NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

wink away your tears // yoshitomo nara


I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. 
I see your beauty. I hear your need. 
I feel your feelings. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

~xx



Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

WE'LL INHERIT THE EARTH

say • o • na • ra november.

what a volatile month. the tragic aftermath of sandy. its innocent victims. ravaged landscape. a city in darkness. no gas.

the election !!!

the crazy work schedule. the puppy puncture wounds. the animal hospital. and the bill. my left foot.* the mysterious disappearance of my contact list {again}. email and server issues. challenges big and small and some pretty insignificant.

explanation : apparently mercury was in retrograde for those of you who did not know. 

although i'm not buying it. maybe it was a wake up call to sit up and slow down. to be more aware. to re-examine. to take action! who knows what the universe is up to at any given time and what it has in store but we are truly vulnerable to the unpredictable force of nature. respect yourself, respect your neighbor, respect the fallen tree in your front yard. respect LIFE.

november did end on a positive note. there was thanksgiving, with my family, who i was blessed to have with me. they are the only constant presence in my life and for that i'm eternally grateful. i was particularly moved by the fragility of this precious perch we find ourselves, as we raised a glass to all those who are less fortunate. all those suffering. all those gone. i was blessed with another year surrounded by those i love. what more can one ask for.

there was also good news on the flower front. CocoRosie was featured on Style Me Pretty and Unusually Fine last month. a nice way to top off the year. thank you to all who continue to support me in my wild and at times crazy pursuits.

here's to a dazzling december !

/ / xx

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~ ancient indian proverb

all pre and post sandy photos of Prospect Park // Brooklyn Waterfront // I heart New York were taken with the iphone 645 pro app.

as for my left foot, it's been giving me trouble. with all the physical work this business demands

i'm not surprised the body is feeling a bit worse for wear by this time of year. so looking forward to putting my feet up for just a spell.  

we'll inherit the earth

MORE ON ADVENTURE

i forgot to include Scotland in my last post.

 i was reminded of this today, as i continued to loop these two brilliant wedding videos by We Are the Parsons. they captured the wedding of Jonas Peterson, who was married in Gotland Scotland. if you don't know of him or his work, you can witness his extraordinary talent here.

i do scan a handful of wedding blogs and every once in a blue you happen upon something extra special. these are a work of art -- intimate, moving, inspiring -- full of warmth and love. and definitely worth sharing.

--> the teaser

and the

--> the wedding day

you can also scan the scores of still photographs from this lovely affair at WEARETHEBLOGGERS

enjoy the evening, supper and your loved ones~

// xx

all images ~ wearetheparsons

IT'S ALL IN THE LEAVES

this post comes to you a lot later than planned. in fact it was originally entitled Blue Moon and Summer's Last Dance, but so much time has passed. in any event i'll tell it to you anyway, the way i intended before autumn took hold and i lost my blog swagger. at the time i was writing this, the kale was simmering in the yellow pot and i was seasoning the basa in the pyrex. a leftover bottle of bordeaux from sunday's meatballs and gravy kept me company as did the pup. sundays are for football now and i usually spend them by the stove with silas while the BF visits his pops. i've started really cooking again. there was not much time for it in summer. i've realized i feel most at home in the kitchen and i've discovered wherever i am creating i feel most at ease. 

there is a chill in the air and i've been swaddled in scarves for days. anyone that knows me well knows i have a penchant for scarves, two at a time preferably. i love the crisp mornings when the pup's ears are cool and soft to the touch and when i smother him with kisses and he snuggles up to me for extra warmth. it is october, {the month of his birth, one year ago}, and this makes me happy.

on the flip side, not so sad to see summer go really. it was a lot of working weekends and not a whole lot of sun bathing and frolicking in the ocean. while it was a fruitful and productive few months and i was lucky enough to be surrounded by miles of nature's bounty. and though truly thankful for the work and all a bit wiser about this whole flowering bit, i have a feeling, next year, i'll be doing things differently.

i've learned a few things...

