HALLOWEEN SHINDIG IN RED HOOK

There is going to be a Halloween street fair on our block tomorrow!
We'll be setting up a face painting both outside the shop so come by with your kids and I'll paint skulls and tree peonies on their shining faces...

And there's going to be a bouncy castle!! PLEASE GOD LET THERE BE NO AGE LIMIT TO BOUNCE

Success of the first Free Flower Friday Initiative! (almost)

Well Cindy is the lucky 85th commentor (85 being the lucky number generated with the help of random.org)!

Alas, I'm having trouble reaching her! Please Cindy - this is not a joke. Taking a break from our wedding prep to drive these over to you means a fortuitous stop at a certain I-talian bakery on the way back to the studio. Do you understand the gravity of this situation? It's approaching 2pm and everyone knows that the shit is going to hit the fan if I don't get a 7 layer cookie at 3pm!!!

Those peonies could be yours...

We're starting something new - delivering a free flower arrangement to a random reader on Fridays! So leave a comment and I'll enter you to win a free arrangement (I promise to use some of those tree peonies) delivered to your door (in Manhattan or Brooklyn) tomorrow, Friday October 29th from 10-5pm.

I thought it would be nice if more people got flowers just BECAUSE

I got up early this morning to show you these...

They are tree peonies! And they are so beautiful I can't stand it. As in I fell down while shooting them this morning...off a stool -- onto the floor -- only to find a better angle from the floor to continue snapping their portrait.

Fortunately they love the attention, these saucy things.

no words

Recently at The Bowery Hotel...

GOOD GOURD.

another beautiful day last weekend at The Metropolitain Building, frolicking amidst Eleanor's glorious antiques.

Laurel and Dana from last weekend.

Student work I could pass off as my own..

Gorgeous study in drama by Anna Sophia from the last flower class.

We've been busy with The Little Flower School since we got back from Iceland - Nicolette and I. We're working on our winter schedule...in the mix will be a wreath-making class, a second and maybe third rendition of the ever-popular ranunculus study, and - my personal favorite - a dutch masters class (you don't have to be a master of anything to participate.)

Any requests?
Keep it clean, please.

welcome to the kubrick style files

i almost just used this photo on a moodboard for a client. my vacation is starting with a pile of overdue style files in front of my parents fireplace which is burning soapchips. you see, we never stop

It's time to start showing off what we've been up to this fall - We got your weddings, we got your parties, we got your bat mitzva's, your bar mitzvas - BOTH KIND OF MITZVAS!!



We've been working with illustrator extraordinaire Asheley Wilson on some customized do-dads like that new header up there and the menus/name tags for a small wedding at The Bowery Hotel two weeks ago. Ah... The Bowery Hote - OH MY GOD ANN COULTER ON THE COVER OF THE STYLE SECTION JUST SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. Why is this woman's career not over yet??



But aren't they adorbs? Little hand water-colored pears and shiz. The boxes were filled with pumpkin moonpies from One Girl Cookie. They arrived at the studio a few days before hand and it took every effort in my being not to raid them at 3 o'clock, as you know my hour of weakness.



Asian pears. I kindly requested the staff save them for me when I picked everything up the next day. I have eaten 45 of 100 so far. There's a dirth of recipes on the internet for these suckers. I actually pawned some off to a little girl next door by telling her they tasted like "butter."



Dahlias, a shitty season all around for them (the heat, the dryspells) but I still order 10 bunches every week and then watch 3/4 of them die in the studio. I just started ordering some from an amazing supplier in CA thanks to Katherine at Botanica in CT for the tip on that. They only come in peachy pink though. It's a hard knock life..



Speaking of the hard life, we're taking the week off to rest the studio*. 14 weddings in the last 4 weeks it we all really need it. Plus I have to work on my Halloween costume..
S-s-s-alt & Peppa's hERE!

*if i can manage to figure out how to prep blog posts in advance i will so check back in. even though it's not really the same, is it? i mean when you know someone has cued it up ... like when i first realized that songs on the radio were pre-recorded. that whitney houston wasn't actually there live at WHUD singing "All at Once" at 9pm while I tried to fall asleep. Took me a while to get over that one.

ghosts

It seems we have a ghost (and mice, while we're at it) floating around in Saipua land lately and it's rather amusing save for the mouse shit all up in my new macbook pro. I actually almost took a photo of that to show you because it was such an interesting juxtaposition - technology and the natural world colliding in the quiet dimlit world of soap and flowers... same as i almost took a photo of my fingernail clippings last week, as they had reached a heightened state of filth and i thought - that's funny - folks will think that's funny and indicative of how many flowers have sifted through these little hands but the bottom line is you wouldn't think it funny you'd think it disgusting, and you'd write me off as crazy and that doesn't do either of us much good.

Crazy or not, I really do seem to have a computer ghost, who, as if getting my computers stolen wasn't enough - has now started deleting things randomly from my calendar. Quietly dining on poached eggs and arugula yesterday afternoon I was startled by a call from the studio "You're 3 o'clock is here!"

Have you ever swallowed an entire poached egg without chewing? It's wholly unsatisfying not to mention dangerous. What can I say, I live on the edge.

I digress. Now it appears my ghost has been fucking with my blog, deleting the sidebars completely.* I rather like it this way - clean and unassuming elegance in a blog-o-sphere of littered links. Eric is having more of a fit over it that I am. How will people know how to email you? You're contaCT INFO?!?
Please. I havn't returned emails in weeks.

You'd be salty too if your main flower cooler is running at a balmy 79 degrees this evening.

*Apparenly resolved after a simple mouse sacrifice

too much is not enough

here are the arrangements i did for the BAKED launch party last night.
imagine the largest spread of all the most amazing treats, then double it, then imagine me in the corner with only an ice water

then remember that i eat a treat from BAKED EVERY DAY EVERY DAMN DAY whether I really feel like it or not. as you brush your teeth before bed or feed the dog, I, in a zombie-like state walk down there every day around 3pm.

then remember the Twilight Zone episode where the last man on earth whose sole pleasure is books - breaks his last pair of glasses and you will have a sense of my twisted experience at this book launch party exploding with coffee, wine and slices of sweet and salty chocolate cake.