prettiness

today i'm linking up to lauren's pure projects found on her blog, pure style home. aren't her zinnias beautiful? i love them against her black and white wallpaper. steve cut this stargazer lily last night from our backyard garden. the good news... this one was the first to bloom. there's a bunch more!

beautiful!

earlier today i was running some errands at one of seattle's outdoor shopping villages, university village. i stopped dead in my tracks when i saw this. the outdoor flower displays were gorgeous! click on photos to enlarge. railings of stunning flower boxes outside the starbucks. my camera phone doesn't do it justice. the boxes were spilling with every kind of plant.
i called the village's office and asked who did their flowers. ravenna gardens. i should have known.
they have a small shop located in the village. i always make it a point to stop in and ogle their beautiful displays. here's a few images from their website. their shop front.
beautiful container pots. we seem to have the same philosophy with container pot gardening. more is more!
just beautiful!

around the yard

the echinacea in the front bed is blooming. when i bought it 3 years ago, it had one bloom. this year there will be about a dozen blooms. (please pretend i had the camera set to the proper exposure value. this way i don't have to walk downstairs and take another photo. thanks.)
crocosmia in the back. i wasn't a fan of this last year, but it's become one of my favorites. and i love its color against the rocks. this bed extends about 30 feet. i think a row of these against the rock would look spectacular.
i planted this sun bed (click on it to enlarge) on saturday. the cedar tree was already there. and the bush with yellow blooms (sweet broom, i think). i filled in around the two, with ninebark, spearmint, barberry, fountain grass, rockrose and guara. and now i'm sore from all the stooping, bending, digging, and heaving of bags of compost.
this is one of my new favorites. never really noticed it before this year, now i'm seeing them everywhere. variegated rose barberry. it's a b*tch to plant. thorny. thorns hurt. especially in the face when you're stooped down patting him into place.
and, on a side note, how did this happen?? it's august.
i had hoped by this point that steve and i would be spending our weekends leisurely sitting on the new patio, reading, staring at our flowers, and petting pixel. nope. still finishing up details on all the house projects. hopefully we'll be done soon. very soon, cause i'm tired.

buzzzzz

our lavenders went crazy this year! even the bees loved them.

happy easter

how did it get to be april 1st?? and how is it good friday is tomorrow? and how is it easter is THIS sunday? time flies.

we had a great time with steve's parents this past week. had i realized that this was a holiday weekend i would have kept my shop closed for a few more days to thoroughly enjoy it. but alas, it's time to get back to work.

hope you all enjoy your weekend! i'll be back next week to show y'all the kitchen facelift and the foyer facelift, which included repainting a bureau and hanging a gallery wall of photos.

my photo above

stuff

first.....thanks, honey, for the pretty flowers.
second, do you see the ladder in the background of this photo? i'll be on that later today. and probably tomorrow, too. we're painting the family room/kitchen as part of the kitchen renovation. the rustic adobe color is becoming slate from restoration hardware. so far i love it.

and third....until i'm on the ladder this afternoon, i'm celebrating that i am caught up on shop orders for the first time in 2 months. woohoo. how, you ask. with a trip to the mall, i have a love/hate relationship with the mall. any mall in fact. i truly hate them. but the mall has this. hence the love part. and i seriously need a wardrobe update. so off i go.

image via here

must do

image via here

i need to start collecting coffee cans (antique?) so i can do this. how pretty would these be scattered on an outdoor table?

wild things

this summer steve and i (well, mainly steve) tranformed our backyard. remind me to show you photos sometime. anyway, we have a steep slope in the back of the yard, accessible by scaling a 6 foot rock wall. i've scaled it once to help plant lavender. steve scaled it yesterday afternoon when he was home for lunch. he cut and gathered some of our wildflowers that we (again, he) planted from seed. aren't they pretty?

i'll have to remember to hide these at bedtime. the last time steve picked wildflowers and brought them in, this little wild thing (looking all innocent here with her crossed paws)


had a field day. in the middle of the night she left our bedroom, walked the length of the hallway, went down the stairs, walked another hallway into the kitchen and brought back flowers. i found them in the morning strewn on the rug like confetti. along with a brillo pad.

lovin' this

found here

lovin' these...

flower silhoeuttes. there's a new kid on the block. the etsy block that is. danise, naturesilhouettes shopowner, sent me an email last week. when i popped over to her shop, i was in love. i love flower silhouettes. danise loves nature and believes in simplicity. Her artwork, based on her own photography, shows that.
this is my favorite (below).
and you can personalized her artwork by choosing your background color.
go check her out. tell her pam sent you.

pretty pretty

hydrangea is one of my favorite flowers. and i say one of, because i'm torn. torn between hydrangea, poppy and peony. i love blue hydrangeas. this is my mother's hydrangea. for years it wouldn't bloom. she figured out that she was pruning it at the wrong time. she didn't do that this year and look what happened. it's beautiful!

lovin' the garden

friday is my day to show you what i love. lately it's been our gardens. things are finally blooming.

tickweed
stargazer lilies. steve planted these while i was on vacation with my mom and sister. he wouldn't tell me what they were. i know now. he's very proud of his lilies. and rightfully so. they're beautiful.
hydrangea
hibiscus
echinacea. in a pretty lime color.
even the hostas in the shade garden are blooming.

Happy Monday

photo taken by me, Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, June 2009

Happy Weekend

via irenesuchocki

Center Stage

Found these over at Martha Stewart.

My husband would love this one. He's mildly obsessed with irish moss. After dessert we could plant the moss in the shade garden. No waste here.


We just bought hostas yesterday for the shade garden. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have a few spare leaves for this display.


Love the cool blues of this one. Add some greens and you're set.


Love, love love this! Vintage tiles serve as table runner and trivet. Add bowls, water, and flowers for a floating garden.


Crudite style. So creative and original.


My favorite. How cool would this be for your July fourth celebration? Agapanthus, alium, and globe thistle mimic fireworks.

Making Leis and Inspiring Goals

On our recent Maui trip, we stopped in Lahaina for a little shoppping. Ok, a lot of shopping. (I got a few glares walking to my seat on the plane with my antique Chinese bench... but it wouldn't fit in my suitcase.) In front of an art gallery, we spotted these ladies, busily stringing tropical flowers on string like stringing cranberries and popcorn at Christmas time.


They gathered plumeria, tuberose, and other flowers (which they told me their names but I've long since forgot) from their yards and neighbors'. They were selling the leis to raise funds for the local high school. Prices ranged from $6 - $10 (!). They were stunning. And smelled to high heaven. (That is the saying you use when something smells wonderful, huh?)



Here's the birthday girl in her lei. My sister.



I struck up a conversation with the woman on the far right below. She fishes off Maui. She fishes in Alaska. Her last catch was a 66 pound tuna. She's going back in August. Her goal is to catch a 100 lb tuna.

Peony Love

Aloha. I'm back from Maui. We had a super trip. How can you not in Maui?? Awesome weather, food, shopping, sightseeing and loads of local hospitality. But first, check out our purchase yesterday at the farmers market.



I still adore poppies, but these peonies are running a close second. Can you believe I got this beautiful bouquet for $10??

The latest issue (July 2009) of House Beautiful is sporting hot pink peonies on the cover also.


And check out this shabby chic table setting with peonies by Rachel Ashwell via House Beautiful. Pretty huh?



Stay tuned this week for Maui photos and a beautiful illustration of my favorite 4-legged from the lovely Patricia of pve design.

Anticipation

Pixel and I have been waiting, waiting patiently, oh, ever so patiently.



And it's finally happened...


The first poppy of the season. We couldn't be happier.