I like gin. i'm really proficient when it comes to reading maps. my bird's nest of hair needs more attention and a mane of gray roots begs to be dyed a lot more often. I am slower. {at thinking. walking. reading. cooking... at almost everything it seems}. i'd like to believe this has nothing to do with brain function and everything to do with choice. recognition and choice. these are two things i'll be talking about more.

i like that they call me Miss Coco in the market these days and i am wild about virgin's bower. 

i spend more time with my pup than i do with anyone else {and that's fine by me}. 

i missed the sound of the school run in the morning. so did silas. he loves kids and so do i. it's our morning ritual to greet the little ones and mr. handsome is quite the show stopper.

every girl should have a mountain man in her life, or at least know one, or the dream of one. check this dude out. i've been following his blog for a while now and i am hell bent on making his nettle pesto. 

i live in a nice house on a lovely block in a beautiful neighborhood. i just need a change of scenery once in awhile. plainly put, i need a serious vacation and i miss travel. i'd like to live on a farm again. only this time for a bit longer than 3 months. i'd like to go to Iceland* but not before i go here and here {more on this at a later date}. 

i need to start knitting again and applying red lipstick and comb my hair every night before bed. i'd like to fit into a certain pair of corduroy jeans with a particular waist size by my next birthday and a bit of a heel would be nice once in a while. or even a fancy party to wear it to would be nicer.

my last big wedding was in Rhinebeck and we worked some flower magic. i'm waiting for the gorgeous picks. you can check out some of the instagram snaps here. as many of you can atest, i fail miserably on posting enough proper ones here.

a warm congratulations to all the newlyweds CocoRosie has fashioned with fresh blossoms and unwieldly branches and huge props to my rotating A team that made and continues to make all things possible. i wish you love.


not sure what the last of this year will bring but i hope the sun shines more than not and the shorter the days when darkness sets in early, allow for quieter cozier evenings. and please i know it's early yet but please winter go easy on us. this is always a tough season to muddle through.

well i think i've packed enough into one post. i apologize for running on longer than usual. i had it in me. thank you for also being patient while i continue to ponder what i want this blog to be. it's more than just flowers for me and that's ok. for now it is what it is.

i'll leave you with two thoughts for the week, gratitude and kindness. i plan on practicing both.

have a lovely.

// xx

“...it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing...”

~ Galway Kinnell

{all images ~ Kiki Smith}

LIGHT IN AUGUST* and a birthday wish

it's astonishing how time seems to move more rapidly the older one gets. i remember as a kid, the summer days stretching long and wide and when labor day and back to school seemed far out of reach. august always brought a warmer ocean and jelly fish up on the shore and even as the days were getting shorter it was the peak of the season. since we always took a family vacation at the end of the month there was still so much to look forward to. august also was a time for celebration for the only Leo in the family, my mom. i always thought it was super cool to have a summer birthday, as mine falls in the dead of winter on a fairly insignificant day submitting to the one before. for me new year's day is a not so subtle reminder that yes it is a new year and yes you are another year older. but something extraordinary happens as you watch your own parents navigate the golden years of their life. as you witness the fragility old age brings you tend to see everything in a much different light. life lessons you can't find in a book. and you suddenly realize that each birthday is a gift and you are blessed with an amazing life and it is your responsibility to live it as authentically as possible. {i'm still learning how}

in my current line of work, it is the flowers and plants and trees... that are a constant reminder of the life cycle and mark the change in seasons so vividly. nature's way of nudging us to make every moment of everyday count. last week i shared my passion for flowers with my mom who celebrated her seventy ninth birthday and begins her eightieth year. after all she is the one with the good genes and the green thumb. you should see her garden.

{ for Norma ~ happy birthday }

Morning Poem

Every morning

the world

is created. 

Under the orange 

sticks of the sun

the heaped

ashes of the night

turn into leaves again 

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---

and the ponds appear

like black cloth

on which are painted islands 

of summer lilies. 

