how nice to loose oneself in zinnias

rather than worry about the debt ceiling crisis!
shane stops by in the heat of the day to bring us sodas, then scares the hell out of me with talk of $100 loaves of bread if things don't get resolved by Tuesday
oh brother!

oh but!...

what I was going to say is about zinnias and how I love them this year more than usual; I've come to appreciate how imperfect they are: the strange asymmetries, the scraggly gaggle of mishapped petals - often smashed together on one side or crisped on the edges. A real spirited flower it seems.

fresh to death

birthday wishes from far away friends

picture pages, and on flower snobbery

As I mentioned yesterday we've been laying low at saipua headquarters taking off most of this month. It has been great for us to have deep rest both physically and creatively.

Getting back to work yesterday, it was a big let down to see another shitty yelp review for Saipua. A bride we started working with and then had to decline because we could not gaurantee that wedding bouquets picked up 2 days before her out-of-town wedding will look good on the day of the wedding. Making sure flowers look fresh is an obsession of ours since a big dahlia heat-wave mishap last summer.

Probably we can can be better about communicating faster, more directly and efficiently. I'll admit that sometimes it takes us too long to respond to tough inquiries, or inquires that come in amidst a big wedding weekend when so much is immediately pressing. Most of the time we're just doing our best, and the bottom line is that our best is not always going to be good enough for everyone. I try not to take these things personally, but it's hard not too. Especially when someone writes us up to be snobs.

Let the record show that the only thing I'm stuck up about is finding the freshest-to-death-flowers and guaranteeing that we can deliver them in perfect condition and on time to every last wedding (both big and small - because YES, to respond to another yelp reviewer we work with smaller budgets too) that we commit to. Flowers that look as good - if not better - than the images I publish here.

We've been working long and hard to come up with a new label for our soy votive candles; drawing and lettering by Eric and Asheley - letterpress printing by Sesame Letterpress (who I can not say enough about) these should be available on our website and ready to ship to our wholesale clients by the end of next week...

Tomorrow I've scheduled some pretty flower things to show you. After a much needed restful month I've got all my girls back in the studio and we're slowly getting back into gear with help from a package of peanut butter cups.

SAIPUA WANTS YOU!!!

As Banana and I were planning our annual thank-you-summer-interns extravaganza it occurred to us that we need to get someone new lined up for the fall shift.

We're looking for one hard-working, eager to learn individual who can commit 2 days a week from August-October. The 2-day a week thing is important if you really want to learn everything about a flower studio. Must be available to help on certain key wedding weekends. Some fun travel included. I could let you're mind go crazy with that MONACO, PARIS, MILAN! or just nip it in the bud and tell you we're heading to the catskills in August...

If you're interested in hearing more about the apprenticeship, contact Deanna[at]saipua[dot]com with a resume and a little information about yourself.

WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT ALL OF THE INTERNS, VOLUNTEERS AND ENTHUSIASTS WHO HAVE GRACED OUR BUSINESS

My friends Jenna and Chris got married at Hurd Orchards in Holley, NY on Saturday. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen and Eric and I had so much fun exploring the farm and dancing. There were lots of killer picturesque moments of kids in wagons and adorable shit like that. I got real jealous and made Eric pull me around in one.

More pictures on my flickr.

get out of town

Went exploring up at Alder Manor yesterday. This morning we're off to beautiful north western New York. Please god let it be cooler there.
See you next week.

Happy Friday.

A simple thing I made to take home a bit ago. I love coleus so much - this is a variety called "marmalade..."

No it's not, I just made that up. I don't know what variety it is.

And I didn't take this home, because as I look around this morning, it's no where to be seen
It's not wilting in the corner with sludgey water stewing like pea soup as it should be in my house which is clocking in at a friendly 92 degrees at 9:00am.

This arrangement got tossed I guess. Where is it right now? mixed with other Saipua debris in a big plastic bag in or on it's way to a landfill to steam and putrefy under 100 thousand tons of waste.

It's hotter than hades here and I'm cranky as all hell.

secret REVEALED

I HATE SUNFLOWERS!!!

So take you're "Blossom hats" and 90's era perfume and shove em where the sun don't shine!!!

*all of these flowers are locally grown by the every inspiring River Garden; and available Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Greenmarket in Union Square

memories of green

been taking most of the month off work. living out of my overnight bag, traveling around and visiting.

every year this happens, summer creeps up on me and I find myself resigning to it. at last. like falling hopelessly backwards into a feather bed.

i feel very fortunate to spend so much time outdoors in the real world. nature; the crazy constant thing we fight against. but to sit in it and maybe to

to start to be pulled under its spell of hypnotic delights
some of which oddly get caught in the web of my mobile phone's instagram
go figure!

on awareness

Been thinking about animals.
When we got Nea almost three years ago my main hesitation had to do with her dying one day, and how hard that would be. Selfish isn't it?

When I go to work, she wants to go too. When I take pictures of flowers, she's always trying to get in the damn photo.
One time we were doing a shoot here and she insisted on having her paw in the shot. Finally the photographer had to politely ask me to take Nea home.

One day Nea will likely get sick and die. She doesn't think about it, and that's nice for her. She just sort of enjoys the day. Panting silently most of the time, her eyes sliding shut until the UPS man walks up.
Then all hell breaks loose.
__
I can't stop thinking about Gus and this bit of animal behavior science:

"A 2005 study of elephant grief, reported in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, confirmed what experts have long sworn, that elephants pay homage to their fallen, visiting the remains of even long-dead relatives, and gently turning over the bleached bones with trunk or foot. Biologists tell of gorillas banging their chests with yowls of anguish during a wake for a fallen friend, of sea lions wailing when their babies have been mutilated by killer whales, of grief-stricken monkey mothers carrying dead infants around for days, of geese singing both halves of a duet when their partners have died..."

been to canaan

Banana and I went to Blacksburg over the long weekend. We used to live there.

we both worked shifts at bollos our old haunt to make some paper ->

MYRA! ->

took over aaron's show at WUVT and made it good again -->>>

this is what 30 looks like -> looks damn good right?

went to a party at BJ's in Riner->

my old apartment ->

Some things change, some things stay the same.

[Here you go.]

one year ago today

it was fun to work on a wedding with nicolette