new work for banana republic

I styled flats for Banana Republic's most recent marketing campaign. At left, a mailer and at right, a poster in-store.

(photos by Peter Medilek for Banana Republic)

happy valentine's day!

(photo by: Ericka McConnell)

lotsa new pix

...on my website. Go look!

(photos by Eric Zepeda left and Heather Sourwine right)

poppy creative

my new agency

tuesday in st. helena

little flower school comes to oakland

Thursday night, I joined the company of 20 flower lovers at the Starline Social Club, for the Little Flower School. I'm not sure how accustomed Sarah Ryhanen and Nicolette Owen are to receiving praise, but most of the attendees admitted to being fully obsessed with them and several women traveled a long distance to get to the class (one flew in from Colorado and two came up from Long Beach, separately). It's funny to have an e-crush on someone who doesn't know you. I was a little too giddy to find out that Sarah and I have the same birthday.

The class was great. Sarah and Nicolette gave a floral arranging demo and then let us loose on about 35 buckets of flowers, which covered the Starline stage. They suggested we start with the flowers we were most drawn to, then try to find ways to work in varying colors and heights. My tendency is to keep things rather compact and on the same level, even though it is my dream to be able to arrange flowers that sprawl. I got lots of direction from Nicolette and Max Gill (also there for guidance). My house smells delicious!

I also made a new friend in Samin Nosrat, whom I'd first seen in Martha Stewart Living last fall (she hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in Oakland). She is a chef and a writer and is rather spectacular. She is about to start teaching a new series of cooking classes called Home Ec at Pizzaiolo. You should sign up.

My only regret of the evening was not getting my hands on Nicolette's new book in time for the class (it's back-ordered on Amazon).

a bit of warmth this winter

I just got a surprise from Caroline Schiff, a photographer I worked with in July. She put together a 'behind the scenes' video of the shoot we did at Spring Mansion. It was fun to get this reminder of summer, especially since it will be so cold and rainy this week. Thanks, Caroline!

(directed by Caroline Schiff)

happy holidays!

(photo by Heather Sourwine)

watermelon radishes are pink inside

I've just added some new food shots to my website.

(photo by Heather Sourwine)

i can't believe it's fall

Summer doesn't really happen in the Bay Area. It was mostly pleasant during June, July and August, but didn't get hot until late September and then, last week, we felt the chill of the changing season. I've disappeared because I was (thankfully) busy with work for most of August and September. I took a few days off last week to do my first food shoot, with Marshall Gordon and Daniele Maxwell, an homage to fall. Hoping to style more food soon.

ohio

I prop styled this video in May and also had the pleasure of helping to cast it. It was fun to work on (OHIO furniture is gorgeous!) and even more fun to see a day's work edited down to a minute. Hope you like it!



(directed by Claudia Goetzelmann)

my work, in print

I'm ecstatic to announce that a job I styled last spring, for the photographer Claudia Goetzelmann, has just been published in a fashion magazine out of Vancouver called TLC. Here's a flip through the entire issue. Images from my story, "Ensueño," can be seen on my website, here.


TLC magazine SUMMER 2011 - FIND IT from TLC magazine on Vimeo.

red, white & blue

A handful of times, I have had the incredible fortune to help out with the flowers at the most celebrated restaurant in Berkeley (hint, hint). Today, I helped the restaurant get ready for their Bastille Day celebration. I hung French flag ribbon on garlic swags inside the restaurant. I still can't believe they didn't ask me to leave. Maybe everyone was in too good a mood. Hanging ribbon is definitely not my forte.

friends & neighbors

Saturday night, I came home with a bucket full of leftover flowers. I spent Sunday morning putting together arrangements for a few friends and neighbors. I wish I'd grabbed a bit more foliage, but I was really happy with how they turned out.

 

fruit & flowers

I haven't been blogging lately because I am suddenly doing all the things I used to only dreaming about doing. I've been building my prop styling portfolio steadily over the past few months, and over the weekend, I was lucky enough to work for Max Gill (with some of the most talented floral designers in the land!) on a Napa wedding. I'm not sure if any of the pix below depict any of the arrangements I made (I only worked on the smaller ones), but we can pretend I made at least one of them, can't we?