Almost ready to fly

I seem to have a lot of time on my hands now that we are in a little bit of a lull until our wedding season kicks in. So, here are a couple more pictures of our little birds - the first is one of the babies (one is definitely much larger than the other) waiting for mom to bring a meal, and the other is of the heroic mom who, from dawn to dark, flies back and forth bringing food to these demanding monsters...

Proof that there are at least 2 babies in the house........

New babies

This post is a little off theme. We have a little wren who has made a nest in a decorative birdhouse right outside our dining room door. This is her second year in this birdhouse but the first year that we have seen the babies that have hatched inside. I think there are two of them. They have finally made an appearance in the door of the house and I watch them every morning to see how they are doing. They keep the mother busy all day long crying for food and I could watch this scene all day. This is a photo of one of them with an open mouth waiting for mom.

Holton graduation

Last Thursday was graduation day at Holton-Arms. Every year the junior parents decorate the foot bridge to the amphitheater where the event takes place. Canisters of flowers are tied to the handrails, tulle is draped and container gardens are grouped to create a lovely path for the graduating seniors to walk. After the ceremony is over, we collect the flowers and remake them into centerpieces for the faculty/staff appreciation the next morning. This is the first load of flowers collected by Chris and brought up to the grounds garage for Hal and me to sort through.....

Ribbon love

Had to post this photo of two wonderful stacks of ribbons. We are doing a wedding at Woodend, the Audubon Society mansion in Chevy Chase, MD and we will decorate a metal railing near the grove where the ceremony will take place with a swag made from the cream/pink/beige ribbons, and will make a more elaborate one for the inside staircase with the other sherbert colors. I love taking a group of colors and swagging them together - we have used ribbon groups to decorate Christmas trees and table edges and love how festive it looks.

Sample centerpiece

Lately we are into sherbert colors - it must be spring! Hal made this sample yesterday to show to a bride - he used lime green baby hydrangeas, orange Finesse roses, peach Fema roses and pink Ballet roses and green dendrobium orchids. So pretty....

The first wedding of the summer

On Sunday we did our first wedding of the summer. It was the most elaborate wedding we have produced and thanks to the wonderful staff at the Capitol Hilton which is located 2 blocks from the White House, we had a great experience.

The photos show the chuppah we built. The bride wanted a round one and we made it with my husband's help. The underside had pleated satin fabric covering it and the sides and legs were draped with a similar satin. We added a garland of plumosa fern, varigated pittosporum and ruskus and decorated that with peach and cream roses, white hydrangea and dendrobium orchids.

The wedding pieces themselves were white and light green. More pictures to come on this event.

Garden Party at Landon

Last night there was a garden party in the Perkins Garden, the amazing azalea garden at The Landon School. It was a beautiful sunny evening. The client wanted white and green flowers only, so we used wonderful green and white parrot tulips, Green Goddess callas, green Bells of Ireland and white hydrangeas in several different containers.

Holton party

Tonight, Hal and I made many different types of arrangements for a party in McLean, Virginia. The house is painted and furnished in very pale colors of teal, beige and cream so we kept a fairly quiet palette of greens, creams and whites with a little touch of orange on the tables out on the deck. The green calla arrangement added a little drama to the entry and the rest of the pieces were subtle and calm.

Parasol tent

Here are two photos of the ceiling of the tent at the Landon reunion last week - our friend Ann devised this idea of the different colors of parasols hung from clothesline and twinkle lights - it was so beautiful and clever, I thought I needed to showcase just the ceiling.

Wedding sample

Hal made this large arrangement for a bride to approve. He used white dendrobium orchids, a few white and blush cymbidiums tucked in and some varigated lily grass.

Landon Mother's Day

I made this piece for Landon's Mother's Day - a day that moms come to campus and go to classes with their boys. I used large euphorbia, yellow roses, eucalyptus and some large curly willow and put it all in a birch bark lined glass vase.

