Somedays in this industry I like to think of myself as a tummler. According to Every Goy’s Guide to Common Jewish Expressions, a tummler, (TOOM-ler) is someone who is maker of fun, commotion, tumult. Particularly someone who’s always making jokes- that can get the party started. Also, someone hired professionally at a resort in the Borscht Belt to …
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In April, I had the honor of presenting a talk and teaching a class for the Charleston Garden Club. The oldest garden club in the U.S., it is also the largest in the world. We had just enough time to visit the famous sweet grass basket makers of Charleston. Brought to Charleston (which was settled in …
Here are some stars from a recent perfume event calling for blackberry and orange blossom fragrance and hues. Saint Tropez French tulips, ranunculus and red hellebores with Ice Follies and Avalanche daffodils which are officially the best smelling flowers of all time. This time of year there is much darkness, jump cut between …
Had a dreamy vacation to gorgeous New Orleans last week. Every inch of the city is perfect! This, my first visit back since the storm was also heartbreaking, to see the Jewel of Mississippi at eye level and remember what we all saw from above those many, horrible days in 2005. New Orleans has always …
Orange-Red has long been a fixation of mine, it began with my best friend’s style icon grandmother, “Bama” and her orange-red lipstick, worn slightly askew with chunky gold jewelry. It always feels old fashioned and new at the same time, like these timeless showstoppers, african violets, gladiolas and carnations. There is something defiant and fiery …
This month we were finally good and swamped with holiday decorating and events, which I have been wierdy exempt from for the past 10 years in the business. It was something I have been wishing for forever; red gold and green- what could be better?? After wrestling with a massive, rogue tartan bow in 1 …
Had the great good luck to spend Thanksgiving in the U.P. at a family friend’s 500 acre farm near the wilds of Escanaba. The landscape was so staggeringly gorgeous I was afraid I’d drive the car off the road. An orchard of frozen apples, a field of dried sunflowers, wild clematis puffs…all miraculous to my …
This holiday party was held in a special boardroom at the Shedd Aquarium, which juts out on to the lake and affords the most amazing views. It is replete with an aquarium featuring a dizzying array of sea anemone. These “marine ornamentals” are named for the terrestrial flower just now coming into season. My favorite was …
Bringing honey to the Green City market with our dear friends from the Chicago Honey Co-op last weekend, my hustle went something like this: “Have you tried the summer honey from the Chicago Honey Co-op? We are the most local vendor at the green city market, with hives in Humboldt Park, Back of the Yards and …
For this corporate dinner we expressed the company’s signature blue with dutch hydrangea, delphinium and nitiya vanda orchids. Throwback 80’s style ferns and naga foliage along with these massive variegated alocacia leaves and fragrant bay laurel were also in effect. Our clever client chose these clear acrylic Versailles chairs and federal blue silk shantung tablecloths …