Floral is continuing to rock my world......

Sarah posing with beautiful hair garland she made.

Sample for a bride taking it to her hair stylist today.

New Bedlinens

It's springtime which puts me in the mood for freshening things up.....you know opening the doors and windows, shaking out the rugs, cleaning the windowsills, and I always like to change out my bedding a bit.
So I'm on the prowl for some new pillowcases.  These beautiful linen ones from Violet Hill Home are strong contenders.  They come in lots of yummy colors.

Celebrating National Arbor Day

Earth day has come and gone but there's still lots of wonderful things you can do for the planet.
And what we've found is that in the act of "doing good for the planet", you're actually doing good for yourself.  Those are the kind of win / win things we love around her at Passionflower.

  In furthering our mission of "making the world a more beautiful place", we're encouraging you to come out and do some shopping this Friday April 27 which is National Arbor Day. We're giving 10% of all friday's sales to the Friends of Buford Park.   The friends have been instrumental in advocating for recreational area that is home to native plants.   If you love Mt Pisquah, then you love what the friends have been doing.  Click here to find out more about the friends.   And if you'd like to really celebrate may we suggest planting a tree for National Arbor Day.   Click here for a pretty good article on things to consider when planting a tree in your yard.  Also click here should you like to see what Lady Bird Johnson had to say about the importance of native species. 

A Taste of Passionflower

More fun with Picasa....which is this photo organizing plus photo manipulation program you can download free from Google.  And even I, have managed to kind of, sort of,  navigate my way through it.  It's pretty intuitive and I have become hooked on making these collages. This one I kind of think of as the earthy, organic side of Passionflower.  Plus I just discovered all these crazy ways to change color etc....this could be very dangerous when it comes to time management.

Favorite New Book at Passionflower

Thanks Mindy Carpenter over at the Papaya Blog for turning me on to this new book The Art of Instruction  from Chronicle Books.  It's  full of old botanical and natural history charts used to teach sciences in days gone by.....especially love the ones with black backgrounds like they've used on the cover. There is a wealth of material here for anyone into collage work or nature based art.  Or who just wants to look at nature from a different perspective. Or who would like to stir the imagination of a child.  Remember they are instruction books after all.
   
               

And said same book displayed open.  Which I think is an underused way of displaying books.  At home,   I like keeping a favorite book on my sidetable and opening it to a different page each day.  Because one shouldn't just judge a book by it's cover.  Right?  Even thought I definitely did in this case.  Happy surprise to find it so beautiful inside.  

My Loss

Someone stole my iphone from my bag in the backroom of the store which I'm pretty much so upset about I don't really want to talk about it except to say, "when you get an iphone buy insurance".  Which I did not.
Which means I don't really have any new photos to show you (since my iphone has been my camera as well) so I culled this from some old collages I made. I am not sure exactly what I'm going to do since I really, really don't want to fork out $650 for a new phone.  Little did I realize how dependent I have become on that little metal box.

Susan Goodwin Jewelry at Passionflower

We are really looking forward to our visit from the amazing Susan Goodwin......First Friday in May from 3 -7....Susan will be up from her home in the Santa Cruz mountains to share with us the latest creations to spring forth from the creative well that is her genius.  Just when I think it's all been done, and how many ways can one really design with a single pearl, Susan will show me that the well is deep.  We'll also be unveiling work from her new collection Signs and Symbols. 

To whet your appetite for all things Susan, click here and to see an old post from when Becky & I visited Susan at her studio in Seattle click here.

Image courtesy Susan Goodwin

the Happiness Factor

It doesn't take much to make me happy.  A few blooms from the store, a little something from the yard, and a pretty glass.  Okay a sunny day is a usual sure fire happiness pill too....But in the absence of sunny days, I'll take flowers anytime. 

What's Going on at Passionflower

I've been a little busy lately and there are some things I need to get done that aren't qutie getting done like I'd like them to be....but in the meantime I made you this little collage of store shots in the hopes that I might entice you to come visit us.  It's been raining a lot and would do us a world of good to see some smiling faces....Plus you might find something wonderful in our sale which goes for another week or so.

Last Friday was a beautiful thing at the store.  We had our Easter Bonnet Contest and there were many a wondrous things to behold.  Carolee, not to be outdone by her bonnet last year, came waltzing in as some sort of pagan,  Merovingian , Easter princess complete with a poem. Thanks Carolee for helping us fulfill our mission of making the world a more beautiful place.

P.S.  Just so you know,  I have some fantasy of a huge party on the Friday before Easter with the streets of downtown Eugene filled with live music and bonnet topped folk  dancing like dervishes to the sounds of fiddles and accordions while sipping all manner of green and pink drinks.  So this could be the beginning of something big.

Click here to see our facebook album of the bonnet contestants.  And come down and vote for your favorite one.

I have a little problem.  There are some flowers, I know they just don't last very long.  But they are so beautiful during their time.  And I keep thinking this is the year I'll discover the secret of how to make them last.  And I never do.  And I still keep trying.   And so my little camellia, hellebore, privet thanks for being you and gracing us with your lovely, if fleeting, presence.  

 Sometimes life is feast or famine, drought or flood. Lately it seems there are so many things I want to put on the blog and they just keep coming.  Hence two posts in a day because I really want to tell you about this show down the street from Passionflower. Our longtime friend and customer and very accomplished & talented artist Shannon Weber is having a show at Out on a Limb Gallery that opens tonight.

                                                  
I have always admired Shannon because she marches to the beat of her own drummer and has a singular confidence in pursuing her artistic vision.  Plus her basketweaving is just outright, over the top, amazing.  Stay tuned for a future post and I'll show you the basket of hers I have sitting in my bedroom - that brings me joy and happiness every time I look at it.   

All photos courtesy Shannon's website which you can go to by clicking here.

What Happens the First Saturday in April

We're looking forward to the full blossoming of the Farmer's Market & Saturday Market coming tomorrow.  (do I sense a corn tamale with a pitted plum in my future? or perhaps a Ritta's Burrito?)

 Our homage to the market featuring Plenty , best new vegetarian cookbook on our radar lately.

                                             

 And may we offer you a few containers to hold all your market goodies once they're home? Because we want your fridge to look extra cute too. Complete aside, I have always wanted to do a photo portrait study of people's refrigerators. Hint House Beautiful and Elle Decor......I want to see people's fridge, the nitty gritty, the way they really do it.

click here for past post about the farmer's market...

Wandering around the Store

Shots from around the store....Bird print on wood from Mincing Mockingbird with vases from Judy Jackson and Middle Kingdom....

Beautiful checker lily plant in a hobnail container.....

And may we say, more hobnail?

Spring Fairy

It's been way too long since Becky has dressed up our young friend, so she made him a little Easter Outfit complete with bonnet of daffodils.  We love him gracing our front window.....Happy Spring!