rock me amadeus

so tired of being tired all the time. mention this to fellow floral designer friend, and she whispers "winter..."
indeed the winter is our retreat. though i never thought i'd wish fall away...

S**t has gotten serious, cause i think i ate the last tomato sandwich of the season this week. it was so ridiculously good, I took a photo with my phone, and you know how I feel about bloggers and breakfasts, etc - but this was lunch.

it was a yellow tomato. yellow Hawaiian something or other.

i don't feel i need to share with you a "recipe" per se for said sandwich, but we should be clear about the necessity of Hellmans, a red onion, Munster cheese (Sweet Munchie cheese* also acceptable in certain cases) and copious amounts of fresh ground pepper.

*it exists, that is, a cheese called sweet munchie. in fact i had to drag a friend to the deli counter in fairway the other day to convince her. Eric actually has a song that goes with this cheese, it goes something like this:

"AH! Munchie, Mon chi chi..mon chi chi, monchi munchi cheese!"
Not to be confused with the jingle associated with the popular Monchhichi doll made by Mattel during the 1980's. perhaps you still have your Monchhichi doll, and he lives happily with all the other members of your stuffed animal family in a decorative dragnet** that hangs for the ceiling of your childhood bedroom. frozen. in. time.

**thanks for that amy.

slowly ranunculus are starting to come into our world again. the really good ones will arrive in a month or so. for now I'm happy to get some ranges of pink, a few decent salmon colored ones. nothing spectacular...most have really weak stems and get clipped short for decoration around the shop.


I got what may be the last of the dinner plate (cafe au lait) dahlias this week. they are still in the back of the truck. it's disgustingly awesome outside now, rain, 46 degrees. we've stopped prepping flowers and are typing up wedding bids with numb fingers next to Ye Old Space Heater. If you know a reliable and trustworthy general contractor in brooklyn, hit us up.


and hey, thanks for all your nice comments about little scooter.

I don't know what to say today.

Goodbye Darla (Scooter)

When we first opened Saipua about 3 years ago we got a visit from a man named "Mojo" who said he had the perfect shop cat for us. We said, "No thanks," and yet he was back the following weekend with Darla, (whom he had temporarily dubbed "Soapy," an unfortunate nod to our livelihood) a bag of cat litter and some cans of food.

He told us a dramatic story about how she had been locked inside a bodega that shut down over on Columbia Street, and how he had - after several failed attempts - been able to break her out.

She had missing teeth, no voice, and had apparently never learned how to clean herself. The first time I met Darla she jumped right in my lap. She spent a lot of time there over the last few years. But don't get me wrong, she was also gross. A loveable gross I guess.

Last night, after a day of kitty hospice she died. Poor little Scooter, we loved her.

A beautiful photo of Sarafina and her bouquet...by James Ryang

This weekend Amy and I trekked up to Cole Hill Farm Estate to do flowers for a wedding... Leaves were turning and I was pleased to have the excuse to take a three hour drive to enjoy the autumnal scenery. Amy found an old barn, so she was happy I think. The bride described her colors as aubergine and ivory - we took that literally and placed fairy eggplants on the tables along side the flowers.