Thursday, June 24, 2010

Post-modern wedding rings


The wedding ring is a loaded object; how many pieces of metal are infused with so much hope, expectation, love and a lifetime of dreams? That's why I'm in love with Portland artist Erin Rose Gardner and her jewelery that investigates the meaning of this most significant symbol. (She's also the winner of the 2010 Oregon Arts Commission's Artist Fellowship.)



Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gorgeous Design (without killing a single tree)


I'm kind of in love with the new online magazine Lonny. It's got all of the best parts of dearly-departed Domino (which is no wonder since the editor is a former staffer at the magazine), but without killing any trees since it's online-only. Here are just a few of the gorgeous images:





Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Before and After (Or How Long Landscaping Really Takes)

I think there's a desire--no doubt encouraged by HGTV shows--to have a complete landscape transformation in hours or days. This is possible, with a lot of money, but for the rest of us, redoing a landscape takes time and patience. When we moved into our house 2.5 years ago, the landscape looked like this:Yes, completely empty. We hired my brother-in-law, who's a landscaper to help us create garden spaces in the front and back yard. The most expensive part was the labor, including sod removal, bark mulch and soil application and rock placement. Here's the yard right after we put in all of the plants.



And this year:


Since we bought small plants (1 gallon or less) t's taken a while for them plants to fill out and not all of them enjoy the full direct sun during the summer. But overall, I think the front yard looks lush but not overgrown.

Monday, June 7, 2010

My Poppy Garden (No vegetables allowed!)

This year, instead of using my large raised bed for planting vegetables or other practical plants, I planted a whole box of flowers, specifically poppies. I long for poppies when I see them in other peoples' yards and this year, I wanted my own. Early in the spring I put in six different seed packets to see what would actually come up. Here are the varieties I used from Botanical Interests:


And here's the result (two months later):


Because most poppies are short lived, I also put in nasturtiums and sunflowers to make sure there were flowers for the whole summer.

One thing I would do differently: plant fewer nasturtiums, find medium-sized plants to go along the front of the box. Who knew that poppies would grow over three feet high?!

Now I have many many seed pods for decor and as a source for seeds to plant next year.




Here are more pics of my flowers and their names:


Bread Seed Organic Poppy
Papaver - somniferum



Shirley Single Blend Poppy
Papaver - rhoeas


Peony Poppy Double Blend
Papaver - somniferum var. paeoniflorum

Iceland Nudicaule Blend Poppy
Papaver - nudicaule

California Poppy - Orange
Eschscholzia - californica

Flanders American Legion Poppy
Papaver - rhoeas

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Outside Bed Part III

On my other blog, I wrote annual outside bed posts, but since that blog is on hiatus, I'm posting pic of my current outside bed. It's a bed roll from Urban Outfitters on a pine frame made by my husband Chris. That boy is handy! And since we have killer squirrels in the yard and a never ending rainy season here in Oregon, I wrapped the bedroll with thick plastic and then covered it in white canvas. Pretty fab, no?