A rare moment of calm coffee out on the street this morning. Swamped with all sorts of different projects this week...so much I want to share right now. Like the Guinea Hens (Fritillaria Meleagris) pictured below and in the arrangement on top. This flower is so special...it's true that they are incredibly fragile, but I'm tired of fearing the fragile flower - flowers are not meant to live forever. Unlike Susan, who told me this morning over our coffee call that she has decided to live forever. [Everything is fodder for the blog mom...]

Incidentally, "Live Forever!" has been our toast since A, E and I read Secret History by Donna Tart.

I hope you toast to something tonight.
Happy weekend - I'll post again soon -- Sarah

everyone knows its Windy.

Windy and stormy this morning as Eric takes off to visit headquarters upstate. I'm staying behind to meet with a lady about some wedding flowers, spray paint some things silver for a Christmas Tree (i'll explain why next week), and generally enjoy having the place to myself.

This amazing picture comes from my new friend Barbara. One of the many pleasures of running a small business is meeting folks in far flung places with setups so different from ours - but with similar motivations. I've been learning all about Barbara's farm, Pine Ridge Orchids, and the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades -- and am gearing up to share it here this weekend.

What else do I want to mention this morning....OH YES, I think I'm making a delivery in Williamsburg tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) -- so I'll do free delivery for anyone in the 'burg. Just email or call before 1pm tomorrow.

-sarah

soap wrapping.

When I was a kid my mom would section off part of the house for wrapping Christmas gifts. She would sing this little jingle which I totally loved:

Wrap-a-wrap-a-wrap, they call me the wrapper. Wrap-a-wrap-a-wrap, there's nobody faster.

Had I known at the time that I would have entire days when I could not get this jingle out of my head, or that I would have weeks where I would average approx. 25.4 bars of soap per hour in a 24 hour period, I may have thought differently of it.

I'm really not a product person, but the green tube you see is Weleda skin food, the best hand cream in the universe.

forsythia; harbinger of spring and other yellow.

[Forsythia/my bed/poppy closeup/chart of Winter Harbor, ME]

It's true that sometimes you notice a certain color more than others.

Which is a good thing, because usually I am drawn to black ... not a natural match for our aesthetic at Saipua. Not now at least.

This winter has been a real brute for me...I won't go into too much detail, other than to say I have the sudden ability to sleep late every morning (never before could I sleep past 8am) and that my winter blues are less charming than they have been in years past. But March is a whole new ballgame - it's going to be 50 degrees this week, I just unearthed my copy of Simon and Garfunkel Live in Central Park, and I have a compost bin to figure out (with two months' worth of kitchen scraps collecting in a rot bucket under our sink).

So onward!

New Candles and Deep Thoughts

Sometimes when I post a picture like this I feel it should be accompanied by one of Jack Handy's DEEP THOUGHTS.

****

We have been working on the spring votive candles. We make them in collaboration with the folks at Oakmont Candle Co., a family affair in Pittsburg whose idealogy and business model is pretty similar to ours. We received the two prototypes a few weeks ago and I have been burning them in the shop. The first is CEDARMOSS - a rich, damp green-wood smell ...the second is WISTERIA LILAC; a bright floral emphasizing the sweet high notes of lilac. We've been toying with what to call them. So many fragrances and candles have extravagant names like...Quest...Moraccan Mist...Provencal Dewberry Sunrise. What is a dewberry??

I'm finishing the new packaging this weekend and will share it here soon.

We should be ready to ship 'em in about 2 weeks...thanks to those of you who have placed your orders already.

With Susan in town last night we treated ourselves to supper at Saul - such an exquisite meal. Seared mackerel with roasted peppers, preserved meyer lemon...plated with the single most delicious green olive I've ever tasted...Rabbit Loin with mustard and stuffed cabbage....Venison...Scallops with white beans, hen of the woods mushrooms and chorizo...Baked Alaska.

Somehow Eric and I manage to have a big blow out every time we go out to eat. (Last night it was over the price of this Finnish Arabia moomin mug we found many months ago.) Remember Restaurant 360? So many good fights about nothing over oysters and Chenin blanc.

In the end we always chalk it up to our mutual stubbornness and his penchant for a good argument. We went to bed exhausted after a long work day and the richest food I've eaten in a long time. I dreamt of old jobs, handlebar mustaches, the number 7 and J. Edgar Hoover.

the BOSS.

the BOSS arrived this evening to have dinner and go over some OFFICIAL BUSINESS. (Which means my flower budget.) So to prepare, I re-shot the daffodils, looked at this hilarious blog, made cat toys out of dead flowers and curly willow branches (pictured left), and annoyed Eric by yelling "Poppies!" in the voice of Edith Bunker every time he entered the room.

...is it cocktail time yet?