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CRAVE CRUSH the urban girl's blog to all that you CRAVE
Sweet, Sweet Summer!
From delectable sweet treats to cool refreshments, enjoy summer specialties from some of Seattle’s best bakers and tea experts! Each of these fabulous owners strive to create unique, seasonal selections that we CRAVE. Each of these shops create holiday menus to include the seasons freshest flavors. Escape with your closest girlfriends as you sip & savor some of the finest summer delights!
Sip
Miro Tea
Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Jeannie Liu provides her knowledge and expertise of teas from around the world to reinvent the traditional tea house. Jeannie vision for Miro Tea is to create a modern tea haven by offering over 250 varieties of high-quality loose leaf teas, tea-inspired beverages, and light food to savor. New to the tea world? Sample new teas daily at the Tea Tasting Bar. Nothing is more refreshing during the hot days of summer than a cool glass of tea from Miro Tea!
Savor
La Panier
Walk into La Panier, and feel like you’ve escaped into a Parisian bakery! Kristi Drake and her business partner, Thierry Mougin, enjoy delivering a taste of a France to their patrons. Located in the heart of Pike Place Market, their bakery is celebrating their twenty-seventh anniversary. The key to La Panier’s success is producing all their bread, pastries, and sandwiches fresh each day. We love how they also preserve French culture, by centering the holidays around sharing particular foods. Welcome Summer with the fresh taste of a delectable Tartelette aux fruits, crème vanille tucked beneath a cascade of fruit. Or pack an assortment of petits sablés for your picnic basket. It will make you CRAVE another visit to La Panier! Bon Appétit!
Macrina Bakery
Located in Belltown, SODO, and Queen Anne-Macrina Bakery strives to provide the comfort of being at home. Owner Leslie L. Mackie has created a local and national following with her sought-after recipes. Leslie has continued to create menus filled with soul satisfying fresh-bakes artisan breads, delectable cakes, warm cookies, and an extensive array of morning pastries. At Macrina Bakery they unfold a new holiday menu per season to include some of the finest seasonal ingredients! They extend their excitement for the holidays by featuring a new recipe and bread every month, and provide updated lists of markets and restaurants that carry Macrina Bakery breads. We CRAVE summer sunset with a Nectarine Upside down Cake from Macrina Bakery!
America, It’s Your Birthday!
Let’s face it, we CRAVE any excuse to get together and throw a party with our best friends. What better reason than for a birthday? Happy Birthday America! Since every birthday should involved presents- why not think of some ways you and your friends can give back to your community to commemorate the occasion? Check in with local organizations who do volunteer work. Maybe you can spend the afternoon helping clean up a park, planting some trees, or participating in a food drive.
After a day of doing something good for your country, you can feel good about having a little fun at night for yourself! Get your friends together, nosh on some festive treats and try to catch a glimpse of your local fireworks show. Here are some recipes to inspire your celebration:
This first recipe is from a chef bloggess we adore, CakeSpy!
Hartford Election Day Cupcakes: This spicecake is light but flavorful; all your friends will love munching on these treats which you can decorate in red, white and blue.
Dry ingredients:
- 8 ounces (1 cup) superfine granulated sugar
- 5 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- 1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
- Pinch of allspice
- Pinch of salt
- 1⁄8 teaspoon baking soda
Wet ingredients:
- 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter, melted
- ¼ cup half-and-half
- 1 tablespoon rum
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
Old-Fashioned Milk Buttercream
- 1 cup milk
- 2 ounces (¼ cup) all-purpose flour
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 8 ounces (1 cup) superfine granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sip
While you are savouring some cupcakes, it is likely you will want something to sip as well. Here is a great list we found that lists five different themed cocktails: click. Are you adventurous? You have to try the first drink on the list- it includes jalapeno or Serrano peppers to add a little fire to your night. Prefer something a little sweeter to sip? Strawberry schnapps will be a key (red) ingredient for you. To give any red drinks a patriotic vibe try garnish with blueberries, blackberries or just throw in a blue straw!
