March 30, 2012

Birthdays and Bernie

I am in the midst of prepping for a few big events coming up this week and am surviving on caffeine, but feeling psyched. We just moved our studio from a really fun, albeit kinda gritty, work space in Red Hook to a REALLY large, incredibly exciting new work space in Greenpoint. It is exactly 1.5 blocks from my brother and his pregnant wife's apartment which means a few things. 1. Glorious breaks from work to play/feed/bathe my future niece or nephew. (They're waiting to find out. I vote nephew.)  2. I will be eating dinner at their house most nights. 3. They have cable. Need I continue with that thought?


I am getting very excited about this coming Spring and Summer. The new studio feels really good. Some spaces have that air to them and this is certainly one of them. It is brightly filled with beautiful natural light. Is is also HUGE. Like, enormous. I didn't even have a studio this big when I lived in Portland, OR, so we are talking big. Square footage like this is a completely foreign concept to me in this town. I am elated to be sharing this space with the ever so motivated, positive, and wonderful Nikole Nelson who is a rare talent. She knows how to make EVERYTHING and what is about to go down in our work space is insane. Here's a hint: A retractable 2nd level under a custom built table that allows bucket stacking on multiple levels. Um, holy crap.


I have a "milestone" birthday coming up in exactly 2 weeks and 6 days. Any guesses? Really? Shucks. You're too kind. It's nerve wracking and exciting. I am fond of getting older and all the learning it brings. I am a lot smarter and much more aware of the lots I have to learn than even a year ago. Hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. I feel luckier than ever to work with flowers. Even though I've been at this game for a while in different facets and in different cities, it's starting to make more sense to me than ever.


Last weekend on a jaunt to Hudson to see this gem, I met a older gentleman named Bernard (my middle name, in fact. Truth. Parents!) who was very interested in all things flora. I found myself telling him that I liked the juxtaposition of working with such fragile, beautiful, natural materials in such a hard, fast, concrete-filled city. At first I surprised myself with that thought and wondered, am I totally full of &$*%? But no, I'm not. It's true. It's weird in so many ways to be discussing ruffled tulips on 28th street between 6th and 7th avenue, but it's so awesome, too. These flowers keep us cool while everything else is so nutso. It might be more work to schlep them down crowded streets and across bridges, but once all those stems are trimmed and the buckets lined up, it all gets real awesome.

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