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A Sanctuary for the Joyful Mother- a Search for Portland’s Inspiring Spaces

13 Aug

This past July, I was especially pumped for Jessica and Cody’s wedding because it meant I would be taking Lola Event Floral & Design to Portland. In an attempt to squeeze out a tasty glass full of summer fun in this jam-packed season, I booked a spot on a historic sailboat- a floating hotel room courtesy of Holly through Airbnb.

These guys kept me company.

The week prior to the wedding I filled with visits to Portland’s famous gardens and public spaces that I had only read about in landscape architecture books and journals, tours of the areas coffee houses, and a dinner with my bestie from my pre-teen years- long lost but found through the magic of facebook.

In three days I would hit up:

Lovejoy fountain

The Grotto

Tanner Springs

Jamison Square

The Japanese Garden

the Rose Garden (eh, the one by the Japanese garden, at least)

and Pittock Mansion.

We’ll tackle the first four today.

My first stop was Lovejoy Fountain, an urban space designed by Halprin and Associates that I’ve oogled over in books since I was a wee landscape design student.

I’ve seen photos in the fall with leaves floating in the pools, photo stilled, clear water running over concrete, people dancing on the floating platforms, etc. Lovely, right?

Not so much. Maddening actually. Not only is the sound of water crashing unnerving rather than relaxing, but the entire space seemed to be a monstrosity, set upon the landscape rather than woven into it. Hard, arrogant, and unwelcoming are words I would use to describe this space. Concrete and water but no life.

Next stop was the Grotto, which I had never heard of but was a place some high seo ranking yelper recommended. The grotto is a many-acred Catholic shrine and botanic garden dedicated to “The Sorrowful Mother.” A little depressing but sounds like it might be lovely.

The grotto is carved out of the rock face of a cliff. Mind slowing chants are pumped from some mysterious speaker, and lush foliage drips off the rocks. Pretty impressive. I can see how the faithful would love to worship in this place. To get to the botanic garden, one must donate a fee to ride up this elevator (or I assume trek up through the woodland). Once I saw this elevator, I had to get in.

If this is the gateway to the botanic garden beyond, then I was about to be wowed indeed. Surely some kind of transformation would occur in an elevator like this. Some amazing experience would be revealed at the top. So I held my breath and pressed the ‘up’ button.

whuh?….. No. My anticipation shriveled. This cannot be the interior to the elevator of transcendence… sigh.

I should have stopped at the elevator. Unfortunately what lay beyond was not inspiring enough to persuade my little finger to nudge the shutter. This place was less botanic garden and more a repository for well intentioned donations chronicling pain and sacrifice. No wonder the Mother is sorrowful. Perhaps a design minded devotee can donate some landscape design expertise.

Thirsty for some coffee and in need of some inspiration, I headed back into the city. Where are the spaces that inspire and engage. Magnetic places? Places where anyone can find some peace, connection, and transcendence? While walking to my next stop, Tanner Springs, I stumbled over Jamison Square.

(Gasp)! This is it! The perfect solution to the heavy handed and misguided Lovejoy Fountain and the depressing Grotto! Jamison Square, the Sanctuary for the Joyful Family. Swarming with people, buzzing with laughter, open and accessible. Thank you, Portland, this place is positively uplifting!

Up the street from Jamison Square is Tanner Springs the kind of landscape inspiration I had been looking for.


This place not only has a function to filter and reduce stormwater runoff, but it also promotes sustainable practices in a way that doesn’t slam you upside the head. Historic railroad and stone is reused in the walkway and art wall, native plants are used throughout, and the site offers a variety of spaces in which to relax.

Historical elements are rearranged into a design for now.

 Orderly lines are softened and interrupted by strategic disorder.

Tanner Springs has places to take a nap and read, or places to people watch.

Stay tuned for more Portland excursions!

 

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Salvage and Survival

29 Mar metal stuff

This morning I cautiously popped my head out of my sliding front door before heading out. Not to see if it is raining, no. To size up the perils of my backyard and what lies beyond. Birds chirping, check. Appropriate level of street noise, check. Piles of leftover construction wood- unkempt, but in an organized sort of mess that would make sense to only me and my sweetie. No OCD intruder has come in the night to organize our yard. Wood, Check. On the way to the car, I suspiciously eyeball the people at the bus stop before jumping in the safety of my Korean hotrod (it’s actually closer to a old boot on wheels.)

