A cozy Christmas

I saw this display in the window of the Dupont Circle Benetton store and really thought it was cute: miniature sweaters on a tree! Thats a knitting project for you! I'll be decorating my tree this weekend, anyone else?

It was Fun: Balcony Garden workshop, veggie village

My favorite way of spending a couple of hours would have to be giving balcony garden workshops. You meet people at their most interesting, hatching up schemes for achieving the improbable: paradise on concrete. And see how happy they get when they hear all the tricks that will allow their fuzzy balcony aspirations to become crisp, leafy reality.

This 3 hour workshop was originally planned for the local permaculture dynamo, the wonderful Yukari Desjardins. We have lost Yukari. No matter how much we wish it to be different, she is gone. But continuing on projects she started, that's something we can actually do. For this day, I just had to hop on the Melbourne to Sunshine coast aeroplane, and do my thing.
I was so happy I could do this small thing.

Participants are always so different from each other, which makes break times the best kind of parties. Who turned up this time? Included in the mix of 40 could be found a soil life expert, heaps of artists, a horticulturist, architect, a few grandmothers, a professional Permaculturist, and another Japan-addict like myself.


Here's Shannon, helping me model the sign that tells me where we are. This one got herself a nice Japanese husband. Maybe my turn is next...

Barry Mcfee, Cecilia, and creative Pizza Oven

The event was impeccably organized by the Veggie Village Maestro, Barry Mcfee. Barry is one of those Engineers that the whole world wants, so it was wonderful staying with him and his dear wife Frances, and hearing all their stories of life lived out in exotic locations.
It took me about half-a-minute after meeting Barry at the airport to guess his profession. Engineers are my favorite people: concise, relaxed, yet accurate. They happily do the groundwork required to make things succeed, while the rest of us skip the little things like confirmation phone calls, etc saying 'She'll be right, mate". But she won't.
Whats the best thing about engineers? Maybe its their flexible attitude to the surprises that life insists upon dishing out. Engineers, like ideal Permaculturists, go with how reality IS, rather than how we think it SHOULD be.

Barry, you were an inspiration.


And I loved your old Citroen.

Permaculture Keyhole garden at Veggie Village

Veggie village is the neatest community garden I have come across, and I've seen them all over the planet. Neatest of the pretty: neat and dull doesn't count.

Reed bed design by artist Glenda Hennig

I especially loved this man-made 'creek' that the volunteers reconstructed from a diverted spring and swamp. Its almost Japanese, the natural placement of rocks, reeds and flow. And how is this for a good story: the reeds get almost too thick by the end of the season, and that's when the lady artist who created all this says 'Harvest time", and turns them into handmade paper.


What did participants think?

"Most enlightening. I loved the possum theory i.e. 'The problem is the solution'".
Linesse

"When you were born, the world made room for a little more fancy - love your approach while providing vital info".
J& D

"I loved your positivity and I will create a garden! I also loved your Japanese-ness. If you have any nice wwoofers who want to stay in Noosa, give them my address. If my garden isn't established yet, they can couch-surf!"
Shannon

Well, I really hope they find a way to invite me back next year.
For now, I'll make do enjoying the 'before' and 'after' balcony garden photos that have started trickling in from the participants. That's the desert.

Old brick church

I was in hallmark recently looking for a card and saw an architecturally correct model of an old romanesque church -and it was an ornament!Turns out this is the last of a series of 12. Hallmark has been doing faithful architectural renditions of churches for 12 years: Where have I been? The box even gives the history of the style and when it was most popular (1890s-1920s). Each little individual red brick is rendered on the facade, as well as a red clay tile roof, which you can't see in my poor photographs!

Who knew hallmark was giving architectural history lessons! I'm still not sure whether to hang this on the tree (you can insert a christmas light bulb inside to make the stained glass glow) or place it under the tree -like a little village. I think this is a great small gift for any architect friend or a child interested in architecture.Now I just have to collect the other 11!!

Find information on the ornament at hallmark HERE.

Friday Faves

Woo! It's Friday! This was a great week with Thanksgiving leftovers, the charm of the Holidays approaching, and business at work and in school. I'm slowly having my design soul crushed by the fact that I have to include a circular bed in the master bedroom of my latest project for school SO I'm going to need some Friday Faves inspiration!

I adore this simple Swedish style Christmas decoration by Edie Van Breems. She owns her own antiques shop in CT, and I'd love visit it sometime soon. This is from the latest Country Living.

I saw these precious ballet flats in the window at Bloomingdales and thought, I wonder how many times I've done that to shoes, sweaters, etc with a real bow from a present. These are simply adorable and by Kate Spade.

This is another store I'd love to visit, Branca, in Chicago. Alessandra Branca has incredible style and I'd really love her new book for Christmas. HINT.

Despite the fact that I have lots of work to do, I'm off to Philly/The Main Line tomorrow to visit my friends and their new baby! I can't wait to meet her! We are going on a tour of a few houses that are specially decorated for the Holidays--I'll take tons of pictures for you guys. Have a wonderful Friday and an even better weekend!


Alicia B.

Miramonte Wins Best in American Living Award!

Miramonte has won a 2009 Best in American Living Award. For 26 years, BALA has been recognized as the pinnacle of achievement in residential design.


Classics at Miramonte, Plan 1, won a Gold award in the Best Single-Family Detached Home up to 1,800 sq ft category.


BALA is sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders and Professional Builder magazine. Both organizations are devoted to inspiring residential designers with great ideas and wonderful projects.


Coverage of the BALA winners will appear in the February 2010 issue of Professional Builder and on HousingZone.com.

crown and glory!

our shop, company flowers, is all custom design. you want the topiaries outside your door to resemble faberge eggs? call us. ( but only once please) . you're a major museum and exhibiting a photographer who shoots flowers in various stages of dying? call us. we'll ravage our gardens and bring in black/blue baptisia pods and browning hydrangea blossoms, crispy purple sage leaves and whatever else we can scavenge to make beautiful dead arrangements. today is your wife's 40 th birthday and you want to crown the nature loving gardener that she is ? call us. we'll create a crown of grapevine and flax leaves, pepperberry and hydrangea, gyp and lemon leaves , a tiny bird and a mariposa. happy birthday louise.

Sing a song or two!