Uptown

I've got things to talk about that aren't tree peonies. Funny though, because I have no recollection of what they are. I've been digging in the troves of iphoto and found these from a photo shoot of a fancy interior designer. I wish I could have snapped a photo of the room it went into but it was all hush hush and no pictures please. Big black lacquered square dining tables with walls lined with magenta silk shantung and a crazy massive chandelier situation. I needed a photo name badge to enter into the service ahem servants entrance. Outside the building Gossip Girl was shooting.

There is a small thrill in peaking into lives like that. And an even bigger sense of relief coming home to a chubby cat, a studio littered with spent stems, and a life that doesn't demand once weekly manicures. Things as they are are okay by me.

Thanksgiving

The turkey is in the oven and the table needs to be set. My sister and I are going to make some little arrangements with the last of the persian carpet zinnias and the deep red nasturtiums, cutting with reckless abandon since first frost can't be far off. My hands smell like onions and sage. I have slippers on. It's happening.

I had hoped to take some pretty photos at home of the progress, but I forgot my camera's battery charger back in the city. Without it, this weekend is going to be an exercise in appreciating moments as they happen. Moments filled with thanks and gratitude. And pie.

Millbrook: part two

I must confess, my head is miles from Millbrook. I've spent the past week and a half soaking up sun in southern Florida after making flowers for a party in West Palm Beach hosted by the very same bride who brought us to Millbrook in the first place. But again we will suspend time and space to have a bit of fall dreaming.

To get to this little spot in the woods, we had to drive down the most precariously rocky, cliff-side, one lane path (to call it a road would be misleading). With foamy waterfalls on the left, mossy boulders on the right and swirling yellow leaves all around- it was textbook October. Sun-shiny, nippy, see your breath but forget the gloves October. To work outside in places like this, making meaningful things for people that appreciate them, and to call that work, is overwhelming.

Millbrook, New York

Back when fall wasn't a distant memory, we went to Millbrook to do a wedding. It was at a private hunting lodge and the bride was a really fantastic New York interior designer. It took 6 of us 2 days to do the set-up and in between we ate chinese and huddled by the fire at my grandfather's old house in Connecticut. Leaves swirled, fall happened (and I noticed.)

We hung 80 feet of garland, we felled 14 small trees, we dangled 30 lanterns, we sustained ourselves on nothing but pita chips and pirates booty in a cabin with no electricity or running water, we braved the outhouse- we pretty much moved mountains. Thank you to Frankie, Siri, Liza, Katie and Frank!

At some point I will show you photos from the tent, but until then read this interview or make this wreath.