Christmas at Helen's

Today I made an outdoor arrangement for my friends Helen and Bill and brought over an arrangement for their dining room table - they are having an early Christmas dinner tonight with both of their girls, one soon to be son-in-law and their new granddaughter.

For the piece outside, I wired some small Christmas balls onto twigs and stuck them into the oasis I put right on top of the dirt of the planter.....I also used ilex berries, cedar boughs, seeded eucalyptus, candy cane carnations and varigated greens.

For the other pieces, I used white hydrangeas, red roses, red and white tulips with the same greens.

Thanksgiving at Alice's

Every Thanksgiving I make some arrangements for the fabulous house of my friend Alice and her new husband Wilson. She has two gold wire mesh cornucopias that I fill with flowers and I usually do a couple of other pieces as well. This year I used white callas, dusty miller and magnolia leaves to fill the cornucopias and then did two small simple arrangements with more callas and leaves in two nice gold vases. And I just realized I made the dried hydrangea arrangement for her last year.

Holton party

Yesterday we also did some flowers for a Holton event held at a fabulous private home in Washington, DC. The house was decorated in cream and beige tones and we used brown orchids, cream banksia and unfurled fern heads with tropical leaves and river cane. The small pieces are made from brown orchids placed on grids of river cane perched on small glass vases, we also made an assemblage of 3 vases - brown orchids and aralia leaves with ferns on a large glass vase with more brown orchids inside, next to it is a medium size vase with 2 banksia flowers and a fern and in the smallest vase, a brown orchid on a grid. The frame held a grid of river cane with brown orchids, aralia leaves and a fern threaded in to make a picture.

Dinner Party

Today I made these pieces for a dinner party event. I wanted to have a fall color scheme but one that was not the typical rusts and browns. Instead I used Cherry Brandy roses, a dark burgandy celosia, seeded eucalyptus, kale leaves and dark red mums. I loved the contrast of the orangey reds and the silvery blues. In the tall piece I added some orange tulips for their graceful arcs.

Election Night

This red, white and blue theme is not one that we usually embrace, but a good client is was having an election party tonight and wanted arrangements in those colors. And the photos show what we came up with. The arrangement in the white pumpkin was for their porch - the other two for the serving tables....

The last event of the weekend

Yesterday I did the arrangements for a dinner at Holton - I used a combination of Creme de la Creme and Terra Cotta roses, one large protea, cotinius and photinia leaves and a little dusty miller for a silvery touch and varigated pittosporum to fill in the gaps.

Landon wine tasting

Another event we worked this weekend was a wine tasting at Landon in their beautiful Buchanan Library. They wanted a rustic, Napa kind of look and we used grasses and hydrangea and rust roses to create this.....

Alice's wedding

My friend Alice got married yesterday and we were happy to help her decorate her fabulous house. She owns wonderful Victorian silver baskets and we filled these with interesting flowers in a palette of yellow, burgandy and brown with silver touches using orchids and other flowers that presented a modern take on the Victorian aesthetic.

Big Week

We had a bunch of work this week and I am going to post a bit of what we made....these photos are from the farmhouse at Landon - an event venue at the school. The original founders of the school lived in this house and it is charming and gracious and we are always happy to have our work there....these pieces include Kameleon roses, dusty miller, seeded eucalyptus and hydrangeas.

Megan's wedding

Last week, Megan and Matt got married in her family's backyard. I have known this family for many years and Megan's mom Lloydie and I had spoken about my doing the wedding flowers for a long time. Megan wanted yellow and blue flowers - we used sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and delphinium to make her bouquet and arrangements that were bright and cheerful. We also decorated the backyard trellis with grapevine and dried hydrangeas and floated yellow gerbers in the pond.

Tiffany and Eric's wedding

Tiffany and Eric got married at Woodend, the Audubon Society mansion in Chevy Chase, Maryland on this most perfect golden fall afternoon. She chose a wonderful palette of red, gold, rust and orange and we used Konfetti roses, golden cymbidium orchids, photinia leaves, red mums, peach hypericum and red rose hips to create the various arrangements. Her bouquet was made from Flame callas, peach hypericum and red rose hips ringed with photinia. She was wonderful to work with and happy with the results.