GenJuice Seattle:Unconference & Tweetup Event
Who:Arielle Patrice Scott: (@ariellescott), Virgilia Singh: (@virgiliasingh), and Danielle Leslie: (@danielleleslie)
Event:-GenJuice Seattle: Unconference & Tweetup for Gen-Y
Where: Jigsaw Renaissance-1026 Madison Street Seattle
When: Saturday, June 26, 2010 from 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM (PT)
Tickets: For more information please click here
Are you a young innovator, leader, or entrepreneur that CRAVEs inspiration, knowledge, and growth? GenJuice is hosting an Unconference and tweet-up event to connect local entrepreneurs.
Event Details
The GenJuice Tour kicked off June 20th, 2010 when three Gen-Y innovators from the San Francisco Bay Area- Arielle Patrice Scott, Virgilia Singh, and Danielle Leslie take the trip of a lifetime and visit 13 major U.S. cities with one mission: to connect Gen-Y leaders and innovators from all industries and encourage a movement of innovation.
Connect
GenJuice is hosting an unconference and tweetup and bring around 100 Gen-Yers together to share their expertise and connect with other go-getters. Prior to each unconference, they will send out a Google Doc to connect all attendees and have each attendee write a discussion topic that they’d like to lead. Once at the unconference, all attendees will vote on the discussions that interest them, and the top discussions will happen during two sessions.
Mingle
Following each session we will recap top takeaways for the day and allow attendees to connect with their fellow Gen-Y innovators in the room. GenJuice’s goal with the unconference is to have each person walk away with at least one person that they want to work with in some capacity in the future. Also a tweet-up event will follow after the event!
See you there!
Get Your Bikini Body!
The sun is shinning in the Northwest, and it’s time to shed the layers of winter and get your body bikini ready! We CRAVE new, inspiring, and energizing workouts to help us get in shape for the Summer season. Whatever your fitness goals, the ladies from Bodycenter Studio and Fly Fitness will help you get there. Choose from a variety of classes to help transform your body to reach your optimal idea of health!
Bodycenter Studio
Shane Belau and Kristi Quinn has created Bodycenter Studio to extend the benefits of Pilates to the Seattle area for the past decade. Their most popular classes are Private Pilates sessions and Group Reformer Classes. Bring your closest girlfriend to the studio and choose from an array of tailored classes to reach your optimal fitness goals. From the dancer series to athletic conditioning reformer series-find what interest you the most. Reap the benefits of Bodycenter Studio training and balanced bodies, improved movement patterns, and increase your level of fitness!
Fly Fitness
Want to venture away from studios and gyms? Reach out to Fly Fitness for in-home personal training, group classes, fitness field trips, local and destination retreats, and sporty soirees! Grab your girls and enjoy the sunshine while improving your health with a challenging, customized routine from Fly Fitness. Owner and creator Traci Barnum’s passion for people, fitness, and entertainment is the spark that pushes her clients to reach their best life through her program. Bikini season is just around the corner, get ready with Fly Fitness’s Bikini Bootcamp at Greenlake!
Hello, Summer!
How many times a year do we utter the words, “If only there were more hours in the day…”? Well, on the summer solstice, you will get your wish since today, the sun shines longer than any other day of the year. Today of course also marks the official start of summer, and with it, we celebrate all the best things about this much-anticipated season! To welcome the return of flip-flops, barbecue’s, vacations and more, we’ve compiled a list of activities to do in order to take advantage of those extra minutes of sunlight. Grab your friends and family and head out – you won’t want to miss a second of your summer solstice celebration!
A picnic is a simple no-brainer for a summer occasion, but you might decide to get a little creative for the special occasion by coordinating a late-night sunset picnic in your city’s most scenic setting. Bring a playlist of songs with the word “sun” in them to set the right mood.
If you’re an avid outdoors-woman, you’ll want to really maximize your extra minutes of rays! Head out for an evening hike, run, or bike ride and extend it a little longer than usual. You’ll get an extra boost knowing that this is the only night you’ll be able to savor the sunlight during your routine workout.
Spending your solstice doing water activities is an excellent idea if you live near a body of water. Boating, surfing, kayaking, or even just lounging beachside will give you that summer glow you’ve been missing all winter. Plus, watching the sun lower over sparkling waves is a sight that can hardly be beat, and one you’ll want to store in your memory for the next winter.
Say Mother Nature decides to throw you a curveball and sends rain instead of shine, well don’t let that stop you from enjoying the spirit of the day. Curling up with a book and hot tea can be relaxing during a summer rainfall or storm especially if enjoyed from a patio or porch. If the day is more gray gloom than thrilling boom, head to your local arboretum or greenhouse to get your tropical nature fix.
