Tuesday, March 4, 2014

MARCH



Getting to March feels like real triumph, especially up here at the farm.

I said to Eric the other day (having just arrived back at farm from city) "I really like the city. And I don't like it here. Is that OK?"

He said yes, and I felt better. Sometimes I think its good to just admit a situation sucks, instead of trying to pretend it's fine. Look, I'm not going to change my situation, not going to give up on the hardships of the farm. But I am going to admit that I don't like it right now, that it sucks right now. Like models probably do that a lot. They probably all stand around backstage at fashion week and say to each other "Modeling just sucks!!"

Go on girls, say how it is. How it feels.

a

There's little things I could do to make it better. One trouble here is that we haven't taken the time to make our house at the farm feel very comfortable. It's a project half finished. Because in my job I'm always making things look good for other people, I forget to do this for myself. Or, I just don't want to. Or in this case, we just ran out of money to do it. That's ok too. It really sucks to run out of money! But it does make us more creative, and that's a good thing I think. If we had tons of money how boring would that be!


Without a real kitchen, we are still cooking our meals outside on a grill. Which is fine, except for when I get out of the shower at 7pm and have to put all my clothes back on to go out and stir a pan of brussels sprouts and the temperature is 2 degrees. Fahrenheit. My friends made a joke that I should make a cookbook all about grilling. Apparently someones already done that and called it Seven Fires. Well, I'm going to work on a book called Eight Fires. Because I'm competitive like that.













Eric is very good at this winter energy stuff. He can watch basketball and listen to the radio and read all day long, stopping to do chores or make a bag of microwave popcorn. (We have a microwave)(Note to self: need more microwave recipes. Another book opportunity? Microwave recipes for the hipster Millennial set! NEED: a beautiful handcrafted microwave...made out of soapstone...)



When Eric eats popcorn he takes one piece at a time and eats it. One. Kernel. At. A. Time. Its like a fucking meditation in popcorn consumption. When I eat popcorn I take a fistful and like to shove the entire fistful in my mouth at once. This is how we're different. "You're going to choke on popcorn one day!" he says. What can I say I like to to live fast and furiously.
I fantasize about my obituary...

"...impatient #farmerflorist, noted author of #Eightfires and proponent of #artisanalmicrowavecookery dies alone in cold unfinished farmhouse. The scene was littered in dead flowers and popcorn."


This is going to be the last week of this weather, I just know it. I look forward to vest weather and sweater weather ...so when I get dressed to go outside I don't look like the invisible man. Modeling just sucks!
___

And now a bit of SAiPUA housekeeping...

I'm heading back to the city to work on some projects and teach our big Weddings Mastery class. I love these intense classes because I get to rap and rap and rap about the industry with likeminded eager beavers who actually want to listen (as opposed to poor Eric who tires quick of flower world stuff).

Mark your calendars for our annual HOUSE PLANT SALE: SUNDAY MARCH 30th. I've already been buying plants, I'm going to bring a lot of my old big girls to sell and we're going to have some really beautiful special plant-y things on offer. For example, the most perfect Japanese clippers! I'll be leaking more details over the next few weeks...
















36 comments:

kathleen said...

I feel your pain...we have beautiful land, beautiful barns and the house just sucks gigantic donkey balls. It's so fugly it makes me weep, like mint-green vinyl-sided 1982 fugly. We do have a kitchen but it is so hot it is impossible to cook in during the summer, so my plan is to build a cob-mud oven and artisanal wood-fire cook all our garden produce...from the garden I have not planted yet. Riiiiiggghhht.

What kind of weedy/wild plant material are ya lookin for?

kelly said...

You crack me up, Sarah! Loving your photos today.

17 beats. said...

this post made me laugh.

first of all, you have a way of making everything beautiful, so i find it hard to believe that your home upstate is *that* horrific. :-)

secondly, we had a microwave cookbook when i was a kid. there were recipes in that thing that required AN HOUR worth of cooking. wacky.

it's almost spring ! you can make it.

Anonymous said...

I hate Spring. At no other time of the year is the weather so totally f*ckin' miserable.

To make matters worse, down here in the South we will also have Dogwood Winter, Blackberry Winter, and two other pissy little winters the names of which I don't recall, but they are actually worse than the The Winter.

