Marblehead May

Marblehead in late May is a pretty gorgeous place to be. Azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs and wisteria are all in bloom. Steve took this really pretty shot in a small alley in old town on Memorial Day. I love the rough hewn granite steps, the cascade of white azaleas and the crisp American flag flying on the well-kept colonial house.

They have a contest for Best Windowbox during the 4th of July Arts Festival. I think people were getting warmed up for it already.



Although the harbor was not yet full, people are starting to get their boats in the water for the summer.

Steve & I had lunch at the Barnacle, my favorite little seafood shack, right on the water near Fort Sewall. No waves were crashing over the windows on this quiet afternoon like they were when Karin Rhodes & I ate lunch there during a high tide winter storm a few years back.

It was a warm still day, and we spent some time sitting in the shade on the benches at Fort Sewall, looking out the mouth of the harbor towards Children's Island.

My old pals George & Jean drove down from Vermont for a visit. We spent a perfect early summer day downtown with them.



This day there was a bit more of a breeze, and a lot more activity in the harbor. Here's a nice shot of the Corinthian Yacht Club with someone sailing by.

We met up with Jim Davenport and Karin Rhodes at "the Bench" and shared some laughs and memories. There's nothing like hanging out with old friends.

Post Surtex

Here's our agent, Sharon Morris, in our booth at Surtex '09. We had banners printed to fit within the booth panels, which made our setup and take down SO much easier this year. Also, the booth had a more pulled-together look, since we designed the panels to compliment each other. I like how the little striped awning at top makes it look like a shop. "Hello! We're open for business."

The 10' x 10' booth looks a little cozy here in this shot with the Deb Melmon, me and Sharon Morris behind the counter. We found the attendance to be better than some feared, a little bit slower perhaps than the past couple of years. Surtex started charging non-buyers $150 to get in, so I think that cut down on the numbers of people just looking.

These are my two panels, well, the top portion of my two panels.

Marjaleena and Greg did not come from Australia this year, so the booth next to us was empty and covered over. At the last moment we found out that we could use one of the aisle panels for extra signage. Deb & I nipped over to Kinko's at Bryant Park and muddled our way through using one of their PC's to create a last minute sign with my White Roses image that I had brought on a flash drive.

Here's the "view" from my room at the Hotel Wolcott. It's an older hotel near Herald Square. The lobby is magnificent, all gilded and crystal chandelliered. The bathrooms are narrow and feature "attack" shower curtains that kept billowing and clinging to me. But it was clean and quiet and the cheapest hotel on Travel Planners list. Beware the numerous sales and room taxes and charges they tack on in NYC...ouch!

Carol Eldridge and The Captain were our gracious hosts at the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead.

Steve flew out to join me in Marblehead after the show. I took Amtrak's Acela Express train to Boston, which was really relaxing compared to flying. I saw swans with cygnets and osprey flying and on their nests from the train.

My brother's cat Coco was there to welcome us for our stay at Mom's house in Marblehead. The rest of the photos are on Steve's camera. He's coming home tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Workin' Hard

Hey, here's my latest design. A set of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. I am working away like a fiend getting myself ready for Surtex.

Even More Bouquets to Art

I took a lot of pictures, as you are probably getting by now. There were hundreds of arrangements, so these are only the ones that I really liked and the photos turned out not blurry. This framed one was with the Hartnett trompe l'oeil still lifes. It's a painting of books in a window, not in this photo.

I liked the lush colors and the branches bursting into leaf at the top of this one. It sort of screams out, "SPRING!"

This oddball piece has a large seashell as a base, and barnacles and these pitcher plants hanging down. I think it was to go with a glass sculpture. I like how the green plants look like coral.

These dark curly ferny things at top were very popular this year. I'm not sure which work of art this went with, but it's cool.

Pretty soft salmon color flowers again. This piece went along with the portrait of a boy in the background.

You can see the scale of this one with these ladies in behind it. The bottom fuzzy part was all composed of proteas.

I love this exotic combo of plant materials. This piece was in the pre-Colombian art section.

This modern art one is a little bit too literal, but fun.

This piece was hung in the entrance way of the museum. It's huge. The flowers around it are anthuriums, so it give you some idea of the scale.

This was another of my favorites. The way this arrangement of spiky greens mimics the green glass sculpture is exciting.

This flower-encrusted dress form was not the only one in the show, but this is the photo that came out. They did a good job with picking up the colors from the painting.

I could not resist this cute doggie made out of pussy willow tips. Nice. Like the floats in the Rose Bowl Parade.

I marvel at how well this design goes with the steamboat painting. They even got in the smokestack and the smoke with some green vines.

The designer wrapped different colored strap-like leaves around to evoke the flat shapes of color in this abstract painting. Very creative.

You can thank my mom, who bought me a museum membership, for these posts. Thanks, Mom!

More Bouquets to Art

It was interesting to me how well the floral designers were able to come up with arrangements that went so well with the portrait paintings they had chosen. This blue one is gorgeous. The woman in the painting is wearing a hat wrapped with blue gauze. The designer has wrapped the pedestal with blue gauze as well.

This rather formal full length life-sized portrait is nicely complemented by the tight bunches of yellow roses in this design.

This is one of my favorite paintings in their collection. It is a John Singer Sargent oil painting of a woman at a restaurant at night. I like how the designer used dark reds in the flowers to evoke the mood of the painting with the red lamps. The dark calla lilies are amazing.

This pretty fluffy pink arrangement looks nice with the soft Impressionist brushstrokes and pinks in this portrait. And the orange ranunculus standing in for the woman's red hair is a nice touch.

I think this one is a bit contrived, but it mimics the shapes, colors and mood of this formal portrait of a girl in a bonnet.


Oops, I almost forgot this one. It's hard to see the formal portrait behind it of a woman in a long black dress. I like the cascade of white orchids in this one.

Bouquets to Art

I went to the de Young Museum over a week ago to see the annual Bouquets to Art exhibit. I was not as bowled over by the exhibit this year, maybe since it was not the first time I had seen the show. This first piece was my favorite of the show. I love this piece because it really evokes the feeling of the composition and colors of this painting of the box of trinkets and still is a very beautiful flower arrangement on its own.


This piece is designed to go with the Arthur Dove print in the background. I like the black cascade of folded leaves on the right and the limited palette. In the closeup, you can see the gorgeous form of the white roses, almost like gardenias.


This arrangement was the first one I saw in the show. I really like how it looks like a waterfall, similar to the painting of Niagara Falls it mimics.


I can't really put my finger on why I love this one that goes with the still life of fish. I do like the muted colors of the flowers and the shapes.

This flight of fancy is almost not a floral arrangement, but more of a sculpture. I like how it conveys the exuberance of motion and color of the gumball painting.

Again, I'm not really sure what compels me to like this one. It has the feeling of winter to it, like the painting.

Here's my second favorite one. I love how they have suggested the colors of the rocks with the roses and the spray and water with the blue-green foliage and white flowers. Pretty.



This abstract painting/floral arrangement is so cool. I love how dynamic and loose it is and simply colorful. It is almost getting lost in the painting.

I think I like the ones where the designer has been very imaginative, rather than so literal with their piece. Some of them I would never in a million years have come up with or thought of myself, so they are very surprising. Several designers made really bold choices with the pieces they picked to complement. There was so much to see, it was hard to take it all in at once, so I'm glad I took a lot of photos.

I have more photos, but I'm going to spread them out in a few different posts. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog so much lately. I've been chasing deadlines and messing about on Facebook. More to come.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

My hairdresser was taking her kids to school this morning and they saw a huge rainbow on their way. Her kid said to her, "You mean rainbows are real?"