SUPERB FUJIYAMA

Amy Merrick's Valentine's Day Pop-Up at Castor & Pollux // A Détacher A/W 2012

These two events had absolutely nothing to do with each other, but their colors look pretty good together don't you think??

Anyways, it's Spring now, and that's great. Capital "S" ya daaaamn right, that's my #1 all-time favorite season you're talkin' 'bout. In retrospect, it wasn't quite yet Spring back when I took these photos, but we were all doing our best to pretend.

I realized this week that I have a lot to learn about working from home. Tonight I'm very thankful that tomorrow I get to work in someone else's studio instead.

IS THAT ALL THE FALL THERE IS?

It snowed here in NYC today. And not just a bit of fluff or the occasional frozen droplet floating by. Hefty, hearty, driving flakes. Big ass flakes. Flakes to write home about, or at least all over your facebook wall. And while the forecast is somewhat more optimistic, I fear today may mark the end of that sweet, fleeting season between tank tops and Gore-Tex. Ah fall, I hardly knew ye!

Two of the (many!) highlights of the season: last minute, impromptu visits to the Met. Always at or near 3pm on a weekday, grab a friend, rush to the train, guiltily slide whatever cash you may have in pocket towards the demure looking young lady in gold rimmed glasses behind the entrance desk, and proceed to the roof. Point out the Plaza Hotel in the distance and rest your elbows on the dense shrubbery. Spend what time you have left wandering through the 2nd Floor galleries and come face to face with what may be your favorite painting of all time. Good Goya.

Also: flowers! And how. I had the extreme pleasure of working with a certain Ms. Amy Merrick on two weddings in the last few weeks. One a small Manhattan affair, and the other an over night, upstate, semi-wilderness adventure. Both involved early mornings, cold fingers, heavy lifting and long hours. As well as an immense sense of satisfaction, several different types of cats, enormous cornbread muffins, slumber parties in converted sawmills, takeout Chinese and FUN. Lotta that. I may be a fool, but I'm hungry for more.

THE BRUEGHELS

Honestly, I still can't keep them all straight but the flowers, the flowers...

I LOVE THE FLOWER GIRL

Watch/Listen!

One of the best parts of going home to the island in summertime is that it means I get to work with flowers again. Above are a couple of my favorite bouquets that I made for sale at the Farmer's Market in Friday Harbor. I was inspired by sunsets, long walks on the beach, and Dag's sweet Hawaiian shirt ;n )

I grew up helping my mother plant, weed, harvest and arrange the cut flowers on our farm, and it's had a lasting effect on my brain and my life. I doodle flowers, I dream about flowers, I obsessively save and dry flowers and stick them in jars and vases and hang them on my walls. There's a special corner of my mind--way in the back where I keep secret, special, important things--reserved for the imaginary corner florist shop I will own someday, somewhere, somehow.

HOW I KNOW I'M HOME

Exhibit A: Snowy Mt. Rainier out the window of a jet plane. At one point I could see Rainier, St. Helens, Adams and even a tiny speck I'm sure was Mt. Hood off in the distance, all at once. Sound the trumpets in my heart!

Exhibit B: The first little bouquet from my parent's garden up in my attic room: Buff Beauty, honeysuckle, lavender, oregano flowers. Grandma's silver teapot. Many more to follow.

FLORA

I've been lucky enough to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden three times in the last month and a half, and each time I've found something new to fill me with awe. In the photos above, it was cherry blossoms and magnolias, gardenias in the Tropical Room, and an enormous patch of vibrant blue grape hyacinths. Last week, it was a swath of bluebells under a cool canopy of trees, the most bluebells I have ever seen in my life. It was incredible, like something out of my pastoral British countryside dreams! I forgot my camera like a fool, but fortunately I was there with Eva from Bows & Bandits for another little project that I'm excited to share with you soon :n )

PRETTY IN PINK

I received several belated Christmas presents on my visit home back in January, but easily the sweetest was this beautiful little Fifi Lapin pin that my Mom surprised me with. The best part was opening up the envelope and finding a family snapshot that explained just why she had to choose that particular bunny in her little paper crown...

Alex has been gone on tour for over a week now, but fortunately we got to spend Valentine's Day together. Among the far too many things he treated me to that day was this bunch of deep pink and white tulips. There's something so wonderfully languorous and graceful about the way tulips droop and then arch themselves towards the light. They make even the messiest of kitchen table tops look fit to print.

short and sweet

Vintage/secondhand everything, except the bag from L.L.Bean Signature

It may be the middle of September, but dang if it isn't still plenty hot enough to rock the cutoffs (the sweater even proved stifling after a couple blocks.) Spent the morning in bed and the afternoon wandering around the city, eventually stopping in to Kinokuniya to pour over back issues and books on interior design for tiny spaces. Speaking of which--Anja is trying to get together a clever "subscription service" for the amazing Fudge Magazine over on her blog, worth checking out if you live someplace where it can be hard to find (so...just about anywhere outside of Japan itself!)