Why am I acting like a freak? No, we haven’t been burgled. I stayed up all night reading the Hunger Games and now I’m obsessed. Tired and hungry, too. That just makes it all the better to feel like I’m on some sort of quest.  A bird flies into the understory and I think, “Ya, you better get out of here… or I’ll eat you.”

I don’t read fiction often because of the life disrupting effects. Not only have I not eaten, slept, or completed any urgent work, this morning I have an overwhelming need to go to the metal scrap yard. Work will have to wait again. On the drive down, each person I pass is a competitor, and I throw them a glance as my Korean hot rod passes them at a cautiously fast but clearly superior speed. Breakin’ the rules. Stickin’ to the… well, I guess I don’t really have a point in passing everyone. To win, I guess.

I haven’t been to Pac Iron since I was a sculpture student in college and now I have a hankering to see what types of junk can be remade into cool stuff. I need fodder for a post but more importantly, I can’t help but think this place would be like a treasure world for a survivalist. So I’m off to Pacific Iron and Metal.

A whole bin of machine screws. Like candy.

Hefty sheet metal- protects from all sorts of elements including poison fog.

These are cool. I almost brought some home, but the face on the container was a little scary.

Nothing jumped out at me to take home and remake, though I may go back for some of these chains for a chandelier project we’ve got coming up at Lola Floral (stay tuned for that!).

I had forgotten how much I like the smell of burnt metal, but overall I was underwhelmed. I remember this place having a lot more cool junk- from boats and stuff. But then it hit me. Of course. The rebellion. It’s all being melted down to support the rebellion.

And since I didn’t find something I wanted to remake into something else, here are some great uses of repurposed materials from the nation’s rebels.

Sewer pipes from Sunset.com

wood wall from Design Sponge

salvaged wood for a fence by Valle de Verde via Sunset.com

Wagon Shelf from Ki Nassauer

Succulent planter from Small Space Gardening

 

Wishing you all a mental vacation and some salvage inspiration.

 

 

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Luminous Bloedel Reserve

6 Mar Chateau2

This past weekend I went to Bloedel Reserve on a whim. I was going to Bainbridge Island for a garden design and figured I’d stop for a visit. The day was completely scheduled out with things to do, so I allotted 2 hours for the visit. While there, I found myself wishing I had all day to reflect, contemplate, and watch the changing light.

I’m so happy that I can move my feet. So that when I want to touch raindrops or sun, I can just move out from underneath whatever is blocking me.

The light, this day, was amazing. It waned slowly from buttery yellow to grey and back again. I found myself holding my breath waiting for the glow of sun through clouds to come back as if the sun demanded silence in order to return. The breeze was also surprising. It wasn’t strong but it was steady and made me wonder how it could sneak through this wooded area and still be so consistent or what the wood was protecting me from on the outside.

Oemleria cerasiformis: Indian Plum

Is that sunshine behind me?

I love elevated boardwalks through forest. It allows you to look around more without worrying about stepping on a banana slug.

This willow positively glowed. The fact that it came out in a photo glowing is just that much more amazing since subtleties in light are so difficult to capture (for me anyways) with a camera.

After about a mile of walking through woods and meadow, I walked out of the forest to get this glimpse of the French château inspired home. Hopefully the lawnmowers have an easier time getting here.

Paulownia tomentosa: Empress tree- one of my faves

 This Empress tree has such a wonderful structure. I recommend it if you have a lot of room- or a château lying around that needs that extra something.

Corkscrew hazelnut!!!

Corylus avellana 'contorta': Corkscrew Hazel (I think)

Those catkins look good enough to eat!

I love this arrangement made with clippings from the reserve.

Acer griseum: Paperbark maple

Hellebores surrounded banks and were planted high enough that I could enjoy the blooms. Thank you Bloedels for thinking of that.

Violet and Chartreuse- so lovely.

Somehow I don’t think this vista is an accident. We are approaching the Japanese garden.

I love the mounding and massing of earth and plants here. I love the depth and movement.

Moss Garden

Rhododendrons taking off. Like pretty UFOs.

This reflection pond is iconic and one of the spaces that drew me to visit this space. Unfortunately, by the time I came to this, I was running through to get to my appointment. Serenity and reflection will have to be postponed. 2 hours are just not enough time here. I would say 3.5 would’ve been perfect. Visit sometime. The reserve is now open to the public on consistent and reliable days and times.

