BACK ALLEY EVENT.....

This week we put together an event/meeting space for a client with a theme was "Back Alley". We also had to create a bedroom vignette for the target audience of the product, which was a college aged , 19-21 year old - kind of a dorm room environment. This is kind of a follow up of a few blogs earlier where we showed you the doors and the sofas being graffiti-d in my driveway.........

WHEW! It was alot of work, but it turned out great! What you can't see is the event lighting and how it really changed the space. It was dark and alley-like with a few flashing "open" and "Bar and Grill" signs. We even had fake rats and cockroaches..hilarious!

BEFORE AND AFTER

I love a good before and after..... Consider this one to be an EXTREME MAKEOVER! These chairs were spotted at a vintage shop on SE Hawthorne a few weeks back and I fell in LUV! I love these chairs!!! The hammerhead shape is fantastic, but they needed a TON of TLC. The seat had to be rebuilt and the arms were a bit on the wobbly side....but with the right attention and a to die for fabric.......TA DA!!!!!!! Come check them out at the shop! $845 each...LOVELY!

BEFORE........

AFTER!!!!!! WOWZIE!!!!

It's ART HOP on Alberta st.

Come on down!!!!

Asparagus or is it????

Rather phallic don't you think???

Want. One. Bad. Now.

Such a cute roadster 2 cv by Citroën. I want one so bad to drive
around town in with frenchy. Anyone know where I can get one????

procrastination......

Sometimes I find it difficult to blog on a regular basis. I know I should. I am indeed well intended, but sometimes I can't get it all together. Or perhaps I just need a cocktail instead, or maybe I need to just go to bed or perhaps there is just too much good stuff out there to focus on just one thing, blah, blah , blah..... I have so many images lined up and ready to go, sometimes it seems that I just run out of stuff to say, or are too tired or something. OK, that's it. Thanks for listening and helping to alleviate a bit of my blogging (or lack thereof) guilt.

Anyhoo.......I took a lovely little trip to San Fran with Frenchy and our darling friends Sue & Eric in March. My intent was plant shopping, the San Fran Garden Show, The King Tut exhibit at the De Young, The Science Center and the Aquarium - or whatever it is called ,Flora Grubb, Succulent Gardens, Dim Sum at Gold Mountain, Cactus Jungle, Olive Tree Farm, Chez Panisse and the Ruth Bancroft Garden. We managed everything except Chez Panisse - I guess I forgot to make a reservation a month in advance. Seriously. As my trusty Cherokee has now turned over 186,000 miles, I thought it wiser to rent a mini-van (YIKES!) and drive down. I left the day before everyone else and picked them all up in Oakland the next day. I had already filled up a large portion of the van by then, and had to arrange things a bit in order to get everyone in the van.

Over the next week or so, I will post photos of the trip, bit by bit. Today are the photos from the Aquarium and some of The French one........

Frenchy totally cracks me up. These are my favorite kind of photos - you gotta love a good self portrait!

Beautiful!

What great textures!

The orange jellyfish with the blue background were breathtaking!

These frogs were more than a little freaky........kind of looked like cartoon characters...kind of.....but not.

I had never seen a nautilus before....one great big stink eye...creepy, but cool!

Lovely peony!!!

Out at Farmington Gardens this morning and found these beauties.
Glorious!!!!!

Love the graffitti!!!

I am working on an event next week and in the process of putting the decor plan together. It is going to be a crazy cool party for 70 people with a "back alley" theme. My friend Sam is a tattoo artist and agreed to do this killer graffiti work on 4 sofas, 2 banks of theater seating and 8 doors. Whew! This is just the beginning, so tune in next week to see the entire party! I can't wait! Thanks Sam!

Sofa before.....

...and sofas after.....

The doors look fabulous.......

HAPPY MOM'S DAY!!!

You don't have to be related to someone to think of them as your mother. I am very lucky to have a very special relationship with my darling Barbara. Isn't she lovely???

Lounge Lizard rocks!!!!

Another killer find. Pity it's pink. Guess I'm going to have to fix
that. Maybe glossy black or gold..........

Chinoiserie chandelier....

