oh c'mon! 

happy weekend to you + your plants

(thank you Preston for sharing this with me)

Your invitation to: BOOK CLUB!

photo by jordan sullivan

here's your map

Friends! How exciting is this? Look at what my dear friend Claire is hosting for us! Some of us usual suspects will be there of course and you should come too. Oh what magical times will unfold...

BOOK CLUB !

BOOK STAND founder Claire Cottrell and photographer Jordan Sullivan present BOOK CLUB: a series of occasional get-togethers celebrating contemporary photography publications and printed matter in beautiful outdoor spaces around Los Angeles.

With:

BOOK STAND

Future Desert

Gottlund Verlag

Jordan Sullivan

Kanimambo

Pau Wau Publications

Rain or Shine Books

Rock Bottom Press

Synonym Journal

Unified Field Collective

And:

Fruit from friends' backyards

Herbal sodas

Wildflower weavings

When:

Saturday, August 31st

4PM - Sundown

Sorting through older polaroids and came across these two taken while we were in Morocco. I want to go back. Into the small villages of the mountains, drinking mint tea in the desolate deserts, and strolling through the Jardin Majorelle. 

Edible Arrangements

Came across these from here and had to share them with you. I too often use kale (especially purple), mint, and rosemary but now I'm going to give fennel, chard (especially rainbow), and the flowering broccoli! What a sweet bouquet to give to a host too, no?

Viviane Sassen

I came across Viviane Sassen's work only recently and was instantly drawn into her images. These photos above are from her work taken while in Africa. The colors, shapes, textures, and plants are all so well composed. But what I appreciate the most I think are how her subjects are framed in relation to what we are used to seeing. For example take the two boys hugging with the giant palm leaf between them; isn't that unexpected? Are they brothers, friends, young lovers? The palm in between them creates another layer that I am quite fond of besides creating a beautiful stunning image. It makes me question whether they are hiding within it or keeping it between them for some distant security or whether is was simply a random act without much thought behind it nor meaning. Looking at these longer I can go on about what other elements I appreciate but I guess I'll stop here. Let you take it in and see what it does for you, if anything at all. (I would of course of love to hear your thoughts).

polaroid shot on expired film on a recent desert trip

Whoa! Already Friday!

Summer is flyin by.

more summer here

Poolside at The Standard Hotel, Hollywood

after some hard work, some hard play in the sun, girls-in-fields style

The Standard Hotel, Hollywood, has been a dream client to work with. They hired me this summer to plant-scape some green and magic into their diner and provide weekly fresh flowers for the tables. The plant/flower magic was called upon as a nod to their new chef, Nina Clemente, who is really elevating diner food to another level. Non-GMO product is a huge part of Nina's philosophy, and even their canola oil (for their insanely good fries) is non-GMO! Organic produce, lots of vegan options, daily fresh squeezed juices and the best lemon-blueberry pancakes I have ever had just to list a few of the noteworthy changes. The menu is A+ and the diner is so elegant with scents of fresh rosemary and sage. Sometimes when I'm working on the plants and flowers I feel that if I were to turn around I would spot Holly Golightly sitting at a booth by herself, indulging in some pancakes, her huge black sunglasses covering her eyes. 

(Don't forget to bring your swimsuit)!

En Soie

En Soie has kindly asked me to do a floral installation for their much anticipated store opening event this Saturday, August third from five o'clock to eight. I am very excited about it too. I have a couple of  ideas that I'm going to try and do that I have never done before which part of me is anxious about and the other part is terribly excited about! Maybe you can stop by to say hi!  It is such a beautiful store with a truly brilliant (and stunning) family behind it. Thank you Eleonore + Sophie!

RSVP STORE-LA@ENSOIE.COM

food + wine + friends

3333 Sunset Blvd.  |   Silver Lake

Sowing Seeds in the Desert

all three above images taken from Anna Scwalbe's magnificent book, Wiese 

 

I'm reading a nature masterpiece written by the late Masanobu Fukuoka called Sowing Seeds in the Desert. I couldn't help but share this next pasage with you: I was so moved by it.

I spent many years of my youth foolishly searching for something I "should" have been doing. Instead, I should have entrusted everything to the flowers blooming in the meadow. Even if people do nothing at all, the grasses and trees and the songbirds will live on.

I have finally learned that, although nature does not reach out to people directly, people can always approach nature and seek salvation that way."

-M. Fukuoka

What do you think? Take a moment. Feel what that does to your heart. Can you relate?