Happy Mother’s Day!

Yesterday Jacob and I went to Whole Foods for avocados (we needed a guacamole fix) and I spotted these gorgeous buds. Fresh, coral charm peonies! These are my absolute favorite. Having not worked in a flower shop for many months, I miss handling these beauties and especially working with peonies. Of course we could not resist. They are so very beautiful, with depth in every petal, and always remind me of the flowers from My Fair Lady.

Look in the markets for some of your own! Here’s a few tips on picking out long-lasting peonies (they aren’t too cheap!):

- Choose a bunch whose buds look like they’re just about to open, but have not quite burst. When you get them in your home, they’ll open soon enough. Especially here without air conditioning, these opened up like this in a few hours.

- If the buds are already open, it means they won’t last as long, but they will work fine if you want to use them for a special occasion the same day.

- It’s natural for peonies to fade and change color but when picking them out, you want ones that are fairly solid and bold.

Make sure to get them in water as soon as possible. Give them a fresh cut and remove any leaves that may sit below the water line. I simply set mine in a glass vase on our coffee table for a vignette with a couple thrifted French ink wells and a small calendar Jacob got me from Japan.

You can see in the above photo the buds just beginning to open, and the one below from today where they are all fully open and lush.

Have a great week, everyone!

Our neighborhood of Irvington has quite the stock of beautiful homes, each with a unique front garden. Today I took a walk around to capture a few of the new blooms of Spring.

As a homeowner, you’re allowed to keep up to 6 chickens in your yard! 

And here’s a cousin of Lulu’s.

And on our porch, many of our plantings from last summer lived through the winter and are now blossoming again. Below you can see the ranunculus Tracy planted a few months ago, just beginning to sprout up. 

The last few days have been so pleasant with blue skies and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. I didn’t realize, but I actually forgot what it feels like for the sun to warm my face. and its fabulous!

There are hints of spring all around. Blooming branches, daffodils and tulips, oh my!

With spring here, some of my favorite flowers are coming into season, including ranunculus!

For those of you concerned that we might have taken Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin, no worries, we were just in search for a perfect pumpkin of our own. The Great Pumpkin will still be coming by with treats tomorrow.

We recently made a little trip to THE pumpkin patch. It was beginning to feel like fall around here and we just couldn’t resist getting a few pumpkins to bring the fall indoors. I was probably a little more excited than normal for a 24 year old, but then again, it’s me!

We hooked up with another couple we’ve met through Jacob’s school, Liz and Brian, and carpooled to Sauvie Island to meet up with others from Jacob’s studio class at the location of the infamous Oregon Pumpkin Patch. It was a big place full of families picking out their fall pumpkins.

You could go out to the patch and pick your pumpkins fresh off the vine, or you could choose from the wide selection they had near and in the market and barns that were closer to the parking area. Naturally we set out for the patch and the full experience.

Trudging through the mud we saw tons of pumpkins and finally made our selection on two tall beauties. After cutting our precious treasure off the vine we kept going to help our friends find their loot of the day. Before we got out of the pumpkin patch we ended seeing two more irresistible pumpkins, so we grabbed those also and began the walk back to the bustling area to pay for our prizes.

Once we got the pumpkins paid for and in a cart to haul to the car, we began collecting pumpkins for the activity I was going to be doing with my Camp Fire kindergarteners and 1st graders the next week. We got an additional 10 medium sized pumpkins, which would be de-seeded and slaughtered later that week.

Of course we had to check out the barn full of fruits, veggies and other amazing fall things.

At this point we were all starting to get a little hungry, but the flower designer in me couldn’t resist the You-Pick flowers. So we quickly paid for a bucket ($12) and went off to the flower picking area.

We made off with some statice, scabiosa, zinnias, straw flowers and sunflowers. It was quite a loot! We finally got back to the car and packed everything in the back with our stomachs rumbling. We ended the trip with a visit to a little taqueria.

The rest of the day we spent organizing and arranging the flowers and pumpkins throughout our quaint space.

The Pumpkin Patch looks like a Portland Fall tradition that we will be enjoying next year.

Here are a few shots around our apartment as it is now. Lots has happened around here, but there’s still a bit to do, ie. getting rid of the remaining junk. The storage closet is organized, but pretty much stuffed to the brim. And I still need to deal with the nightstand situation, in that I need to build it. Our dining table is nearly complete, so get excited about seeing that here shortly. And we finally have art on the walls! A few prints, a postcard from our road trip and a couple thrifted photographs (the one on the bottom is actually a crowd at a UT football game – I liked it more for the nostalgic-Texas enthusiasm, not the patriotism to the other team). Tracy also brings the outside in with some dried flowers she saved from Dallas, plus a few new acquisitions.

Our apartment is really starting to come together. It has been the biggest challenge trying to fit all of our things in this small space. In Dallas, we had 1000 sq ft in which to spread out, with a large kitchen, full closet, and huge storage room (where everything got thrown). Here, we have just about 450 sq ft and it has been a struggle. But with such progress as above, our spirits are lifted to continue on.

Let’s start at the bottom. We’ve had this EIVOR rug for a couple years but adds a nice graphic touch over the wood floors. The incredible dresser / credenza was snatched up for a mere $145 at Lounge Lizard on Hawthorne. It’s walnut and the drawer handles somewhat relate to the bed frame (which you can see a little bit of here). It’s a really great piece.

Above all this is the crowning jewel: a 1950s schoolhouse wall map! We found it on Etsy for a great deal. It includes 7 detailed maps full of data and color. Behind it is our TV, mounted to the wall. You can see the sneaky cord covers below. Yes, I painted the cord covers and the actual cords you could see to match the wall color. Nearly invisible. We can’t claim this hiding-the-TV-behind-a-gorgeous-wall-map idea as our own. We first saw this at Adam & Alicia’s (of Bows & Arrows) home in Dallas and knew we had to imitiate.

I was pretty squeamish about the idea of mounting both a TV to the wall and a map to the ceiling. This 1930s apartment has proven to be a pain when it comes to mounting anything to the wall. Good news, I have become pretty familiar with lath & plaster wall construction. And after 61 pre-drills and a lot of ear-to-wall sonar tapping (stud finders are pretty much useless on these), the 30lb TV (it’s not that big) is safely and securely affixed to the wall. The map was a little less challenging but I also am fairly confident it wont be falling down.

We have a few projects left to complete around the place, after which we can post more revealing photos. Stay tuned.