Holy Guacamole!

Hello all! What a wonderfully busy few months it has been! The best part of those past couple months was Robert's and my super sweet trip to Barbados (we just got back two days ago, and I am still sooo tan woot!... although my face did just start peeling because it refused to do anything but burn for two weeks. gross.)

But before this little adventure we were navigating our way through our first Christmas season with a brick and mortar store, and boy was that an adventure of a completely different sort. I may have miscalculated demand and run out of chocolates at 2pm on the Friday before Christmas (Not to worry, I was restocked by 10am on Saturday). We may have miscalculated our production capabilities and had to swing seven all nighters over the course of two weeks (Also, I am now addicted to coffee which I never really drank before). And I may have miscalculated (repeatedly) how long I could microwave the hot cocoa without it boiling over. Overall, I would say Christmas was a succes!

Also, we were featured in Food and Wine Magazine's January issue in the Trendspotting section! Lots of screaming and jumping for joy ensued.

Furthermore, look at this cool photo Christina Bernales took of our Christmas Bar!

And this mediocre photo of the super awesome window display Brit Carlson did for the shop!

Robert's Birthday: An Excuse to List Embarrassing Anecdotes

As the mouthpiece for Team Fleurir, I have been presented with many opportunities to humiliate Robert. Interviews, blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets and talking to customers are all prime public outlets to tell embarrassing tales or let slip curious habits, but I always pass up the opportunity in favor of tact and grace. Well, in honor of Robert’s upcoming birthday, homeboy is turning 27 on September 1(say what?!?!), I have decided to break my vow of silence (also, I got Robert the best birthday present ever, so he can’t get too mad).

What to tell, what to tell. Hmmmmm...

Let’s just do this laundry list style, shall we? Perhaps, in escalating levels of embarrassment? Yes.

1. You know that “Rhythm of Love” song by The Plain White T’s? Well, Robert likes to play it on loop in the car, in the kitchen, in the bathroom all the while singing right along. Here is a sampling of the lyrics: We may only have tonight; But ‘til the morning sun, you’re mine, all mine; Play the music low; and sway to the rhythm of love.
2. Hugh Grant. When Robert and I first moved in together I came equipped with an enviably well-stocked library of DVDs (a good chunk of my nearly nonexistent 17-20 year old income went toward purchasing movies and earrings because I like to invest in my future, clearly). There was, what I thought at the time, a healthy sampling of Hugh Grant rom coms in the mix; little did I know that my amour for the bumbling Brit was to pale in comparison to the deep fondness Robert had for the man; he owned a copy of nearly every one of his films and two copies of “About a Boy,” just in cases. Granted (ha!), as Hugh ages and appears in fewer films, Robert has begun to view Ryan Reynolds as an acceptable substitute.
3. To this day, Robert remains a rather trim gent, but, compared to his teenage, self he is downright Hulk-ish. At 15 years old, Robert was an impressive 6’ 3” yet weighed-in at a mere 135 pounds; understandably, Robert was desperate to gain weight (seeing as how he was on his high school hockey team, bulking up was more than a matter of mere vanity). Having little taste for lifting weights, protein shakes or roid rage, Robert decided to change his eating habits. For almost all of his sophomore year of high school, his after-school snack comprised of a dozen Krispy Creme donuts, a can of whipped cream, and a couple tall glasses of whole milk to wash it all down. He only gained 5 pounds.
4. Around this same time, Robert decided that the best way to attract the ladies was with a gimmick and what tired cliche is more successful than the guy with the guitar who can really only kind of play one song (I never went for the guitar guy, I was more impressed by the piano)? Rather than take the time to learn how to play even one song with barely passable proficiency, Robert’s guitar was simply for show. Whenever a lady asked him to play for her he would make up some nonsense about it taking forever to tune and this that and the other thing and hey want to watch a movie?
5. Between the two of us, Robert and I have an embarrassing amount of stuff. So much stuff that our basement is filled with items we can’t find the space for in our house (granted, our house is uber tiny/cozy, so we don’t really have a whole lot of room to work with in the first place), but even if we lived in a fancy pants mansion with ample room to display our (short) lives’ collection of curios I would still not unpack one dusty suitcase filled to the brim with Marvel comics collectors cards. These little treasures were collected while Robert was in elementary school, yet, to this day, he refuses to part with them because he “has the entire set of 1990-93 plus all of the holograms.” Duh.
6. Finally, a new source of embarrassment has started to plague Robert since opening the shop only a few months ago- grey hairs. Four months ago, his beautiful mane of dark, silky locks was salt and pepper free, but the stresses of the shop have seeped into his scalp and pushed out multiple, no, numerous, no, LEGIONS! of silver strands. You can, of course, help to alleviate this source of shame by coming into the shop and buying loads and loads of delicious chocolatey goodness (like what I did there?).

