Country Living Magazine.....

You cannot imagine how excited I am that DIGS got a little Garden Shop love from Country Living Magazine this month.  The article is titled "Garden Shops Worth the Trip..."  HOLY CRAP!!!!!  They put us in the same article as Terrain and Flora Grubb!!!!!!!  I feel a swoon coming on.........  Check out the article on our website.    www.digs-pdx.com .  

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!

Almost out of here......

We are going to have a crazy busy week starting tomorrow!

We are meeting the best tile guy in the world (Jeff) at a client home to get started on a fireplace tiling project. We have chosen a Crema Marfil 1 x 3 herringbone tile and boy oh boy is it going to change the fireplace. The herringbone pattern is going to bring out the same pattern in a Kelly Wearstler fabric / Hickory White chair sitting close by....I will take before pictures tomorrow.....

Then it is off to the flower market and a few other places to pick up some last minute details for a clients' birthday dinner party we are setting. Beautiful asian theme, black, red and green.......

Then we are seeing the finished product at a clients' home that Jeff, the amazing tile guy, completed Friday for one of our clients - we redid the kitchen counter top in a white Ecoterr with a simple white subway tile backsplash. With the dark gray cabinets, it is sure to look fab. Then we redid the bath/shower in a much more modern way with killer Yuta - Silk tile from Pratt & Larson and a great marmoleum floor - the vanity gets installed next week and will tie the whole project together! Photos later......

On Tuesday we are meeting with our electrician (Randy) and our floor guy (John) - both the absolute BEST at what they do, BTW, to evaluate the space at a new client's basement that we have been hired to re-d0. We need to redo the entire lighting and wiring as the ceiling is till open and still old post & knob wiring (yikes) and we need to do some leveling of the floor to be able to apply the cork we have chosen. I love the very beginning of a project when everything just starts to come together.....I will take some before pictures tomorrow.....

Then we are setting the tables and accessorizing the client's bday party as mentioned earlier and then it is off to the "fireplace" clients home for an interview with The Darling Miss Bridget of the Oregonian and the client for a story on color that she is working on!

WHEW!

Wednesday morning I am off to pick up my rental van for the drive to San Francisco by way of Napa Valley to buy plants, attend the SF Garden Show, eat at Chez Panisse, go to the Ruth Bancroft Garden, to to Flora Grubb and see the King Tut exhibit. My husband and our friends Sue and Eric are flying down on Thursday so we can all hang together.....take them back to the airport on Monday morning and then drive home....CRAZY!

But for now....it is out to the garden I go. Frenchy is installing our new front fence and I have a few things to plant!

Since I don't have any pictures yet to go with this specific post, here are a few gratuitous of the shop.......

Have a great Sunday!

YIPPEE! We got mentioned in Sunset Magazine!

We are sooooo lucky to have been listed in the latest edition of Sunset Magazine as the "where to buy" the super cool new product...Woolly Pocket. The article it is featured in is called "GARDEN ANYWHERE" about new ideas in vertical gardening, rooftop gardening and the such. A really interesting article and subject......and then to be mentioned on the same page as Flora Grubb.......better yet! I love Flora....... I love Sunset.....I LOVE WOOLLY POCKET!....So read the article and come on down and pick u a pocket or two!!!!

Please click on the photos to read the article......

...more garden photos!

I was on a short trip to Victoria, BC last month with the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon - it was the annual study weekend....we toured a ton of cool gardens, listened to informative seminars and bought a bunch of interesting plants. Here are some of the plant pics......

what a lovely oak tree against the blue sky - such a cool structure!

This woolly thyme was so vibrant - loved being able to catch the bumble hard at work!

I thought this Alchemilla with dew drops was fab - and I loved the Aconitum in bloom.

What a great way to plant and display Echeveria!

This was a hilarious council circle of hand carved mushroom stools - just waiting for you favorite little garden gnomes.....

How romantic - a beautiful bed of lavender!

The darling Miss Stella - how cute is she?

This Romneya Coulteri is actually from the Ruth Bancroft garden in Walnut Creek, CA - another short trip....YUMMY!

..and from my favorite nursery in the whole world - Flora Grubb Gardens - I had to buy this amazing spiral aloe! It looks killer in a bright orange fiberglass pot in my garden!

Have a great day!