Recently I planned a farewell lunch for a good friend of mine who was moving to Europe. The RSVPs were in, the caterers lined up, the silver polished, the menu and place cards already on the table, and buckets of flowers waited to be arranged. On the morning of the party, the minor precipitation predicted became six inches of a wet, heavy snow surprise that made our street impassable, and most of Washington’s roads treacherous. It doesn’t take much for […]
Flower arrangements are evolving, becoming more naturalistic, asymmetrical, and unstructured, to be more in tune with our comfortable homes and unfussy lifestyles. There are some gorgeous flowers out there these days, and I want to share a few ideas as the holidays approach. The flowers below, Queen Anne’s lace, rosehips, David Austin Juliet roses, heather, clematis, and copper beech leaves are not things you’d commonly see in one bouquet – yet it works, because the flowers are gathered into loose […]
Candles come in so many unusual shapes and sizes now that they deserve to be repurposed. They make brilliant containers for flower arrangements, providing so many different shapes, colors, and textures to work with that you might never need to buy a vase again! I even stuck in a yogurt container and votive as inspiration for all the things we have around that house that can make charming containers for flowers. Here are seven I’ve collected just in the last […]
One of my friends is expecting a baby next month, so a group of us got together to give her a shower. It’s her first child, and they know that it’s going to be a boy, so we went with a classic blue-and-white theme. We invited guests for 4 PM, and served tea and a baby blue cocktail, along with tea sandwiches, a hearty salad, and lots and lots of sweets – cake, cupcakes, cookies. There are so many clever […]
For many years, I collected pieces of silver with monograms and messages on them. Cups, spoons, little silver boxes – the hand engraving and the messages were expressions of love and gratitude that spanned generations. I stopped collecting them years ago, because accumulating things is not so important to me anymore. I think the real value of money is in how you use it to help other people. In the meantime, I still have this nice collection of silver cups. […]
