Just like the rest of the year, I think holiday flowers should reflect what you like. I was in the mood for pink, looking for raspberry colored taper candles and found these coral ones. They looked so pretty with these carnations and dark oak. Carnations can look a bit floristy and stiff so I picked some ferns and blackberry foliage to tone it down and look a bit more lived in and soft.
An overcast day with a little drizzle that finally feels like November, calls for some hot chocolate.
A good chance to use these beautiful vintage Arabia of Finland coffee cups I thrifted a few months ago, the pattern is such a sweet treat. A Thursday afternoon, having hygge. I also love using my mom’s heart napkins from Odense that I remember so dearly from childhood.
Happy boy loading up on marshmallows!
Spent some time in one of my favorite places to celebrate my 40th birthday. A place on the coast my family started going to in 1976, before I was born.
Snipped a small bouquet of chive flowers, nasturtium, borage, lavender, shungiku, fennel and, of course a few Shasta daisies just before dinner on my birthday.
This was my son’s first visit and he loved it. I loved watching him walk along the paths of my childhood and down the rickety, wooden stairs to the beach. Most of those planks have been there since I was his age! The beach is one of the most magical, hidden coves.
It’s so restorative to be back, so calm. A lot has changed over the years, but the Japanese soaking tub in the gazebo has not. I have memories from soaks here over the last four decades. Pennyroyal and salty grasses on the breeze, sea lions barking in the distance. It is amazing.
Forty seemed like a big number before. Who would I be? But, the older I get and as I see people from my youth in their 70’s, I realize it doesn’t really mean much. I know myself better and feel like I’ve come into myself more the last few years. That is age, that is motherhood, experience, life. It keeps going and all of your experences keep adding up and you keep evolving (hopefully). Soak it in. This is life.
The other day, my son told me he wanted to celebrate his bear’s 100th birthday. And he would need a cake, or maybe cupcakes. That sounded fun to me so we went to look for a couple of cupcakes and found this little birthday celebration cake that looked like the perfect size for the two of us, his bear and all of his other babies that would be there to celebrate. Also, it had rainbow sprinkles and that makes all the differnce! Childhood is so fleeting it’s important to celebrate these things.
Celebrating a big birthday this week. Picked this little bouquet last night and it feels so vibrant, so fresh, so festive. My favorite flowers nowadays take a few minutes to put together.
‘I brake for wildflowers’ bumper sticker by Maria Schoettler, take a look at my visit to her studio last summer. Botanical journal by Jill Bliss.
Imagine being invited to Tasha Tudor’s house for lunch. What flowers would you take to such an icon? Images of meadows and daisies come to mind when I think of her. At first, this seemed daunting but then I realized like most flower lovers, we are happy when people do just that; bring us flowers!
To me, Tasha embodies the love for the natural world, finding delight in the garden, field or down a road. I picked grasses and ferns and dandelions and whatever was close by. It felt truest to me to have a free and wild-flower feeling bouquet that I could have picked along the road to her house!
I added a few daisies, short stems but oh-so-cute!
I’m sure there would be some tea…
Edible flowers are so popular now, they are dripping off of plates everywhere! Even if they aren’t the main focus they are pretty as a garnish. One thing floral designers have always run into is using fresh flowers to decorate wedding cakes. Clients will show photos of cakes decorated for a photoshoot, not really to be eaten and want to do something similar. It can be tricky, but do a little research BEFORE you use flowers in or on your food. Is it edible? Was it grown to eat?
These were just for photos, not meant to be eaten and include things I wouldn’t eat. Always check it out BEFORE you use them. Flowers on the side of the road are beautiful, but covered in toxins and should never be used with food.
It’s late May and field grown strawberries are plentiful. One of my favorite summer desserts is a Danish fruit pudding (with cream) that truly celebrates berries and uses them at their peak flavor. I shared a recipe for Rødgrød Med Fløde last summer here.
Ceramic peace plate by Ariel Clute.
I cut some beautiful apple branches at my friend’s house for Easter. Of course, before I put them inside and decorated them with eggs I had to take some photos.
Hopefully they don’t blow open today and will last through the weekend.
A few flowering quince with some painted eggs looks sweet for Easter.
Easter is almost here. I love decorating for it with all the spring bits that are coming to life. The great spring mash-up where all the colors and flowers go together and are beautiful!
I bought a dozen quail eggs from a local farm that my beloved produce store carries, the speckles are wonderful and celebrate the season. I’ll decorate eggs with my son just before Easter, but I do love decorating with and photographing bare eggs, like these previous years.
Doing flowers or any other kind of decorating is an expression of you and doesn’t have to be hard. Use what you have, a little goes a long way and experiment.
Some Easter decor from other years, Kashmir eggs, egg cups, or floral rings.
What could be sweeter than a plate full of flowers? Chocolate cake (maybe)?!
This is a very simple old stand-by chocolate cake I’ve been making for years. It can be dressed up with frosting or eaten simply as an afternoon snack. It’s a depression-era cake which means you probably have all of ingredients in your cupboard and it doesn’t call for eggs or dairy so, it’s vegan.
Vegan Chocolate Cake
preheat oven to 350
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons cocoa power
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon vinegar
In a large bowl, sift all of the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Stir until there are no lumps. Bake in a greased 8 inch pan for 35 minutes.
All photos & styling Silvanie Farmar Bowers
You’re never too old!
We all want a little magic on our birthday. A bit of glitter and rainbows can put a smile on anyone’s face. This is how I’m imagining a birthday celebration.
I’m a sucker for wrapping paper - bought this one years ago in Japantown. Looks super cute with this vintage lace edging.
A little fairy ring.
All photos and styling by Silvanie Farmar Bowers
I absolutely delight in the idea that there is magic outside, unknown spaces of play and imagination. When I was a child, I dreamed of seeing flower fairies, after my mother's suggestion that they were fluttering around the wild orchids on the drive up our wooded road. If only I could be quick enough to see them for just one second!
This spring, I started making bouquets of wisps of leaves, fruit and flowers small enough for a fairy and turned into an almost weekly ritual (#fairybouquetfriday).
Just a few minutes and just a few flowers, and of course a few photos!
All photos and flowers by Silvanie Farmar Bowers
More non-dyed, bare, in the buff eggs. I love the soft, natural colors of the eggs themselves with bright spring flowers.
I always love the mix of colors during spring, and a little can go a long way. This is only two stems of lilac, a few crabapple branches, a few freesia, a handful of forget-me-not stems and a few snips of viola and maiden hair fern from pots on my front porch. Most people have more things to cut outside than they think. Mix it up, even pulling up a dandelion or two and putting them in a small bowl or terra-cotta pot with some eggs around is sweet.
Time to clean up...
All flowers, styling and photography by Silvanie Farmar Bowers.
These eggs are about as simple as it gets. I had grand ideas about using the viola I pressed in the antique colors I've been obsessing over the last few weeks. But, after getting dozens and dozens of fresh eggs from my sister's chickens, I decided I wanted to look at the bare eggs. All of the eggshell variations are so beautiful just the way they are. Soft, buff, speckled, green and brown.
All flowers, styling and photography by Silvanie Farmar Bowers
Not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but I think it is nice for children. We've been cutting out paper hearts to put in our windows.