Finca Filidelfia- Coffee Farming in Guatemala

24 Jan fields of coffee

Finca Filidelfia was an unexpected highlight to me and my sweetie pie’s honeymoon to Antigua, Guatemala last summer. My favorite part, actually. So I figured, what better way to celebrate such an essential part of my creative process (coffee) than to share with you what I learned from this amazing place. Brace yourself, because this is a big, long post.

Finca Filidelphia has been a coffee plantation since 1874, part of a plan to bring the region out of economic hardship at the time. I think before then it was avocados. It sits about 20 minutes outside of Antigua.

Just Birds of Paradise… as a foundation plant…. no biggie.

One thing that surprised me is this whole ta-do about ‘shade grown.’ Turns out it doesn’t mean anything important. Arabica coffee plants (except new engineered varieties) need shade to optimize production. So any farmer wanting to produce the most coffee berries is going to grow their coffee in some shade. How that shade is achieved is where farms differ. And there’s really no ‘shade grown’ certification or stamp of approval to determine which is which.

Some smaller or family run farms can plant coffee into existing forests, preserving the native trees, understory, and multitude of other plants and epiphytes living there. The benefit of this is that it is low-cost for the producer, habitat is most preserved, water use and pesticide needs are minimized, and erosion is minimized because trees aren’t removed. Coffee grown in these situations can be certified ‘Bird Friendly’  The downside is that coffee berry yields are lower because the shade is too dense. Production oriented larger farms clear out the existing forest, and plant trees that can be managed easily to give the coffee plants the optimal light levels. The bummer here is that part of the forest is clear-cut which would lead to erosion. Non-native trees are brought in, and there is the potential for more water use and possibly pesticides/ fungicides. Once matured, these plantations can provide some habitat. The non-shade grown use no trees and is typically high in water and pesticide use, low in habitat viability. These are usually robusta trees instead of arabica bushes.

Filidelfia includes coffee fields in dense forests on the accessible-by-foot hillsides, and managed non-native canopy coffee fields in the more accessible valleys. The trees are from Australia and can take a heavy pruning to achieve the optimum canopy cover percentage. The wood from the trees are sold as firewood and the clippings and branches cover the coffee fields in a rich, thick layer of duff- an excellent mulch. With this much thick duff on the ground. Filidelfia only has to water for a very short period in the hottest months, and doesn’t use pesticides/fungicides. Yay.

And you thought this post wasn’t flower related. Here’s a coffee flower.

That ONE coffee berry is almost ready for picking. Coffee picking is CR-AZY. All arabica plants are hand-picked. As if that weren’t difficult enough, the berries aren’t mature at the same time and each individual berry has to be carefully removed from its tiny petiole, the little branch attaching the berry to the main branch. If this little guy isn’t still attached to the branch once the berry is removed, it will no longer produce berries. Ever. So imagine a coffee berry picker wants to fill their baskets fast (they are paid by weight) and strips all the berries off in one swipe… dead coffee bush. For this reason, the same berry pickers are typically hired year after year. Here they are mainly women since the fellas go off to harvest sugar cane near the coast. The ladies bring their kids, the kids learn to correctly harvest the berries, and they often take over for their parents.

Here’s the inside of a coffee berry. Apparently I had a freak berry (figures) that had three beans. Usually they have two.

The protective casing or parchment of the bean is sweet.

Arabica bushes are finicky and susceptible to rot. Here is where they graft arabica beans onto hardier robusta root stock to make for some stronger plants.

This process is amazingly low tech. I thought grafting necessitated lab coats and furrowed eyebrows…

…but the process only involves a deft, razor-wielding woman and wax.

Here are the arabica bushes with the severely hacked Australian canopy tree. Guatemala is especially well suited to grow good coffee given its elevation, climate, and super rich, volcanic soil. This wood is piled by the road and carted off by truck, or on foot to be sold.

Tillandsia!

Avocados! Did you know there are over 20 different varieties of avocado?

Here’s where the beans go to dry.

Grey beans ready to roast.

Here are three sizes of beans. Before roasting, the beans are sorted. The middle bean is just right, and the other beans are either tossed, or sold cheap. Remember the three beans that were in my berry? Only the one bigger one would have been allowed into this farm’s cup of coffee. If the beans are all about the same size, that ensures that they will all roast consistently, so some won’t impart an over or under-roasted flavor.

This is where beans go to roast.

My Americano. Muy rico.

And here’s a window with a wheel in it. Neato.

And a happy canna. One that probably doesn’t turn to black smoosh in the winter like it does up here.

So in summary, shade-grown schmade grown and go to Antigua, Guatemala.