Dress for Success Handbag Drive
Admit it, most of us probably have more purses and bags than we know exactly what to do with. As much as we tell ourselves that we need this new accessory to liven up our outfits- we still end up grabbing for that same trusty bag (that already has everything we own in it) when leaving the house. International non-profit Dress for Success has the perfect answer for what to do with all of your rarely used purses- a Handbag Drive to benefit disadvantaged women.
Dress for Success “promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing them with professional attire” to help them become established and thrive in the workforce. Learn more about them here.
For this special Dress for Success event, when you trade in your old handbag you will receive a gift certificate for a free sitting and 5×7 print from Yuen Lui Studio. This is a great, sustainable way to put those bags you never use toward a cause you can feel good about. CRAVE is about helping women succeed independently. We are so excited to participate in this event and hope you will participate and spread the word too! The drive is now open and will run until June 30th.
Where can you go to donate your bags? Contact one of these Yuen Lui Studio locations for more details:
Kent
25607 101st Ave. S.E. Kent, WA. 98030 – 253-854-8600
Bellevue
10855 N.E. 8th St. Bellevue, WA. 98004 – 425-453-1606
Tacoma
4020 S. Steele St. #108, Tacoma, WA. 98409 -253-475-1303
Redmond
16640 Cleveland St. Redmond, WA. 98052 – 425-882-1168
Seattle-Downtown
900 Virginia St. Seattle, WA. 98101 – 206-622-0338
Seattle-Roosevelt
924 N.E. 63rd St. Seattle, WA. 98115 – 206-523-5707
Everett
1205A-B Everett Mall Way, Everett, WA. 98208 – 425-353-5151
Lynnwood
18411 Alderwood Mall Pkwy. Lynnwood, WA. 98037 – 425-771-3423
CRAVE-worthy Guide to Graduation
Graduation season is upon us! Here at CRAVE it is a time to not only celebrate, but to recognize graduates for their hard work and dedication that has lead them to this momentous occasion. We have found boutiques and services that will aide you in your search to find the ultimate graduation present for anyone on your list.
Fireworks Gallery
“Celebrating art in life” is owner Michelle Manesse‘s vision she carries throughout Fireworks Gallery. Michelle purchased the original gallery in 1985 as an effort to restore the entertainment, and complete experience that she desired in a shop. She sought out fun, unusual, yet functional merchandise. Manesse started featuring dozens of local artist then expanding to three-hundred national, and international acclaimed artisans. The Gallery is gaining notoriety as a retailer of crafts, as well as leading, women owned businesses. From tech savvy grads, to the first time independent dweller-Fireworks Gallery will be a one-stop shop for any unique grad in your life.
Paper Delights
Owners Alicia Olsen and her mom, Kathy Perkins fulfilled a lifelong dream the day they opened Paper Delights in March, 2008. Their visions is to “create a shop we love to come to every day and fill it with cards, stationery and gifts that portray a design ethic that truly lifts the spirit”. Walking into the boutique you are overcome with a sense of nostalgia where you find your fave candies like citrus lollipops, luxurious chocolates from local chocolatiers, and a rainbow of jelly beans that color coordinate to any party theme. Create a CRAVE-worthy ultimate goddess giveaway with a unique present, card, and candy all bundled in the most luxurious wrapping paper at Paper Delights.
Trudy’s Floral Design
On their special day, nothing says “we love you” like a fresh, carefully crafted bouquet of flowers. Step into Trudy’s Floral Design to find the perfect bouquet. Owner Trudy Rosemarin, and her staff provide quality service, flower arrangements, and delivery. Senses are captivated with vibrantly colored flowers, and aromas encapsulate your senses. Can’t make it to Trudy’s Floral Design? They also deliver to all the greater Seattle area. Although inspired by European design Trudy purchases all flowers and greenery from local growers, grown organically. Create your own luxe creation at Trudy’s Floral Design.
