Tag Archives: plants

Eye On Design: Opiary Drillium Club Chair

opiary drillium chair photo by gail worley
All Photo By Gail

With the dream of owning a huge house comes the anticipation of an expansive back yard, where you can extend your design aesthetic into your outdoor spaces with amazing furniture.  I first saw Opiary Design’s Drillium Chair at ICFF 2021; snapping a few photos and making a mental note to find out more about this exciting ‘green’ design. When I saw the chair again recently at ICFF 2022.I knew the time had come to feature it in this space, because it is just fantastic. Continue reading Eye On Design: Opiary Drillium Club Chair

10 Steps For Choosing The Best Plants For Your Garden

wildflower garden photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

Having a lush, green garden to elevate your outdoor space sounds like a dream come true.  But making that dream a reality involves a lot more careful thinking than just recreating your favorite Pinterest board. Yes, you can probably recreate the decor, paving, furniture, etc., but plants are delicate, and require careful planning. Your garden plants are affected by so many natural factors, from the climate, seasons, sunlight, soil, and more.  Before planning your own green oasis, let’s find out how to choose plants for your garden.

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Weed Zip Bag!

weed bag zipper cosmetic pouch
You Put Your Weed In It . . .

Display your love of botanicals with the Weed Bag! This adorable zip bag features the images and names of all your favorite weeds — educational! Perfect for storing precious cosmetics, pens, edibles, or herbs. This versatile accessory measures 5″ x 9″ with a roomy 2-inch gusset at the bottom.

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Modern Art Monday Presents: Night Bloom Still Life By Jonas Wood

Night Bloom Still Life
Photo By Gail

In  Jonas Wood’s (b, 1977) paintings, he often uses intricate decorative patterning to render ordinary objects that hold personal resonance for him. Some of the pots depicted in Night Bloom Still Life (2015)  were make by Wood’s wife, Shio Kusaka.   Thus, the painting  is just as much a self, or family, portrait as it is a still life. “You could call it a visual diary or even a personal history,” the artist has said. This  everyday quality, accentuated by flat planes of color and uniform detail, makes the spatial ambiguities in Wood’s work — such as the impossible perspective of the table — all the more disorienting.

Photographed in the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC.

Midtown Skyscrapers Made From Plants at the NYBG Holiday Train Show

Midtown Skyscrapers
All Photos By Gail

The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Holiday Train Show just closed for the season this past weekend, so if you missed it, there’s always next year! I had the chance to check it out with a friend on the Saturday when we had that amazing snow storm here in the city, and it was a pretty sweet time. The Train Show —  which is about so much more than just model trains —  takes place inside the enchanting setting of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where you can travel back in time, it seems; wandering through  miniature landscapes featuring more than 150 scaled iconic buildings, private mansions (many of which do not exist today) and other structures which stretch out  amid the plants,  under thousands of twinkling lights through various rooms of the conservatory. Also, there are model trains, but they are not necessarily the show stoppers!

Enid Haupt Conservatory

Inside the glass domed conservatory is an authentic city in miniature, where famed New York architecture is recreated using bark, leaves, and other natural materials. The recent exhibition had expanded since the previous year, with more trains, an all-new Queensboro Bridge, and a true New York finale featuring a whimsical tribute to the iconic Coney Island amusement park’s architecture and attractions, which was one of my favorite assign with cluster of some of NYC’s most iconic, landmark towers.

Midtown Skyscrapers

Here’s another view of the section which featured the NY Stock Exchange, the Flatiron and Chrysler Buildings, the Empire State Building and, up front, Rockefeller Center.

Rock Center Tree

There was even a miniature replica of the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, flanked by the gold statue of Prometheus, who represents the ancient Greek legend of the Titan, bringing fire to mankind. And I even managed to get a train in this picture — not always easy to do, as they can zoom by quite quickly!

Enid Haupt Conservatory

Find out more about the NYBG Holiday Train Show, and start planning your visit for late 2017, at This Link!