We did a group of arrangements to be given away to the chairs of the Azalea Festival last week - they wanted a pink arrangement with Stargazer lilies, beautiful Carousel roses, lavender parrot tulip and pink ranuculus.

Grandmother's Tea at Holton

We did the centerpieces and a buffet arrangement for the annual Grandmother's Tea today at Holton. We used sherbert colors for the centerpieces and a brighter spring palette for the European style buffet piece.

Hal made a couple of beautiful arrangements for his friend Lori's dad's 90th birthday party tonight. He used cream Message roses, cream brunnia, small Black Beauty roses and lime green hydrangeas, light orange Parrot tulips and a burgandy Wax flower- an unusual color combination and just wonderful.

Today I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Becca. She is a design fanatic like me and I tried to make this a memorable event without resorting to making a diaper cake or forcing the guests to play cheesy games. So I combined the idea of a ladies tea with a baby shower. The flavor of ginger became a theme (and I was not thinking about how good ginger is for morning sickness). We made ginger cupcakes with crystallized ginger in both the cake and frosting and decorated them with the typical baby sugar decorations. We also served green tea ginger ale. A friend made madelines and Becca's mom made lemon curd tarts. Tea sandwiches and chicken salad on raddichio leaves were also on the menu. I made her a crown to wear and hung a glitter letter banner over the dining room doors. Outside on the patio I filled her mom's antique tea cups with blue delphinium, pink roses and lily of the valley. The zebra is the high chair is a sock doll made from an old pair or Becca's socks by my friend Lucy Tracy, a weaver in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was a beautiful day.

Landon Azalea Festival party

This weekend Landon School is holding its annual azalea festival. They sell plants and gifts and their wonderful azalea garden, dedicated to twin boys who died in World War II, is open to the public. The variety of azaleas is breathtaking. There was an opening party on Thursday night and we helped the volunteers make simple centerpieces - a single cymbidium stalk in a water filled cylinder, and we made a large buffet arrangement, pictured here. My friend Ann was in charge of the total decor and thought to hang 100 paper parasols upside down from 6 cords hung from the top of the tent - it was lovely and clever.

Occasionally, a client asks for a certain type of design - I tried my hand on an asymmetrical type of piece for her and this was the result.

Here is a photo of an astilbe, rose, hydrangea and hosta arrangement. I love any varigated leaf and in particular this highly varigated hosta.

This is a little arrangement made for a cocktail party last fall.

Holton Reunion

This past Friday and Saturday was Alumnae Reunion weekend at Holton-Arms School. This is a two day event with lunches, cocktail parties and dinners for returning alums. I used a different color scheme from previous years - for most Holton events I use a color palette of blue/white/yellow - blue and white are the school colors and yellow brightens it up. This year I used pastel blue, pink lavender and silver with a little darker purple to make things pop. The flowers used are ranuculus, tulips, roses, dusty miller and a purple kale leaf.

Small arrangement

We did this arrangement for some tall bar tables at an event. I loved the mix of the green cymbidium orchids and the begonia leaves and the sea weed type ferns. We often use a grid of horsetail to set the flowers on.

A romantic Saturday

Today we did this sample to show to a bride. We used silvery pink roses with dusty miller and pink heather, with a little pittosporum. I love this piece - especially the roses with the vintage silver container. The table number is framed in a Venetian mirror frame.

More Botanic Garden photos

Here are two more detail photos of the display in the Botanic Garden. One of the gardeners added the little bird to the top of the bird cage wondering if we would notice. One funny thing about this display is that people feel free to mess around with it. Whenever we go down to refresh things, objects that are meant to be lying around in disarray are tidily stood up straight, Christmas balls are in new places, silver sprayed magnolia pods and pine cones are in odd places - it is funny - I guess they see it as a interactive display.

More photos from the Botanic Garden

Here are a few detail shots of the Botanic Garden installation. This week we have to swap out some of the plants that are fading and we will change things around a bit.