Monday, August 31, 2009

DIY Cinder Block Planter!

I love coming across DIY projects that are pretty simple but look so nice! This modern cinder block planter idea is perfect, with supplies that are easy to come by and putting it together is just as simple. They are filled with easy to grow beautiful succulents - the inspiration comes from Annette at {Pot-ted}, a nursery and patioscaping company. Here's how she did it:

- The wall was built with 12" cinder blocks
- Liquid nails were used to hold them together so there wouldn't be grout lines and would also allow for flexibility.
- The planting is new and as it fills in and starts trailing, it is going to look even better.
- The use of cinder blocks allows for many different iterations you could make depending on how much space you have.
- They are also really cheap and can be painted if you want to match them to your decor.

The coolest part is that they have a chair in their patio like the one I {found} at {The Gardener} in Berkeley!

Brides and Babies!

A big HELLO to our former brides!

We hope you are doing well and we are curious to see cute, sweet pictures of your new babies that have been born since we helped you with your wedding. We would like to do a big blog with all of the "Sisters Babies" to show just how many bright, new faces there are in this crazy world!

Please email any pictures that you would like to share to emily@sistersflowers.net. We are looking forward to seeing those cute little bundles from our brides!!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Outdoor Wedding at Forest Park Golf Club

Here are some snapshots of an outdoor wedding that we recently helped design at Forest Park Golf Club. Liesl and RJ had both their ceremony and reception there this past July.



The flower colors for the wedding were fresh greens and pinks.





This bridal bouquet was very garden-y for the outdoor ceremony.





We set up our chuppah on the patio outside for the ceremony.


We used family tallises to decorate the chuppah. The July weather threatened to storm for the wedding, and did for a little while, but everything stayed nice just long enough the ceremony.



Candles were lit to honor the couple's passed relatives.







Thanks to the staff at Forest Park Golf Club for being awesome to work with, as always.
Best wishes to the bride and groom!!


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

MoMA Store ~ Espresso Set

Check out this great {Espresso Set}, by the Felina Sok-Cham, the winner of the student design contest through {MoMA Store}. This can be used to serve espresso or even appetizers and desserts. I especially love this because of how much Armenian coffee my family drinks and serves to guests. I always hated carrying a tray full of cups and saucers that would always slide around and sometimes spill. This seems like a great solution with the plates/coasters essentially locked into their place on the tray. This was found via {NOTCOT.org}.

S'mores & Brownies :)

These are two great finds from the {Papery & Cakery} {blog}. I loved the idea of having {S'mores} at a wedding, or any party for that matter. This can work for both outdoor events that actually have a fire pit to use or individual table-top s'mores kits, like the ones made by {Cosi}! There are a few ways to do this, either by having a table set up with all the fixings for the s'mores or packing up individual baggies for your guests to use. The second great idea is giving your guest favors that they can make use of, not some little tchotchke that people usually don't know what to do with when they get home. I think this is a great idea, giving your {cupcake mix favors} to go home and bake a sweet treat. It is a favor that is filled with love and extra attention.

Linocut Maps!

After spending two months working on this lino cut of Paris, {Mark Andrew Webber} has completed yet another one of his city map carvings. So far he has done London, New York, and Amsterdam (first image). This takes an unbelievable amount of patience and determination and I admire that. The map of Paris is 150cm X 180cm.

ten.ten.ten on Great Day St. Louis!!


Check out the top 3 Finalists on Great Day St. Louis tomorrow on Channel 4. We are so excited for this opportunity to showcase our amazing Top 3 LIVE!! Tune in or Tivo/DVR at 10am to meet the Top 3 couples and fall in love with them all like we have. Start to follow and support your favorite!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Seasnoal Peonies, Sweet Pea, and Ranunculus

Earlier this year, we designed very spring-looking bouquets for one of our brides. We used seasonal flowers including peonies, ranunculus, and sweet pea for the bride and her maids. Here are some shots we took just before delivery.




This bridal bouquet showcased green hydrangea as a background, ivory roses, and white sweet pea. The sweet pea is the paper thin, clam-shaped flower seen all throughout the bouquet.









The bridesmaids carried these bouquets of white peonies and orange/coral ranunculus.



All three of these flowers come in many different colors and can be used in different ways. Ask about their availability for your wedding or event!


