Flora Caputo has been an award-winning creative director in advertising for over 25 years, accumulating a long list of blue-chip brand experience along the way. Client work for Kraft Foods, Kellogg's, Quaker Oats, Whole Foods Market, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Smithfield Food Brands and Amtrak fills her portfolio. During this time she has been the author/owner of the popular food, garden and lifestyle blog "The Urban Domestic Diva" since 2008. The blog began as a passion project but has grown into a vibrant community and social space for those who love bringing beauty and creativity into their daily lives. Her Pinterest account alone gets close to 1 million views a month. Flora's life mission is to create and serve and inspire others to do the same. Content ranges from how-to's on mosaic projects, gardening tips, recipes, canning how-to's, upcycling thrift store finds, and whatever idea Flora will come up with next. Her website, youtube channel and social feeds are full of project ideas, inspiration, and fun. She has been asked to be a brand ambassador and content creator for clients such as Starbucks, Muir Glen, Reynold's, and Chobani. She has been asked to be part of the Epicurious Community Table and her content has been featured in Punk Domestics and Mamapedia. Often her love for food, gardening, and design intersect and coalesce into projects where she can leverage all her talents at once. Her recent Urban Domestic Diva Shop launch and her two books are great examples of this.Flora's deep food brand experience and success with her blog garnered acceptance into the invite-only female-led Les Dames D'Escoffier's Chicago Chapter. It is a global philanthropic society of women leaders and trailblazers in the culinary, beverage and hospitality professions. The non-profit organization coordinates educational, community service and charitable programs and events to foster excellence and promote achievements of women in the culinary arts. Flora was accepted in 2013 and served on the board of directors in 2016 and 2017. She continues to help with the design, brand strategy and naming for the outreach and fundraisers.As she continues to try and give back, her gardening and food passions drove curiosity and advocacy for the world's pollinators. Growing food, enjoying food and cooking food are symbiotic. And pollinators are key in this experience. The depleting numbers of pollinators drove Flora to write, hand-illustrate and publish her BEE NATIVE! Flower Power book. She hopes the book makes choosing and planting native plants less daunting for the everyday gardener, and in turn helps bring back pollinators. She also designed a line of #savethebees products in her shop to support the launch of the book. A percentage of the profits will go to The Honeybee Conservancy.Flora grew up around food and gardening. Her Italian family inducted her into what she often calls the “Taylor Street Italian Cooks Club,” from the moment she could hold a wooden spoon to stir tomato sauce. Her grandfather started her love of gardening by taking her to their apartment roof. There, they cared for countless tomato plants growing in rusty tin cans. As she grew older, she expanded those passions to other creative outlets like gardening, crafting and writing. But art was always at her core. She followed it to a degree in Advertising Art from Columbia College Chicago, with an emphasis in illustration. She was the first woman from both sides of her family to earn a college degree. Her art talents can be found in many of her products in her blog's shop, Etsy shop and in her books.With all her “downtime” she is a very involved mom of a teenager and a cat. She is in two book clubs. She picked up fly-fishing which she enjoys with her husband (yes, she has her own waders!). And she continues to work in art direction, marketing and branding for clients such as The French Pastry School, Quaker Oats Company, and the American Dairy Association. She gets much-needed downtime by snuggling with her loved ones on the couch while watching reruns of Britcoms. She also enjoys taking long power walks in the many parks the City of Chicago has to offer.Read more about this authorRead less about this author