Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Scenes From a Garden Party

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This is my friend Theresa, all-around lovely person and talented seamstress extraordinaire. As you’ll soon see, she also has a wonderful way in the garden and quite a few stylish friends to boot! Lucky me, I got to spend Saturday afternoon surrounded by amazing ladies, chatting over drinks, nibbling on delicious food, and taking in the beauty of an utterly enchanting garden on a beautiful sunny day.

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All these lovely ladies against the dreamy garden backdrop had me feeling more inspired to take pictures than I have in awhile. I love how Theresa looks like she's floating through the foliage in this shot. Like a garden spirit.

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A peek into Theresa's workshop tucked away in the back corner of the garden.

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Climbing roses made there way far up into the huge walnut tree overhead.

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Enjoying one of the best homemade chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted, and I say "one of" because I may or may not have eaten at least five of them.

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I need to point out here that Jacquie, who is hilarious by the way, made the flower for her hat out of tampons. Oddly perfect for the occasion :)

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Speaking of hats, Santa Rosa style maven, Phyllis, is a maker of amazing hats, and yes, Phyllis always looks this rad. This particular ensemble inspired Jacquie to come up with the inspirational bumper sticker slogan: "What would Phyllis wear?"

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As a skilled creator of beautiful garments herself, Theresa brought out two of her touchstone inspiration books. We all poured over them with amazement.

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I'd been admiring her gorgeous Mexican dress and wondering whether the sleeves were something that she added on herself. It turns out the dress was a thrift store find (score!) that she's had since she was nineteen years old. She too had assumed that the sleeves were an add on, that is until she spotted it's sister dress many years later in this book of Frida Kahlo's wardrobe!

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I love this grouping of old enamel lids on the wooden door of her greenhouse shed.

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Smiles all around :)

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Not a bad way to spend a lovely spring afternoon, eh?

9 comments:

Thrifted Treasure said...

All just gorgeous! The garden, the ladies, the food, everything! Sounds like a perfect afternoon :-)

Teeny said...

Um, not a bad way to spend an afternoon. I'd say so!!! I was looking through these pics on your flickr stream wondering what the occasion was....and of course both yours and Theresa's dresses caught my eye. This post just kinda brightened up my afternoon tenfold. x

Mrs. Habit said...

How fun!!! This totally reminds me of mid summer's night dream - all you beautiful nymphs in pretty dresses and incredible hats. And that bed looks insanely cozy. What a great (perfect) afternoon. I wish me and my friends did more of this kind of entertaining.


Hope all is well,
xx
J

Franca said...

what a wonderful day! beautiful pictures!

anne said...

wow! what an enchanting garden! not to mention theresa, she seems amazing. her dress, your dress, roses climbing high into the tree! perfect!

moonshinejunkyard said...

ugh, this is my third time trying to comment on this post....third time's a charm i hope! sorry if you are getting the comments in some other form and i'm totally repeating myself, but i just don't want you to think i've missed this incredible scene that TOTALLY BLEW MY MIND!!! this is my utter and absolute dream party and theresa is the most amazing queen of the garden i've ever seen. her dress absolutely slayed me, the most exquisite thing i've ever seen. and YOU are radiant indeed in your blooms and cookies! truly a dream. i want to recreate a world like this...you ladies are my role models :) MUCH spring love to you!!!!

Milla said...

oh la la! quelles chic femmes et une jardin jolie! What an awesome gathering. Those photos of Ellis Island are in the flickr commons and I love looking at them, I had no idea there was a book too.

Anonymous said...

you know you've got a good lifestyle when you can still wear a dress you found at 19! ah, the whole scene is so romantic. was it balmy? i'm imagining it was one of those spring days where the temp feels "perfect". thank you for the little peek into such a good life. (and you look amazing as always. glad you had more than one cookie!)

Tera said...

Really enjoyed these images!!!!! So evocative.