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails 

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere. 

And if your spirit

carries within it 

the thorn

that is heavier than lead ---

if it's all you can do

to keep on trudging --- 

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted --- 

each pond with its blazing lilies

is a prayer heard and answered

lavishly, every morning, 

whether or not

you have ever dared to be happy, 

whether or not

you have ever dared to pray. 

~Mary Oliver


{ since i last posted the universe has lost a few artistic souls. some of my heroes. they shared so much while they were here... chavela vargas // anna piaggi // david rakoff }



*. . .in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. ~ William Faulkner {Light in August}

COUNTRY LIVING

last week the pup and i drove north to the beautiful farmland of upstate new york. it was our first solo road trip and we had a blast. off leash, untethered, roaming among the haystacks, curiously curious to all the sights and sounds of the low lying brush and lush landscape. i want to thank my generous friends for opening their home to us and feeding us delicious food and for keeping the wine and conversation flowing. and silas thanks you for all the goodies he so stealthily managed to scavenge from the compost bin. we'll be back : )

double decker wedding weekend ahead. team CocoRosie on the move. stay tuned.

{i love the last pic of the cy man. he looks like a zen master. more and more these days. i've nicknamed him 'bodhi' and he seems cool with that.}

// xx

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. ~E.E. Cummings

ASLEEP ON A SUNBEAM*

Think about a new destination
If you think you need inspiration
Roll out the map and mark it with a pin
I will follow every direction
Just lace up your shoes while I’m fetching a sleeping bag, a tent...
Another summer’s passing by
All I need is somewhere I feel the grass beneath my feet
A walk on sand, a fire I can warm my hands
My joy will be complete.

1.2.3.4. Laura Letinsky


i've been enjoying my new steady diet of hard boiled eggs and gin and tonics. nothing like a little protein and a highball cocktail to celebrate the dog days of summer. i retreat to the studio to prepare for yet another summer soiree. looks like we need trash bags and rags. oh the glamour that is the flower biz.

// xx

*Belle and Sebastian

THE KISS

i was asked to design a floral arrangement, using Gustav Klimt's painting, The Kiss, as inspiration.

and so i did.

{CocoRosie florals featured in the july issue of Brides}

Klimt was 45 when he painted The Kiss, still living with his mother and two unmarried sisters.

off for a few days to hear the sounds of silence. i leave you with a lil sufjan lullaby.

enjoy the holiday ~ xx

Tomber amoureux. To fall in love. Does it occur suddenly or gradually? If gradually, when is the moment “already”? I would fall in love with a monkey made of rags. With a plywood squirrel. With a botanical atlas. With an oriole. With a ferret. With a marten in a picture. With the forest one sees to the right when riding in a cart to Jaszuny. With a poem by a little-known poet. With human beings whose names still move me. And always the object of love was enveloped in erotic fantasy or was submitted, as in Stendhal, to a “cristallisation,” so it is frightful to think of that object as it was, naked among the naked things, and of the fairy tales about it one invents. Yes, I was often in love with something or someone. Yet falling in love is not the same as being able to love. That is something different. 

~ Falling in Love, Czeslaw Milosz

EXIT STAGE LEFT

every so often i lose my 'joie de vivre' for new york. like now. when this happens i want to run not walk, so far, from this place i call home. most of the time the quick fix is to book a trip and get out of dodge for a spell. these days it's the long term solution that i ponder most. a decision i'll need to make at some point. but for now i'll suck it up and suffer through another summer in the greatest city in the world {besides paris, that is}.

happy birthday weegee //


i've been on a netflix kick lately, mostly Robert Altman and Francois Truffaut and my latest fav film pick.


i do do new england weddings. i will be retreating to a magical place, just a stone's throw from cape cod this weekend. not sure why i didn't turn this into a mini vacation in the planning stages. see you on the other side.




