last friday i was part of ashley fox's design crew.

ashley masterminded the design, decor and setup for the

spring bridal show at 

   l'atelier couture bridal  in minneapolis mn.

the 4 of us who were her assistants, had no idea what she had planned until

we arrived. we unloaded in the loading dock and took all the 

supplies up an elevator to the 4th floor and the magic was about to begin.

ashley gave us a briefing about the first project- which was to 

carefully & individually, wire dozens and dozens of delphiniums to dowels.

these masterpieces were soon going to be hung from the ceiling!

these pipes (which normally hold all the exquisite bridal gowns) were 

wrapped with smilex. there were beautiful furniture groupings spread out

around the light filled warehouse loft for guests to sit on, come evening.

isn't this a vision? 

the wall with the metal panels is just a plain white wall-

but ashley had us use wall hooks to make real vines appear to be

crawling up them.

gowns being steamed and readied for the runway.

there were buckets and buckets of insanely beautiful flowers for

us to use.

... if you like sparkle- the jewelry in this case would make you drool.

in another area, these huge wooden doors were getting draped with

real vines and then dark mysterious fresh flowers were added.

we extended the fresh vines out across the ceiling and

up to the entrance.

this is ashley fox. she's a rock star floral designer.

she may be tiny, but she has big ideas and dreams and she's not

afraid to tackle them.

as the day wrapped up, yours truly quickly made about 8 arrangements that were
 used here and there to finish off the design plan.

i don't think any of us thought we were done, but

our bodies and the clock told us differently~ the models and interns 

were starting to arrive and they needed the floors cleaned up and the

dress rehearsal to start happening.

i came home exhausted~ but excited to have had the opportunity to

help pull off an event like this.

*and i told my sweetie, that one of the parts i was proudest of, was

that i found the shop- in a busy part of mpls. that i never go to, and

had to find a parking lot and one of those darn boxes to put my payment in and then go back 

and find my car again because i didn't know my license #... and then find the 

back alley where the rest of the girls were unloading. 

~for a girl who hardly ever leaves her neighborhood~ this felt 

like as much of an accomplishment as anything else i did 

that day.

: D

happy Easter week!

b.

i don't have a lot to say today, but i do have some pretty pictures to share~

when i had my cottage sale last summer, i decided to part with my

antique dining room table. i think i know what i want for a table now, 

but i haven't found it, so in the meantime i've been trying 

different "looks" in here. this is my favorite so far.

i'm pretending i have a sun room and the light that

floods this area right next to the patio doors is so pretty that

it's my new favorite place to sit!

i had breakfast here yesterday, tea and yogurt topped with

fresh raspberries, strawberries and some crunchy oatmeal cereal for kicks.

pretty spectacular sunset sunday night~

i went to bachmans hoping to buy hellebores bulbs but they don't sell them.

came home with these instead and i know it's a long shot, but by gosh i'm going

to try growing some ranunculus and anemones myself!

the 9 inches of snow we got on sunday is melting again and

after getting my gardens all cleaned off i was worried about my budding plants,

bye bye for good this time winter!

xo, beth 

rambling after dark

ra-ra-run and get yourself some ranunculus~

friends, although i always say that fall is my favorite

season of the year, spring is right up there

vying for first place. 

it's the flowers.

i'm so lonesome for them by the time spring rolls

around, that i'd practically work at a floral shop for free.

i've been seeing ranunculus (my favorite flower) on other people's blogs and instagram

pages and anxiously waiting for them to be available in minnesota.

i even called trader joes more than once to see if they had

them in stock yet.  well guess what? they're here and it's worth

a drive somewhere, somehow, someday-if you love flowers

like i love flowers to get yourself a bunch of these beauties. they

are only available for a short time. they don't always look that

pretty when you buy them, especially if they're not fully open, but

that's how i like to buy them. if you get them in tighter bud form, re-cut and

put in a vase, they slowly open up and you can get almost

 two weeks of enjoyment out of them. 

:  )

if you're a blog follower of mine, you know that planting wheatgrass is another

spring tradition at my house. here's the first pot of the year, sprouting, growing

a couple inches a day and looking so pretty on my table,

i was up at the lodge last week because of this.

the notice most of us dread, second only to a tax audit.

jury duty.

i got the first notice in january saying i was on duty from feb. 1st --may 30th.

to say i freaked out was an understatement.

4 months? are you kidding me!

i didn't even care about feb. march, and april-

but in case you forgot i have a daughter getting married in may.

seriously people!!!!

my jury duty isn't here in the cities either, it's in wadena, 3 hours from here

because we own a property up north.

well, i got a letter that i needed to be available last week,

so i went to the cabin, called in like a good citizen and

the trial had settled out of court. that meant a few days to relax, walk in the woods,

enjoy my husband and vacuum up dog hair...

lars and i did some 4-wheeling, but we also took long walks and looked

for antler sheds, let the dogs play in the woods and watched bald eagles circle
high in the sky.

this might look like junk to you, but when we bought our place there

was this big pile of weathered pallets and the guys talked about burning it

till i yelled "NO!!!"

cole has made some cool things already out of some of it and there's more

waiting for the next project.

dale started tapping the trees last week too...no maple sap yet, but we're

excited to make syrup for the second time.

melting 4-wheeler tracks

duke. what can i say? i love this dog like i've loved no other dog.

i didn't have my camera settings right here, but i still think it's a cool picture of him 

laying in the snow.

we have this teeny pond right outside the cabin and it had a thin sheet

of ice on it in the mornings. koda stood on the edge and watched while

duke charged out on the ice- breaking through every other leap- to retrieve the ball i threw for them.

from ice and snow back to these beautiful flowers.

the snow is completely gone in our yard now and i cannot wait for my

tulips, daffodils and squill to pop their heads through the dirt.

i want to try growing heelebores this year... have any of you ever grown them?

if you have, please give me some advice and

have a wonderful week!  

xo,  beth