I could go on for days, but I don’t want to outweigh the awesomeness of my gift for him with the not so awesomeness of these private revelations and consequently tumble into murky waters of possible retaliation; therefore, I shall end here.

P.S.

My awesome gift to Robert is a long weekend at the beach in Charleston with a couple of his old college buddies; thus, over Labor Day weekend Robert’s parents will be manning the shop, so come in and say hi- who knows, they may have some embarrassing stories of their own to share!

O Hai Fudgesicles! Goodbye Bad Attitude!

It has been unnecessarily hot out lately, like whoa. This is a big problem for one half of Team Fleurir because the other half can only handle temperatures between 67 and 75 degrees and gets uber cranky when the thermometer ventures past that eight degree window (or when she has to wake up before... well, waking up generally isn't my strong suit) . Unfortunately, DC went from -5 degrees (roughly) to 105 degrees (again, roughly) with no in-between this year. What is a person to do when his life/business/cribbage/gift wrapping partner becomes an unreasonable bundle of weather-rage?

Bribe her/him with this:

This is one of our scrumptious new fudgesicles that we launched last weekend. They are delicious. You should buy some if you are cranky or if someone you know is cranky and you want to make them more bearable (eating a fudgesicle while dealing with a cranky person makes the experience 63% better, it's science).

BEFORE AND AFTER!!!

You will all be happy to hear that I really have nothing to say in this post. The pictures (thanks Christina!) all capture how incredibly, crazy awesome Team Fleurir and the new retail space are much better than my words ever could (oh, hello modesty; I don't believe we've ever met before. My name is Ashley.)

THE BEFORES (courtesy of Robert's madre, Janet):

We have keys!!!

We have ladders!

Red wall, meet primer.

Post primer

Hey, you know what's fun for the whole family? Patching and taping walls.

Nicole-My vision includes this branch.

Us- Branch, yes, BRILLIANT!!

THE AFTERS (courtesy of Christina Bernales)

Team Fleurir and a flower pot made out of moss? MFEO= made for each other

Nicole Bourgea is a champ.

A masterpiece out of tennis balls and golf tees!

DIY all over the place!

Fun fact, that big piece in the middle was initially bright blue.

In your face!!!!

That mantle was sooo heavy!!

Remember those pieces of wood Shana was beating up a few posts back? Here they are!

Come on in; buy some chocolates!

Cheers folks!

Retail Space Opens!

Friends, I have marvelous news (I know it’s not really “news” but I haven’t posted in a while, so humor me). FLEURIR’S RETAIL SPACE IS OPEN THUS PUTTING THE FIRST STEP OF OUR PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION INTO MOTION!!!! We haven’t yet established what steps two through seventeen are, but we do know that step eighteen concludes our journey with world domination via chocolate.

Currently, Team Fleurir exists as a combination of excitement, exhaustion, and more excitement. These 450 square feet have been two years in the making, and, certainly, some days/weeks/months it didn’t look like we were going to make it. The temptation to throw in the towel and flee to a land without chocolate (like Idaho, maybe) followed us around like our separation anxiety ridden dog, Teak (and there was no puppy prozac that could magically help the situation- well, there was human prozac, I suppose, but things never got quite THAT bad).

I promise (kind of) that I will post next week with the before and after shots. For now, just know that you should come visit me often at 3235 P ST NW, Washington DC 20007 (except on Mondays, on Mondays we keep the doors locked and roll around in all of the cash money we made the previous week). Hope to see you soon, Team Fleurir.

An Update, an Update... A What, What? An Update

Way to go Leah (exasperated sigh); way to out-post me on Team Fleurir's retail progress.

Before I move on to the pictures (all of which are still from my phone- Team Fleurir would not be opposed to a digital camera for a Christmas present, or Surprise We Love You present, or Happy Wednesday present), I shall treat *cough*bore*cough* you with a simple numerical timeline of events leading to today.

