floral crown

always wanted to make a floral crown and i finally tried this weekend.  it wasn't my intention to model but my sister was caught up in traffic so i stepped in and had pete take the pictures.

featured on baby lifestyles

i was featured on baby lifestyles last week.  check me out:  http://www.babylifestyles.com/2012/08/blue-is-for-boy-hydrangea-flower-baby-shower/

late summer's gift

you've seen hydrangeas from this tree before.  i've mentioned its flowers in some of my posts too.  and shame on me for never giving it the spotlight that it so deserves.  

time and weather has tormented this tree; it once broke in half from frost.  yet, it remains fantastically stubborn.  once a year, the late summer air awakens its blooms, turning bare branches into little white florets that fade into cream flecked with tones of rose and rust.  

azteca

dahlias (azteca, dot com and one other), chartreuse zinnias, globe amaranth, scabiosas and seeded eucalyptus

some more dahlias for you -- all from my garden except for the seeded eucalyptus.  the sole bright red one is called azteca and the medium-red ball dahlia is called dot com.  and the purple one?  i don't know the name.  that's the problem dahlias -- too many varieties (not a bad thing), too many names (comes with the territory).

cafe au lait

a cafe au lait dahlia with late summer hydrangeas, bride to be dahlia, white and charteruse zinnias,
globe amaranth and seeded euctalyptus leftover from this weekend's wedding

i'd been waiting all spring and summer to meet my cafe au lait dahlia and she's more beautiful than I could ever imagine.  pete and i made a spontaneous visit to western MA on monday and we found her in my garden.  i swooned and fell in love all over again.

north shore

my hometown.  photosbybusyb.blogspot.com

corals, pinks and yellows & turquoise glass

arrangement for the sweetheart table:  passion and jasmine vines,  touche dahlias, maria theresa garden roses, sweet peas, coral and light pink ranunculus, limoncello spray roses, blushing bride protea, cream lisianthus, snowberries, seeded eucalyptus and dusty miller

for a little 500 square foot apartment studio, we managed to hold a lot of flowers but needed to have our A/C on full blast.  and after living and particularly sleeping in the freezing cold (it was brutal), we need a better solution -- a floral fridge or a spare room is on my wish list.

some things learned from this weekend's wedding:  always have a clock visible because time gets away; always buy more flowers than needed and always have an extra set of hands, if not two extra sets so someone can take pictures.

apples

from last year.  photosbybusyb.blogspot.com.

babies

two cutie pies to check out on photosbybusyb.blogspot.com

audrey

brady

grass

i'm trying out a new container and i walked to farmer's market to find some of the local flowers and summer grasses.  got some dahlias too -- they remind me of the local peaches that are in season.

it's a quiet saturday night for me.  no pete.  just me and a bottle of rose.

a little bit of drama

a dose of drama is good every once in a while; too much will give you agita.  this is perhaps one of the more exotic arrangements i've done -- sarracenia, crispy wave ferns, darcey garden roses, near-black dahlias and some beloved ranunculus.

p.s. agita should be pronounced with a north shore boston accent, i.e., tons of emphasis on the "a" and have the other syllables fall off, like give it a big old "ah" sound, not so big on the "gi" and a barely perceptible "ta".  really i'm from the north shore -- there's no other way to say it.