August 9, 2011

What All Happened Part 1 of 5: Napa Humane Benefit


When I first disappeared three weeks ago, I was preparing for the dinner and auction event which kicks off Napa Humane's annual Cause for the Paws benefit weekend, hosted this year by Catherine Bergen of C CASA .

The arrangements, designed in containers custom welded from reclaimed metal (these containers deserve their own post, and shall have it by and by), featured scabiosa, lysimachia, sedum, and dahlias from Half Moon Bay, echeveria and kale from Watsonville, aeonium from Oakland, passionvine and roses from Petaluma, and green blackberries from Napa.





There were 20 (large!) arrangements in total, so even with the new handy-dandy, double-decker transportation system I rigged up for Buck the Subaru, I made two trips. Still, it beat four trips or renting a van. Below is a somewhat sorry shot of half the dining room; in real life the light was much more magical.


Just outside the dining room, I displayed botanically embellished ribbons to be enjoyed by the evening's guests (below). Although the ribbons were well received by both ladies and gentlemen in attendance, the assumption that just the ladies would be interested in actually wearing them was pretty well founded. I was totally thrilled that of the 70 ribbons provided (a feat of production logistics!), only a few went unclaimed. These went to the volunteers in attendance.



All in all, it was a beautiful evening filled with positive energy. I felt completely honored to be involved.

10 comments:

  1. Wow wow wow, so pretty. But ultimately I am floored by the get up in the back of your car. I use a subaru too and have been trying to rig something like this up. You have done it well my friend! Sometimes my proudest moments as a florist are when I build things. People are so shocked when florists do things that aren't feminine.

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  2. The flowers are sublime, as we have all come to expect Miss Jaime, but the scale and also the number of hand sewn ribbons, well did you sleep at all?? No wonder you got poorly, what a mahoosive marathon of beauty! Respect to the truck customisation too, I think you might be superhuman, but glad you have the Group to back you up! Hope you feel back to normal soon. xx

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  3. Oh they are lovely Jamie. I have not had a stem of the blackberries to work with this summer. Thanks for the reminder of a forgotten flower.

    And bungee cords, where would we be without them?

    And brains, how uber feminine to use them!

    xo Jane

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  4. great post and like so many before me I am so impressed with you delivery ensemble!!! Very impressed!

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  5. Hi ladies- thank you for all your kind words and well wishes! Maybe I'll have to do a closer look at the Subaru get-up; it really has been incredibly useful, and it was so much fun to design and build. Aren't we lucky in this industry to be able to "play with flowers" (as they say) as well as tools : )?

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  6. I love the bracelet idea! Great color combination on the arrangements! LOVE

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  7. Hello and welcome, Maria! I'm glad you stopped by and that you liked the flowers! Thank you!

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  8. May I ask how you rigged the shelf to float?

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    1. Hi! I built a shelf frame (kind of like table legs) that is holding up the top platform. You can't see it in the photo, but it was there! : )

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    2. cool thanks! I had a rig but it wasn't super stable this will help!

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