Terrariums!

I was feeling terribly glum the day after my Palm Beach escapade, so I went for it and made these terrariums. It was super fun and I would love to show you how! I will be teaching a class on how to make these Thursday, April 2nd.

Sign up!

Thursday, April 2nd 6pm

I will demonstrate the steps for building an open terrarium, including planting mediums, plants that work together, and maintenance.

Sprout Home 

44 Grand Street (bet Kent & Wythe) Brooklyn, NY

p.s.  the class is free

The Palm Beaches

sigh... Palm Beach is fantastic.

This was a much needed trip as I had not seen my truest friend Jeffery since we spent our summer in France.

I loved peering into the perfectly manicured estates of Palm Beach Island and Hobe Sound.

Bethesda By The Sea Episcopal Church:

Jeffery & Fernando's Garden:

The best was water coloring at Macrthur Beach and touring a slew of gardens/farmers markets.

and with all of our delicious finds we prepared a most precious dinner. 

Everything is coming up Roses!

I got a last minuet Valentine order for 20 of these

More Yummies

 Getting excited for your sweetheart on the 14th?

 

Today's Bouquet

I made this order for a friend and spent extra loving care designing it. See the bird!

Gerhard Mantz

 Perhaps it's the fact that I am over having days with a high of 20 degrees, but the work of Gerhard Mantz really catches my eye! It makes me want to go on a trek in the sweltering rain forest. At first glance the lanscpapes appear realistic, almost photographic. On closer look the landscapes shift into a strange virtual realm, actually creating an emotional response and taking the viewer into a psychological state. Time to go to yoga class for me...

Flower School

Sign up for my Valentine's Day Bouquet Class!

Friday, February 13 @ 6pm

Sprout Home 

44 Grand Street (bet Kent & Wythe) Brooklyn, NY

Learn how to make a spiral hand-tied bouquet. $45 class fee includes a $35 bouquet you make and take home, for yourself or someone else.

Plastic cups full of cheap wine will be available to help you with your inspiration and coordination.

Space is limited so sign up now!
Visit the store or call us to register 718-388-4440.

MARFA, Texas

I do not get out of the city all that much. It’s an ever rarer opportunity when I find myself driving 16 hours in the vast expanse high desert of far West Texas. 

The town of Marfa is said to have been named after Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov; In the 48 hours I spent exploring I found many unusual curiosities in Marfa. 

The Chinati Foundation

Is known in the art world as the largest public museum for the permanent installation of sculpture in the world. It houses the works of Carl Andre, Ingolfur Arnarsson, Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, David Rabinowitch, John Wesley, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, and it’s founder-Donald Judd.

It was Judd’s goal to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole.

 

Prada Marfa

Marfa Mystery Lights

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, "...at times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have watched the lights for over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.

I am left thinking... if all these minds saw something great I suppose I can included myself in the bunch?

Dolce & Gabbana Inspirations

A month has passed since my window for Dolce and Gabbana, and I continue to find myself thinking of the design. In the February Issue of Interview Magazine is an awe inspiring 14 page spread about Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.  

The article showed a personal light on the designers and explained how the two can collaborate so beautifully. 

Stefano said in the interview-"Our relationship is a very good example for everybody in the world, gay and straight. Becasue our love story continued, without sex and without living together. Why not? He was the first big love story in my life. Why do we need to cancel that? And I don't want to forget that."

If only all of us could find such peace in work relationships and move forward to forge something great.

Dominico is known for being, "projected in the future" while Stefano is more attracted to his Sicilian roots. This is what makes the balance of Dolce & Gabbana.

The latest inspiration for Spring/Summer 2009 collection is from Visconti's movie The Leopard (1963)  I watched the movie and was generally bored by the dialog, but what the screen showed was shocking, dark, and incredibly romantic.

While doing the flowers I was kept being told to break away from my, "trained floral design habits"- to be wild, loose, and imperfect. This was a challenge having been trained in a traditionally English style. The Italians see flowers quite differently and I am happy to understand and love it now.  

 

Holiday Card

This is the Holiday window I created for Dolce & Gabbana. Every fruit, flower, and desert is real, which required a constant upkeep. It was absolutely beautiful to work on and I look forward to more projects of this caliber. 

I discovered these Photographs by Mikael Jansson from the Dolce & Gabbana collection after I designed the window and card. I think it relates nicely. 

