around reykjavik

having a great time - forgot to bring my camera today - shot with my phone. bless camera bag. found botanic garden. word to the wise, it's not anywhere near where the guidebook says it is.
miss nea and my mooks already. leaving for the northwest fjords tomorrow morning. if there's internet there i'll post again tomorrow night.

A new vetiver soap coming soon, and my own arrangement from our Wildflowers class yesterday at Little Flower School. I am leaving you with these two things while I ship off to Iceland...It's been crazy right till the end getting ready for this trip. Nicolette and I are holed up at Logan Airport still writing estimates while we wait to board.
I wonder what it will be like there! I will certainly try to keep you posted..

prepare...

i just experienced 15 distinct emotions looking at these photos. and most of you know by now that emotion in't my style. I'm going to start a group called Friends Don't Let Friends Look At Photo's of Monkey's Nurturing Baby Kittens. 17 Beats (the party responsible for this morning's tearful excerpt) is the first member.

Saturday, after a pit stop at Casa de Mozzarella near Arthur Avenue, Nicolette and I got ran up to the Berkshires for a end of summer party at Ariella's. Feasting and flower arranging ensued..followed by a lovely rainy garden tromp in the morning. Some girls have all the luck.

exit through the bonsai room

Just another week. I found some figs - thanks to you readers...I'm starting my day slowly, shopping for a bathing suit on line. Hating on jcrew. Baubles.. are these still really happening? Been reading about Zarathustra and trying to get through my camera manual. Eric has been traveling a lot and I miss him. Last night I watched an episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. I made myself a Croque Monsieur with turnip pickles (Platter of Figs - do you have it? It's my favorite cookbook and the little turnip pickles are good) and tarragon mustard. I opened a bottle of Paumanok Cabernet Franc since the weather has turned chilly in New York. I got a hair cut that makes me look like a Muppet, so there's that too. My girlfriend tried to tell me it looks very "french," and referenced Chanel. So that's my new look...French Muppet.

looking for figs in brooklyn, flowers, cat

Yes, I made corn fritters this morning with mint and figs (fresh from my friends backyard. because apparently that happens, fig trees in NYC back yards - it's not just a myth) and it turns out that this is not the best combination - or that the mint will be omitted next time, perhaps substituted for another herb - or maybe i'll just leave it alone. Although corn fritters could go in the other direction - sour cream and chives. We'll see..

Anyway this is partially about a pretty breakfast that turned out to be sort of "meh" and partially about the fact that these figs in Jen's backyard are exactly what I NEED for an event next week - 100 of them to be exact. SO! Here's where you come in...if you have a fig tree in your backyard that's an overproducer lets trade flowers and or soap for those puppies. These fresh figs are lighter in color - more dusty grape than the inky purple - the later of which are found in food stores shipped from Califonia this time of year.

Also this is Shapesh, or "Poppers" who was staying with us last week. A little puddle of cat.

no one wants to see a dead koala bear.

At the BBG last weekend for Rachael's wedding I encountered this plum tree.

A tree so laden with fruit, it was almost unforgivable. No one can pick this fruit! Like a fruit tree behind thick plexiglass with a koala bear up it or something, except even the koala bear would have to adhear to the no-picking-the-fruit policy, and so it would be starved.

Did I ever tell you the time I tried to coax a gardener into letting me have a fallen magnolia branch bound for the wood chipper? There were most beautiful buds on this branch...torn off the tree by a thunderstorm...destined for mulch. Torture!

I digress..I've been oogling these photo's ever since, and thought if I had the time I'd make plum oatmeal bread. This is best with dark skinned Italian prune plums. [I'm not sure why I said that or if it's even true. You really can use whatever plums you have.]

Plum Oatmeal Bread adapted from the files of Susan Ryhanen*

preheat oven to 350 degrees

sift (as if!) 2 cups of flower;
3/4 cups of sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom

Add:
1 cup of whole oats
1 cup of diced fresh plums plus a little more

Combine the following wet ingredients together, then stir into the dry/plum mix...
2 well beaten eggs
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of canola oil

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour.
Cool 10 minutes at least before inverting.

