housemartin

color glow

I love everything about this wedding! Maya and Jirka were married on the hillsides of Malibu and Flowerwild did the fabulous floral arrangements. This wedding was also featured in LA Style Unveiled. So gorgeous and fresh! (photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy of The Little White Dress)

pretty petals

Congrats to our pal Laurie whose fabulous sunshine bouquet of ribbons, paper, and fabric flowers was featured in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings! Laurie is so talented and always inspiring - go read about more fab  projects here...

swoon

Everything about this photo feels right for summer...the colors and patterns, the distressed, time-worn wall...sigh. Go read about the home of Danish pillow designer Christina Lundsteen (from the January 09 issue of German Living & More magazine) on Holly's fabulous blog Decor8.

floral bliss

Love this idea of hanging flowers in an outdoor setting - by Sweet Paul...

urban weeds

I love the new blog that Lisa Warninger (photographer) and Chelsea Fuss (stylist and blogger) are doing - urban weeds. They do a wonderful job not only of capturing street style but the personalities of Portland. Well done - go take a look...

coral + green

This Friday I leave you with some pretty posies. This arrangement was created back in May and features one of my favorite color combinations - coral and green. I used Moscow and Classic Cezanne roses, snowball viburnum, red clover, lamb's ear, pale pink stock, poppy pods, and grey leucadendron. 

Have a fab weekend everyone!

pretty peonies

Today I was bemaoning the fact that peony season will be over next week. It was only about 3 weeks long this year due to the tough and snowy winter we had. Luckily I have these beatiful peony ceramics. We are now carrying a small selction of work designed and made by ceramic artist Molly Hatch at ink & peat. I love the thin inky  lines depicting delicate flowers and birds and the hints of color. They are so charming!

Brimfield - the last frontier

May's Market - the last day of Brimfield for us. If we don't find it today, it's not coming home with us. Luckily there was still alot to find. I am always amazed at how much is left by the end. Lots of fun things to see.

 

A booth with some wonderful primitives - these are old wood scoops...

Mmmm...my favorite kind of lunch....my favorite kind of candy!

these were some fab birdhouses - the top one is a white spindly wood Victorian one. The bottom is shaped like a ship but is actually a birdhouse - so fascinating!

Here is some of my goods from the first day - these amazing mercury bottles and more industrial carts for the shop.

I leave you with a pic of a sweet and funny hound dog - there are many at the show - you don't get many of these East Coasty dogs out west- and a pic of the lake by our hotel - green and serene...

Brimfield - cattlecall

We will put up with no sleep, walking 10 hours a day, Dunkin Doughnuts coffee, rain, sleet or snow. And it's WORTH IT! We are antiquers. Here we all are at the opening (I call it cattle call) for Heart of the Mart - one of my fav shows at Brimfield. I always giggle when it gets to be 5 minutes to opening...people get restless and start to chatter as if instinctively they know - almost time to move! Everyone checks their walkie-talkies - "Are you on channel 12 still? No I'm on 13 - wanted to loose those Chatty Cathys...." "yeah and that guy placing his lunch order - I mean come on!"

Day 2 of the show my sister made the observation that people are fascinated with giant things and tend to crowd around them at the shows. A giant high-heel shaped couch for example. Here are a few other bigees - this swan was 9 feet tall and apparently from a bar in Florida.

and my sis fell in love with these 2 giant cast iron buck heads - only $7,000 each - bargain. Look at the detail and those sweet oak leaves on the sides...

Here are more fun multiples - old dress forms, tons of hanging chandeliers, and stone finials.

And here way my largest item to bring back - a refinished butcher block table. It looks great in the shop now with baskets of pillows underneath.

Brimfield - true glamour

So I am finally getting around to showing you pics of my May trip to the Brimfield Antique show! 

As a retail shop owner, you spend many hours breaking down and recycling cardboard. So ironic as it is, the first thing we had to do in Brimfield was - you guessed it - find boxes to bring our treasures home. The last thing you want to do is pay $4 a box at Walmart - blasphemy. So we stumbled off the plane, drove into town and...went dumpster diving. Never thought I would be so excited to see free cardboard...THE MOTHERLOAD!

What I love about this show is that you see so many things that we don't get on the west coast - things that just never made it out here quaker, shaker, and Primitive designs - things that got dumped from covered wagons on the way out west. Maybe it is my history as a textile designer but, I also like seeing things in multiples - tons of French bistro chairs, or glass floats, or glove moulds...

Here are a few of my finds on the first day - a fun old ORANGE metal shelf (nice and clean in the shop now displaying flower frogs, bird paintings, and letterpress cards), a gorgeous Victorian white wire plant stand (now moss-lined and chock full of shop goodies - candles, notebooks, and terra cotta pottery)

And here are a few other lovelies along the way that day - piles of white cotton string and sweet light fixtures. I missed these zinc tables by a few hours - SOLD. Luckily I have a few of them from the same designer last year in my shop and I ADORE them...