• must-read posts of the week: outstanding in the field
• sneak peeks:rosetta santucci,  heather chontos, zoe of cloth clothing
• new city guide: milwaukee guide
• under $100: table lamps
• biz ladies: first time funding-what is it and how to get it
• living in: coal miner’s daughter
• diy projects: sewing notions display art, from inspiration to reality, pinecone fire starter, ikea blankö woven jute table, sewing 101: making a duvet cover
• before & afters: jayne’s chair + lara’s kitchen, maria’s chevron wall + liz’s fabric wall, nia’s desk + setteenia’s desk + settee
• we like it wild: stawberry/chocolate wreath centerpiece
• small measures with ashley: diy natural stress reducers
• in the kitchen with: stacy newgent’s apple dumpling recipe
• artwork: new: ashley g “i’d rather be” prints, playing with pictures: the art of victorian photocollage, MET security guard collages [update: by jonathan hull], the heads of state: travel posters
• misc: new: flowie 2010 tea towels, bell jar table lamp, steamline luggage

CLICK HERE for the full wreath centerpiece how-to after the jump!

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Their arrival reminded me that it’s time to get started growing seeds. Accordingly, today’s small measure covers the fundamentals of indoor seed starting. Whereas some seeds are directly sown, meaning they do best by simply being planted outdoors, straight into the soil, others benefit from indoor sowing, leisurely taking their time to germinate, sprout, and transition (oh so gradually) to the wilds of the great outdoors. The backs of individual seed packets will detail which route, direct sow or sown indoors, would best suit your seed’s needs. When planning your approach, there are a few tips to keep in mind for seed sowing success (or, at least, we hope success is the outcome!). To begin, base your sowing times on the calender. We all live in far-flung locales, with wide variation in climates. A plant’s “growing season” is the period between your region’s last spring frost and its first fall frost (those designations apply to residents of the Northern Hemisphere; Southern Hemisphere folks need simply reverse that order, with growing seasons running from fall to spring). Base your planting times on your region’s growing season. If a seed packet indicates to sow indoors 6 weeks before the last spring frost, and you live in a region where that occurs sometime towards the end of April, then you’ll need to get busy sowing around the first or second week in March.

CLICK HERE for the rest of ashley’s post and step-by-step photos for growing seeds indoors!

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Until recent decades, St. Patrick’s Day was little more than a saint’s day observed only in Ireland. Mike told us growing up there in the during and after World War II, St. Patrick’s Day meant the bars would be closed and there may be a big soccer match to see but the raucous celebrations we associate with today’s St. Patrick’s Day were unheard of. After some investigating we found that some other traditions of the holiday had been lost over time. In previous centuries people made paper badges decorated with crosses and shamrocks to mark the day. Gradually, badge and ribbon making lost favor and most people chose to wear a shamrock in their lapel for the saint’s day, and now…the green carnation. According to Mike, it was a real religious and nationally observed saint’s day, “Until Budweiser realized there was money to be made,” he laughed.

We decided to bring a little bit of finery back to the St. Patrick’s Day celebration by making a shamrock badge (inspired by the idea of Victorian lapel vases) to wear while partaking in our lady’s pints next Wednesday. We happened upon a stash of miniature medicine bottles at a flea market recently that have been the perfect vases for our tiniest flowers in the shop and were a perfect fit for clover (bonus: these bottles are spill proof!). The shamrock is a symbol of Ireland and the holy trinity, but the same clover is a native species on most continents. It usually sprouts little white flowers and is used as a ground cover for areas where little else will grow. Due to it’s tenacious spirit, clover is also considered a weed by many, but how many weeds can say they have their own holiday? Our yards are completely over-run right now with yellow oxalis; the shamrock look-alike we used in our bottle.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Studio Choo’s shamrock badge project (including step by step how-to photos) after the jump!

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the moda botanica designers from philadelphia created our favorite part of the show, hands down. they filled industrial shipping containers with a dizzying array of succulents, orchids, and walls of flowers i couldn’t even begin to identify they were so lush and beautiful. amy and i really loved the contrast between the delicate flowers and the rough, rusty containers, and particularly enjoyed the dining scene they set up in one container. the designers used simple wooden pallets (which they filled with moss and succulents) to create a gorgeous dining table. the tables were topped by a reflective surface that really highlighted the beautiful combination of silvery purple roses and succulents. it was such a dramatic display and was the first- and most striking thing- we really show at the show.

CLICK HERE for more images from the philadelphia flower show after the jump!

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Flowering trees make great additions to any neighborhood: most attract butterflies, can produce fruit in the summer months, and their flower laden branches look amazing. The smell of plum or acacia blossoms in the air means that spring is officially here (and sadly allergies for many folks!), and even non-fruiting trees, like magnolias, release a lovely fragrance when they go into bloom. We also discovered a great organization while photographing our hood called Friends of the Urban Forest, “a non-profit committed to the belief that trees are a critical element of a livable urban environment”. They work with communities and individuals to get it done…everything from choosing and planting the appropriate tree, obtaining a permit, and after-care. They also offer tree tours of San Francisco and pruning workshops from certified arborists (bad pruning can kill trees and looks pretty terrible).