Tiara Day

Most Friday mornings I get a call from Kate and in turn I call Helen and Ruth. Around 9:30 we meet at my house and spend the morning going to estate sales. We go to sales in Maryland and DC and Virginia if we are feeling adventurous. My excuse for this is that I am always looking for interesting containers for flower arrangements and for garden stuff. We are not shy about commenting on all the details of the houses we visit, inside and out and that is as much fun as looking for things to buy.

Today, Kate and Ruth and I went out and while looking for a sale in Kensington, Maryland happened on the cutest store. It is called Tiara Day and is located on Metropolitan Avenue at the corner of Wheatley Ave. If you are in town, you must see this store. The owner is Maria Peck and she has assembled the most wonderful collection of vintage clothes and objects with very interesting new stuff - candles, jewelry, wonderful cards - I could go on and on. There is a web site and you can link to her blog on the most recent page of this blog. If I ever have a store, it would be just like this.

Potomac Floral Wholesale

Today I was picking up some flowers from our supplier and it occurred to me that they deserve a mention on this blog. There are weeks when we drop in to Potomac almost every single day and we are always able to find something interesting and exciting to use in our arrangements. The people who work there are without exception knowledgeable and helpful. At times we take our clients over to Potomac to take a look at what is available and the client is always impressed.
So this is a small thanks to everyone at Potomac and especially Evan, Robin, Tony, Randall, Lucy, Marvin and Leo.

Our Beautiful Bride

CaSandra got married today and she was our second beautiful bride of the weekend. We made a bouquet for her that was different from our more typical hand-tied European style bouquet. CaSandra wanted tropical flowers in her bouquet and a very bright palette. We put orange protea, pink/green Anthirium, yellow Oncidium orchids, orange Spray Roses, pink Cymbidium orchids, Ti leaves and mango Callas in a bouquet holder and tied it off with a gold ribbon.

2 weddings and a ballet reception

Hal and I did a lot of work with weekend - 2 weddings, 1 tiny and 1 medium size, and a ballet group reception. The first wedding was at a French parish hall in DC where we had done another small wedding several years ago. The color palette was green and white and grey and we used some interesting flowers from the last blooms of my garden. The first photo is of a coffee table arrangement, the second of the bride's bouquet, and the last of the wreath on the door. Green and white arrangements seem to be very popular these days.

Golden Bear arrangments

The color scheme of the pieces for last night's event was cream and white flowers on brown and tan pintucked linens. We used white hydrangeas, cream roses, white stock, white dendrobium orchids and variagated ivy leaves and ferns in different combinations to create the arrangements.

Landon's Golden Bear Dinner

Yesterday, Hal and I created many arrangements for Landon's Golden Bear dinner. This first post shows the beautiful Perkins House and the tent on the large front lawn of the house on the Landon campus. This was a beautiful setting for a lovely evening.

Dinner Party

Hal and I made these arrangements for a dinner party tonight. We used Moca Magic roses, garden hydrangeas, sedum, scabiosa pods and turning dogwood leaves for an early fall feeling.

Holton dinner party

Last week there was a dinner party at Granger House, the home of the head of school, at Holton. I used a hot palette, yellow lilies, pink roses and pink celosia with coleus leaves for an end of summer vibe.

Happy bushes

A friend of mine took this picture today - too cute and fun. I wonder what the neighbors think?

Centerpiece sample

This is a sample for a wedding centerpiece. The bride wanted something modern and tropical with very bright colors and alot of drama - we used Hot Lady roses, Birds of Paradise, gold mums, orange spray roses, Aralia leaves, horsetail and curly willow in a low glass vase.

Bouquets

When the girls at Holton graduate they carry bouquets of 6 roses, baby's breath and ferns. For the past few years, Hal and I have been making them and they seem to be the perfect thing for a young graduate. Now look at these armloads - no wonder no one is smiling....

Back to School

This week we did the flowers for two events at the Landon School. For both we used a palette of green and white but tweaked in different ways. We love both - the first of green, white and the grey of Dusty Miller foliage, the second, greens in several tones from chartreuse to dark green and white.

Hitomi Gilliam

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending a workshop with Hitomi Gilliam, a Vancouver based floral designer whose work is wonderfully fresh and inspiring. In a 4 hour workshop she shared many techniques and ideas that got all of us wanting to add something new to our creative pursuits. These are some photos of her work.