My little working vacation

 

Best kept secret - January at the Oregon Coast is warm and sunny!  At least the four days I have been here.  Fog rolling in right now. Time to go home!  And tomorrow night I'll be in San Francisco.  Ah, the modern world we live in. 

 

 It's pretty amazing here and I'm not sure why I haven't made coming to the coast a regular part of my routine since it's really right out my back door.  Guess it's just about finding the right spot.

 

Terrariums Rock our World at Passionflower

Just  a little sneak peek of our winter reset, which is deep underway at Passionflower.  I'm doing some "art walls" in the store and Becky put this little lovely of John Derian trays and a few other goodies together in our terrarium cupboard. People have just been cray, cray for terrarium stuff these days so we are pumping it up - getting some different mosses and rocks and some new shapes and styles.  It's so fun to see how everyone puts it together.

One for Each Month of the Year

 

Wow, it's been crazy busy around here.  Getting all stocked and ready for Valentine's Day and, truthfully, the store does look a little picked over post holiday, and it is the start of a New Year and we need to make it look all pretty again.  And all that takes a ton of time.  So I'm trying something new this year.  Instead of going to the gift show in New York this winter (which takes well over a week), I'm going to check out the Fancy Food Show in SF and go to the Design Show in Las Vegas (a little experiment)....but I still need to buy all the basics, so instead of NY , I booked a little room at the Coast with a view of the ocean and the sound of the waves and hooked up my laptop and here I am.  And curiously, I find myself making drawings of the twelve flicker feathers instead of

perusing online catalogs.  Which, I suppose, is just fine for me to give my workaholic tendencies a little rest and do a little dreaming.  Plus some crazy old timer I met on the beach yesterday gave me a little class on how to read the coastline for signs of gold and showed me how to pan.  Do you think that means I ought throw a few touches of gold into the store here and there during the coming year?  And perhaps black sand as a little motif too?   This is my brain on vacation.

(PS - wonderful little secret, the coast is warm and sunny in January)

To See Heaven in a Wildflower

So often, we sell things, bid them a fond farewell, and off they go.  It's  always gratifying to us when we see what our customers are doing with their Passionflower finds.  We love it when you send us photos of your house, your party, your outfit, whatever it is you do once those goodies leave the store.  So it was particularly fun when our customer brought in this photos of the peach colored Juliet garden rose that she bought from us and then painted.  I might even like the painting better than the flower itself!  Come to think of it, we have a whole subset of customers (you know who you are) that like to buy flowers for painting still lifes.  Spirit of the old Dutch Masters lives on at Passionflower

The Year of the Teatowel

Lovely little teatowel holiday gift  from our friends at Cavallini.  

Winter and citrus just go together so perfectly!

I've been eating grapefruit morning, noon, and night lately.

First it was the satsumas in December and now it's grapefruit - Ruby Red is my fave. 

This is it's time and it tastes so good.

May you be showered with all the sweetness and juiciness of the grapefruit in the coming year.

Up, Up, & Away

 

Feel like I need to put on my running shoes. Holidays are over and then came inventory.  Now we need to restock our shelves and make it all look good.  But that's the fun part.  And Becky's going to come help for a couple of days so that's even more fun.  2014, here we come!

 

And in the meantime,  while I take a moment to pause and breathe, and look back for a moment before leaping ahead,  I want to say a big old thank you to all our amazing, thoughtful, smart, funny & beautiful customers for making 2013 our best holiday season and our best year ever too!

We love all of you!

Life wouldn't be nearly as interesting without you. 

 

Look What I Found

Little walk in the filbert orchard on a chilly afternoon..