Here’s some more info on shade grown coffee from Wikipedia

Shade-grown coffee – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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The Washington Coast and a new year.

3 Jan Pinecone

What better way to celebrate the New Year than to freeze your booty off on Washington’s rainy, windy coast, right? Slogging through Northwest squish for so long that your feet reach new levels of pruney sounds like an excellent way to say goodbye to a year full of challenges and joys. We thought this but then again, meh, why not.  Truly there must be some joyous reward in all this miserable trekking. Lights through trees? Sea stars?

As it turns out, the entire trip along the 10 or so miles of the Ozette Triangle was a joy. Surprise, surprise. The Ozette Triangle is three segments of looped trail. the first leg through forest and wet meadow, the second along the beach, and the third back up through the forest. Not only did it not rain, the wind was at our backs, the sky was blue (a strange sight anywhere in Washington this time of year), and the temperature was downright pleasant. The trail is easy to walk with not a lot of grade change. Not sure if this beautiful day on the coast was a reward for slogging through 2011 or the forecast for a sunny 2012. Maybe both… probably both.

Deer Fern: Blechnum spicant

I love these happy, floppy ferns.

Confined, sheltered places into large a large open expanse… It has that light through the clouds- choir singing effect. Also one of my favorite design tricks to create a sense of arrival into specialness.

Evergreen Huckleberry: Vaccinium Ovatum

Seaweed is so cool. Unless it’s in the water touching you. Then it’s disgusting and scary. But here, interesting.

Heh, Triangle, get it?

dreamy.

and back up into the forest.

Sneaky mushroom

Soft white underbelly

 

And the lichen encrusted  bridge brings us back home.

Thank you Cedarbrook Lavender Farm for the stay in your lovely Vacation Rentals.

 

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Christmas Decor in Franklin Tennessee- visiting the interior.

20 Dec Elk head

I grew up in varying locales on the west coast. I’ve traveled to varying locales on the east coast and varying locales out of the country. I’ve had the occasional trip to Las Vegas and Montana but for the most part, I don’t go to the interior. I’m a continental skirter. Like someone skirting around the perimeter of a party, trying to avoid the gropey, drunk santa in the middle of the room, I’m just really not all that interested in finding out what is going on there. The few hours spent at mid-continent airport hubs searching for food that is not sugar sauce soaked meat has left me with the general feeling of “…meh…”

That is until my beloved bro moved with his family of huggable ragamuffins to Franklin, Tennessee. I’ve been a few times and now love, love, love it.  One of the big delights? The people are so nice. Downright neighborly and helpful. Unbelievably more than keep-to-yourself- observe-and-assume Seattleites. Another delight? Decorating is kind of a big deal.  Here are a few decorations that caught my eye while walking down Main Street and around downtown Franklin.

Gallery 202 has an amazing display featuring luxurious swathes of fabric, and simple evergreen garlands adorned with lemon chains and antlers. Beautiful.

I squealed when I saw these velvet pumpkins with real stems at Avec Moi.

I love the comfy elegant feel of Lulu with this leaf garland made from old books, and a woven felt christmas tree.

This fruit wreath adorned someone’s house just outside of town. So lovely!

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Pure Imagination

7 Nov feather chandelier

Hey, here’s some eye candy from the Pure Imagination event held last month in Tacoma.

Run by some of the same peeps that run the Tacoma Wedding Walk in February, this event was at the Thea Foss Working Waterfront Maritime Museum. When draped off, basically like a big beautiful warehouse with a ceiling that does wonderful things when drenched in light. This was the premiere for this event and it was magical. That means next year will be mind-blowing. Lola partnered with Sensorium Event Productions on this space and had help from Trendy Event Rentals and Olalla Production Solutions (do look into them).

Our space was a little challenging. It was skinny and long, and centered in the entire event space. Our theme was to have a groom’s side and a bride’s side- or a more masculine side and a softer side. Guests would walk into the space and see our spot first. So it kinda had to be cool- and somehow coherent. Lola pulled the two spaced together with two tables mirrored and offset into the center of the ‘booth’. Gobs of purple fabric was billowed into a bustle toward the fiery side, and the fiery side, billowed lava-like folds, and gobs of red roses petals toward the soft side.

They were further pulled together with a backdrop made of paper garlands. Super rad and easy.