// xx




...quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean “love” in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again. I remember walking across Sixty-second Street one twilight that first spring, or the second spring, they were all alike for a while. I was late to meet someone but I stopped at Lexington Avenue and bought a peach and stood on the corner eating it and knew that I had come out out of the West and reached the mirage. ~joan didion

FLORA DELANICA

i received a lovely gift this week. 

 

{the paper garden}

a graceful meditation on botany, nature life and age... {NYT book review}

The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness. I feel more reverence as I grow for these mute creatures whose suspense or transport may surpass my own. ~Emily Dickinson ca. April 1873

// xx

HALF FULL

morning friends. i had yet another rock star* dream last night. this will make three within the last month. a bit perplexed by the nature of them, however, i'm not complaining. dreaming means i'm sleeping. these days anyway.

sourcing vessels for an upcoming event on the other coast. this boutique is da bomb.

i am weening myself off coffee {yet again}, down to one cup in the morning. and dairy. and carbs. we'll see how this goes.


listening to my soul man clarence.

on the hit list. {sans the bowl cut}

the butterfly effect.

does anybody remember laughter ?

*rock star. {will remain anonymous ;}




We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. 
~Ray Bradbury  {1920 - 2012}



// xx

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS

Hannah Duckworth Westminster 2012 Graduate collection.

in an attempt to lighten things up, i'm on a mission to find some summery frocks. inspired by said sherbet color palette above. even my flower order this week takes a page from this ensemble.

listening to this oldie and thinking of yet another summer, waxing nostalgic for all the summers of years gone by. oh how i used to love to sing this song, top down, shoulders tan, warm wind in my face. not a care in the world. so much promise.

next up, big connecticut weekend wedding in the works. there will be peonies but more importantly there will be friends.

and in other big news. i posted a pin to pinterest today.  {hint: bubble gum}

// xx

LOVE IS KIND

f l o w e r i n g  s h r u b    { w a l k e r  e v a n s }


it was exactly a year ago that we were knee deep in boxes. moving from the 3rd floor to the parlor level, just a half a block away. the heat was brutal and the last days of sloppy sweat in the brick faced living room were tense. i'm a capricorn you see. we don't do change well. as much as i embraced a new beginning, i was a mixed bag of emotions. i think this had less to do with the actual move than it had to do with the tide of change happening around me. {love is patient} my brother was married the day i moved. eloping in the valley of Taos with his now lovely wife. he was on his way east after many years on the west coast. he would return home married and much different from when he left. the boy and i were also taking a step forward into a new abode. we were finally rid of a looney tunes landlord and for weeks whenever he entered into our new space he remarked "this place is awesome." 

a year of adjustment followed for all of us.

in that year i hung curtains and debated whether to slap a coat of color on the whiter than white walls. i continued to grow my business. i hosted my family for thanksgiving and took a bath in my new tub, something i couldn't do in my old place. in mid december our puppy arrived {love is found} and chaos ensued and then normal returned. a new normal.

as i reflect back on the past twelve months and some of those crazy hazy days, i am reminded how full my life is {love is present}. the cycle begins again. it is hot. {love is constant}



xx


You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults. ~william faulkner

IN THE MOMENT

heat wave. curtains drawn. windows wide. an army of ants circle the sill. the threat of rain. thunder then lightning. pup retreats under the desk. at my feet. a sigh. followed by another. coffee's cold. head down. running lists. taking notes. fan hums. light's low. listening to BPB. shower soon. out i'll go. flower i will.

i will. i will. i will. 

for those of you who don't follow me on the instagram. 


holy tree peonies and the cy man.

“Some make their worlds without knowing it. Their universes are just sesame seeds and three-day weekends and dial tones and skinned knees and physics and driftwood and emerald earrings and books dropped in bathtubs and holes in guitars and plastic and empathy and hardwood and heavy water and high black stockings and the history of the Vikings and brass and obsolescence and burnt hair and collapsed souffles and the impossibility of not falling in love in an art museum with the person standing next to you looking at the same painting and all the other things that just happen and are.” ~jonathan safran foer

// xx