We had the happy luxury of jamming tea tins full of blooms in fluorescent shades on Friday. Exotics like long stemmed Rothschild lilies, Icelandic poppies and parrot tulips mixed well with old-timey bee-balm, begonias and geranium on the Shanghai Terrace at the Pennisula where our spectacular bride greeted guests for cocktails on the eve of …
BLOG
We met Carolyn Ioder’s Goat‘s, from which she provides fresh milk and artisanal cheese. We helped walk them from her yard in Austin, here on the West Side of Chicago, through the alley to the Root Riot pasture. The pasture is a few open and connected lots a block away. In the mix were two-week old …
We are living the dream of starting our own flower farm this year. We’ve been growing flowers for ourselves at the Chicago Honey Co-op for a while but this is a whole new scale. Successful farming necessitates super-human amounts of savvy, physical endurance and years of dedication, but our primary aim is just to make …
It’s suddenly Spring. I, like many Chicagoans, am stumbling around pasty and shell-shocked, blinded by this gigantic alien orb in the sky. This handful of garden greens heralds as a kind of victory flag over this intensive winter. I’ve heard of massive defections from Chicago due to last winter and I’m fine with it. Fare …
We were recently asked to create decor for a donut themed breakfast, and these “clean, elegant” donut vases emerged! After having 300 donuts arrive at the studio in waves over the past few weeks, I learned that donuts are not an everyday food. Finally, I had to tell Kristin to tell me that they were “all” …
New kids in town, MatchMade Events chose us to purvey the flowers for their clever Robin Hood concept shoot at the stunning Bishop’s Hall bed and breakfast in Oak Park last fall. I went for a druidic vibe for the bouquet with cascading ferns and cyclamen. Photo by the brilliant Chad Husar. Cafe au lait …
Orange-Red has long been a fixation of mine, it began with my best friend’s style icon grandmother, “Bama” and her orange-red lipstick, worn slightly askew with chunky gold jewelry. It always feels old fashioned and new at the same time, like these timeless showstoppers, african violets, gladiolas and carnations. There is something defiant and fiery …
This month we were finally good and swamped with holiday decorating and events, which I have been wierdy exempt from for the past 10 years in the business. It was something I have been wishing for forever; red gold and green- what could be better?? After wrestling with a massive, rogue tartan bow in 1 …
Had the great good luck to spend Thanksgiving in the U.P. at a family friend’s 500 acre farm near the wilds of Escanaba. The landscape was so staggeringly gorgeous I was afraid I’d drive the car off the road. An orchard of frozen apples, a field of dried sunflowers, wild clematis puffs…all miraculous to my …
We spent a super-fun afternoon decorating the barn at Elawa farm recently. A “gentleman’s farm” built in 1917 for Watson Armour, it is essentially a glamour farm, making it the perfect setting for the winning and ever so glamorous Skirt PR’s 10th anniversary dinner. It is quite the dream scape, boasting a chicken coop …