Don't we all?

ALL YOU NEED IS . . .

This year has felt so intense. Do you feel like that too? There is so much trouble, anger, hatred and low vibrations throughout what seems the entire world. A lot of fear, negativity and misunderstandings while not a whole lot of love, compassion and understanding to balance the scales. I can feel the weight. Can you? On a personal level we have lost more than a fair share of friends these past two months. Big losses. Sad losses that seem to coin the term 'Life can so so unfair, so unjust.' And outward on to a larger scale with the losses happening in the greater world. Times like these cause for pause and reflection. They also call for coming together and connecting. We need more love. The world needs more light.

I am curious if you too feel this? Do you have solutions? 

NEKO DECO for MADAME FIGARO, JAPON / OUTTAKES

All photos by Yoshihiro Makino

I am delighted to get to share these photos with you! A while back photographer Yoshihiro Makino had asked me if I wouldn't mind sharing two of my great loves with Madame Figaro Japon: cats + flowers (!) for a story they were running called Neko Deco. I (of course) was thrilled with the opportunity which lead to a  really nice afternoon of talking shop flower-wise and herding my coy cats. These are some of the outtakes. I know that all four of my little fury darlings feel quite honored and somehow a head above the other outdoor cats after having had such an elaborate feature! Thank you so kindly Yoshi! 

Click to see Neko Deco I and Neko Deco II

Thank you Madame Figaro Japon for the love xx

Garden of Peace and Meditation

recent 35mm shots / Lake Shrine

 'You are a wildflower, a beauty unsurpassed.'

-Paramahansa Yogananda

I recently got some 35mm film rolls developed and came upon a few stellar shots (upon many missed shots!) from our family morning trip out to Lake Shrine in the Pacific Palisades to celebrate Elijah's birthday. Have you heard of Paramahansa Yogananda and his centers for self-realization? Have you been to one before dear reader? 

I highly, highly recommend a walk around Lake Shrine. 

Let the peacefulness and flowers wash over you. 

Always.

Motel 6 Flowers / AKA Two Hundred Dahlias

MOTEL 6 Wildflowers / 35MM

We had a big wedding in Santa Ynez that required us to stay up there. We checked into a Motel 6 to save on costs and to add to the charm of an already trying wedding (the last time I stayed at one was when I was quite young so strangely fulfilling a moment of nostalgia for me). It was really, really hot which adds to the stress because time management becomes crucial. The last thing you want is to have wilted flowers or worst, dead flowers. Especially if those flowers are dahlias. Two hundred dahlias. Two hundred star-flowers dahlias. The front-and-center showpieces. So we did what any normal florist would do: we rented them a room!  

We single-handedly transformed the motel into a wildflower workshop! Slowly overtaking the room itself, flowers started to spill out onto the hallway, lining the walls, down the staircases while we used the tops of old AC units to the adjacent rooms for creating arrangements. All this while the delicate dahlias sat underneath the cranked flow of the air conditioner, sipping cool water to their hearts content and letting their stems splash around in the clear water underneath them. I was so delighted that I had my Canon F1 with me to capture this. In the midst of the craziness of processing, arranging, misting, and pleasing all the flowers, something started happening to the otherwise still, stagnant air that was there when we first arrived. Transformation. Elegance and grace started to creep in while jasmine fragrance filled the air of our flower sphere. The magic is real. What flowers can do to a space is downright sensational. What they did to that Motel 6 was utterly transcendental.  

So happy to get to share some of these images with you from that memorable day. And major thanks to my team: Alana + Seana, I could not have done it without you both!

Maryse's plant / Gien, France