Yippee !!!! I have been looking for one of these cute little things
for above my bed FOREVER. Thank you to Angelique from Lounge Lizard
for letting me have this one!!! I think I will paint it a great shade of persimmon.

Isn't this funny???? He is carrying my new console table out to my
car. I love a good ball and claw foot and a cabriole leg...

Hilarious photo.

Hosta live action!

Funny huh? Sounds like porn. Anyhoo.....check out this video. This is a Sum & Substance Hosta in a pot in my front yard. We sell a "garden watch" camera in the shop and thought we would put it to the test. It is super cool! This is over a period of one month with one photo being taken every 4 hours. You can even see the other pot behind it coming to life. I have 4 big pots like this in my front yard - so lush and beautiful! I know, I am a geek - but how can I help it? Look at it! DEAR GOD!!

Day off.....

I took the day off today...from work, the shop, that is. Kind of. I had an article to write and such, so I did that, but I stayed home and worked in the garden. With a mimosa. OK, a few mimosas - had quite a buzz, actually. It was a lovely day. I transplanted hostas, I planted Kent Beauty oregano, I swept the front walk, I planted begonias, coleus and ferns in my front door pots and it was great. Plantings and cocktails, what could be better? If you threw a pedicure in it would be perfection!

As if it all was not good enough, one of my new plants bloomed one flower today. It is super cool and has a beautiful orange flower. The flower kind of reminds me of the flowers on Edgeworthia Chrysantha. It is from Xera Plants and here it is:

Glumicalyx gosseliodes Zn6b (-5º to 0ºF) Scrophulariaceae
Nodding Chocolate Flower. Darling and easy to grow hardy perennial from South Africa. Forms a clump of rubbery green rosettes. From April to frost nodding stems rise to 10" and produce a continuation of white bells that open to orange/red and smell like chocolate. Full sun to light shade in rich, well drained soil. Best at eye level. Remove spent flower spikes. GREAT HARDY container plant. Evergreen. Occasional summer water. Cold hardy.

LOVE IT! - Get it.......plant it...then have a cocktail!

Chinoiserie chairs....

Are these lovely or what? I have a pair of them on their way to my shop right this very moment. They are made of a metal and they have been chromed. The fretwork pattern looks great with bamboo nodes for accent. LOVE IT! I will, of course, have then recovered. I am thinking of this Robert Allen - Crystal Lake - in chocolate. YUMMY!!!!!! I love chairs. I can't help myself!!! Ok...and I love fabric too. BTW - I scored 30 yards of this fabric at fabric.com for only $4.98 per yard and free shipping - be still my heart!!!!!

I have 4 clematis is my garden and I really don't have room for more, but if I did, this would be it/. She is called 'Rebecca' and my, oh my she is lovely! It is the most luxuriously velvety red that it is very tempting...maybe I will look for a spot I can squeeeezzeee it into while out in the garden today.......

This is the other slug victim in my garden so far this year. It is my very favorite Clematis texensis - gravetye beauty. It has that great alpina-ish shape with a true red red, not pink (pink - yuck!). Unfortunately, it seems the slugs got to it before I got to the slugs. GRRRR!!! Fortunately, they had a replacement plant waiting for me at Joy Creek Nursery. YIPPEE!!!! time to plant!

Petit Faucon Clematis

This is a clematis in my garden that was labeled as the "mystery clematis" two years ago at Joy Creek Nursery. It is the blue-ist blue, not really at all purple and looks totally different than any other clematis. The dams slugs have gotten the better of it this year so I think it might be history - which totally bums me out as I love it so much. However, I did go out to Joy Creek yesterday and they suggested that I give it some more slug bait and a few good doses of fertilizer - I use compost tea / worm compost and see what happens. After showing them the picture, they think that it is a crazy sport of Clematis integrifolia 'Petit Faucon'. That variety is usually not as open as my plant is and mine tend to curl back on itself which makes it appear to be even more star-shaped than the original. I sure hope i can get it back.....I would like to plant it with the other clematis that the slugs got to (but that I was able to get a replacement for) , Clematis texensis 'Gravetye Beauty'.