The FlowerSmith Website

My hydrangeas on the side of the Derby Street house. Yummy.

Angelonia in a pot by the back door.

Eggplant blossom!
I grew these in raised beds in our parking area...
They did very well. Small, sweet eggplants.

Gorgeous butterfly enjoying the nectar on one of the
oversized butterfly bushes in the backyard.

I don't know why this has taken me so long!


Ridiculous!

Anyway, my website is almost done. More photos to load and some tweaking to do here and there, but it's basically allllmost done!

Let me know what you think!

Click here: The FlowerSmith

Fall pretties with bunny tail grass, sweet potato vine, chili peppers and kale.

Purple asters provide a bit of bright color to this arrangement.

Grasses, pumpkins, kale...

Winter doesn't have to be bleak!

A festive wreath, garland and planter for the holidays!

Random Thoughts for a Wintery Wednesday

Happy girl in the garden with a giant liatris!

So, we had our first "official" snow here on Monday of this week! October 20th and it snowed here. Two to four inches in Anchorage!

You may think I'd be all "YUCK" about it, but truthfully? I've missed my fun-in-the-snow winter sports like Nordic skiing, snow shoeing and ice skating. And who doesn't love a walk in the woods after a powdery snow has fallen? You gotta some kind of weird not to appreciate that!

The prettiness of fall in the front of the house.

And also the change in the landscape when the deciduous trees become vacant of leaves and beautiful pine, cyprus, juniper and spruces provide us with rich greens and sages for the entire winter.

Even the critters change - different birds arrive, some animals hibernate and disappear, and other animals just eke out an existence for the cold part of the year.

So, I'm kinda digging the fact that I went from 80 degrees in Massachusetts to the current temperature of 27 degrees with icy snow on the ground!

Right now the dogs are snoring, the house is warm, the sun has just risen over the Chugach Mountains and I'm wearing my new, cozy slippers. The laundry is ticking in the dryer and I've just made a big pot of my family's recipe called Vegetable Goop! A lot of you have enjoyed the Goop over the years and can attest to its hearty and delicious mixture.

Ok. Those were somewhat coherent thoughts. I'll commence with the random here now.

This was my beautiful boaty named Altair.
I loved this boat like she was my daughter.

Cliches are actually true.

Don't judge a book by its cover: The best book I've read in a long time has the worst title ever - The Worst Hard Time . That's a bad title. However, the goddamn book was mesmerizing. I read it during my deepest depression and it was about the dustbowl in the American Southwest and how it help create the Great Depression. Huh. Pretty cool.

My friend N (a sistah fromanothah Mothah) suggest that one. And also Swamplandia, Devil in the White City and The Hunger Games series.

A sneaky one, that N. She saw very clearly that I was in dire need of a kick in the pants to get my self-esteem re-activated. She was really right. After my divorce I ceased being the dynamic, fun, silly and happy person that I had been all my life until a series of unfortunate bullshit kinda stole my mojo.

We were in Martha's Vineyard for Obama's visit a few
summers ago. We were docked next to a retired
Nantucket Light Ship! Super cool. Was a great trip, indeed.

Anyway, N was a mastermind of sneaky kindness and esteem-building exercises! You see, she had also been through a terrible set of tragedies herself and had overcome unbelievable obstacles to find her way to "okayness."

Sometimes just "okay" feels like a miracle.

My beautiful girl Lady. She was a complete jerk and I loved her to pieces.
As my husband would say, she was put together "by committee!" Nothing matched on that dog!
We believe that she was part German Shep, part Border Collie and part Pygmy Goat. What a combo platter.
May she be gallivanting in heaven with her precious Koty right now...
Sadie has no idea where she is, so that'd be fine.

Well, she had me read books, she let me grieve and cry and carry on like a banshee. She encouraged me to quit a job I hated and to come and live with her FOR FREE! She wouldn't let me pay rent. We cooked together, hung out in pajamas and drank gallons of coffee and ate really good chocolate.

I started caring about food again. I got my cooking mojo back first.

Peanut butter cookies we made
every Christmas!

A new recipe in my new, gorgeous kitchen!

And then N asked me to help with her butterfly garden and to advise her on shade plants and design.

So then I got my gardening mojo back!

My gorgeous garden in Massachusetts. The idiots that bought
my house? Ripped out the big butterfly bush. Ugh.

Happy violas, pussy willow and tulips for spring.

One of my many lilacs! They've gotten HUGE!

Grape hyacinth, obedient plant and tulips.