We’ve been wowed by the variety of flowering trees in this part of the city, a small and sunny spot protected from the fog by Mount Sutro. We’ve found tulip and grandiflora magnolia, pear, plum, crabapple, quince, and several other flowering trees we haven’t yet identified. We have also been getting a variety of beautiful branches at the flower market since January and are dreading the day they go out of season. It’s no wonder we celebrate Lunar New Year by bringing in a few un-bloomed branches indoors, placing them in a vase of water to watch them unfurl their popcorn blossoms; we can’t think of more appropriate imagery to symbolize a new year, a new beginning, and the promise of great things to come.

CLICK HERE for more beautiful flowering tree images after the jump!

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These perennials are ideal candidates for potted gardens, but grow amazingly well almost anywhere in the garden with little attention and can continue to bloom for years (keep these sun-loving beauties out of the shade and they’ll be happiest). The varieties that Bill the Bulb Baron grows happen to be best for growing in our area of California, in a Mediterranean-like climate, but traditionally daffodils or dutch bulbs are very cold tolerant and actually need a “freeze” treatment in order to flower, so don’t despair if you live in colder climates. The daffodil recently became the official flower of New York City and thanks to the city’s Daffodil Project, begun as a commemoration of September 11th in an effort to replace the city’s neglected open spaces with flowers, nearly four million daffodils bloom in New York City annually with another 500,000 bulbs being planted each year. If these flowers can live through an east coast winter and still come out swinging, then we think we can endorse them for almost any garden.

If you’re getting flowers from your own garden make sure not to damage any leaves as these tender greens store the energy that will be required to produce next season’s flowers. If the plant’s leaves are cut before they naturally die down, the bulbs won’t get the nourishment that they need. If you plan on using daffodils with other flowers in any arrangement, make sure to separate them in their own bucket of water for a few hours beforehand to help leach out some of the sappy toxins that can quickly clog the stems of other flowers.

We gathered an armful of Bill’s offerings combined with some larger varieties from the flower market to make daffodil hills, small round arrangements that work best with lots of tightly packed blooms. We thought these fun little mounds would be great centerpieces for a spring brunch and look great combined with single stems in bottles and jars. Start with a few stems of different varieties, forming a round shape on top. While holding the stems tightly, add a row of more flowers very close together under the first few stems. The second row should help push up and support the heads as they sometimes like to look down. Continue adding rows to your bundle until you have a tallish, round mound. You may need to feed in a few stems from the top to fill out the shape. When you are happy with your hill, rubber band the stems together at the bottom of the stalks, then slide it up to the very top to keep your tightly bunched shape. Then cut the stems really short and rest them on a shallow vase or dish of water to display. Use a floral frog if your hill is too tall to remain upright and balanced on its own. In cut arrangements or given as potted bulbs, these sunny flowers help take the gray out of any day.

CLICK HERE for more beautiful daffodil images after the jump!

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owner isabelle palmer sells all sorts of beautiful garden tools, plants, window boxes and pots for the garden, but i’m really loving the packaging on the seed sets her company sells. i’ve always been more of a “buy the plant already grown” type of person, but these sweet little packages have inspired me to want to nurture something from seed to full-grown plant. you can check out the seeds at balcony gardener right here, or click here to check out the full shop. thanks, isabelle!

also, i’m happy to welcome suann song of simplesong to the d*s guest blog. today she’s sharing great ideas to displaying and cataloging your little ones’ artwork. click here to check it out!

Originating in China and Japan, daphne gets its name from a character from Greek mythology who was turned into a laurel bush to escape the amorous attentions of Apollo. With such a worldly back story, it’s fitting that this shrub can grow in a variety of environs and climates. As a child visiting her grandparents in Australia, Alethea’s memories of daphne come from the giant bush that bloomed beneath her bedroom window. Her grandmother would place a tiny posy of the fragrant blooms on her bedside table, and the scent would waft its way into her dreams as she slept. Now the scent of daphne transports her back to her grandmother’s garden. Always excited to find more signs that spring is just around the corner, Alethea’s mum, Kay, tipped us off that there was an amazing Daphne odora bush in full bloom nearby her office this week. We headed over to the Oakland to photograph it and couldn’t believe how many flowers were covering it. Kay was as excited about the daphne as we were, brought a little too much indoors and ended up with a headache from the heady aroma. Just one small snip of these flowers is enough to fill a room with a delicious fruity scent, so don’t go nuts if you decide to bring some daphne indoors; sometimes less is more.

Some professional gardeners we spoke with told us that ignoring daphne is the best advice when trying to grow it. This shrub hates to be moved, so once you choose a location, that’s where she’ll want to stay. Because it is slow-growing, daphne also does well in containers and can live in the same pot for many happy years. It’s best to water your daphne once every few weeks or as little as possible in the summer months, and don’t water at all during the winter months. Expect a daphne plant to live from eight to ten years from planting, after that it’s cells cease to regenerate and the plants can die without warning. For exposure the daphne plant prefers dappled sunlight best. These little flowers perfectly compliment larger bouquets and arrangements filled with flashy flowers that may be light in the fragrance department. Tulips and ranunculus are great to look at, but don’t really have a whole lot to give as far as scent. A few daphne accents will have heads turning before they even land eyes on your flowers.

CLICK HERE for more beautiful Daphne images after the jump!

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