Sip & Ship
Important graduates in your life outside of the greater Seattle area? Have packages sent directly to them using Sip & Ship’s ultimate package services for the busiest urbanite. Owner Diana Naramore has created a fabulous blend of a coffee shop meets Mailboxes Etc that created community-centered environment. This full-service shop allows you to mail, grab a card and gift; and have it wrapped, packed and shipped via UPS, FedEx, DHL, or US Postal Services. Sip & Ship also guarantees 100% organic, fair trade coffee and espresso is also green roasted using 100% renewable energy. They also feature local baked goods. Send inspiration to the amazing graduate(s) in your life with a carefully packaged gift from Sip & Ship!
Daddy’s Day is Almost Here!
Father’s Day is around the corner and every year its the same. We ponder WHAT to get our dear dads for a gift. We all know that whatever we hand them they’ll be thankful for; but we always want to push the envelope! When we are pressed for time and don’t have the effort left to make something extremely sentimental, here is some advice from your friends at CRAVE on what to do that will make him smile.
Try and remember what your dad is passionate about. Is he an outdoors-man? Cook? Tech-savvy? Music lover? With some passion he has in mind its always easier to direct your gift towards a certain theme and come out successful. It will help you avoid spending hours shopping with no clue of what to get as well as guaranteeing that he will appreciate the gift and the thought you put into it.
If still stuck on where to begin with finding a gift, maybe go in a different direction then a simple gift from the store. Does you’re dad love a certain comedian or band? Grab tickets to a concert.
Dad’s love knowing you want to spend time with them, so if time allows, do an activity that involves doing something together. Time spent is more precious than any other gift money could buy!
Remember first and foremost that its your dad’s day! All that matters truly matters is that you make sure to tell him he’s special and you love him.
CRAVE Symposium, Seattle – A Day Of Inspiration
It was 9:00am and stylishly put-together women of all ages trickled through the glass pane front doors. They carried notebooks and handbags and twittered with anticipation. After sipping coffee and snacking on complimentary donuts from PINKS Original Bakery they seated themselves at round tables in the main hall, 8-10 women per table. Seattle CRAVE Symposium 2010 was about to begin!
Prior to the Symposium, 6 lucky entreprenesses were selected to have their businesses think-tanked with the help of a group of successful industry leaders. The remaining Symposium participants were invited to listen, offer up their personal experiences and advice, and ask questions pertaining to their own businesses.
During the 8-hour workshop, the mentors – experts in PR & marketing, social media and business finances – shared insight, gave suggestions and helped the chosen business owners analyze their current business strategies and develop new plans to take sales – and success – above and beyond!
The day flew by for all involved as business owners and future business owners soaked up gem after valuable gem. Time was spend in rapt discussion, pens flying across pieces of paper with one woman after another thrust into a-ha moment after a-ha moment!
In between brainstorming sessions there was plenty of time to mingle. Attendees chatted, got to know one another and exchanged business cards, networking their way through the day. Come 5 o’clock people left one by one, headed back home and to offices to digest and make plans for the future. There was much to consider, but one common thought that everyone left with was the hope that it wouldn’t be too long before the next CRAVE Symposium!!
CRAVEable Children’s Fashion & Necessities
Looking into the eyes of a newborn child is the greatest blessing in the lives of new moms, their families, and friends. These little bundles of joy are the most precious gift, and what better way to welcome the newest addition to the family then with CRAVE worthy gifts. Children clothing has evolved into children fashions. Designers are creating sophisticated, high quality garments beyond our imaginations. These lovely entreprenesses have been inspired by their own children and have created a luxe selection of children fashion.
Flora & Henri
Inspired by her daughter Frances, Jane Hedreen’s created Flora & Henri. Her greatest inspiration for her vision was to create a brand committed to high quality products and diverging from age inappropriate trends. Using the finest materials and craftsmanship, Jane develops unique fashions that have international appeal. With collections including CRAVEworthy garments for newborns to ten years. Explore this fabulous, European inspired boutique and adorn the exceptional child in your life with a one of kind creation from Flora & Henri.
BabyLegs
Owner & innovator, Nicole Donnelly created BabyLegs by cutting the feet off the socks for her daughter as a spontaneous way to keep her daughter’s legs warm during diaper changes. Five-years ago Nicole sold BabyLegs out of a diaper bag, and now they are sold in over 50 countries worldwide. The leg warmers serve many purposes as a child life progresses. They make diaper rashes heal faster, diaper changes easier, guards knees while crawling, and they are created in multitude of colors that will please the most style-savviest mom. BabyLegs is a CRAVEable necessity for any new mom!