Nina & Seth Timelapse from christina watka on Vimeo.

I figured it was a terrible idea to get my first tattoo at a roller skating party, so I opted for the temporary tattoo by Tattly. Plus, I got my gold skates to always remember the night by.

There is truly nobody better in NYC to get the party started then Kenan of Les Loups. He rocked it out all night and then sent us all home with an old school mix tape. Gold skate crew 4-life! {top picture stolen from our friends @thesistersofcedarlakes}

We’ve been neglecting our blog for the past few weeks due to the holidays, but we’re back and excited to start posting again consistently. First and foremost Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a happy and fun holiday season. I can hardly believe that it is January of 2014 but here we are.

We started off 2014 with Firefly Events at a baby shower in Soho. We we’re psyched to have a chance to use winter poppies along with quince and some other pretty seasonal elements. I snapped these photos quickly on the good ‘ole iPhone but one of our resolutions is to try to take a few minutes at events to take better photos. Guess I’ll get started on that this weekend.  Jen flew in from the West coast to photograph the shindig so we’ll make sure to share all of the adorable details that Firefly put together. In the meantime, stay cozy!

You may remember me ranting on about my latest obsession with the color teal. The good news is you won’t have to listen to me gabbing about how I’d love to be adventurous enough to paint the interior of our apartment with this bold color anymore. After about 50 hours (of 2-3 people painting), 7 gallons of paint, and many roll brushes it is done! It was a huge learning experience and in the end saved us thousands of dollars by doing it ourselves. Below are some of my tips if you’re thinking of painting the interior of your home.

The first big lesson for us was patience. For the first time I painted swatches of many colors and let them just sit for a few weeks.  A very adult way to go about painting.  People would come over for a business meeting with my husband and wonder, “art project”? Not an art project, but a practice in patience to make sure we chose wisely and didn’t regret our choice in color.

Let’s talk about that annoying little process called priming. We didn’t take the time to prime because we figured we’d be fine painting a dark color over an existing light one. Kind of right and kind of wrong. Mostly wrong because if we had painted a coat of primer it would have made things (like the trim and ceiling) much easier to paint. The hardest part about painting our apartment was by far the trim. I don’t know how professionals do it, but I’d like to find out. Air brush? From far away it looks great but if you ever come visit please don’t look too closely. The best part about finally having a white ceiling and trim is that light reflects much better and brightens the room up.

The last, big lesson we learned was it’s all in the taping. Taping before you paint may be one of the more annoying things to do in life. It’s really time consuming, hard to get just right, and tiring to crouch or climb a ladder over and over again. What I learned however was that taping dictates how your paint job will look in the end. If you tape in a perfectly straight line and take the time to line up each piece of tape then you’re going to have a gorgeous paint job in the end. I think it’s fair to say that taping is the most important step about painting interiors.

If you asked me what my favorite thing is about this color it would be that it looks totally different throughout the stages of the day. At times it looks very green and at night it tends to like dark navy. Juliet said it best, “It’s like the colors of the ocean throughout the day”. Now, we just have to find some more artwork to decorate these gorgeous teal walls!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to collaborate with the Blog Shop at their NYC class held at the Sunday Suppers studio. It was all things fern for us on Saturday from fern hair wreaths for each of the students to wear to a simple fern Photo Booth backdrop. If you’re looking to take a fun class in your city check out Blog Shop!

{Photos 1,2. @angelakohler, 3. @chrrrista_ct)

If you haven't heard our exciting news yet we're officially open for business in California! We're very excited about expanding into this amazing state and are looking forward to working with some new people.  We'll be traveling between our locations for meetings so let us know if you'd like to say hello. We'd love to meet you!

To kick off our California livin we wanted to share some photos from a recent wedding we designed in Monecito. This was an extra special project because it was for one of our long time colleagues and dear friend Jen Huang Photography. She, and her now husband, were married in the most beautiful location- a 1920's mansion in Monecito, CA.  Jose Villa was there to capture all of the beautiful details of her special day. We'll be sure to share his photos when we have them.  We haveno doubt they'll be some of our all time favorite shots! California product as you can imagine is so much fun to work with since much of it is grown right there in the sunny state. This single stem of ranunculus, being held by my husband, had three flowers on it & all of the dahlias we used were delivered straight from the farm in buckets.  All in all it was a magical trip that won't soon be forgotten. We'll be back in San Diego this September for another wedding and we can't wait!

What did your year look like?

This past Sunday we all boarded a boat on the Hudson River to celebrate our dear friends Jen & Elihu.  It had never dawned on me before this party to rent a yacht for a wedding or event, I guess it’s safe to say I am not a boat person, but it was a lovely way to dine! We cruised around the harbor enjoying cocktails and just as I thought how great of an evening it already was we sat down for a plated dinner. It really doesn’t get much better!

It was a pleasure to bring along some cheerful flowers and vintage plates for the evening’s excursion. The bride to be designed the seating cards and menus herself. Yes, she is both an amazing photographer and all around creative genius.

As Bryn would say, Viva Jen & Elihu!

Good morning, I’m typing away from a northbound Amtrak this morning and couldn’t be more excited. We’re off to the Brimfield Antique show this week to search high and low for some great new finds for our prop shop, The Trove. Matt and Juliet’s mom are both hopping on the trip, which means we’re sure to drink lots of wine, laugh a lot, and find some amazing purchases.  Juliet and I have been saying we’re going to check out Brimfield since pretty much the first day we met, but we always seem to be too busy to squeeze it in.  I can hardly believe we’re actually going to make it. Wish us luck and enjoy your Monday!

{bouquet photo snapped by Jen Huang Photography}

]]> http://dev.poppiesandposies.com/brimfield-adventures/feed/ 1 http://dev.poppiesandposies.com/ny-arts-council-martha-stewart-weddings/ http://dev.poppiesandposies.com/ny-arts-council-martha-stewart-weddings/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:58:05 +0000 http://poppiesandposies.com/?p=5204

We’ve had a whirlwind of a week over here! Actually let’s call it what it really was, an 8 day wedding and events binge. Last night we wrapped it up with an event at The New York Arts Council along with Martha Stewart Weddings. We’re beyond thrilled to begin working with their whole team, which honestly consists of the most talented folks around! We had the best time hanging out in the gorgeous NY Arts Council building, sipping champagne, and nibbling on Lael Cakes desserts.

At the event last night we set up a table with some of our favorite seasonal blooms and led a short demonstration on designing floral arrangements. Since this is the last week of our friend, the peony, we couldn’t help ourselves and bought them in pretty much every color available. The one show above is a coral charm peony and it’s in it’s prime. This particular one was showcased in one of our bouquets carried down the runway last night.

Check out Juliet arranging flowers with Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings! Note the gigantic gardenia peony featured in our table arrangement. It was as big as our heads!