I'm loving these handmade swimsuits at Mimi Hammer. So many cute ones to choose from! The solids are pretty adorable, but I really love this floral one piece too!

All photos from the Mimi Hammer etsy shop.

Good morning friends! Today I'm super happy to announce that I have officially started my own floral design and styling business! This is something I've been dreaming of, and dabbling in, for years now (remember this post?), but never had the courage or time to take the leap and make it official.

Over the past six months I've been working diligently on my website, revamping this blog, putting together my portfolio and business cards, and filing out all the necessary paperwork. 

Like many things in my life, the over arching mission with my flower work is sustainability. I'll be sourcing most of my flowers, foliage and fruit from local farms, (something that might be challenging in the beginning, considering there aren't many in Florida just yet!), and I'm even working on plans to turn my yard into a giant cutting garden/meadow. I'll re-use jars, second-hand containers, and purchase pottery pieces from local artisan for vases.

It feels really nice to be able to share this, as I've been working on it and thinking about it non stop for a while now. You can check out my new website right here and, if you're in Winter Park or the Central Florida region and need flowers, you can contact me here!

These photos are of one of the arrangements I put together for Mother's Day, featuring chickasaw plum branches and gardenias clipped from my garden, with organic lilacs, tulips and hyacinth.

Photos by me. More, here.

My absolute favorite restaurant in Winter Park these days is Fresh. The dishes are super fresh (living up to the name!) and healthy, and nearly all of their ingredients are sourced within a 150 mile radius. The atmosphere is equally incredible - intimate, genuine and super down to earth. It's also very affordable, considering the quality.

The Grilled Peach Salad, on the lunch menu, is probably my favorite dish right now. I also can't resist ordering the Yucca Fries every time I go. The dipping sauces are so delicious!

Their sweet little store front, located on New England (across from Dexters) in the Hannibal Square district, is open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, and then Sunday for brunch. I highly recommend if/when you're in town!

Photos taken with my iPhone, the last time we were there at lunch.

Our Chickasaw Plum trees are in full fruit bearing mode right now and they are absolutely beautiful. It's been so fun, and amazing, to watch them change from season to season. In late February their branches blossomed the most incredibly lovely, fragrant white flowers. By April, the flowers had fallen off, the leaves were back and the plums started coming in. 

Some of the plums have started to ripen, but most of them are still green.

I'm excited to watch them grow over the coming weeks, and can't wait to pick some so I can try out a few new recipes. I'm thinking jam, possibly a pie and definitely some wine. Any other suggestions? 

 All photos by Me. See more, here!

My dad came over to visit a few weekends ago, so we took him on the Winter Park Boat Tour. One of the neat things about our city, is that it's the very first, centrally planned community in the state. Since it was designed before cars, Winter Park is very much built to the human scale, with a wonderful collection of parks and greenspace, a (working!) train station right in the middle of the downtown and an awesome network of canals that connects all the major lakes.

The boat tour takes you through the canals from lake to lake. It's one of my favorite things to do here and arguably the best way to tour the city. 

I love peeking into all the tiny boat houses (I could totally live in one) and scouting out the tropical vegetation and wildlife... mostly birds, sometimes alligators ;)

All photos by me. Some are from my instagram feed, sorry for any repetition!

I'm being totally honest here, because I think it's important to share that these things aren't just a piece of cake, and they DON'T happen overnight. It's a major commitment that requires a lot of work and oversight. Our one year mark is May 22nd, and we're about 70% done with the entire renovation. You wouldn't believe how happy I am to finally be at the point where I can share "after" photos. Huge sigh of relief!

As you can probably tell by the photos, this house needed A LOT of work. Like a lot, a lot. It was built in 1972 as a very small 2/2 and then renovated in the early 90's to reconfigure the bedrooms, install a new roof, add a couple skylights and open up the kitchen. Other than that, nothing else had been touched since the late 70's. So, we decided to completely re-do all the electric, plumbing, flooring, lighting, ceilings (they were popcorn!), replace the kitchen and both bathrooms, and move the laundry room from inside the guest room into a large, vacant closet - all within a $30,000 budget... Crazy, I know.

We took out an FHA 203k mortgage, instead of a traditional one, so we could have money up front to do the repairs. It was a very interesting process, but it worked out pretty well. Once we had the mortgage squared away, we started construction planning. The kitchen was extremely dated, the appliances weren't all working properly and there was mold growing under the sink, so we knew the whole thing would have to go. Plus, we wanted to re-configure the layout to have better counter space and fit a normal sized sink and dishwasher.

The Dinning Room, Living Room and Kitchen are all open to each other, in one major space. They basically each have their own quadrant. When we moved in, there was no light in the dinning area and there was a very gross trench/hole in the back of the closet (more on that later).