Each side had its own custom made chandelier (ehem, by yours truly). They were my favorite parts. The drippy fabric chandelier that looks like a sea creature is actually a grey to white ombre effect. A little lost here, but in the future I will use a bolder color transition for a more successful effect. The best part for you? We are expanding our inventory and color choices for these chandeliers to rent to your for your event. Ditto for the fiery branch mass that also looks like a sea creature.

And on the purple side we had multi height arrangements as well as low arrangements on tables and cocktail tables. Flowers included lush, bold orchids, roses, ranunculus, beautyberry, amaranthus, fringe tipped tulips, dahlias, purple anemone, and dusty miller.

The groom’s side? Textural, moody and fiery. And this crazy, fiery mass of branches.

Flowers for the fellas included parrot tulips, burgundy gerberas, ranunculus, and red garden roses.

 

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Terrifying Plants.

31 Oct

They will eat you alive….

Not really but they look like they could.

Last month, I spent an afternoon ogling the weird plants inside San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. They were showing a ‘Wicked Plants’ exhibit based on the book by Amy Stewart of the same name. I highly recommend it. Surprisingly, the plants that could seriously do some damage didn’t look all that harmless… perhaps part of their wickedness. Most of the truly scary plants resided in the non-wicked rooms of the conservatory, and since their descriptions were underwhelming in scariness, I’ve devised some alternate stories about these plants. I think you’ll find that their descriptions fit much better with their strange, sometimes scary appearance.

First…. The Fuzz.

Like its form suggests, the fuzz is a slow-moving blob that resided in the Northwestern rainforests of this state. It relies on its prey to be incapacitated in some way, which allows it to take its time to devour the body (typically hikers and clumsy elk). The truly horrifying bit about this plant is that it is actually a mass of thousands of writhing individual strands. Each is alive. Each has its own agenda. Each is bound to its neighbor in a symbiotic relationship that allows it to feed on larger prey and protect itself from larger predators (such as a bird). Each little, individual doesn’t always agree with its neighbor. For this reason, most of the time The Fuzz just hangs out on branches because it can’t come to consensus. The exception is feeding time. The mass crawls slowly toward the fallen. Each tendril reaches out and grasps, clings and rubs, and sucks against the ground, each other, and eventually the prey. Each tendril slowly bores and digests its prey.

Next is the Tortoise Plant…

There is something terrible about coming to a slow demise. Like The Fuzz, the Tortoise Plant is also equipped to eat you very very slowly. Positioned near quick sand bogs, this plant has a feeding sac covered with scaly bark. In this sac, parts of you are slowly digested and your body is converted to energy and stored here for the plant to use at will. This is a wonderful survival feat considering not too many humans are unlucky enough to fall into a quick sand bog. Under the sac, the rest of your body hangs in the quick sand and is preserved by the low oxygen and low light environment. As more of you becomes needed, you are sucked into the feeding sac. It is said that one average adult can take up to three years to be completely digested. The Tortoise Plant has come onto the threatened species list in the last few decades because it cannot easily digest the synthetic fabrics in use today. So, when walking through the quick sand bogs, be sure to wear gortex, fleece. or your mom’s polyester blouses. If you, by chance, come to this sandy end, you will at least be diminishing the likelihood that someone else would come to the same demise.

Bat Flower…

This plant is definitely the most scary looking of all the plants at the conservatory. Unlike the other flowers, this flower only wants the grey matter in your brain. Its perfume is intoxicating, debilitating, and mind numbing. Its aroma sends its prey into a sort of trance. Bewildered, you would find yourself kneeling in front of the Bat Flower. The Bat flower leans toward the head and uses its feelers to probe the skull (because it doesn’t have eyes… flowers don’t have eyeballs). Once it finds your facial orifices, temples, and other soft spots, it’s feelers puncture your head and suck out parts of your brain leaving you lying at the base of the plant with a raisin head.

Victorian Lily…

These pads are gigantic and are said to be strong enough to hold up an adult human. Unfortunately for some curious individuals that would test this fact, there is a subset of cousins that want to eat you. While stepping across the pads, the harmless ones gently give under your weight as you hop from pad to pad. Step on the wrong pad, however and SLURP, you’re gone. The pad immediately gives out, the sides reach up over your head, the sticky walls slap onto the top of your head, and you are pulled under before any of your friends even know you’re gone. Silent and quick.

The Coral Medinilla

Ever be walking through the forest and get a spider web in the face? Sucks huh?  How about an array of stinging arms that melt out your eyeballs?