* "adapting" aka 1/4 teaspoon difference of cinnamon. aka adding cardamom or allspice to a banana bread recipe. aka changing 1 cup of half and half to 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup milk. I'm onto all your adapting food bloggers out there...I got you.

another one bites the dust...

we had a big wedding weekend with two beautiful brides...I want to show you this one from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Palm House first...

















all the pictures and our set-up on my flickr..

how we roll

Sometimes I make bouquets in the car.



As long as I'm not driving. I love not driving incidentally.



This is New York City! How exciting!!



Sometimes when I think about being a big fancy florist, I realize I like being a small florist. One who sometimes has to ribbon the bouquet in transit, on the way to city hall with friends...

everything rosie

Hi kids. I finally figured out what was wrong with my computer and so I have photos back up and running ready to share. Here are some roses. You like those, don't you? I thought you would....



Something that I've thought about a lot is how so much of what sells Saipua, and ultimately this blog is the perpetuation of pretty delicate feminine things that frequent this blog. It was easier once to be myself here, when no one but 17 beats and my mom were reading. Now I have clients reading, and their moms. So when I'm tempted to write something raunchy - I have to consider my audience. Dilemma much?



Today is one of those days when I'd like to rant about self-mythologizing spinsters, the wedding industry, and post roughly self-photoshopped images from celebrity websites. And so I have started a secret blog to do this. If I told you what it was called, it wouldn't be a secret. baHAHAHAHAHAHAH

just kidding. I don't have a secret blog. it's a secret tumblr.

just kidding i don't

here; have another fuzzy rose picture:

interrupting regular programming; seeking travel advice

Photo: Valentine Schmidt/SIME from NY Magazine

If I bought a ticket to Iceland with Nicolette, and if we were sitting around here drinking wine in the afternoon researching a trip to Iceland, would you per chance have any recommendations on where to go and places to see?

hypothetically speaking..

Just posted about our most recent flower class over at the Little Flower School blog...flower schools around the country should be blowin up right around now! We did this class at Nicolette's studio in Greenpoint. It's pretty there.

9:52 waiting for FedEx...

I made this bouquet for a bride last month - we were getting some really good hydrangea (a variety called "unique") and although they are very fragile, a few held up strong enough to use in the bouquet.

Just because I don't talk about all the weddings we're doing doesn't mean we're not busting our nutz around the clock getting folks hitched. I have the spider veins to prove it. Amy finally broke down and bought Dansko's, thank god. And just because I haven't mentioned Pearl Jam lately doesn't mean I'm not spending every free moment looking at concert video's from '92

summer

Remember when I had said that I figured out the secret to summer? A little relaxing, a little taking of some sun poolside, umbrellas in the cocktails, sand...

I'm off that kick, and on to dreaming about the autumn already. For those of us on the east coast this has been less a summer and more a like a month on Mars, with temperatures consistently in the mid 90's. Except there's no humidity on mars, so I'd rather be there. Actually my fact checker here says it's cold on Mars, so make that Venus - NO! MERCURY!!! YES, YES HOTTTTT

Remember when you were in your 20's and it was all cool to be like "Oh we don't have a TV" and how stupid that was because TV is actually amazing, and when you finally got one, you were like WHOA there's culture out there! there are housewives to track, and on one channel I found Morgan Freeman talking about the universe and dark matter!

Eric and I are like that with air conditioning. Usually awkward at parties, we start conversations about the weather and quickly slide into our disdain for air conditioning and our adaptability to high temperatures with the help of misting systems and frozen bottles of water placed strategically on major arteries - in other words directly in the groin.

Lately I realize we're just nit-witts. Because as I walk down my block I notice that every single apartment now seems to have an AC unit. And millions of new yorkers can't be wrong.

30

I had the best birthday ever. And now that everyone is gone, it feels very surreal...