Friday, April 18, 2014

Seasons



I promised myself that I would blog more last year and here I am blogging for the first time in 2014. Oopsie! My legitimate excuse is I had a busy end to 2013 including falling in love and moving back to New England. With that said, I have had a major transition and found myself having to deal with the worst winter New England has had in years. It was oh so pretty at first, but now I'm more than ready for spring! Spring is officially here yet we are still having storms and cold weather. I miss California...a lot...I miss my California family, I miss jasmine and wisteria scents as I walk my dog, I miss my hikes and picking wild California sage, I miss some of the sun but not those 85-90 degree days. I miss the flower market being 8 minutes away, I miss the wholesale flower prices, I miss cutting succulents from my yard rather than buying them at the Boston market which are overpriced, I miss all my beautiful indoor trees and plants, I miss being able to plant things outdoors no matter what the season is, and my favorite place...Big Sur. One day we will meet again.



Enough of my rant, New England is so beautiful, so much history, and so REAL. We have the most amazing seasons and I'm over the moon for spring...it just needs to hurry up already! I have my family back and my true love whom I've known since I was 14 years old. We live in the cutest seaside town that has the perfect mix of old school New Englanders, farmer's, sailors, art students, and thirty something  We have fantastic restaurants & bars, farmer's markets, organic markets, amazing coffee roasted here in town, art galleries, vintage and home decor shops. We have everything the city offers but more intimate and lots of local support. The air is fresh and there is lots of green! I love it and it feels good to be HOME.






Building my business in a new state isn't easy but everything has been happening so organically and opportunities are in abundance. I've had a pop up event (above) at an amazing shop called Diamonds & Rust. The shop owners Janelle and Jake have been so supportive and generous. I was also lucky enough to meet the talented Fawn Deviney whom has blessed Luna Moss with her incredible eye. All images above were captured by her. We had delicous gourmet donuts made by a local bakery and cafe called Half Baked 

I'm having my first workshop just in time for Mother's Day on May 9th. You will be able to create your own arrangement, learn some styling tips, and take it home along with your own floral shears and canvas tote bag. Please join us and register soon as space is limited. 





















Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Harvest Moon


photos below by Matt & Meaghan Miller for Our Labor of Love









I loved working on this wedding...the couple and the location were both amazing to work with.  Jesse & Jason are the sweetest, and most sincere, couple ever! They wanted lots of texture and lots of wild. The color palette was blush & bordeaux and hints of a vintage silver. We used a vintage silver mercury glass for the vessels. Jesse really wanted Cafe Aulait dahlia's but to my surprise the Boston flower exchange hadn't seen many come through this year and were not 100 percent they would have any for my date. We even tried some vendors in NYC but I got the same result...nothing. My Los Angeles vendors were happy to ship some out to me since they were still flourishing in LA , but they would be a NO guarantee they would make it alive and at my cost. I already have a love/hate relationship with them babies so I wasn't going to risk shipping them out only to find them dead. Thankfully the bride to be agreed and was beyond relaxed about it. I had to still try for her because I new it was the one flower she really wanted.  I was lucky enough to find a small farm in Newton NH that saved the day. I was able to get a few for her bridal bouquet. I realized on my visit with the farm that they grew the exact white, bordeaux and jewel tone color dahlias I needed. It was the best feeling supporting locally and working with such lovely people. They cut them all the day before and let me take the buckets! Such kindness warms my heart...it couldn't have worked out better. Fresh and local...Thank you Newton Greenhouse! I have to give another shout out to Fallon, rose growing Queen at Garden Valley Ranch for coming through and sending me gorgeous roses that are to die for. While I'm at it, my assistant Sierra Knot whom I'm beyond thankful for having as my assistant. She worked her tush off and even got stitches to prove it! She was also the woman behind all the beautiful calligraphy for the escort cards, invitations, and wedding signage. Your the bees knees Sierra! 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Birdhouse

Summer nights at the Birdhouse...



Doing floral for an intimate dinner party is always fun and almost always very inspiring. These clients live in a beautiful hundred year old home that was beyond words really. Besides being amazing clients, I'm thrilled they are my clients so I get to play "house" many more times. It is August so naturally dahlia's played a role along with roses, ranunculus, blushing bride, snowberry, and eucharis lily. 
I developed the biggest crush on the Parisian custom made wallpaper...the colors, the design...drool!
A working Victorola set the tone while I designed the tablescape

Vintage 1930's crystal to work with is always a pleasure
Intoxicating local tuberose 
I was fortunate enough to stick around until the sun came down to snap a photograph of that crystal












Monday, May 27, 2013

Flowerwild Mayacamas

I had the pleasure of attending a Flowerwild workshop in Calistoga in April and finally having a moment to share a little about it on this first post of the new blog. Older posts are on my jewelry blog, Dust, for those interested. It was time for a fresh start in the blog world and I'm going to try my hardest to keep it up to date. This workshop was everything I had hoped for; an amazingly kind & talented teacher Kate, founder of Flowerwild, a photographer I have dreamed about working with, Jose Villa, a setting that was soothing to my soul at Mayacamas Ranch where the food served was farm to table. It's hard to put into words the exact experience but to be surrounded by incredible designers from all over the country, plus two from Ireland on the Mayacamas mountains was incredible. I  took the journeay there and back driving from Los Angeles and making a few stops along the way to some favorite spots...Garden Valley Ranch. Not all the roses were in bloom at Garden Valley at that time but the few that were, incredible! The color, smell, and size. I was lucky to take home a few for the long ride home thanks to the ever lovely Fallon. And my last  last pit stop at an old 1920's bank that was now a seed store, called Seed Bank. I of course went a little crazy and bought all these seeds to plant when I don't even have proper space for a garden! There was just so many exotic cool flower seeds that I couldn't resist. Thankfully I have an aunt whom is an incredible gardner and has the space to plant anything. I walked away from this trip completely inspired and also realizing how much work I have to do(updating my website & blog, getting a new logo, taking better pictures for my portfolio, etc)! I feel extremely blessed and know I'm on the right track.