We’re heading north! Or at least this lady is – for the month of August. My dearest ML suggested that I go visit family and friends for August to escape the Texas heat and I suddenly found myself daydreaming of all the cabins of my childhood, and beyond.

To help offset travel costs, and because I love the challenge of travelling floristry, I put out a call for weddings in the Seattle / Vancouver / B.C area, waiving travel fees, and suddenly I have one, and possibly two booked! Anyone need a florist or event designer in a rather short time frame? I’m your gal! It looks like it might be from July 29th through end of August.

Know anyone? Pass this along! It’ll be fun to actually whip up some flowers outside and not worry about them instantly wilting in the Texas heat …. not to mention DAHLIAS!

I’m jazzed to re-visit all of my favourite places: Granville Island, the mountain hikes, seawall runs, sushisushisushi, Hornby Island, and all those family and friends I haven’t seen in, oh, five years? ‘Tis overdue, y’all. Very overdue!

Painting: Emily Carr, Big Raven, 1931. 

The Kinfolk dinner that we participated in at the end of March was nothing short of perfect—the location, the people, the food were all a nice respite from the busy-ness that occupies most of my time slots. I ended up finding fellow Canadians Nathan [founder and editor of Kinfolk] and Kristopher Orr [the photographer for the evening] and we managed to get in some chatting about hockey, living in the US, work visas, and rugby. Of course.

Wedding season is flying high, with invitation suites and event design taking up every second of the day here — flowers will come soon, no doubt. Spring weather has morphed into what a northerner could consider summer here in Texas [80s and holding!], and I’m timid about the possibility that we might have another mighty, mighty hot summer just like last. My dearest husband mentioned that perhaps, if time and responsibilities allowed for it, that I take back off to Canada for part of August. I don’t know if it’s really feasible, but my West Coast heart sings at the prospect.

To make matters worse, I came across these images of a lookout in Washington State and almost picked up and packed my bags north [west] immediately. Those mountains, that fog—all are etched into my brain from many summers past. I really hope I can make it work, at least for just a little bit.

I suppose this is coming up rather quickly, now isn’t it? Kinfolk Magazine is hosting dinners across the country [and Canada! Hip, hip, hooray!] and this Saturday they’re coming to Austin! We’re lucky enough to be collaborating with the great team involved, and we’ll be there to meet all the attendees to boot.

Some images from last month’s dinner in Brooklyn get the anticipating going. I’m so excited to see what incredible things come out to celebrate everything Texas!

Sometimes, when you stop blogging [insert a myriad of reasons here] and you know you should start up again, instead, it just seems to get harder by the day. And so, in regard of this irrational rationalization, I’m figuring it’s best to veer directly off-course when starting up again and post things ultimately unrelated to flowers, events, and the like. So, some pretty things that I’ve come across recently.

IDS this year in Toronto was covered by the Kitka / Mjolk crew and I personally love the neon sign from MASON‘s entry, and it’s reference to my national anthem. Canadian patriotism at its restrained best. [In neon, obviously.]

This beautiful baby quilt created by Toronto photographer Celine Kim for her upcoming bebe is simple and striking. I’d like an adult-sized version if anyone has some extra time on their hands.