Another Great New Pillow at Passionflower

This one is for the imaginary cabin in the woods - plus there's deer and rabbits and racoons....

A Letter from Frida Kahlo

I'm down in Mexico and was happily surpised to stumble upon a series of letter from Frida Kahlo to her doctor (first photo above). I was surprised how tidy her handwriting is - plus Frida rarely crossed out a word and she didn't doodle much on her letters either.  Of the 15 letters I read, only one had a little doodle of an airplane on the outside where it said par avion.Plus, she always signed her letter in a most charming fashion..

Got me to thinking how much the written letter really means and how special it is to get a handwritten letter. And so I've included a cryptic piece of calligraphy to inspire you (and me) to make our handwriting more beautiful...plus Margaret Shepherd's great book which is a staple at the story is always there to nudge you along should you feel you need a little help.....this is all by way of saying I hope I am able to find the time to write a few handwritten notes down here in Mexico.....

click here, should you want to see some lovely handwritten notes that have made me happy.....

middle photo courtesy russian calligrapher marina marjina - i was unable to link to her site but here is a link to her flickr album....it's worth a look if you like calligraphy....

Fantasy

 

If this were your kitchen pantry, imagine what the rest of your place would look like!!
P.S. Sometimes I think I live in a little too dreamy of a world and then I think, it's always good to dream as long as you're happy where you wake up!

I took this photo at ABC Carpet & Home where they have a huge display of Aster de Villatte's work.

Birdfeeder Hat for Easter

Everyone, I am so excited about this post, I can hardly stand it. That's code for this might be a long one... We're having an Easter Bonnet Contest at the store. (Come in wearing your finest Easter Hat now through Easter to enter and win $100 gift certificate.) And while I am seriously grooving on the contest, it's just a prologue, the backstory if you will, to this post. Since we're having the contest, we've all been thinking hard on hats and Chris was perusing the above most excellent book Woodland Style one day during her lunch break......She showed me a photo from the book of a woman wearing a hat and surrounded by birds. I thought it was a clever and fun photo, but when I dug a little deeper, turns out she's surrounded by birds because her hat is doubling as a birdfeeder! Be still my beating heart.

This is the brainchild of a self described eco artist from Northern California named Erica Fielder. It's part of a watershed awareness project near the coast. That's her wearing a hat in the photo above. One of their ideas is to encourage inter species interactions....In this case that's the human and the birds. OMG this is so beautiful. Participants describe the tiniest bird landing on their hats feeling as though a huge animal is swooping down. And of course what's so beautiful to me is that the bird is feeling us too! We are each sensing the other. It got me to thinking about times in my life when I have had interspecies communication. And there's not too many of them. First off I am discounting mice, squirrels, ants, flickers, and ladybugs at various times all moving into my house. I definitely sensed them but not so sure they were exactly picking up my please go away vibes. Let's see, of course the encounter with the bear in the woods on the west side of Vancouver Island counts, and one time I listened to a friend have a duet with an owl. She was playing a flute or maybe a recorder. They had a beautiful call and response going on. And I used to hand feed my aquarium snail pieces of cooked spinach and lettuce which gave me a whole new appreciation for what the fisherman might be sensing. There maybe one or two more incidents I am forgetting. But not too many............. Wearing a birdfeeder hat is something that's definitely on my list of things to do before I die. Click here to find out more about the larger purposes of their project and click here should you like to purchase directions on making your own hat. It has something to do with paper mache, and bamboo skewers, and sticks and seeds......

Photo of birdfeeder hat courtesy Erica Fielder

Why I Go To Gift Shows

Buying for the shop is a lot of fun ....some of the shows are fantastic. Manufacturer's who are truly trendsetters are out in all their glory. There's a lot of inspiration to be had and there's a zillion things I see that I totally fall for and still don't buy for one reason or another.

Like these stuffed ducklings.....just a little too creepy, even for me. And it did leave me wondering about who exactly the customer would be that would spend $60 for a stuffed duck. I don't really think that's my customer.

Thought you might want to see some booths that really make my little heart go pitter patter.

I'm not sure Eugene is quite ready for it, but these distressed canvas bags were great. Didn't buy em.....(although I'm still on the fence). And it was a great display.

Then there's always great flowers. I love arrangements on day 4 when they start to take on a hi style, wilted, decadent kind of feeling.

Rustic, earthy, organic, these staghorns growing on graperoot burls (?) were spectacular paired with ladyslipper orchids and live spanish moss

Click here if you'd like to see more and read what the blog Habitually Chic had to say about the most recent gift show in New York. I think she nailed it and did a really good job covering the show....

Easter Egg Containers.....

Ceramic egg cartons...they'll hold a dozen eggs.....love, love, double love them. They look cute in the fridge. But they weren't selling so well in the store. I decided to do something to show them off a little bit.

Here's my little montage of spring flowers in shades of pink.

I'll tell you a little secret. The tip of green fern was the last thing I added and I think it brought it all to life.

It was really pretty. And since Becky is now in love with her new i phone, she had to take a picture using her hipstamatic app. Which seems to be the go to app which has enchanted one creative person after another. I can see why.

