02 Jun, 2009
Travel is a luxury. Period. But it is the one luxury that I would work my rear end off again and again in order to afford. While it is nice to ride up front in the plane, where the oxygen levels and personal space make for a far more comfortable trip,…
16 May, 2009
The day after the “big birthday dinner,” we had three guests over for some hearty salads and a roast beef hash (recipe of that coming up in the days ahead). It was a far more casual gathering, with tables stripped of linens. But as the dinner discussion turned markedly adult-boring, the Teen…
15 May, 2009
No, I have never taken a course. I think you just learn by doing. You take notice of what others do. And you learn over time what things might work better than others. For the dinner table, I like to have very intense small arrangements that are nearly all flowers,…
15 May, 2009
The occasion was a friend’s surprise 60th birthday party. We were asked if we would host a dozen guests for a sit-down dinner in our home and of course we agreed. This had to a be a super special dinner and the table had to be dressed appropriately for the event. …
08 May, 2009
Here are some not so difficult “do-it -yourself” Mother’s Day flowers that won’t break the bank. Up top some potted amaryllis (in this case happily planted in terra cotta pots) purchased for some PHP110-120 per pot at garden centers, plant shows or weekend markets. Just add some dampened moss to the base,…
05 May, 2009
My mom was an avid amateur grower of orchids. She had a lot of vandas (her favorite), phalaenopsis (butterfly or moth orchids) and denrobiums (so easy to keep happy), cattleyas (a multiple bloom from one of her cattleyas was cause for major celebration) as well as lots and lots of other more “native”…
01 May, 2009
Just a quick post for a few of the readers who have emailed me asking about the arrangement featured earlier, here, for the Teen’s graduation day… So many folks seem intimidated by doing a floral arrangement themselves, when it is often very EASY to do, and you save some 60-80% of the cost…
29 Apr, 2009
Yup, it seems like just a few blinks of the eye since the “princess” popped out of her mother nearly 14 years ago. I recall the tense early morning wait in the hospital by myself, and checking her out as soon as I could, to see if all ten fingers and toes were…