Well, then watch out for the Coral Medinilla. Its bright red arms of poison look like something you’d want to stay away from. The plant knows this and has developed retractable leaves that pull back sharply to passersby. The stinging arms emerge quickly and jab melting acid into your eyes. The truly terrible part is that the plant doesn’t want to eat you. It gets all its nutrients from the soil. It’s just very territorial. However, even though this plant won’t kill you, it’s hard to get out of the forest with melted eyes and typically, The Fuzz will find you before you are saved.

Gigantic Pitcher Plant…

Down in a hole? Legs disintegrating into botanical ooze? Yes. Horrifying indeed. Human sized pitcher plants are a terrifying trap to fall into. The slippery sides prevent your escape and just end up wearing you out. Even if you were to scramble to the top, the pitcher lid bops you on the head, dropping you back into the hole. If you should find yourself in this painful predicament, be sure to hold your arms over your head. While you will definitely lose your legs, your only chance for survival is that someone will drop you a rope and you will need your arms to pull you out. You can’t hold onto the rope if both your arms and legs are gone.

Under this grate is where the conservatory keeps the plant food…

Maybe you should stick to the sidewalk this Halloween.

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Botanic Garden Part II: Garden Party Table Arrangement.

6 Sep IMG_8080_web

I fell in love with plaster during my anxious days as a sculpture and landscape architecture student. Besides the obvious uses to cast things, I love using it as a medium for paints and pigments, a crusty glue, and my go-to material to give my hands that 25 years-older dried out look. Lovely. This table top was inspired by some plaster fabric botanical forms I made for something else (that didn’t work out). We worked them into this rustic, table top piece with sculptural plants and vintage rentals (chairs, glasses, and plates) from Vintage Ambiance. This table, like the previous post: “Goodfellow’s Stylish Grey Lady” was part of the University of Washington’s First Annual Vendor Showcase for the Botanic Gardens.

And just like before, photos here are by Red Sparrow Photography.

Yay.

I loved these bricks so much I ended up using them for my wedding too!

Succulents, sedum, and scabiosa!

Doilies, linen, and burlap

The prickly thing is Acanthus spinosus!

Fuzzy moss.

Nigella pods/ Love in a Mist- so cool.

‘Little Bunny’ Pennisetum grass.

By the way, all the plants shown are local and organically grown. Yay!

Thanks!









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Botanic Garden Part 1: Goodfellow’s Stylish Grey Lady

1 Sep yellow rose petals

There’s something so special about open flat places surrounded by tall things. I’ve heard somewhere that when polled about whether or not a hometown is beautiful, people in locations with open flat places surrounded by tall places overwhelmingly voted yes. Some of the most beautiful places have these characteristics, Seattle, Montana, the sea among islands in south Thailand, the highlands of Mexico, Lake Atitlan Guatemala (from whence I’ve just returned). Places like that offer enough space to feel released and have a good prospect, but have a border in the distance letting you visually understand the shape of the space and your location in it. It gives the feeling that if you spun around, you can see everything… and alternately, there is nothing you can’t see. Nothing dribbling out and spilling over. Everything is cuddled up in a nice geological hug.

I think the same applies for event space. Spacious but with definition and structure. People aren’t oozing out the edges but have enough space to cut loose.  I think that is why I like the University of Washington’s Botanic Garden  and their Goodfellow Grove. Open lawn, open sky, surrounded by rustic and wily native roses and trees. It’s natural romance is just lovely. We set up a couple of different vignettes for their Event Vendor Showcase in July and have just got the photos back from Red Sparrow Photography (who, I think, also makes nice use of the ‘open space v. interesting bits’ rule).

Here we show a simple set up in the Grove with our famed grey tent… This is the first time we’ve used this tent. It was constructed by the ridiculously talented Lorraine of Lorraine’s Bridal (who also somehow made my working mule of a body look good in a wedding gown.) She sewed these panels so that if you ran into it head on, swirled the luxurious ruffles up around your face, and fell to the ground among the poufs and petals, you still would not see a single unfinished hem. Once up, we realized that this beautiful grey lady needs a fabulous hat. It’s just not quite complete yet, so we’re working on it…. but the lovely panels are for rent if you would like a creation for your event.


The grey ruffle adds some femininity to a modern color palette.

I adore these stick spheres…. These were the reason I had white rustoleum paint in my hair for my wedding…

Can we have an event this year without Le Pouf. No. The answer is no. 2011 is the year of Le Pouf. And we extend the right to Le Pouf to carry on. Carry on Pouf!

Yay!

Stay tuned for a table display that will make you happy.

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