More Treehouses…

…becoming a possible addiction.

Private commission tree houses. Oh yes. My obsession as a child with outdoor “play houses” and pretending to be Tiger Lily/Mogwli/etc has translated to

French company La Cabane Percheem can make your unrealistic grownup dreams come true – check this out:

http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/green-architect/amazing-treehouses-by-la-cabane-perchee-120872

A Different Type of Gardening…

As if we need one more reason to visit Scotland (or to visit http://apartmenttherapy.com every day) – check out this quirky conceptual garden. The pictures are pretty crazy, but I imagine the impact is in the experience. Two of the things I love most – art and gardens – are infinitely better in person.

Since I won’t be making it to Scotland this weekend (sigh), I think I’ll be needing a trip to the Hoyt Arboretum and the Portland Art Museum.

Living in Nature

One thing I love about European floral design is that it does not hold to specific formulas or strict spacial rules – it is influenced by what’s available and by nature’s design. I love wild, garden type arrangements – bringing nature inside; bringing a little something wild and beautiful into something otherwise formal and artificial. But sometimes, living in the city, I forget what nature even looks like! My world is a world of parking lots and cubicles. I do love the city with all its stone and steel and iron. And the city does have a little nature – the ivy and moss that covers those walls and gates, and the trees someone years ago, thankfully, did not cut down. Being in the city is lovely, but everyone needs a little green.  I wish I had a more! So I buy house plants for my little house, and do floral projects for clients – it is a breath of fresh air.

Small Spaces

As a city girl, I have always been resigned to living in a small space. Actually, it is my dream to live in a brick apartment with a wrought iron fire escape for my plants. Even for those lucky enough to be in a house, space might be limited. If you want to be in town, you’re likely to be in a beautiful, old neighborhood. And old houses for the middle class, with all their charm, tend to have small rooms. Farm houses and Victorian tend to be the oldest houses you can find in Portland (when other cities were building fabulous houses in previous architectural styles, Oregon was pretty much still in log cabin phase), and that means small rooms. Working class war era houses abound as well – possibly even smaller.