Don't worry about the house - the porch is the only part that really counts.

LPC said...

I bet you could get free labor to finish up your house by recruiting all kinds of writers in Brooklyn and trading them the opportunity for them to write a guest post here in exchange for hours and hours of grueling boring painstaking pipefitting and stuff.

You gotta leverage all your assets, use all your currency. Also, I continue to love you.

jen said...

two words: toaster oven.

Clare Day said...

I hear you! I've been here at our farm now for 7 years and its only been in the last two that it's been livable. This time of year is hard because it's so cold and there's nothing beautiful growing. I need that beauty to keep me going amidst the chaos and mess of farm life. Hang in there. Spring is REALLY just around the corner.

Coco said...

Another two words - crock pot.

GALaxy said...

I used to eat popcorn your way, too. We used to laugh so hard about it cuz popcorn was the only thing we ate that had to be shovelled in by the handful. That was until I cracked a tooth on an unpopped kernel. Now I do it one or two popcorns at a time!

Mlle Paradis said...

too funny. wish i could be there for your plant sale.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I think the city sucks. It sucks the life out of me. Too much competition for resources, for just space on the sidewalk. Maybe it's just a case of the grass always being greener. Or maybe I'm aging out of NYC. Anyway, I would LOVE to have a place out in the country to escape to, any season (maybe not a farm, though)! I love what you said about models thinking it sucks to model - for some reason, I find that comforting. At least I have your sale to look forward to. And any weather above the freezing mark - it's got to warm up sometime!

Abbey said...

I'm sorry the farm is so tough right now. I love your honesty - sometimes things just SUCK! Like having no kitchen in the middle of the fucking longest winter ever! Thinking of you.

Abbey

jodi said...

Oh my god, you make me laugh out loud! My man eats popcorn like you, shoved in by the fistful like he hasn't eaten in a week. I'm the two to three kernels at a time girl. Now when we eat popcorn I have to put it in his/her bowls, otherwise I get 10 kernels and he's inhaled the entire bowl.

Also, I second the toaster oven & crock pot advice. You can bake a pie in a toaster oven, for crying out loud!

Hang in there and watch for signs of spring!

grizelda tamzin said...

I have known your pain. It is called a free and creative life, and nothing could be worse and totally beastly and boring, as you say, than TOO MUCH MONEY. Thats why I haven't got much. MY exes last words to me, after he cleaned me out of EVERYTHING , were, "Wealth would spoil you, Zelda' SOB . He was right, but I am spoiled anyway.
OK on the outdoor kitchen, did that here on VAncouver Island as a young florist farmer, but it wasnt as cold. The girls were right, you need three things, a toaster oven, a crock pot, and a plug in vegetable steamer. Those are the essentials of the almost unplugged kitchen without resorting to the burning of fossil fuels and carbon smoke sources like outdoor woodovens and bloody stinky cob thingys. I have a spare room and a huge garden and do flowers, so you could run away to the west coast anytime. Your doggies and sheep are lovely. So are you.

count buckula said...

You could get a slow cooker / crockpot.

Anonymous said...

Yep, tell it like it is. Love your commentary. Love the photos. Sending you a winter surprise in appreciation of your work. Should arrive today at Saipua.

Kay said...

you made me laugh out loud.....
hang on in there and I hope that the 'appreciative anonymous' has sent you kitchen appliances....xx

Jane Guerin said...

Everyone is in a funk because of the never ending snow/cold/really cold/snow/freezing rain.....blah, blah,blah, blah! Just remember Sarah, "Tomorrow is another day." Oh, you must get a pressure cooker!!! Great food (as opposed to microwaved food) in way less time! And it would work on the grill. I hope to come from Virginia to your plant sale!!!!

Anonymous said...

You are such a whiner. How many people have a successful business, a place in the city, a farm that they always wanted, (wait two successful businesses, forgot about the very overpriced soap)a boyfriend who puts up with you? I used to enjoy reading your blog all the time then you started whining about how hard your life is constantly...in your last post you actually complained about making so much money. What is wrong with you? Ugh.

Anonymous said...

You are amazing. I love reading your blog! Your words are so honest and funny and genuine. Just perfect!

Sally May Mills said...