Thursday, August 20, 2009

June Wedding for Tricia and Matt

This wedding was such a pleasure to be a part of! Tricia and her family were wonderful clients and the wedding palate was so much fun to work with! Here are some snapshots that we took of Tricia's bouquet which was a mixture of whites and ivories with hints of green including roses, peonies and stephanotis. Check out the monogrammed satin ribbon wrap!

















The following photos are by Browers. They show the gorgeous ceremony at the Shrine of St. Joseph and reception at the Chase.


The bride admires the flower girl's kissing ball in raspberry and green.












The bridesmaids' flowers were chosen to help accentuate the color of the dresses and really give a pop of color.









































Sincere congratulations to Tricia & Matt and their families!


Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Pasta Shop & Teance

This is it from my day trip to Berkeley. {The Pasta Shop - Rockridge Market Hall} and {Teance} were my last two stops of the day. Rockridge Market Hall's "Pasta Shop" location is amazing! I wish, wish, wish we had a market like this in San Luis Obispo. I haven't been somewhere like this, with fresh pasta, a huge selection of cheese, fresh produce, ingredients and products from around the world, sauces, and a great selection of prepared foods. This is pure heaven for anyone who loves to cook! Teance was right next door, where their mission is to promote authentic fine teas and re-introduce the culture of appreciating tea. They carry only the most pure, premium, and seasonal whole leaf teas possible - introducing the consumer to the enjoyment, health benefits, and serenity that comes with drinking tea. In their Berkeley retail store, they have a beautiful tea bar where you can sit and enjoy any of their fine teas. The coolest parts, other than the fact that this was my first experience in a store dedicated to teas with a tea bar in it, was the awesome fountain right in the middle of the store with water pouring down from the shower above and the awesome structural piece hanging from the ceiling!

Caprese sandwich for dinner :)

Today, I wanted to find another way to use the fresh tomatoes and basil I have, as well as the baguette from the Acme Bread Co - so I decided on a Caprese sandwich. Fresh mozarella, tomato, basil, red onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and BREAD! Mmmmmm. I tried to do that no carb/low carb stuff...and by tried I mean thought about it for a bit then had pasta and a sandwich for two meals of my day :)

Acme Bread Company ~ Est. 1983

Another Berkeley, CA gem is the Acme Bread Co - a nationally acclaimed artisan bread bakery. Steve Sullivan, the founder and owner, says that after all these years, the number one goal is to bake outstanding bread. Acme uses only organic flour as well as working closely with farmers - evaluating and selecting grain varieties for its flour every year. They work around the clock - 3 shifts of bakers a day - seven days a week at the Berkeley bakery to meet the high demands. At its newer and only other location, in the bakery in {San Francisco Ferry Building}, breads are baked fresh throughout the day in the hearth oven. It was 25 years ago, as a busboy at Berkeley's famous {Chez Panisse} restaurant where he worked while attending UC Berkeley, that he became interested in baking bread. Eventually after bread baking became a serious hobby, Alice Waters requested that he bake bread in the Chez Panisse kitchen. In 1983 he and his wife opened their first - now legendary - bakery.

On Monday, before heading back to San Luis Obispo from the Bay Area, I stopped at the Berkeley location to snap a few photos and pick up some fresh breads: Herb Slab for panini-making, a sourdough baguette, and a loaf of olive bread!

Fresh Basil and Heirloom Tomatoes!

My mom has been gardening like mad lately and sent me back home with delicious fresh basil she grew. It smells SO good that I had to make something immediately so I could use it. When I was home we made a very tasty bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes, also from her garden, so that inspired me to make a fresh heirloom tomato pasta sauce :)

I don't really have a specific recipe, since I just kinda threw what came to mind at the time in a pot. The basic idea is butter, olive oil, shallots, garlic, crushed chili peppers, salt, pepper, lemon juice, chopped heirloom tomatoes. I topped it with shaved Parmesan cheese. It was quite yummy if I do say so myself.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"The Gardener" Berkeley, CA

Last weekend I went up north to the Bay Area where my family lives and had a wonderful time - reminding me of how much I miss living there. We spent one of the days in Berkeley - walking around and exploring the shops in the 4th Street shopping district. Though it was a pretty small strip of stores, there were quite a few gems! One of these was {The Gardener}. The Gardener was opened by Alta Tingle in 1984 in Berkeley, CA. In 1987 they moved to the current location, into a space nearly triple the size. The second store was opened in Healdsburg, CA in 1998 in a barn surrounded by a large garden. The third store opened in the new Ferry Building in 2003. I was so happy to have stumbled upon such a great store! They had everything from beautiful garden and outdoor furniture and supplies, seeds to plant fruits and vegetables, and even great interior design and kitchen/dining ware.

