I love working with yellow.
Orange is cool too.

I took the leftovers from these samples to a neighbor…which really made me happy. I love unexpected flowers. Maybe some people don’t get that, but I don’t care. Flowers make me feel so good, even after all this time I’ve spent with [...]]]>

I love working with yellow.
Orange is cool too.

I took the leftovers from these samples to a neighbor…which really made me happy. I love unexpected flowers. Maybe some people don’t get that, but I don’t care. Flowers make me feel so good, even after all this time I’ve spent with them:)
Ken’s growing quite a wonderful garden this year. I’m excited to start using little bits from it for my bouquets and such. I’ve already stolen a few blueberry bush branches and the golden raspberries are just starting to pop. It’s me against the birds and the squirrels at this point!

Next up…chickens.
Trying to decide if we should get some. Alice is quite the animal lover and we eat at least 2 dozen eggs a week over here. Anyone with advice or thoughts on this? I would love to hear from you.

xo
k

I feel like spring is slipping through my fingers already. A little too brief for me, always. Especially when it comes to spring’s bounty of blooms…I want them to stick around for a few more weeks. When I look at these pictures from April, I tend to ache a little for the tendrils [...]]]>

I feel like spring is slipping through my fingers already. A little too brief for me, always. Especially when it comes to spring’s bounty of blooms…I want them to stick around for a few more weeks. When I look at these pictures from April, I tend to ache a little for the tendrils of jasmine that are long gone, and find myself dreaming of vining sweet peas – wild and unruly – now, short and wilty impressions of their former selves. Oh, and the mock orange that’s already come and gone…foxglove too. So you see, flowers are always a business of longing.

But it seems that summer is pushing it’s way in and I shouldn’t complain too much. There is always some new fresh face just waiting to take the place of last season’s favorite. We’ve had lots of time to get our hands dirty over here and play with some pretty bits.

I’m most recently addicted to the website Humans of New York…I know, everyone else knows about this site already. I live in a bit of a creative cloud that’s very disconnected with what’s current and hip…so sometimes it takes me a while to get up to speed with things! This site, HONY, It’s kind of like looking at a diverse book of human flowers. I love it. I could look at it all day.

I got to create 5 bridal bouquets for one very lovely gal last month. She chose her favorite from the bunch gave the other 4 to her pretty maids to carry. Kinda great.

xo
k

5 and half.

5 and half years of pure goodness and delight in my life.

it’s better than good to be her mom. thank you ken for giving me such a gift.

the moment i heard my first love story i began seeking you,

not realizing the search was useless.

lovers don’t meet somewhere along the way.

they’re in one another’s souls from the beginning

-RUMI

Things are moving and shifting here, I love it!
Wanted to post something quick while I have a chance.
All images here from our first April wedding this year, and the studio brimming with spring flowers!!! Peony, sweet peas, lilac…dogwood!!!!! Oh my!
My smile couldn’t be bigger:)
More to [...]]]>

Things are moving and shifting here, I love it!
Wanted to post something quick while I have a chance.
All images here from our first April wedding this year, and the studio brimming with spring flowers!!! Peony, sweet peas, lilac…dogwood!!!!! Oh my!
My smile couldn’t be bigger:)
More to come as soon as I have another late night.

xo
k

I spent the last two days on the road. Form here to Carmel and back. Alone. I much prefer to do this with Ken and Alice…so I missed them a lot.

I can say this – California is beautiful friends. When you are driving it all alone and you just witness it’s insane [...]]]>

I spent the last two days on the road. Form here to Carmel and back. Alone. I much prefer to do this with Ken and Alice…so I missed them a lot.

I can say this – California is beautiful friends. When you are driving it all alone and you just witness it’s insane beauty, just watch it rolling by you, and the light just gets better and better, it’s almost like you can’t get enough. You don’t want it to end…you want more, and more.

You pass through vibrant green, smooth shouldered hillsides, on to rough rocky patches splotched and dripping with wild poppies, blue lupines, or yellow mustard. The sky changes from vast and open, to ethereal and rainy, dark even… then soft. Close and foggy. Almost too close. Almost on top of you. All around you.

Trees sprawl out. Cast their shadows. Inching ever closer to the sunny, most westerly side of their little plot. They dawdle and kick around, gently touching a nearby embankment or slope in a way that says – we’ve been here together, a long, long time. I know you. Sometimes they sway, kissed with sweet mossy bits that make them look somehow human or animated. More alive than you might want them to be on a lonely road at night. Like they might scoop you up. They seem so stately and ancient, even though they are here now. They feel so perfectly timeless…

Truth…The land here just fills you up with goodness. Sometimes shouting from the mountaintops doesn’t seem like enough. Drives like this, make me certain we live in an amazing place. And yesterday, California was just killing me with it’s raw beauty.

