I’ve had this feeling recently that things were going to start changing at Posies… things that I couldn’t quite predict, but I knew were coming. And while sometimes I think we all believe it would be ideal to sit comfortably in our routines that we establish, from what I’ve learned thus far in my life, it’s that things MUST change once we stop stretching, learning or become too comfortable. People spoke of 2009 as being a terrible year – a year when everything was going wrong for everyone it seemed. And 2010 seemed to have change in the air, but no one knew what. I felt that way too, and felt both nervous and excited at what was around the corner. For Posies, though we’re only halfway through the year, 2010 has been a time of major life changes, and growth, and renewed focus on what we want to bring

My most vivid memory of my father during my childhood was how much he enjoyed us, experiencing life through our eyes, and finding ways to wow us. He would let us drive sitting on his lap down our private dirt road in Maryland, or let us tie and climb up ropes from the banister because we were playing pirates. He would join us in all of the sports we did, but would never be the hovering parent. He would let us experience whatever we would have experienced being there alone, and if we needed help, we would ask, and he would help. He also spent much of our childhoods filming hours of home movies of us. The trick with dad was that we never knew he was there, so we did our playing, or talking to ourselves or our friends just like we would normally. He caught some of the

Two years ago I wrote this privately after celebrating my first Mother’s Day as a mother. It still holds true today, so I thought I would share it with all of you. May 2008: Before baby, I thought Mother’s Day was a rather lightweight holiday – and barely a holiday at that. More of a day in May that needed a special meaning assigned to it because May was running short on holidays. The cards I would send to my mother were thoughtful, but more selfish in my understanding of the day… I would thank my mother for being such a good mom to me, making growing up such a memorable experience for me, for loving me in spite of my being such a pain, etc. This year, Mother’s Day’s meaning became almost overwhelming to me. In reflecting on life since baby, I thought back to when Anouk was first

UPDATE: Sadly, Judi passed away Tuesday morning in her home surrounded by her family. She has asked to be cremated, and so her family has decided to have Celebration of Life service at the end of July. They are currently seeking a location that is large enough (yet intimate enough) to hold all of the people that would like to attend the service. More details to come… And if there is anything that I think Judi would have wanted us to learn from her life, it would be to not hesitate to tell people you love them, whether it be friends, family or a stranger, because people only regret not saying it enough. And that in her mind, we were all 10s… on a scale of 1-5. Judi – you were an 11. ——————— As spring is slowly turning into summer, and our thoughts are moving to spring cleaning, activities

A few weeks ago I worked my first live music show at the shop – I believe it was Miss Michael Jodell & The Slow Healers. In that moment I had a sort of out of body moment looking into the shop and seeing these incredible musicians in a space that I had created… I looked at every piece of furniture, the floors, the walls we built, the bar, the equipment. Every piece I scrounged for (table bases = $20/piece at Rose’s Restaurant Equipment in the used section; the front of the bar is made out of old doors we found at Lovett Deconstruction and the ReBuilding Center), the fighting I had to do to get financing, how scared I’ve been at nearly every step (from telling everyone we were opening a second business to asking the landlord to offset our rent for various building issues and hoping he would

As always, I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of what had happened in Haiti until it became personal.  On the 15th of January, I got word from my husband that our dear friend, and Jonathan’s long-time mentor, Walt Rattermann, had been missing at the Hotel Montana since January 12th.  We were both heartbroken, and followed his Facebook page obsessively (I even set it up to get text messages when they updated information).  I had heard that Walt had gone 40 days without food before, and had traveled the world doing emergency relief work for the last twenty years, so I thought of all people, Walt could survive. I posted something about Walt on Facebook one day, and a friend wrote that she knew someone with a heartrate detection monitor going down to Haiti – the same one that found that elderly woman alive under the church. I told Walt’s contacts

Much like New Years, Valentines Day has long been one of those holidays that comes with great expectations, but very often can fall short of what you know it could be.  Knowing that, Posies Cafe and our florist, Solabee Flowers, have joined forces to make this Valentines Day as lovely as we’ve always envisioned it to be. This Saturday & Sunday we will have a corner of the shop dedicated to Valentines Day gifts.  We will have handmade lockets, darling cookies, and beautiful bouquets (posies) made by Solabee Flowers available for sale.  Sunday morning we will even be offering a special Valentines Day brunch of crepes and mimosas!  Come feel the love in the air.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Since I haven’t heard back from “C” or “Charlotte”, I can only assume it was a spammed email… and while I’ve been laughing at myself all day for responding so seriously to something that wasn’t even real, it did get me thinking about two things: blog posts and the way we say things. I couldn’t agree more with “Charlotte” that my blog posts maybe aren’t as interesting as they used to be, and I’ve been feeling guilty about it for months.  What I wrote was true, though, that sometimes the criticisms make you feel that complacency or generic posts are maybe the safest route to take.  Interestingly, what has always inspired my previous “interesting” posts were issues that I felt needed a voice, or deserved sharing or giving a critic a different perspective.  So thank you, pretend critic, for getting me thinking about writing again. The

You may have seen them over the weekend happily training (or poor Anthony in his trial by fire training on Saturday), excited to be learning something new and getting to know our regulars’ drinks by heart.  So now it’s time for formal introductions! In alphabetical order we have… Anthony Fox: Anthony is father to 7-year-old Journey, and he and his family are fellow Kenton residents.  He is an experienced barista having worked at many well-known coffee shops in Portland (Urban Grind, Blend), has lived in Thailand, and is currently in school on track to study International Law. Keri Phillips: Keri teaches English at an area Washington college, and a former Starbucks barista.  She recently moved to Portland from Oklahoma, and wooed us with her daily patronage, her sense of humor, and her sweet midwestern sincerity.  She play indoor soccer, has a masters in rhetoric, and likes long walks on the

As many of you know, we’ve started regularly scheduled activities during the day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  And on occasion we’ve booked some great evening shows (Mnemonic last month, Aram, Ms. Michael Jodell, and on and on).  With so much great attendance, we really started focusing our efforts on scheduling more shows and events.  So… Starting next week we will have a children’s activity every weekday morning at 10am, and starting in January we’ll have a regularly scheduled evening show Tuesday nights and weekends.  The morning schedule is as follows: Mondays: Live music with Mr. Ben Tuesdays: Teeny Tiny Storytime Theater with Ms. Yvonne Wednesdays: Story time with Judi Thursdays: Live music with Mr. Ben Fridays: Teeny Tiny Storytime Theater with Ms. Yvonne The evenings schedule will be: Tuesdays: 8pm Songwriters Roundtable (see this link for details: http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2009/12/17/posies-cafe-to-host-all-star-open-mic-night) Fridays or Saturdays: 7pm Live music (*Mnemonic is booked again for