SF Flower Mart.

Hey there Monday.

Below are some photo's of the SF flower mart, one of the best in the country I think. What's great about this particular mart is it's close proximity to so much growing both North and South of the city. Half Moon Bay to Marine County and beyond, local farmers still carry stalls in the Mart or sell directly to the larger brokers. Pretty amazing to be able to deal directly with people growing the stuff.

Forgive my photo's- while it is a wonderful place, it still is a wholesale mart, meaning, florescent lighting and chain link stalls and plastic bins.

Below are all shots from the stall 'Florist at Large', which are these two sisters who are a touch eccentric in the best possible way. They search and forage and cut and sell. They are like these nomadic gatherer ladies. The pictures below are kind of terrible, but can you see how eclectic their stall is?

Those are wild mushrooms friends. Like the Alice and Wonderland kind. Scientific name is Amanita Muscaria. But yes, they find them wild and pick them for sale. I wish I had a little more time to make something amazing with those guys. Along with the moss and hand picked chestnuts.

While we were shopping around for our holiday flowers, we overheard a little something about some fingerling potatoes the sisters were selling. When I inquired, one sister (I can never remember which one is who) produced a plastic painting bucket filled with dirt crusted fingerlings. I picked out my batch and asked what I owed.

She just shrugged and said 'Merry Christmas'. Only in San Francisco and only at the flower mart!

Oh, and they were delicious. We had them for Christmas Dinner.

Happy happy merry merry..I'm full.

Oh! I'm stuffed!

We've been up in the Bay eating and drinking our way through the holiday.

More photo's on our trip later. Hope everyone had a jolly holiday filled with lots of fun and celebration.

Here are some flowers from our Christmas. Straight out of 1984 right?

Something about the artichokes.. but couldn't resist them at the SF market. Such pretty stuff.

Merry Christmas one day late!

Hospice.

As a florist, I rarely have actual 'done' arrangements in my home. I think few florists do.

I prefer to think of my home as more of a hospice for the leftover stems that don't make it to their final destination for whatever reason.

A couple from this week/last.

Pasadena Flea Market.

After having some hectic work loads the past few weeks, we decided to take full advantage of our Sunday (also the first rain free day in a while) and went to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market.

It was such a pretty day after buckets and buckets of rain...

So much stuff! 4 hours feels like 30 minutes. Especially on the most beautiful day in the world.

Oh, and these are iphone photo's. Because as usual, I forgot my camera. But seriously, pretty good, right? Considering it's a phone? When did life get so fancy?

Robert Isabell

Hello there. I've been running around up to my ears in Christmas. Not much time for typing, or picture taking.

In the mean time- I saw this a few weeks ago in the NY Times and was taken by the thoughtfulness and wonderment of this environment.

Robert Isabell was a visionary in the event design world tracing his roots all the way back to Studio 54. He died rather unexpectedly last July. Known as a very private person, he let only a few of his closest companions into his private residence in Greenwich Village.

So interesting since the man made a living throwing huge, over the top events that he would be so private in his own life.

His truly unique collection of art and wares is being auctioned off at Sotheby's this month. For the world to see. Quite a bit of sad irony there, no?

All images via The New York Times. For the full slideshow, click here. The collection will also be for public viewing starting the 12th.

Urban foraging. Or, lazily walking and finding stuff.

Hi! How about Thanksgiving? Pretty good stuff, huh?

We went to Houston and forgot all cameras. Which is such a bummer as it's not the same place I remember from my youth. That place being the pool at the YMCA because it was to painfully hot to be anywhere else.

I won't even get into how great the scrub oaks or old fashioned ice house bars are, we'll wait till I have some photo's to back it up. Now on to a post entirely unrelated.

I love bearded iris. We used to grow them in our garden as kids and to this day, I kick myself for not carrying a few of those bulbs out of Oklahoma and with me for the rest of my life.

So, I've now found that I love iris seed pods just as much! I got these mini seed pods from a friend up North and brought them back to LA. How beautiful are those little black seeds?

Don't they make the cutest boutonniere ever? Who knew the iris did that? Not me. Guess I wasn't paying very much attention to said Oklahoma garden. And they last- as in, they are dried. Which, is kind of cool, no? For those hot summer weddings?

Then, as we were walking to a movie in our neighborhood, what do I see in huge troves growing out of a chain link fence? Iris minus seed pods. So pretty, right? Like little flowers.

Oh nature! Thanks to Erin hearts Court photography for the beautiful photo of my boutonnierre!