1. Robert and I tell Leah all sorts of crazy/incoherent design ideas for the shop

2. Leah presents her version of our frantic suggestions via sketches

3. Robert and I go shopping with Leah and purchase everything with the caveat "don't worry Robert, it'll look really good once we paint/sand/distress/patina/mask/rebuild it"

4. Robert spends all day, every day painting/sanding/distressing/patina-ing/masking/rebuilding 97% of our purchases (granted, I handle most of the projects he has the least faith in and, therefore, refuses to even touch)

5. We paint the ceiling the wrong color which makes our original wall color look pink

6. Robert and I disagree on the new wall color (I still hold that it wouldn't have taken THAT long to treat the walls with 4 different shades of white washes)

7. Nicole starts to deliver painted branches, cans of beans, tennis balls, clothes pins, and golf tees to construct our large-scale wall installation

8. Travis, Shana, Lil, Sean, and Robert's parents provide manual labor

9. A slight permitting snafu derails our opening for a week (which works out beautifully since delivery of our new packaging is delayed over a week)

10. Christina Bernales takes some strategic photos of our work in progress

11. Robert and Travis have to move all of our hanging lights 3 or 4 times

12. Leah brings her absurdly adorable and well-behaved girls to the shop where Robert and I try to win their affections with loads of chocolate (I think we may have succeeded judging by their gifts of treasure rocks and acorns)

13. Robert and Travis roll their eyes as Leah and I say "You know what we could do..." or "You know what might look kind of cool..."

14. We all eat takeout or delivery all day everyday (thank god wide-leg pants are back in style!)

15. "Don't worry, we'll fix it later" becomes the team's motto

16. Nicole finishes her absolutely stunning sculpture, and Robert and I immediately neglect our one sculpture related duty and glue/sealant stuff drips all over the floor

17. Team Fleurir heads back into the kitchen to make more bars, honeycomb, and caramel bunnies for the opening (we possibly ate one or two too many samples during the build out process)

18. I belatedly post an update on our blog

And without further ado (though, I do feel strange ending my list with the number 18- it seems awkward and unfinished-I really should have persevered to 20 or 25 or, let's get real, cut it down to 10), the pictures!!!!!!

A Retail Space You Say?

Well. Have I got news for you. News that I have already posted on twitter and Facebook weeks ago. News that might blow your mind after my countless sob stories on this particular issue. News that Team Fleurir has a home- a real home.

This is the place we get to call our own.


We picked up the keys March 2 (sooo many photos I want to post but they are all on a camera three hours away; thus, we shall all make do with the shots from my phone).

We have three weeks to transform this little gem into the best darn chocolate shop in THE WORLD.

Therefore, we recruited friends and feasted on pizza and beer to pump us up for the massive undertaking.

Actually, before the pizza and beer we recruited (and by recruited I mean begged and pleaded) the fantastically BRILLIANT designer Leah Moss to help us turn our exceptionally inspired and always original design ideas into reality. Did I mention she's due in April? And I do not mean due in court to plead her case in a triple homicide in which she claims to have been setup! By aliens! In disguise! With an impressive grasp on the English language and perfectly matched DNA! Tricksy aliens. No, I mean due to give birth to a human child. What a champ.


Not only did she streamline our vision into an obtainable goal, she also came to our home to preform manual labor, on her birthday. No joke. She even brought her sister-in-law to toil out of doors on a Saturday.


Shana came too- mostly because Robert promised her burgers and the chance to let out all of her anger under the guise of distressing wood.




What more could we ask for? Nothing. Absolutely nothing would be the appropriate answer. And even without asking for it; even without thinking it a possibility... Leah's sister and DC-based artist Nicole Bourgea OFFERED to create an installation for our shop. One can only conclude that Robert's and my sharp wit and easy laugh attract awesome people.

Other awesome people credits include Robert's folks who have assisted in an impressive amount of manual labor AND paperwork. Robert's sister, Sarah Ludlow McCurry, who aids in all of our legal woes. My parents and brother who constantly call to offer long distance support and fantastic business ideas that I tend to present to Robert as my own. And Shana, who even without the burgers, pizza, beer, and girlscout cookies (the girl has clearly drawn priorities) would have spent her entire weekend days and nights helping us paint, paper, and distress.

Thank you all.