Feeling Blue….

…why…Tiffany Blue of course ~ is there any other kind?!

Venice, Italy

Santa Barbara, CA

Taos, New Mexico

Las Vegas, NV

San Juan Bautista, CA

The Creeping Fig’s Garden Faire

On Saturday, I attended The Creeping Fig’s Garden Faire, hosted by Vicki Petulla (my lovely sister). This was Vicki’s first attempt at hosting anything of this caliber and, I have to say, she did an incredible job.

The objective behind this garden party was to have a gathering for Vicki’s friends and her local Creeping Fig fans, and to hold a trunk style open house to showcase her container gardening business along with highlighting the works of several other talented friends and some local businesses.

Vicki’s distinct style is apparent from the moment you set eyes on her home. Her style is simple and classic with her love for white hydrangeas, ivy, ferns and boxwood shrubs.

For this faire, Vicki displayed her beautiful artistry of container gardening by creating numerous urns with gorgeous hydrangeas, ivy, lamb’s ear, topiaries and so much more. All of these urns were up for sale and, if I recall correctly, they all sold within the first 40 minutes of opening, much to the dismay of those who came later.

There was also a selection of unique, one-of-a-kind, antique outdoor furnishings for sale that were snatched up just as quickly as the urns.

Approximately 8 or so other vendors participated in this event which turned out to be a very nice variety of products and services.

Rebeca Robbins and her partner, Cynthia, brought a wonderful variety of beautiful succulents planted in various fun containers, along with offering some quality sample sale clothing.

Anne Cowell of Home by Cowell brought a plethora of decorative pillows for both indoors and outdoors in exciting colors and fabulous fabric designs. The beauty is that these pillows can be customized in any fabric or dimension.

Hothead Accessories provided an array of fun headbands and hair accessories in every color and style imaginable.

lulu Pom, a local retail and interior design store, brought a variety of adorable interior and exterior home accessories along with a stunning wrought iron arbor (which, unfortunately, I only have a detail shot of).

I owe my sincerest apologies to the next two vendors as I had a camera malfunction and was not able to get pictures of their products and services. Please do check out their websites for more information.

Kari Somerville, brought two products, one was her personal, hand-made greeting cards which were simply precious. She is in the process of getting some photos up on her Etsy website, please check out her KMS Kards site. Kari also represents the Stella & Dot jewelry line and brought some beautiful necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more. Stella & Dot has a bevy of beautiful pieces, be sure to check out that website as well.

What woman doesn’t want to look her absolute best? Marion Campisi of Urban Darling is a wardrobe stylist that provides cost effective and personalized fashion consulting for individual styling. Marion brought in samples of specific pieces of wardrobe and showed how to style it for each individual. She will also come to your home and help you go through your closet to weed out pieces that may not suit or fit you anymore so you end up with a streamlined wardrobe and outfits that are ready to wear at a moments notice.

I was very touched when my sister suggested that I make up some cards of my photography to include in this event. This was my first attempt at something like this and I have to say it was fun. I even sold some cards!

And let’s face it, every garden party has to provide a little libation to wet your whistle. Wine tasting was provided by Kristen Green and Jennifer Sorto of Self-Made Sommelier. Kristen and Jennifer brought in several varieties of wines and showed the guests the finer art of wine tasting. Kristen writes a blog on the finer appreciation of all things wine so be sure to stay up on your wine etiquette!

Delicious munchies kept everyone’s energy up.

I know for a fact that Vicki put a lot of time and effort into this event and I’m so happy that it was a success for her. All in all, a good time was had by everyone.

…Same time, same place next year, Vic? ;)

For those of you who enjoy the inspirational images posted on The Creeping Fig site and enjoy viewing beautiful gardens, Vicki and I are in the beginning stages of now working on our book “The Gardens of Silicon Valley”. So stayed tuned for future updates on this project.

SKEdazzles.com is a Lifestyle Blog featuring travel, photography and general inspirational musings. Be sure to check me out on Facebook as well.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

These kayaks belong to my husband and me. This picture was taken a summer or two ago when we docked in Half Moon Bay for a lunch break.

Ocean Kayaking is my favorite sport. I can’t explain it but it is a euphoric feeling for me to glide through the ocean waters, listening only to the rhythmic sound of the salt water splashing against my kayak, and sharing my day with sea otters, seals and seagulls who circle around me with curiosity. It is I who has invaded their territory, so I move with respect for their domain. This is a gift that reminds me of how small I am and makes me appreciate the wonders of the world. Sounds cheesy I know, but this is one of the things in life that centers me. What centers you?

(My apologies ~ not a great quality photo but I liked the image for the challenge.)

“I exist as I am, that is enough.” Walt Whitman

Exist as you are because you are unique, and you are enough just as you are.

Have A Seat….

Sit a spell and enjoy some fun and funky benches I have found along my travels.

Okay, maybe they’re not going to win any beauty contests but they certainly have personality! Have a great Wednesday my friends!

Drops of Wisteria

Delicate beauty so full of grace,

with your twisted vine adorned in sweet bells of periwinkle,

your elegance and charm lure me in,

and I am lost in your exquisiteness.

In The 5 Months Since Starting This Blog…

Number of views = 30,000; Number of followers = 1000; Your love and support = Priceless!

I hit some major milestones this weekend in passing 30,000 views and in acquiring over 1000 followers ~ I just want to say Thank You so much!! And to each of you, keep on bloggin’, because you are my muses and I am so inspired by your blogs.

Also, a big thank you to TryingToDoMyBest and dear Nia of PhotographyOfNia for the kind honor of nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

They have been added to my Dazzles page along with the other wonderful blogs and kind nominations, so check them all out. Thanks so much for your support!

Who Knew A Nursery Could Be So Much Fun!

My sister and I headed over to the Half Moon Bay Nursery today to pick up a bunch of plants for a Garden Faire my sister is hosting next weekend to promote her container gardening business (check out her Facebook site, The Creeping Fig, if you get a chance ~ it’s a beautiful site). I decided to bring my camera, in truth, thinking we might head towards the water for lunch and maybe I could snap a few pictures there but little did I know how much fun I would have roaming around the nursery.

The nursery is one of those old funky wood structures with oodles of character ~ and loads of gorgeous plants and flowers.

A cool old pully that must have served its purpose well in its prime.

I grabbed my camera so I could take some pictures of the colorful flowers….

But it didn’t take me long to get side-tracked by all the wonderful accessories located throughout the grounds…

Snails, Isle 2…I normally wouldn’t approve of snails hanging around my garden, but these guys were cute.

Loads of pots…

And I love these old wooden barrels…

Choose a sprinkler in your favorite color…

But, sorry, don’t bring Fido…

I was almost disappointed when my sister finished her shopping and was ready to go because there were many more items to photograph. A place like this can make yard work fun! Happy gardening!

Lessons Learned

I spent a wonderful day on Saturday at Filoli Gardens. Filoli is a gorgeous mansion with immaculate grounds and I had been looking forward to going there for a long time…so this is not the location that I would have liked to have learned a hard lesson!

I thought I had fully prepared myself bringing all the equipment and accessories I thought I would need….but sure enough, just as I’m getting to some of the really beautiful areas of Filoli, don’t you know that my memory card ran out. Now, I fully expected that and I brought an extra one, what I didn’t expect was that it would be broken and not work. I don’t know how rare that is but it was certainly frustrating. Best laid plans, eh? You can bet I will always have several on hand and make sure they are in operating order from now on. Full post on Filoli coming soon.

**Enjoy a marvelous Sunday!**