More pretties including variegated ivy and tete-a-tete narcissus.

Ahhh, spring in New England!

My Sadie wandering the spring garden.
The bleeding heart bush was among
my favorite in the back yard.

Wildflowers in my back yard with my mosaic Crane birdbath
 by Judith Wright. I still have that here in Alaska!

My two gorgeous girls, A and Sadie! A is now a kick-ass pilot in the Air Force!

One of my arrangements for our friends' Thanksgiving table.

And then winter came again and our pipes burst from the freezing effing polar vortex. N was in a panic and I knew just what to do. I unplugged her floor heater, got her daughter's priceless artwork off the floor where it was flooding and I called the fire department right away.

So I got my logical mojo back. No panic, just act.

And as if that all weren't so fabulous (I know?!), we had to vacate the premises because the mold and mildew set in within 72 hours. So, within 6 days of the flood at the house, we had to leave! Where to go? Why not go live in Georgia and South Carolina for the winter with my wonderful Aunt and Uncle?

Yes! I will do that!

So, slowly and surely, living in the warm climate, staying at my Aunt and Uncle's home on a lake in South Carolina with sweet Sandy kitty? I returned to myself. Utterly and completely myself again. Happy, go-lucky, fun, silly, dance during dinner prep, make flower arrangements, have a glass of wine, filled with hope...

Icelandic poppies. I grew them each spring as an annual in MA.
In Alaska? These are called Himalayan poppies and they
are a wildflower (considered a weed!!).

A gorgeous sea turtle we swam with near Norman Island in the British Virgin Island.
This was taken with a cute little camera we borrowed from my husband's Dad!

On the way to Mississippi with the doggies Lily and Rudy.

Cooper!! Sweet peach!

Sweet Sandy reposing on the glass coffee table!
Kitty FEETS!

Old Faithful, still faithful after all these years!

A bridal bouquet for our friends' wedding. My husband
was the officiant and I did the fleurs! FUN

My Phoobles on my second day in Alaska!
She likes me, I think...

It was divine. And it is divine! I feel so very lucky for my life. And just being alive feels so good again.

Giving thanks for every moment I have now. Life is truly a gift. Another cliche that's just plain true.

This particular Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be different for me. I no longer feel like I don't belong. I finally feel just right.

The symbols at our gorgeous resort Barcelo de Bobadilla in Loja, Spain.
They had little zen gardens like this all over the place.
Sun, moon and star in the sand. All the elements but time.
Time disappears at this place. So beautiful.

One of the many wreaths I did for clients in MA. 

The wreath for my back door in Salem.

Wreath for my front door. (Which is now metal. Ugh)

The entry to my house. PRETTY!

My grand old house. The William Lane house, built in 1800.
I miss that house.
My current house is no slouch, however. It was the only home to survive in Lyn Ary Park,
after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit here in Anchorage 50 years ago.
It fell off its foundation and lost the windows, but my old log cabin home,
built in 1940 is a survivor. Just like the rest of us!  : )

Thanks for reading.

Ciao for today.

Christmas 2009

Here is our house right now. I'll be taking down the Christmas lights next week, so I wanted to get some photos of the prettiness during the holidays!





I like the wreath this year. I wanted to do something very simple. This is a neato juniper base and i added just pepperberries, birch branches and the maroon bow.



You can see the snow leftover from the storm that came through here on the 20th of December. It's all gone as of today, as we had very warm temperatures yesterday and then it rained today. That's one of the wonderful things about living on the coast - we might get a blizzard, but then the temps tend to moderate and it all goes away. This is very appreciated after growing up in Michigan where the snow comes and comes and never melts until practically May!

Lunch with a friend

Today had a lovely lunch with one of my most best, long-time friends. She and I used to be housemates for years and years until I met my husband. We were primed to be spinsters living together in that rickety old house. She and I just co-existed peacefully and very happily. Only trouble was the 3rd housemate. There was always something strange about the 3rd housemate.

The first girl was into skulls and bats and dead bugs and just dark, weird stuff. Now, if you're a goth person, I'm sorry to offend, but to the rest of us who love flowers and sunshine, that is just not something we can relate to. I felt SO uncomfortable going into her room to feed her frogs (very cute frogs) when she was away. It was creepy in there. And she had a giant painting above her bed that looked very much like a giant va-jay-jay. Not in a Georgia O'Keefe way, but in a very realistic way. Nothing subliminal here, kids!

