I think it has become my new collectible item!
So far to date, I have 3 bags...and 32 gift cards collected! More to come! =P
Is this what turning 30 is all about?
Technology illiterate?!
Am I already that kind of mom who doesn't know what my son knows? =P (Good thing he's only 17-mos, but he loves clicking on the mouse and keyboard already!)
I am on Facebook, but not really really on it like most people, and one of my past clients just suggested that I create a Facebook page of my business. It took me so long just to figure out yelp.com and now I have to figure out another website? Is all this technology just too much for someone old like me?! There are a million things I would love to do for my business and I wish I had all the time in the world to do them. I wish I could be online all the time too, like I used to before the baby. But now, all moms would probably agree that we just don't have that kind of time anymore.
But after some nights of yelp!-ing around, we have 5 star reviews!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/annie-siu-floral-and-events-burlingame.
Finally it's here! The re-launch of our website - http://www.anniesiu.com/ - with many new features, including a new gallery of our best of the best, the press page, and of course our blog! Unlike all other blogs, our blog will not only be about recent weddings/events, but the real life of being a mom, a wife, AND a business owner. So ENJOY!This was the best birthday present ever! Thanks so much to http://www.cambridgeomnimedia.com/, whose work I've always admired since 5 years ago when I created my first website. I wanted to keep him a secret, but his work is just phenomenal that I had to give him his well deserved credit!
On a side note, good luck to your wife with the birth of your first baby girl, due tomorrow!
I always thought I had a good balance - I have a baby, who I take care of and I have my own business, which is still running strong (actually, even stronger after having the baby). So I have both, unlike other moms who are either full-time mothers and longs to work, or moms who go to work and longs to be taking care of the baby.
But today at my annual visit to my obgyn, she is the ONLY person who, after this whole time of having the baby, I was able to completely confide in. She made me realize that although I have that balance with work and baby, I don't have that time for me. I thought I did - because I do still go out occasionaly without the baby - but at the same time, when I am out, I subconsciously feel guilty for it. I need some truly alone time, where it's all about me, and not running errands, but maybe sitting at a coffee shop, reading a book, riding a bike - those are just some of the ideas we came up with during our meeting.On a side note, how many doctors do you know, whole-heartedly listens to you? She's the only one - my midwife, my friend and I love her!
Did you know you can get cheaper groceries on a Monday night? I don't know if that's really the case but we happened to go grocery shopping this past Monday night and EVERYTHING was on sale! It felt like everything was half off! It was a great night to stock up the pantry! =P
Did you know that you can purchase stamps called "Forever Stamps"? I was just over at the post office today and was asked if I needed some extra stamps. I thought outloud that I would get them again after the price increase, which is in about another month or so, but then the postman said I could purchase FOREVER STAMPS - which I had no idea what it was until I was told they are stamps that you can purchase at the price now (41cents) and if and when the price of stamps go up to say even $5 in the future, you would still be only been paying 41 cents! What a phenomenon! I was so excited about this that I had to buy 100 of them, which I don't think it's even enough, but I had to get back and write it on my Blog. I think it's the best thing - like stocks - but this one, the price won't ever go down! =P