My reward for not succumbing to FNO hysteria Friday night and spending $23 on a bottle of nail polish? A single, perfect stem of Tuberose from my favorite strange old flower man at the Farmer's Market. He told me a story about some rich idiot who bought 40 stems ("bah, the price doesn't matter!") for his hotel room, and woke up in the middle of the night choking on the overwhelming perfume. Aaaaah, rich people problems!

peonies please

I've been getting a few freelance gigs as a styling assistant lately, which means some very, very long days, but also means a little bit of cold hard cash in my pockets for once. Last weekend was another work weekend for me (hence all the returns on Monday), and as usual, my first urge was to go out and buy myself some flowers as a reward for a job well done (and, most importantly, DONE!)



I was so exhausted Saturday night that I was dead asleep by 11:30 (which NEVER happens), and when I woke up the next morning (ahem, afternoon?) the bedroom was full of the scent of these peonies that had fully opened up over night. I can think of no better way to wake up than to the smell of fresh flowers...except maybe to the smell of freshly baked bread? It's a toss up, for sure.



In conclusion: I will probably end up taking this exact photo about two thousand times. Only the flowers will change (and the knick-knacks might shuffle around a bit.)

treats!

Having been relatively unemployed for some time now, I've had to be fairly stingy where treating myself is concerned. A couple weeks ago though, after another late night session on craigslist trolling the depths of the cesspool otherwise known as "Gigs," I came across a marketing firm that was offering a $25 Amazon.com giftcard for thirty minutes spent reviewing a new website.

The company's address was in the same wing of the Chelsea Markets as the Food Network offices, so how shady could it be, right? My Amazon wishlist is always a mile long, and I didn't have much else going on...So, after a painless half-hour spent spewing my inner monologue into a computer monitor, I emerged victorious, with twenty-five internet dollars burning a hole in my pocket.







What to buy with those $25 was a no-brainer. A few days before, I had taken advantage of my favorite library (aka Barnes & Noble) to compare a few books I had been itching to own. After carefully inspecting The Sartorialist, Facehunter, and The Selby Is in Your Place, I decided hands down that The Selby Is in Your Place takes the cake.

Not only are the photos amazing (duh) but it contains an exciting mix of old favorites (Bill and Fanny, Helena Christensen, above) from the blog along with new, print-exclusive homes (like Lou Doillon's, above top.) The book itself is also just beautifully put together in a simple, unfussy, but incredibly charming way. I honestly can't recommend it enough!



On the subject of treats: last week, while strolling through the Union Square Greenmarket, I came across a sight that literally made my heart leap. A small stand was selling nothing but buckets and buckets of freshly bundled Lilly of the Valley! These have always been a sort of mythical, storybook flower to me, something strictly confined to mossy dells and Brian Jacques novels. I would always beg my mom to try and grow them in our garden, but they rarely seemed happy and never actually lived long enough to bloom.



I had to stop myself from spending a week's grocery money on a whole bucket, and brought this little bundle home instead, which I set in my Roost teapot. I'd always had the sneaking suspicion that "Lilly of the Valley" was a scent solely invented by Crabtree & Evelyn--I mean really, what flower could actually smell like that?? But they do! A bit like roses, but more so, and entirely unique. And worth every penny.

making money, getting paid

As a result of my recently busy days, I actually ended up making a bit of money this week, which was a pretty exhilarating feeling for a change. The first thing I did to celebrate was go out and buy a bunch of ranunculus in the most beautiful sunset colors.



I love them so much! They one of my favorite flowers (along with roses, and peonies, and lilacs, and anemones, and delphiniums, and...) I also decided to finally splash out on a kitchen table, which we've been needing since we moved in, but it turns out it's just too big for our place, booo. So, ahem, if anyone in NYC needs a really nice dining table, I know where you can get one cheap!



This print, which hangs above our bed, is amazing for two reasons: first, it looks JUST like my best friend, only naked, holding a bird (though I'd be lying if I said I had never seen her in a strikingly similar pose on more than one occasion ahaha.) Second, there's some writing on the back of the frame, which reads:

"from a Portuguese Socialist magazine found in Lisbon, Summer 1977"

Good stuff.