Then there was the girl who never, ever came out of her room except to surprise you in the kitchen and then she'd be right back in that room. You'd go by there all hours of the day and night and would only hear the sounds of paper ripping. I finally decided she was an alien building a nest in there. Who knows!

The last one, a very sweet girl, had "woman problems" as she described it. I didn't need details, you know? One of the things she did to relieve these "problems" was to cook up these Chinese herbs in our kitchen and then she had to drink the "tea." Oh, how do I describe the smell? Hmmm. Let's say a mixture of dirt, poop, vinegar and rotten pickles? Maybe with a bit of patchouli thrown in there for good measure. It was absolutely horrific and the entire house would smell of this noxious mix for days on end. We were not sad to see her leave. Ugh!

I'll have to remember to tell you of some of my fabulous dates during the time I stayed in that house. Oh, I found some doozies!

So, to get back to the so-called theme of this blog, I got to go to my most favorite garden center today and get some more goodies to do a wreath for above long-time friend, another wreath for our house, and a garland for the front of our house. I kind of like to make sure our flower boxes and decorations are looking good year-round since I figure it's good marketing for my business, right? That's what I tell my husband, anyway!! : )

Here's the wreath I got up before it got dark here (which is pretty early right now). I wanted something simple and cute for the back door of our house.



I love that ribbon. It's silver wired ribbon that has millions of silver polka dots! Very happy. I found it today at the garden center - they sell so many good things there. Cute vases, baskets, artificial garlands that are very pretty, ribbons, stuff for cut flowers, every fertilizer known to mankind, organic dirt, awesome greens; you name it! I just love garden centers. Always have. I even love the smell of them, just like I love the smell of hardware stores. Is that odd? It's all earthy and smells so good and fresh. But not earthy like those Chinese herbs!

Wreaths galore

Did up two more wreaths yesterday. It was a miserable rainy day, so I have not been able to install any of them.

Today I will install two wreaths, two garlands and will do up a planter with evergreens. Garlands are quite a bit of work, as you really have to put them up first and THEN decorate them, which requires a step ladder, patience, odd angles and an assortment of four letter words!

I'm afraid the result of working on a boat with a predominantly male crew for almost 20 years has its downside. Largely, one is left with a terrible potty-mouth! The F word used to just fly off my tongue. Luckily I can now catch myself before blurting it out!

So, later on I will photograph my handiwork after it is all done and I have washed the sap off my hands! Working with pine can be messy to say the least!

I will leave you for now with an image of a planter I did last season. As you will notice, I'm big on using floopy (word stolen from Phoebe on "Friends") elements in my arrangements! I like branches like curly willow or natural birch, and this stuff called ting that looks all twirly and whimsical! Floopy really describes it best!

Oops

In the last two days, I've done up two wreaths. Did I take before and after pictures? No. Ugh. My best friend told me photos are the way to go for a successful blog, but I have the memory of a flea. No joke. It's really sad. If it weren't for my friend, (who we will call June because that's her name on her awesome blog, Bye, Bye, Pie) I would seriously have no memory of my childhood before the age of 10. She remembers EV.ERY.THING. It's really incredible. Oh, how I could go on about June. I just adore her!

I digress (not unusual). Yesterday I was rush rush rushing to finish a wreath because I was heading near the location where it was going to be delivered, as we were on our way to have dinner with my husband's side of the family in an adjacent town. So, after shopping for oodles of evergreens, berries, two pine garlands, 6 wreaths for clients and one for us, birch and curly willow branches, wired ribbon and paddle wire, I raced home to put together yesterday's wreath. Whew.

It was pretty, I tell ya. I started with a balsam pine base, added accents of white pine, incense cedar, blue berried juniper, oregonia, variegated boxwood and a long silvery/white bow.

Today I did a gigantic wreath for the front of my husband's building. He's a real estate dude and his office is in the most beautiful brick building with a huge, huge window out front. For their wreath, I did up a 48 inch balsam wreath with tons of accents, including a million evergreens, a preserved, flat leaf eucalyptus, pepperberries and curly willow branches. I also made a big green bow with gold edging. It might be the most favorite wreath I've made to date! Since it is enormous, I couldn't get a proper photo of it in my laundry room where I do up the wreaths for folks. Here are a couple I took.



Here is some detail:



I'll take photos once I install it to get the full effect!

Here's our other dog, who is quite likely the best dog on the entire planet. He's funny, smart, adorable and just an amazing doggie.



Tomorrow, I'll be doing a wreath, garland and planter for a neighbor!