Getting to see these hidden and not-so hidden parts of the state make me crazy happy. Giddy, really. It’s the kind of stuff you want to share. Even if it makes you get all poetic and sappy:) Who cares. It’s real. It’s how I feel. I love it here.

There’s no appropriate segway for this so I’m not even going to try! My English teacher, Mrs. Kelly, would not be thrilled. But I honestly, almost always abide by her very wise instruction. This time, I’m just too pooped.

Here’s a little something pretty from Audrey and Jeff Dunham’s rehearsal dinner at Sunstone Winery. Planning by Jill LaFleur.
Images by Corbin Gurkin….an amazing amazing photographer you should all know. I was lucky enough to do the flowers for her wedding in Ireland this last year. Yep…she’s that gal behind that crazy adventure:)

Oh…and we are about to announce 2 more workshops for this year. One of which, Corbin will be shooting! So stay tuned…

xo
k

Tomorrow Alice and I are headed up north together. Mommy daughter adventure! I’m sure there will be tons of spy games and goofy imaginings on our 6 hour drive – at the insistence of Little A.

Not sure how you all pass the time on a long drive with kids..but I must say [...]]]>

Tomorrow Alice and I are headed up north together. Mommy daughter adventure! I’m sure there will be tons of spy games and goofy imaginings on our 6 hour drive – at the insistence of Little A.

Not sure how you all pass the time on a long drive with kids..but I must say Alice has to be one of the most patient kids under 10 out there. She definitely has more staying power than I do. She prefers interaction and imaginary games to any sort of electronic device. Oh…and singing. LOTS of singing. Yesterday she was singing “Dirty deeds!!! Done dirt cheap”…the whole time we were at CVS picking up a prescription. Ha! Not sure how many other 5 years old know and love that song; but clearly, Alice is a fan of AC/DC, thanks to Ken. Endless good times with this one!

I’m more of a dreamer when we travel. Though I do love to sing, I really love to look out the window and wonder about other people and their lives…their place on this planet, their home, their walk to school, their morning coffee, their bedtime stories, their dirt, their pets, their closets, their blankets and books, their keepsakes. Did so much of that as a kid myself, on long car trips to south carolina from chicago or a couple of cross country train rides from chicago to the golden state.

What a way to see the country. Really see it…or, at least see a lot of the forgotten places, wayside towns, all the spots that rest between here and there. The non-destinations so to speak. I like seeing all of it and having Alice see it too. So she understands better that not everyone lives the same life, or comes from the same place, or has the same story. It’s good for the imagination right? It helps expand our perception and develops our sensibilities – traveling.

I’ll be instagramming from the road I’m sure. If you don’t follow me there already…please find us @flowerwild

I’m sick. On the tail end of an icky spell of something and I can’t wait to be done with it. Stronger everyday, head a little clearer. Which is good, because I’m juggling a lot of projects lately and trying to stay on course with each one can be a challenge. Hard to [...]]]>

I’m sick. On the tail end of an icky spell of something and I can’t wait to be done with it. Stronger everyday, head a little clearer. Which is good, because I’m juggling a lot of projects lately and trying to stay on course with each one can be a challenge. Hard to keep them from overlapping and spilling into one another.

Here are some images I am loving this week, and looking to for inspiration. Workshop attendees beware! These are the beginnings of something for you.
Only a few more weeks till we are soaking up sun in Palm Springs and getting very very serious about flowers and all that jazz. YAY!!!!

(images:top left -irving pen for harper’s bazaar, top right- mario testino
the rest of images unknown with exception of bottom left, blue artwork by valerie hammond)

Ok. Maybe not Eternally.

But we need some fresh meat around here. Join the high society of Flowerwild ladies and gents (not pictured.) We’re Fancy…almost never. I like hard workers, I like go-getters, I like people who know when to be quiet, I like people who are creative, I like people who know [...]]]>

Ok. Maybe not Eternally.

But we need some fresh meat around here. Join the high society of Flowerwild ladies and gents (not pictured.) We’re Fancy…almost never. I like hard workers, I like go-getters, I like people who know when to be quiet, I like people who are creative, I like people who know how to use drills, staple guns and can climb ladders, I like people who make me look good. Is this you?

We are offering intern programs with Flowerwild
on various dates from April to October of this year.
We need people in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Napa/Sonoma areas.

Days of work are flexible…with Saturdays being a must.
This work is hard. You will get dirty. It’s not glamorous. You will scrub buckets and trim flowers, eat sandwiches standing up. You will inevitably help load thousands of candles into vans. It will be sweaty and hot work some of the time, but you will learn a lot, see a ton of gorgeous flowers daily, and get a peek behind the scenes of numerous event installations. Meet fabulous people, form friendships. It’s not too shabby.

Please email me @ info@flowerwild.com
if this is of interest.

Image by Irving Penn