The living room was no where near as rough as some of the other rooms. So we didn't have much to fix there, just paint, lighting, ceiling fan, trim and flooring

Since the house was built a long time ago, and has seen another renovation, there is a giant, awkward room in the middle, on the other side of the kitchen wall. Apparently, at one point, it was the master bedroom, but we decided that we would make it in to an office/library/den space. It was covered in gnarly, 1970's faux paneling, so we had to remove all that, re-do the electric, and have new walls put in. There was also a huge, random, empty closet that we decided to turn into our laundry room.

Out of all the rooms in the house, I think the guest bath was my least favorite. Like the den, it was covered in faux paneling and had such a horrible layout that you could barley fit one person in there at a time. We made a lot of changes to this room. It was completely gutted, all the way down to the dirt!

When you walk from the kitchen, through the den, you end up in a little mudroom with a door that leads out to the driveway and garage. Off that mudroom, is the guest bedroom. The guest room was pretty simple, but also had some weird things going on. First, you entered the room through bi-folding closet doors (?!). Then once you were in there, for some other weird reason, which I will never understand, the washer and dryer were there!

In a random closet!! So odd. We knew that we had to change that too, so we decided to move it to the giant, empty den closet.

There is a small hallway off the Dinning/Living room area that leads to the master bedroom and bathroom. When we moved in, the bathroom was only accessible from this hallway, so we decided to make it a real master bath by closing off that entrance, and making a new one from inside our room. We made a bunch of other changes too. We basically re-built the entire thing after gutting it down to the dirt, like the other bathroom and kitchen.

Thank goodness the Master Bedroom was the nicest room in the house pre-renovation, because it became our haven. We split the interior renovation into two stages, so when the otherside of the house was being gutted and re-built, this was our hideaway. And, although it is so much nicer and cleaner now, compared to everything else, it wasn't so bad for a few months.

The house is very long and narrow (like the lot!), so we basically have no backyard, just a 5 foot ally behind the house. The front yard and side yard are pretty big though. To the left of the house is a cute little, one car garage. We also have 3 patios! One screened in off the den, one with a pergola off the Master Bedroom and one, uncovered off the Living Room. The exterior is what we're working on right now (the other 30% of the reno!) and we have some very exciting plans!

I'm going to post our interior "after" photos on here over the next 8 weeks or so, along with some exterior shots as we finish the outside.

Sorry for all the ugly photos and lengthy commentary! But this is what my life has been for the past year and it's only fitting that I share it on here, with anyone else that still reads this blog... haha.

You can follow me on instagram for more photos of the process, and on pinterest to see my 'Mayfield House' inspiration!

Thanks for reading! I can't wait to post more pictures!

- Mary

Gabi, from Honest Fare, just posted a bunch of lovely new aprons in her shop! I think the Mommy & Me set would be such a great gift for mothers day.

I might even snag up a single one for myself, to wear when I'm arranging flowers! See more, in her shop, here.

Everything about the Casa Josephine in Rioja, Spain looks absolutely perfect. Part rental house, part shop, part summer school for creators (and interior design studio!), the Casa Josephine has just the care-free, colorful, nature-loving style I adore.

How dreamy would it be to spend a few days (or weeks!) here in the summer?

All photos courtesy of Casa Josephine. Check out their website here, and their awesome, colorful blog, here!

I love the simple, sweet packaging of this Wild Blackberry Flower Honey from Katz & Company. Summer is just around the corner for us, and I can't wait to go foraging for wild blackberries! I'm also really excited to get my hands on some elderberry this year, so I can make a batch of wine!!

Photo of Katz's Wild Blackberry Flower Honey, available here.

I clipped a bunch of jasmine the other day from our front yard to make a new blog header (see above!). When I finished, I decided to make a flower crown with the leftovers. Flower crowns are one of my favorite things to wear in the spring and summer. They're super fun for weddings, picnics, trips to the beach or just laying out in the park. They look adorable and, in most cases, smell amazing! Scroll through the images below for full instructions on how to make your own vine flower crown!

Materials: Vine (any flowering vine you like, suggestions below), Floral Shears, Floral Wire

STEP 1: Gather long strands of your favorite flowering vine. I used white Jasmine, but you could also use Honeysuckle, Clematis, Climbing Hydrangea, wild Grape Vine or any other kind you'd like! If you decide to use white jasmine, beware that it leaks a milky white sap when you clip it, so let it sit for a couple minutes, then wipe away excess before you start.

STEP 2: Pick out your longest, thickest strands and begin forming them in the shape of a circle. Test the shape out on your head to make sure it's the right size. Pull tighter if you need it smaller, loosen strands to make it larger.

STEP 3: As you continue to form, wrap a new piece of vine around the circle, pulling snug as you go. Repeat until you have a nice full crown.

STEP 4: Secure your vines together with small pieces of your floral wire, wrapping the wire around the vines and twisting it tight.

STEP 5: Hide your wire by tucking leaves and pluging in blossoms. If you have floral tape you can use that to wrap around the wire for extra coverage.

STEP 6: You're finished! Plop the crown on your head, and enjoy!

 Photos + tutorial by Mary Stonecypher Maslow