Pretty nice photo, dontcha think? Thanks for that Becky.
And click here, should you like to get that hipstamatic app for yourself.

The Amazing World of Flowering Grasses

You know those blogs where people write about their imaginary closets and show you pictures of all the clothes they would like to have in them? Well this is about my imaginary art collection and all the work I would like to have in it. ( Of course there would also have to be the imaginary amazing building to house the collection and all the imaginary time in the world to enjoy it.) These prints by a childhood friend of mine would definitely have a room or two in said building.

Matilda Essig lives in the American Southwest and has been working on restoring native grass habitat on her property. Simultaneously she's been making these large scale giclee prints - almost three by four feet- of the various grasses on her land.

...There's just so much to love here. We don't usually think of grasses as having flowers. And beautiful ones at that. Plus these images allow us to contemplate a world that's hard to see.
And they make me think so much about grasses and how much they give to us ......mostly all of our grains like rice and corn and wheat are grasses....and about wind polllination....I can almost see the wind blowing these grasses about...oh and about so many other things too.......Click here to go to her site Matilda Essig dot com and see more of her work.....and click here to read the article about her art and restoration experiences.

All images courtesy and copyright Matilda Essig.

More Blogs we Love

There's a lot (I mean a lot) of great stuff out there in blogland.....here's a few more of our favorites we're adding to the roll......

Binth - a Chicago graphic designer....we like her take on life......she's modern and yet seems to take a lot of quiet inspiration from old traditon.

Studio Choo - they have a quirky little take on nature. You may know them from the spot they do on Design Sponge called "We Like It Wild".........

And my new favorite bloglove Things Organized Neatly which speaks to the collector, organizer, arranger in all of us. Let me know what some of your favorites are and maybe I'll add them too!

(photos from top to bottom courtesy: Binth, Studio Choo, San Francisco artist Lisa Congdon's Collection a Day Project via Things Organized Neatly)

And now for something completely different....

I live in Oregon. It rains a lot. Especially this time of year. But there is something about living in this climate and having an ongoing love affair with the water element. And yet here I am longing for summer (photo below)......

Waking up from a long winter nap.

All I can say is "Wow" and "Thank You" to however it was that this article which you can click onto here landed in my inbox. It's about artist Jason de Caires Taylor who is taking art outside the gallery. He makes life size sculptures that he installs underwater and documents them becoming part of their natural environment. Makes me want to live underwater.

(photo from Jason de Caires Taylor via 24flinching.com )

Our Secret Lives

Dudes & Dudettes - you probably don't know that Becky Tonkin (our amazing mangager at Passionflower) has this super beautiful tumblr album.....which is a collection of photos she has gathered from various sources that she finds beautiful, compelling, or which speak of a certain feeling............

Here's just a sneek peak at a few images....to whet your appetite......



It is eye candy at it's finest.....

Nay, more than candy, it's a visual feast. Click here to go to archaic youngster(her tumblr site) and see more!!!

(photos from top to bottom pinmarklet, leonorefini , metropolitan museum of art all via archaic youngster )

Fascination All Around Us

I have lately become enamored with this tumblr site called things neatly organized....

And if you have photos of things you've neatly organized you can submit photos for this site too........

It is a fascinating visual meditation upon humankind's constant attempts to make sense of the world around us.....and to create order out of chaos.....

Halloween Costume

..Bolivian Tin "Wolf Mask"

The better to eat you with my dear!!

Happy Halloween from all of us at Passionflower.

A Real Live Octopus

I have never seen anything move quite the way the octopus slithered across his (or her) tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was a beautiful dance.

Everything undulating and shifting size and shape all the time.

And Mr. Octopus could look at you

looking at him.

They say they're as smart as cats

And their eyesight is good.

Plus, they're really, really strong..

It is such an amazing world out there.

But what if he's pleading with me, "Get me out of here", and I'm just happily snapping away photos with my camera?

Studio Choo & Flora Grubb

FYI , we have very much been grooving on the floral designs coming out of the San Francisco Bay Area lately......(well not just lately I have always loved San Francisco designers for their whimsy and the interesting mix of materials that comes from their climate and their sense of abandon). A couple of our favorites:

The most charming and understated Studio Choo. Here's a vignette they did using brown tincture bottles of varying sizes. Doesn't it just scream fall without screaming?

And here's an unusual bridal bouquet by the design studio called flora grubb. These are the folks taking tillandsias to new heights. And they're into vertical gardening too!

Succulents and tillandsias with privet berry, maroon scabiosa, and that fabulous string of pearls hanging down. Thanks to both places for the gracious use of their photos. Perhaps a field trip to the SF area is in order. :)

Underwater Living

I was at the most enchanting Oregon Coast Aquarium last week. Where I got to contemplate all sorts of lifestyles so different from my own (and I don't mean sexual orientation or do I?)......

Strange and beautiful creatures of the sea -

The distinction between plant and animal seems all blurry underwater.

And everything moves in such a fluid way.

I beheld (and if that sounds a little biblical, it's because it was a transcendental experience) such a huge diversity of forms.

Mystery at every turn.

And I haven't even told you about the jellyfish or the octopus.