Valentine's Day - what's that?

Right, the questions of all questions...what is the origin of this lovey-dovey holiday?

Lets go back to 270 A.D. During this time the iron-fisted emperor, Claudius, was enlisting men to fight in his mighty, manly wars. These poor, sensitive male recruits, however, didn't wish to leave their sweethearts to wage battles in far away lands. This angered the feisty Claudius, hence he forbid any marriages to be performed and cancelled all engagements - the nerve!

Cue in Valentine, a popular and kindly priest, who secretly arranged marriages within his church. Claudius, armed with a anger for this sort of romantic, gooey disobedience, promptly jailed Valentine and sent these poor love struck men to fight in his bloody wars.

Here is where my little funky history lesson gets interesting. Now the People Magazine twist on all this was that while incarcerated, Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter, hmmmm. He wrote her woozy, swoony, beautiful love letters signed, "from Your Valentine". Awwww! Basically, he made a martyr of himself...and, so naturally, he is known as the patron saint of lovers and for those wishing to marry. Hence, a holiday was born!

Sooooo, get on it love struck lads - a romantic expression speaks volumes! Got flowers? For San Diego ordering information, please send an email inquiry to: info@asmithfloral.com. We'll get you set up for sweet love this Valentine's Day.

Cheers,

Adrianne

'The Road Not Taken'

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost

I awoke Thanksgiving morning to a brisk and invigorating invitation. A fine day for fresh air before the traditional pig out...and Bothe Napa Valley State Park was calling us. With my husband, my best pal and 3 other friends hoofing it upward on a spongy path - we found ourselves in the shadow of a north-east facing ridge; tree covered with redwoods, maples, sycamore, manzanita and a myriad of mysterious oaks - not my usual acorny suspects from Southern California. It had rained earlier that week, and a dampness hung to the golden leaves littering the trail and creek bed. Moss clung to every thing dead, decaying or free from direct sunlight. Textures so fern-ladden and fuzzy I swore I was on some kind of Trekkie planet...you know the one with the "tribbles"? Or, in that weird fantasy film "Legend" with once naive Tom Cruise (pre sofa stunt on Oprah and the Scientology) and scary Tim Curry (from Rocky Horror Picture Show) as the evil beast, cue in the unicorn! AND, then along came the fungus! Seriously, we may have seen 30 different varieties of mushrooms...it was quite magical and mysterious. Was I really there or was it just a beautiful dream?

Cheers,

Adrianne

Gad zukes, Scooby...these are real mums!

Ok - I am so fired up... Exquisite Weddings Magazine table top decor photo shoot countdown, less than 20 hours!

I had such a freak out when I saw these 6" diameter China mums (a.k.a. - "chrysanthemums grandes") last week. When I picked them up from my wholesale floral peeps today I may have popped a vein in my eyeball and said, "Zoinks!" They are so frickin' fat and gorgeous. Mustard colored, and I don't mean "French's Mustard"...FYI, that's not real mustard. "French's Mustard" is only legal to those US citizens under the age of 12 who, sadly, via the disgraceful permission of their weak parents are allowed to slather this stuff onto their hotdogs! Thankfully, this sad and forbidden condiment does not exist if you were blessed enough to be born and raised in Europe, right? Heck, they even let their fine Euro youth sip wine at the ripe age of 12! So, the mustard yellow I am refering to is "dijon-esque", a sophisticated muted Euro-yellow w/a hint of grey meets apricot at a swinging, yet spicy party - do you know that of which I write? Hope so. More photos to follow...tomorrow is going to be so groovy delicious, I can taste it!

Tonight, I shall dream of REAL mustard colored mums - aaaaahhh. And, maybe, of cyclist George Hincapie too...hee hee. Look him up google style :-)

HINT: Someone needs Scooby snack!

Cheers,
Adrianne

gad zukes, Scooby! These are real mums!

a-MUSE-ing

I love this four letter word, muse. When a muse speaks to me, it is in a very LOUD and clear voice! So much so that I will suddenly spasm violently, bug my eyes out and say silly things like "oooh, oooh, oooh!" or "OMG, word!" or "bloody brilliant!" Yes, when inspiration strikes not only do I lose most motor skills, but I become possessed by a zombie state madly sketching and taking notes on a cardboard box top or the like; totally fixated and mesmerized by an invisible force. If someone enters the studio zone whilst I am lost in my state of muse, and speaks to me - I usually scream and collapse under buckling knees; BTW I do startle VERY easily. Ask my husband or any ASFD team peep, it's really kind of spooky.


My amusing muse of the week is birch branches; mossy ones, leafless ones, "Blair Witch Project" ones - you get it. An upcoming photo shoot for Exquisite Weddings Magazine http://www.exquisiteweddingsmagazine.com/ has me giddy with anticipation. I am teamed up with master event planner Mary Noble of http://www.marynoblesclassicweddings.com/ ... going to be beautiful, birch branchy and amusing, just a gut feeling!



Cheers,

Adrianne

Got pesto?

Having a real farmer for a father growing up certainly had it's perks. We always had great home grown veggies - squash, artichokes, tomatoes, chard, beets, snow peas...rolling with the seasons, it was ever changing and exciting to see what came up next. Note: I was the harvester while Dad did all the real grunt work. I think he liked it that way being the veteran green thumb that he was.

Fast forward to 25 years later. My husband and I finally live at a place convenient for a raised planter bed. After our first "box farm" was born, I was filled with mulchy glee! I did, however, have this inner fear...that what if after all our efforts I somehow manage to kill everything!? Afterall, I do work solely with cut floral; not living, breathing green plants. Voila, magic occurred - we grew 3 types of tomatoes, Japanese eggplants, Padron peppers de Espana, herbs and sunflowers! Damn, I was good! To protect the fruits of our labor, I battled evil caterpillars and other buggy vermin daily...and, hell, looked I won! Summer has come and gone, the box farm is a mess of dead vines and withered limbs but the one thing that keeps on thriving are 2 fat daddy sweet basil plants. I became a pesto factory this year...and here's my recipe, eat up.

BOX FARM PESTO

3 cups loose packed basil leaves

3 cloves of crushed garlic

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/4+ cup good olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

sea salt

fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup of grated Parmasen cheese

Place all stuff in blender and puree the heck out of it. If too thick, scrape down the sides of blender and add more oil and/or lemon juice. Adjust the salt and pepper to your liking. Sometimes a dash of crushed red pepper flakes gives it edge. Serve with warm pasta or on top of grilled fish or chicken. Store in fridge for up to a week.

The team, my peeps

The kind of work my team and I do is quite physical. We are constantly moving heavy objects, being sliced and poked by spiny thorns or branches, plunging our manly hands in and out of water, cleaning and prepping mysterious equipment and accessories often with volatile chemicals and did I mention we stand on our feet for 8-12 hours at a time whilst designing? So, what's the upside of being floral designers? Creating beautiful things, duh!

ASFD teammate, Heather Rose (check the name too, no foolin'!), is a gift. Seriously intuitive and nurturing to the core...she always finds the best use of each other's talents and time, then quickly executes 20+ stunning centerpieces, sweeps up floral shrapnel like a windswept faerie and, on occasion, even makes us all lunch! A loving wife and mother of 3 kick-ass teenage kids, she knows how to keep wheels in motion. And in the 11th hour, when team ASFD starts to melt, she promptly puts "The Best of Blondie" CD in the tune box. What's not love about this woman? She is filled with great mojo and is purely precious to the core. Get to know her.

Cheers,

Adrianne