flower nest.

a tiny nest made by a recently discovered and rare type of bee. built by plastering together petals from the flower onobrychis viciifolia. each nest usually houses a single egg and is a half inch long.

{via npr}

a dreaded sunny day.

this week it stopped raining long enough to go check out bonaventure cemetery {finally}. i'm excited to go back again once it's warmer out.

succulent.

a glow-in-the-dark cactus space terrarium? i think that this product was made just for me!

{found in the designboom cactus round-up}

nice stems.

i'm so excited about the new floral column at design sponge!

for your fancy sister...

and her fancy new house,

tord boontje's garland light. this new classic is created from a continuous metal strand that is wrapped around a light bulb and casts the most magical floral shadows all over the room. if it's good enough for the moma and the v&a it's good enough for family.

for your hard working mom...

who needs a little sunshine.

ball and chain has created this bright springtime yellow necklace with enamelled floral beads reminiscent of forsythia. or as my mom would say forsyyyyythia.


edit: or for a little more glamour this criss-cross necklace by paola volpi from the moma store. perfect for a fancy night out with dad.

twinnies?

as soon as i saw graphic thought facility's project for habitat, i immediately thought of the album cover for power, corruption & lies by new order. i think that peter saville and henri fantin-latour did it way, way better.

good health.

good magazine has this great chart that breaks down common house hold toxins and the plants that you can keep to help reduce your exposure to them.

most common toxins:
trichloroethylene: effects include headache and dizziness and long-term damage to the liver and kidneys.
formaldehyde: very common indoor pollutant. causes headaches, watery eyes, and difficulty breathing. classified as a possible human carcinogen by the EPA.
benzene: can cause drowsiness, dizziness, vomiting, and unconsciousness; has a pleasant smell, which is why it used to be a common ingredient in aftershave.

plants that help:
philodendron
peace lily
spider plant
chrysanthemum

it's a great way to spruce up your place and keep yourself healthy at the same time. {click on the graph to see it full size}

oh johnny.

when i was little heartsease {also known as johnny jump ups} was my favorite flower. according to oberon in shakespeare's midsummer night's dream, putting the flower on someone's sleeping eyelids "will make man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees."

meeemmmmorieeesss.

one year ago today i was riding tandem through the tulip fields of kukenhoff with once of my favorite people on the planet.

today i'm doing this:

sheesh.

here's a tulip to match your eyes.

since my valentines day flowers came and went, i decided that i wanted to keep fresh flowers in my bedroom at all times. last week i picked up some pink and yellow tulips from whole foods and it really makes me happy to see them every time i open my bedroom door.

i have two vases. one is really tall and skinny and square, and the other looks a bit like the one above. pretty classic styles that seem to fit most stems pretty well. maybe someday when i've got an extra 200$ lying around i'll be able to get an aalto savoy vase. it was designed by finnish architect alvar aalto in 1936 for a competition at the paris world’s fair. my favorite part is that he entered anonymously under the pseudonym “eskimo woman's leather breeches.” they are still mouth-blown and hence pretty expensive. but it sure would look beautiful on my bedside table filled with white lilies.

valentines day.

this morning i called candy stores all over philly to find what i now know to be called "smooth melty mints." {ew}

image from thechocolateshop.com

cris kept talking about them so i figured that i'd pick some up for him today, but i didn't know how hard it would be! i finally found a shop that had them at the reading terminal market, fisher's soft pretzels. it was a cute mennonite store and the guy remembered me from when i called this morning. i must have sounded really excited. i also picked up some daisies. i wanted to get tulips, but they were looking pretty sad. i hope that he likes them! if not, i'm picking wayne the mini-horse i found while torturing myself on petfinder, to be my valentine! i love you wayne!