Saturday morning means home-baked chocolate croissants (even if they are frozen from Trader Joe's) and a trip to the Burbank Farmer's Market. There is always the Skyline Farms flower vendor, with plenty of beauties from quirky ranunculus to this week's BrainFlower, Celosia cristata, or Cock's Comb. They also had some incredible big and fragrant backyard roses for just a buck a stem. But I also made a stop to my favorite guy (who will remain sadly nameless because my phone was dead and I have a sieve for a memory) who packs beautiful proteas, eucalyptus and whatever else is blooming (birds of paradise & hydrangeas today) along with his fruits & veg.  

I've been doing some floral still life off and on for a few years, and am now going at it more recently as an exercise in keeping loose. I like to balance the cool aloofness of lazily jotting down the lines of the flowers and adding notes of colors.  A suggestion of their personality together with a little bit of designed quality of a translation, and I get some pretty satisfying little areas of the paintings that are becoming more popular the more I make. Can't wait to attack this huge bunch of pretties this weekend!

Needle phobia is a real recognized condition, and I have it!

When a rose gets droopy, just pop it's head off in your hand and admire a completely fresh side of the bloom, if only for a moment.

This little hunny of a tchzachki is manufactured for pure ear cleaning and itching bliss!

Flat footed folks are subject to plantar fasciitus.  ow.

January 7 - statistics show that frozen ivf embryo have higher rates of success.

January 8 - The Beck song "Debra" actually mentions Zankou Chicken in addition to Glendale. I always wanted it to be about Glendale,  CA, but now I know it is.

This year, I have decided to make this blog a true web log - a way to keep track of something new I learn everyday. So far, I have been logging my lessons, findings and facts in my phone calendar, but I will begin posting these here, now. Today's entry will include the past week's. I hope I am able to add photos to make this much more exciting, but for now, it might just be a list:

Jan 1 - A drive to Malibu is always a good idea.

Jan 2 - I will never again take modern plumbing for granted.
Jan 3 - I get sad when my mom leaves. Every time. Yeah, living so far from family is rough.

Jan 4 - Spanish moss, found in the trees in the deep south like FL - is apparently covered in hard-biting chiggers. Never touch this.




Jan 5 - According to Dom, dogs should not eat walnuts.

This time last year, I had already settled into the fact that I wasn't going to find the right materials for my dream centerpieces - succulent dog topiaries! Our wedding theme consisted of our colors: Mint & Marigold, a little bit of Moroccan influence, succulents, and our two fur babies, Beatle and Nietszche. It would have been perfect to carry the dog motif from the invitations to the tabletops, but alas, no affordable dog topiary forms that fit my under-10k-for-the-whole-thing budget could be found. I had grown, collected and foraged for the succulents that would eventually be made into modern white and gold-sprayed centerpieces that worked and were beautiful.  




But last week on a trip down an aisle in Target's garden area, I found an end cap with these amazing wire dogs. There they were! The form for my dog topiary! Only a year late, but marked down from $40 to $12! So I had to get one and and make my little guy for the back yard.