Monthly Archives: August, 2011
In July, I designed the florals for a baby shower at Il Fornaio in Santa Monica. The event was hosted by a celebrity actor/director in honor of her assistant, who was expecting her first child. The mother-to-be is originally from Sweden, so we kept the palette crisp and somewhat modern with white ceramic containers and a textural mixture of green & white flowers.
Favors for the attendees were miniature arrangements that sat at the top of each place setting. Wouldn’t you love to go to a shower and head home with fresh flowers??? This treatment also creates a lovely runner of flowers to decorate long banquet-style tables.
Approximately 40 guests sat at a long table in Il Fornaio’s sunroom overlooking the ocean. Such a serene location, and a perfect intimate setting for this group.
Other arrangements sat atop guest tables and were given as prizes to the lucky guests who won the baby-games!
Flowers included green roses, white lisianthus, green spider mums and kermit mums, queen anne’s lace, white statice, ferns, bupleurum and other seasonal blooms & greenery.
Tourists walking down Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica could peek in the window and see this loveliness! I imagine they all wished they were inside….
Welcome to the world, little baby!
CREDITS | Floral Design & Images: Lauryl Lane | Planning: Loren Elkins
The fourth season of Mad Men recently became available for instant viewing on Netflix, and {lovah} and I are obsessed. We’d been having serious Mad Men withdrawals, despite having watched and re-watched the previous three seasons! {lovah} is pretty convinced that he is a “Mad Man,” and he likes to tell me that regularly. Admittedly, he sort of is. Entertainment P.R. isn’t the same as Advertising, but the environment he works in and the mix of creative & purely-business-driven work that he does really is quite similar to what goes on a Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Minus the drinking at the office… although I’m quite certain he and his coworkers would do that too if they thought they could get away with it! {lovah} has a growing collection of skinny ties, plays 1960′s music like it’s going out of style (it is out style, right?), and collects vintage decanters. He loves smoking cigars, he loves to dress up, and he drinks his scotch neat. Recently, he moved into a new office, and the first thing he said to me was that he was going to decorate it like Donald Draper’s office.
We’ve found him a perfect lamp and he’s painting some abstract canvases (yeah, the guy paints- who knew?). He’s planning to take one of his vintage decanters and some rocks glasses to the office (for water, of course!), but he really needed a plant. And what is a Mad Men-style plant? I really wasn’t sure, but I decided to go modern, masculine and a little asian-influenced.
If you want to make something similar, this was a snap to put together…
You’ll need a ceramic container, a plant, potting soil, large rocks, small decorative rocks or glass, and driftwood or another natural element. First, put a few cups of large rocks at the base of your container, they’ll help guard against over-saturation if you accidentally add too much water. Then add some soil, place your plant in the center, and use a small cup to fill in with more soil around the plant’s roots. Leave an inch or two of space at the top of the container, and then add your decorative rocks or glass. Add your other “natural element” artistically askance, and voila!!!
What do you think? Is it “Mad Men” enough? Do you have any other ideas for how I can help my {lovah} Mad Men-ize his office?
Image | Plant Design | Styling by Lauryl Lane.
Interred with their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Afternoon snack on a too warm day :: Trader Joe’s frozen Coffee & Cream Bars. Mmmm.
Image | Styling by Lauryl Lane.
My little sister Maggie had an extended stay/internship with me recently, and although we worked very hard and didn’t have much time to play, I still endeavored to introduce her to all of my favorite Los Angeles haunts. One particular Saturday morning we had to awaken quite early to do the delivery and installation of an event for one of my celebrity clients, and afterwards we were famished. So we found ourselves at one of my all-time favorite brunch spots, Bottega Louie.
Maggie had purchased her hat at Goorin Bros. the night before (I’ll leave hats for another post- but I’m obsessed!), and she looked darling and so cheerful despite the amount of work she had to do. I can, however, venture to say that it is highly unlikely she will be going into a career in floral design or the wedding industry. 
Bottega Louie is a favorite of mine because it really does feel like stepping into a parisian restaurant. It’s the closest experience I’ve had (stateside) to Laduree, — and while it would be blasphemy to actually compare it to Laduree, it’s still a charming spot with a very parisian vibe.
The coffee is always perfection, and the lemon ricotta pancakes or salmon benedict are just a few of the delicious menu choices for brunch.
But of course, the crowning glory, the element you cannot leave with out…. French Macarons, of course! They melt in your month. They are utterly delicious. They are…. heaven.
And bringing a pretty box of macarons to share with friends? Well, between Maggie & myself and our friends John & Paul, we managed to consume a dozen macarons with amazing speed, while still relishing every wonderful, unusual flavor.
Bottega Louie
700 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213.802.1470
Hours: 10:30a-11p M-F, 9a-11p S-Su