Alta is a former garden designer and lecturer on landscape design. She is an avid gardener and photographer as well. "The Gardener is a collection of all the things that Alta, through her talents and interests, has learned to enjoy and appreciate in her life - a great pair of Japanese scissors for cutting flowers, the purest bar of lavender soap, a big ceramic bowl for the kitchen to hold the season's offerings - things that before had required trips to nurseries, hardware and specialty stores."

When it first opened in 1984, the collection at The Gardener was the first to recognized that even the most avid gardener lives indoors. They specialize in carrying accessories and furnishings for indoors and out. Each location offers merchandise specific to that location. It is Alta's lifelong affinity for texture and minimal design that has guided her buying. She is influenced by the season, which has always guided the product selection.

I took some photos of a few favorites as I walked through the store and recommend that if you are ever in the Berkeley area, that you stop by and take a look for yourself! One small detail that I thought was really cool were the {Ceramic Easel Placecards} used with one of the table settings

Monday, August 17, 2009

Beautiful Backyard Reception

Lindsay and Jay were married at the beginning of August. They had a beautiful ceremony at Memorial Presbyterian. Their reception was a very personal expression of their styles held at the home of the bride's family. Here are some shots of the day by Erin Duggin.





Lindsay carried a bouquet of white flowers accented with bright yellow.






Jay's boutonniere complemented his bride's flowers.





The aisle at the ceremony was decorated with both clusters and spheres of wedding flowers.
















The bridesmaids carried a mixture of flowers in bright yellow, orange, white with accents of purple. These bouquets mimicked the color and texture of the bridal bouquet.






The flower spheres from the aisle were transported to the reception to decorate the garden walk way. The dinner and dancing were held under tents in the backyard garden area.






The following photos are from Exclusive Events who provided the gorgeous lighting and lanterns for the tent.











The centerpieces at the guest tables were three vases of different flowers in each vase, clustered as one grouping. Some tables had square vases, some had round vases. The clustered arrangements fit in with the very garden-y look of the whole reception.






What a truly unique and wonderful event to have been a part of! Special thanks to Renee at Weddings by Renee for coordinating the wedding!
Our best wishes to Lindsay and Jay!!

Friday, August 14, 2009

ten.ten.ten Top 3 Reveal

Check out Tuesday's Top 3 Reveal on the ten.ten.ten wedding blog. The vendors surprised the top three couples at their homes and fun ensued! Check it out!

www.tententenweddingblog.com


Stay tuned for more ten.ten.ten info and upcoming activities!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Embracing Water.

The Dutch have been in a constant fight against the tides that rise and fall, building dikes, pumping out water in areas below sea level, etc. Rather than fighting the water that is infiltrating their land, they are using it as a part of a new development called {New Water} which will feature the world's first floating apartment complex - {The Citadel}. This new project was designed by {Koen Olthuis} of {Waterstudio} in the Netherlands. This new complex will use 25% less energy than buildings on land because of the water cooling system. There is a high focus on these energy saving projects. Olthuis has designed several of these floating residences around the world and believes that we should stop trying to contain water and learn to live with it. The New Water and the Citadel projects are an attempt to embrace water in the Netherlands, which is almost completely composed of wetlands. I have also included images of houses build on the wetlands in Holland.

Thread Reel Holder

This is a pretty cool DIY project I found on {Kootoyoo} made by Kirsty, from Melbourne. I always love finding creative storage ideas that look nice at the same time. Living in a pretty small apartment with very little storage space, finding room for my sewing machine, fabrics, thread and all the other supplies is quite difficult. Here is one way to solve my problem! Using an {IKEA} frame and some free pencils, she was able to create this space saving solution. She shaved the pencils down so the cotton reels would fit over them, then spacing the pencils evenly apart on the frame, she glued the ends down using PVA glue. For the most part she tried to match the pencil color to the thread color. This also serves as wall art for your creative space.