[studio choo is taking today off, so i'm thrilled to welcome sarah at saipua back for another weeder's digest post!] Todays floral post is all about reptiles. Specifically frogs and snakes. Fritillaria meleagris (also known as a Snake Head Flower) is a little spring bulbous flower that arrives in March. It is a petite and…
Hello! Are you prepared for the nuclear winter that might blow through your household on February 15th? Survive and prosper! Consider preventative options: 1. Box of chocolates? As in I don’t really know what you like, so here’s an assortment? There is a map on the back of the lid! You can pick the ones…
Nicolette and I have been up to our ears teaching at the Little Flower School. Prerequisites abound. Geometry, for example; obviously REQUIRED. But we’re not talking about your average textbook Trig, we require advanced spherical trigonometry; and if you don’t know what that is, let’s just say it’s of utmost importance in the fields of…
Well, hello. Nice to see you again…Shall we? Lately, when I’m not thinking of you, I’m been thinking about winter… about how it snuck up on me – suddenly I’m unconsciously reaching for a butternut squash at the supermarket, or holing up with 2 pints of B&J, a bottle of wine and astrology paraphernalia. I…
yesterday amy merrick and i hopped in a bright red zipcar and jetted across town looking for craft supplies to style a photoshoot for house beautiful magazine (click here for a sneak peek of the shoot). after visiting michael’s in queens and ikea, we headed to our ultimate destination: the new saipua in red hook….
Hopefully someday I’ll be fortunate enough to have a real garden where I can spread my wings and grow 25 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, flowers like my friend Alice and black currants…but until that day comes my modest fertile crescent exists on a few cubic yards of Brooklyn sidewalk. The City has me in chains,…
Come off it already, leaf-wrapping clear cylindrical vases was so 2008. Peeps now want to keep it simple…down to earth. When a fashionable couple recently asked me to tie their wedding flowers with Raffia*…I was like WHOA. Can we break into the world of raffia, and yet avoid the painfully bleak world of sunflowers, blue…
Every year my friends and I say something stupid like “this is going to be the BEST summer ever!” and then high five, maybe pull out a stick of Juicy Fruit and run through a fire hydrant or something. Every year except this year. Some packed up and left town. They adopted pets. They’re fasting….
This week I thought we could focus on how to best manage your wedding flower table arrangements. Table decor is often the most expensive part of wedding floral budget, and in truth, you can save a lot of money by taking this beast on yourself….with a few simple guidelines. FACT: your bridesmaids most likely don’t…
PEONIES PART THREE; behind the scenes wedding weekend After having recovered from a month of sickness in our house, we jumped into another June wedding weekend in our new (unfinished) space. I have two amazing floral assistants, one of whom always brings homemade baked goods. [This week was lemon poppyseed cupcakes.] Everyone should really have…
When you wake up with the flu during wedding season and suddenly have to move your shop into a warehouse that is flooded, its not the best time to wax poetic on peonies. That being said, I give you these pretty pictures and a quick tip on house plants… A QUICK TIP ON HOUSE PLANTS:…
Peony: Take 1 You say Peony, I say Paeony – either way – the Greek myth goes down like this: Asclepius was the god of healing and medicine. Peaon was his wingman. Peaon got so talented that Asclepius got all jealous. To save Peaon from Asclepius’ wrath, Zeus turned him into a flower; the Peony….
Wisteria is a flowering woody vine. It has large, grape-like clusters of blooms that hang rather languidly from gnarly branches that snaggle up anything they can climb. Perhaps you have seen it… Climbing up the south-facing wall of your century-old stone home perhaps? Trailing across the trellis in your secret garden? A smattering atop the…
this week, i thought it would be fun to watch sarah ryhanen of weeder’s digest arrange flowers- rather than just write about them (even though i’d give my right arm to be able to write like her). so today sarah is sharing her how-to tips for creating two beautiful floral arrangements: a sweet, hand held…
sarah is up to her ears in flowers right now so she’s sent over some beautiful spring bouquets to keep our eyes occupied this week. stay tuned next week for regular weeder’s digest content- and a how-to video soon!
wedding season is officially upon us and it seems I’m not 21 like I used to be. i’m in bed by 11 and up by 6. I’m building chuppas in my sleep. in a desperate fog i take a yoga class and fall out a headstand. i eat cheese for dinner. in bed. then dream…
With Earth Day coming up, I figure I show you how I recycle some of my tin cans. First off, buy cans that look good. You don’t want your pretty things in busted cans. Why not practice grocery-offsetting to insure you have good packaging to work with? 25 cans of cat food are offset with…
My first job in NYC had me working for an art dealer who pronounced vase like v-aah-se.” Flowers would arrive at the gallery, I’d jump up and say “I’ll run and get a vase!” (rhymes with chase) and she would say “You mean you’ll run and get the V-ahh-se.” Pause. “Yes. I’ll…just…go get that.” At…
There are a handful of flowers that rise above all others in my book. Cafe au lait dahlias, tree peonies*, fritallaria, certain garden roses….and hellebores. On the rare occasion that I find such specimens I tend to inflate into an monster shopper, and like a bride at a Vera Wang sample sale, I plow through…
Scenes: Parisian flower stalls and cemeteries. Eric and I are scouting around in Paris this week, stopping to snoop around in all the flower stalls and trekking though cemeteries. Nothing like a little death and flowers in the afternoon. Or apéritifs and oysters at the Ritz in the afternoon. Or shoe shopping in the afternoon….