Glorious raw honesty, love it. I live on a tropical island and still have days when I think it sucks. It is hard to admit, because doesn't everyone want to live on a beach under a coconut palm and avoid the pressures of modern living? Isn't that paradise, ultimate happiness? Not while the ego has something to say.
I could write the follow up to your book, 1001 ways to prepare bananas and carrots, plus how to cook anything on a single gas burner. The biggest difference is that I get to do it in a bikini. I would die in your conditions.
I was in Bali recently and saw your soap in a new store. I was squealing with delight and telling my husband "here it is, in real life, I have been reading her blog for ages..." You are spreading joy all the way to the south of the equator. I'll send you up some sunshine.

Camille said...

Different first-world problem, I suppose: living in an expensive coastal California city, meaning the weather is fantastic but you sacrifice sunshine for the world's smallest house and no land. We just welcomed our third child into our two (!!) bedroom house. Everyone's jaw dropped when we said we weren't moving. Hell, there are bigger issues to tackle; I suppose they will be very close siblings. And I will keep my ocean view for now, with extreme gratitude.

sarahbeth said...

I torture my models. Modeling does suck sometimes. Also. Designing & sewing for a starving artist living sucks too. And I've been to that place where you scrape and beg and sacrifice a newborn to get what you think you really REALLY want. And then I've been all - wow - this isn't going like I had planned it to in my mind… People say: "Oh! I'd give anything to do what you do!" But what they mean is: I'd give anything but what it takes. And that's ok. They don't know they mean that. I think the requirements start out like: Work hard, work harder, step outside your comfort box and become your own, accountant, manager, pr, secretary, sweat shop, the-face-of, and the "talent". Then put on some lipstick and smile and say - Oh it's all just so wonderful; I'm blessed! … And we are. But modeling still sucks often.

Also: the fact that you've got enough gumption to go grill a dang thing every day? Nope. I'd be eating asparagus out of a can.

Lari Washburn said...

I like your honesty. As someone once told me after we had moved from a really cool loft in downtown Chicago to our 1763 home in need of much work in Maine: Embrace it all! Hard to do. Sometimes I succeed. During the past 11 years of working hard on this home I have learned more patience and more acceptance. I don't feel as much like escaping either! With respect to lack of money being good for you…read Henry David Thoreau's journals. They've saved me on more than one occasion. I've become better at what I do by being in this place, but it's still not easy! Keep going and remember all the blessings…it helps.

Anonymous said...

The best thing I've read on the internet in months. Hi, and thanks for this. Much needed laughter.

Fiona said...

Crock pot! You just throw everything in and let it sit cooking for a few hours. Esp. good in the winter ;)

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog via Local is Lovely, this is the first post I've read. I just love your writing and the photography. Love love love the flowers and v keen to read more. My god well done surviving all that grilling!! Won't it be fun to boil an egg on an actual cooker. Lili

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog via Local is Lovely, this is the first post I've read. I just love your writing and the photography. Love love love the flowers and v keen to read more. My god well done surviving all that grilling!! Won't it be fun to boil an egg on an actual cooker. Lili

trouble said...

crock pot girlfriend! DO IT. you won't look back...

Unknown said...

Amazing snaps. Very informative blog. Your blog makes me smile. Thank you sharing with us. Myrtle Beach SC homes for sale

Unknown said...

A gift that is given to anyone is precious and no matter how much does it cost. Every special day can be celebrated with presenting fresh and beautifully decorated flower arrangements. real usa youtube views

European Petals said...

Wow! Really nice and the pictures are beautiful too.

Though I gotta agree with other commenters, crock-pot is a handy one. Throw everything in and voila ! :)

Check my blog too ? :) If y'all live in New Jersey, come to my flower shop. We have all beautiful ones. You can check them out online too :)

www.europeanpetals.blogspot.com
www.europeanpetals.com

Unknown said...

You are hilarious, and keeping a sense of humor—I've found—is key to getting through this winter alive. Also, yes, getting a crock pot. I second that.

kfd313 said...

You're funny. And I love your blog. And you inspire me. So, thanks.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
วิเคราะห์บอลวันนี้ said...

I'm sorry the farm is so tough right now. I love your honesty..

ทางเข้าจีคลับ
ดูบอลสด
วิเคราะห์บอลวันนี้