Front Garden Time!

We love gardening together and we’ve been working on going grass free, basically we have just one patch in the back left. This year in the front we tore out the grass between the road and sidewalk and got a couple car loads of free bricks from a place that was the original dairy in our neighborhood, so cool! We dug out and made square sections in that area and then planted creeping thyme in between. And if you recall, we dug out almost all the grass in front last year and split and planted even more perennials including some white hydrangeas. The front has just taken off and everything is so happy and healthy! We’re going to rip out the bottom strip of grass and finish with more rocks and plants to help hold the slope in. We’re loving all the color and bird, bee, butterfly friendly plants! Plus I got a super cute love seat for the outside front porch and used a small hamper for a mini table which turns the space into another small outdoor room. Great for rainy day coffee outside!    
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The Garden

The garden, we are all about it, and it’s super fun to work on together. Last year Stephan dug out the bamboo grass I planted long long ago that had marched out of control and we replanted the back garden. This year we decided to dig out more grass out front, remove some bushes, replace them with hydrangeas, and also add a lot more flowers into the mix. We are working our way to being as grass free as possible, and made some major headway this year. More on the front yard later. The side yard where I’ve had my raised beds for veggies needed some help this year. 2 of the 3 raised beds were rotted due to age. SO, we decided to completely dig out the entire side yard, put down a path, a patio, and then expand the veggie gardens planting right into the ground. Best decision ever! It’s great because the back yard flows nicely into the side yard now, and we spend a ton of time on the new side patio. IMG_20170602_125231189_HDR IMG_20170531_221700_842 IMG_20170608_185551_072 IMG_20170613_194857_104 (1) We usually take our coffee and some fruit or snacky breakfast out there and we can see both the veggie garden and the back yard. We’ve also focused on planting even more bird, butterfly, and bee friendly plants which I already had a nice base of. It’s really made a difference and we love it. We have several different kinds of butterflies: monarch, cabbage, swallowtail, black swallowtail. All sorts of bees bumble about everyday, and the birds, especially the yellow finches are having a heyday with all the new seeds they can eat. Plus we’ve seen an increase in hummingbird sightings which is also super fun! We love our little city sanctuary backyard. We have so many varieties of birds, some bunnies, big squirrels, lil squirrels, chipmunks, and so many different bee friends. The flowers are beautiful and provide such gorgeous color throughout the season. The veggie garden has been producing so much great food, it’s just awesome. I’ve been busy freezing and making delicious meals with the bounty. We are enjoying: lettuce, chard, arugula, onions, several different kinds of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, green beans, kale, some squash and carrots are on the way, plus we can’t wait to harvest the fennel seed this fall. It’s amazing what you can do with a small space and how much it can provide for both you, and the wildlife friends. It’s good for you and the environment! Here’s a super quick video tour as well! The fence which is usually covered in vines is barren, seems to be a bad yer for some pests so we stripped the fence of the ill plants to control the problem and applied neem oil on the plants. Seemed to work pretty good and we avoided the use of gross chemicals too! Follow me on instagram for more insight into the garden, cooking, studio, fresh vintage finds etc!  IMG_20170827_104948_638 IMG_20170825_190751_885 IMG_20170811_195301_216 IMG_20170722_105137_068 (1) IMG_20170718_185557_350 (2) IMG_20170708_203954_704 (1) IMG_20170701_082245_830 (1) IMG_20170624_205605_745 (1) IMG_20170624_094921_330 IMG_20170822_110456_043 IMG_20170721_115403_980 IMG_20170723_132000_123 IMG_20170825_185418_781 IMG_20170819_202814681 IMG_20170819_202757263
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More Wedding Flowers!

I had the pleasure of doing a bouquet and boutonniere for our friends Genevieve and Will on their big day. You might recall that Genevieve baked our wedding cake, hand pies, and brought serving dishes for our wedding dinner, and helped us out with some of the catering service as well. So naturally it was a gimmee that I wanted to gift them wedding flowers! She told me she wanted purple with some white and green and that gave me free range to style up something lovely. I went to a local market the day before and picked out all the flowers, came home, prepped them and started building the arrangements. Drop off the next morning, and it was fun to see all together at the reception. The lovely bride told me she had so many compliments on them which was fantastic! bout Here’s what I did! Flowers: dark purple statice, purple freesia, white roses, white snapdragons, lavender tulips, mini hydrangeas, leather leaf fern. I wrapped the stems of the bouquet in green ribbon and then a sweet vintage hankie. 3 shades of purple along with the white, dark green, and the limey green of the mini hydrangeas really made the monochromatic purples work! I just love how it turned out and was so happy to be working with flowers again! bouquet  
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Flower Power Weekend

This past weekend I spent immersed in gorgeous blooms! Floral design has always been an avid interest of mine. In fact, most of you don’t know that this was my career plan after college. I worked at several floral places during college and a couple after. I’ve helped dear friends style their weddings and design bouquets and such over the years, so when the opportunity arose to do my largest event yet I jumped at the chance! So here’s the story of 30 centerpieces, 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, 2 wrist corsages, a cake topper, and a bunch of pretty little vases for things like cocktail hour and the gift table. You can imagine that quite a bit of planning goes into something like this! And of course, having a trusty assistant helps too! I had forgotten how much I love working with flowers! I hope I get to do it again soon!

7 am the day before the wedding, the car is getting loaded with oodles of flowers at the wholesaler.

Back home and thirsty flowers are quickly unpacked from boxes and into buckets.

Further processing gets you dethorned roses and stems stripped of leaves. Now let the real work begin! Well, almost, there was a 2 hour delay as we waited for the delivery of the cream ranunculus, which was of course in everything!

Centerpieces are starting to pile up on one of the work tables. I think I had about 11 to go at this point.

Whew! 30 centerpieces done and all loaded up for delivery Friday night. 4 elevator trips later, and they were all in place! Back home and onto the bouquets!

Oh and don’t forget the pretty little vases for the gift and reception table!

9 pm. Bridesmaids bouquets are done and will wait until morning to get their stems wrapped in ribbon. Some more work and calling it quits at 10. Good nights sleep needed here!

One of the guys boutonnieres. The groom has double spray roses and an extra little gift attached from the bride.

5 am Saturday, morning of the wedding, up and at em! Wrist corsages-check, cake topper-check, bouquets wrapped-check! By 7am I was ready for breakfast and to get myself ready for delivery and the wedding of course!

The gorgeous happy couple! Congrats to Alison and Rob 4-14-12!

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