feb ru ary 14

mixed it up a bit and this year for valentine's day, having my newly-launched retail shop to look over, set up a pop-up flower shop on-site, hand-tied bouquets for clients, and nixed deliveries altogether. it was a lot of fun, albeit extremely messy.

this was my third valentine's day as a florist, and now i have a steady clientele of boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/partners/wives who come back every year. i wish i could list them all here and send them all very large pizzas and those crazy bottles of champagne you see in rap videos or something, but instead i'll just say that i am extremely grateful to all of them and feel pretty lucky.

this instagram stolen from @crummyjess

SOUND & TRUE

Really psyched to share with all you google readers that I've gone brick & mortar and opened up a retail shop in East Austin! It's called Sound & True, and don't worry, Loretta isn't going anywhere. 

In fact, I'll be selling cut flowers out of the store every Friday afternoon, so you can swing by and choose a few stems from my selection or have my pull you together a cheap bouquet.

The shop is focused on home and garden goods, specifically ones that are well-designed, well-made, and will be a part of your everyday life. 

The shop's gotten some great press thusfar but there's so much more to come including our website (where you will be able to shop online!), and a whole slew of inventory yet to arrive from Japan, Sweden, and more locally made beautiful goods.

Stay tuned, but for now go like us on Facebook or follow us on instagram at @soundandtrue

xx

photos from above, by Dan Gentile for Thrillist, by Tracy Castro for Poppytalk, by yours truly, and by Shino Takeda. 

winter kale garland

last winter, i had the pleasure of working with wonderful photographer julie cope on a project inspired by my family's traditional advent wreaths around christmastime--but instead of using traditional greenery, i used kale from my garden, as well as asparagus fern and begonia leaves. it turned out beautifully and i highly recommend it in a pinch for a cheap and unique centerpiece. xx

goodnight, 2012

2012, i was terrified of you. but, more than any other year, you have been good to me. hard on me at times, but the kind of year that proves that if you are patient and stubborn and hopeful and tough, the very best things in the world can fall right into your lap.

photos: holiday wreaths, above; my kitchen table, below.

ici tout est bon

crummy rushed photos from a beautiful november wedding that included filling 800 square feet of lustre pearl with approximately 300,000 rose petals. rose petals that almost did not make it, and that came in teeny tiny bags of about 100 each. it was a trip but i had absolutely zero time to take photos, i can't *wait* to share photos from the photographer.

amanda & barrett

a few early photos by the very talented lindsey thorne from an october wedding at laguna gloria. see more at her blog.

have i ever mentioned how much i love my home office/studio? it's the most wonderful room in my house. it's got light like a greenhouse but can chill like a cooler when i need to keep inventory overnight. the photo above is my desk, which i try to keep limited to computer/paper/drawing activities but it usually ends up strewn in flowers on a wedding weekend, just like everything else.

the photos below are from a random roll of film i recently found that spanned a year of treks across texas. from new year's in marfa, to a trip to san antonio to see an old friend and photograph my grandparents' old home, to a meeting with a bride in houston where i got to squeeze in time at one of my favorite spots, the menil.

right now i am very very busy, i literally have to schedule time to hang out with my friends two weeks in advance. but i am also very happy. definitely the happiest i've been all year, probably the happiest i've been in seven, eight years? i have been spending free moments (most of which are at either 3 am or 7 am) writing weird poems that i keep in my pockets. i like watching the folds wear in the paper, feels like the poem and i are really getting to know each other. i dig for it in my pocket, pull it out and root out my favorite lines, re-arrange them. i suppose it's actually a lot like working with flowers.