Small Wonder

 "I think of the children who will never know, intuitively, that a flower is a plant's way of making love, or what silence sounds like, or that a tree breathes out what we breath in." -Barbara Kingslover

Small Wonder

  

Münich, Germany

  My first German garden encounter was the Englischer Garten. Virtually endless with a river running through and rolling parklands, I began to understand what I had been told before--the Germans have a deep appreciation for nature. Unlike the English with structured perfection or highly bred flowers like a collectors cabinet, the German garden has a less formal framework, which makes the garden more casual, mingled and natural. 

  I was told from a Munich local that Germans do not have a big tradition of private gardening like Britain or America. They instead use public parks as their landscaping showcase; in Munich alone they have the Botanisher Garten, Hofgarten, and various gardens in city squares. This deeply ingrained love of landscape is most definitely fueled by the floral wonders of the Bavarian Alps.

  

The floral designs carried these naturalistic ideas to the hotels and floral shops. Instead of using highly designed vases or colorful containers many use naturalistic approaches to design, bringing the outdoors in.

 

Fresh cut flowers sold by the stem are in the prettiest squares like Marienplatz. This reminded me of my travels throughout France. The purchasing of flowers is personal, enchanting, and wonderfully frivolous at times. Given that you can purchase them in so many ways, the grocery store, the deli, vendors at farmers markets, and fancy floral shops. Each way has its specific purpose. I much prefer purchasing flowers, (for myself) from the local vendors in Union Square, NY. But each place has its reason for it. I suppose the deli flower remains questionable for any friend. 

Succulents & the West Coast

  While in California I was awe founded by the succulent gardens I found throughout Santa Barbara and LA. Succulents look so primitive, other worldly and they survive perfectly in dry conditions. This is great since the west experiences severe droughts; they lend themselves well to this environment.

I remember as a child growing up in Arizona I would dream of having a lavish garden of wild strawberries, or in the very least a plot of grass. My mother diligently helped me in these impossible gardening endeavors, picking weeds and watering nightly only to find the following day to have my pansies fried in the sun. The landscaping of the west is so unique, beautiful, and it perfectly captures the textures and colors of this region. From what I have been told from avid succulent lovers they become something of an addiction, much like orchids are to Floridians. Since becoming enchanted by these sweet chicks and hen (another name for succulent) I have see their popularity grow! All throughout New York I've seen them proudly displayed for parties, hotel lobbies, even livening a corner of a restaurant bathroom. Because of this I have decided to give homage to my west coast roots. I am going to build my very own desert diorama with cactus, succulents and rocks. Over the years living in NY i realize that I have lost a crucial part of my southwest roots, the landscape. I want to regain that, and now you can make one too!

Copy and paste this in your browser!
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-goeserside23-2008aug23,0,5065949.story

Jeffery Archer

  For my first journal entry I would like to dedicate this to a friend who has been along the journey of self-discovery of flowers and all that is beautiful and creative. Jeffery Archer and I met in the South of France the summer of 2004. Surrounded by fields of Lavender, the sound of cicadas, and warms summer nights filled with rose wine. Unbenounced to me this was the beginning of my love affair with blooms. During our extensive travels throughout France, Switzerland, and the Italian Coast I saw beauty no picture or word could possibly capture. One such experience was visiting the Gardens of Lake Como Italy. The beautifully maintained and manicured gardens filled with rare and exotic plants versus the wild natural fields of Provence, such subtle differences from the Italian gardens to those of the French! Our eyes became trained to the beauty and facilitated through watercolor painting, writing, and reading.

We brought these jewels of information back to Savannah, Georgia where I looked upon the landscape with a more astute eye. Jeffery and I continued our journeys throughout the deep south, one filled with spanish moss, magnolias, and dogwoods in bloom. We roamed through the squares on bikes gazing at plantation mansions and spent afternoons lying in beautifully haunted Bonaventure Cemetery. 

Since we both studied Historic Preservation and Architectural History we took getaways to gather information for school papers. Up and down the southeastern coast we traveled to Jekyll Island, Beaufort South Carolina, and to the Cherry Blossom festival in Macon. We discovered French Creole homes, Fort Frederica; we even found one of the old Dupont family summerhouses! 

This being just a sampling of the places we traveled. Jeffery and I will be reunited after three years this October. I hope to visit where he lives in Palm Beach, Florida. There Jeff and I will visit the Flager Museum, world-renowned R.F. Orchids, and maybe even see the Coral Castle, among other great places of beauty.