You are currently browsing the Ted Kennedy Watson posts tagged: Tulips


Surrounding Yourself with What You Love

20130502-065448.jpg The world is filled with quite a bit of stuff. Some good, some quite good, some bad, some quite bad. It is just up to each of us to search out the things that have meaning to us. For this post I am talking about objects, but as I am writing this, I realize you could take out ‘stuff’ and insert quite a few other words, like people, experiences. Bottom line, we should be surrounding ourselves with stuff, people and experiences that bring us joy. Back to stuff. The above and below are of a game board that sits atop an ottoman we use as a coffee table at our home on Vashon Island. It is filled with things that bring us much happiness. The white pottery is something we have collected over the years, and this is a piece of that collection. It is filled with vintage pool balls with my favorite No.11 on them. The Diptyque candle is one of our very favorite scents. The tulips are, and you already know this, one of our very favorite flowers. Also included in this tableau is a gold hook that we bought from the estate of Albert Hadley, that was a gift that was given to clients when a project was completed by his firm he had with Sister Parish, Parish-Hadley. We actually bought 2, and the other one sits on the coffee table in town. I feel such a creative vibe just by having them around. And lastly, a small bowl we bought on a memorable trip to Maine, that has a piece of moss/lichen (not always sure of the difference) that TPS found on a walk with Bailey. It all conjures up this quote that I used to have painted on my showroom wall years ago about only having in your home what you believe to be beautiful and bring you happiness. Again, it really is just all stuff. But by surrounding ourselves with the things we love, it really does bring joy & fond memories of how you acquired the object. All resulting in happiness as your eyes glance over the things through the course of the day and then a lifetime.

20130502-072058.jpg



 

 

The Gift of Flowers

20130413-081549.jpg I received just the most beautiful gift yesterday of white parrot tulips. They are so lovely I really wanted to share them with all of you. I know there are quite a few of you out there that are as big a fan of tulips as I am. These were a ‘thank-you’ gift that were given to me a bit out of the blue, which always makes receiving a gift even more special. Gift giving is such a gracious act. I think the best gifts make both the gift giver and the recipient happy.

20130413-082731.jpg



 

 

Happy Easter from All of Us at WK

20130331-084024.jpg It is a lovely Spring day here in Seattle. I hope it is nice in your part of the world. We are off to Easter brunch later. TPS is in the kitchen whipping up his extra special carrot cake. When he is done, I am onto making deviled eggs. Our hostess with the mostest, Sarah, puts on a full afternoon affair with an egg hunt for the kids and a deviled egg contest for the adults. I am hoping a generous dollop of divine caviar on my egg entry puts the judges into culinary delight. All such fun! I hope your day is filled with whatever brings you joy. Sending much love from Seattle, as well as a sweet bouquet of Market tulips. The color reminded me of watermelon.
XX, Ted

20130331-085135.jpg



 

 

Saturday Flowers on Sunday

Tulips just make me happy. I love making people happy. The two go hand & hand today. I apologized last month for possibly writing too many tulip posts. Folks then sent e-mails and made comment in the shops to me that no apology was needed. Soooo, here is another, and I know I have a few more coming in the next few months. The tulips here are just too good not to share. I snapped these yesterday from the flower stall of my favorite tulip vendor at the Pike Place Market. Yes, Spring really is here!

20130324-084937.jpg

20130324-085132.jpg

20130324-085222.jpg

20130324-085253.jpg

20130324-085324.jpg



 

 

The Curve of a Stem

20130309-072036.jpg Sometimes the simplest things are the best & most beautiful. The curling of the end of this tulip is just poetic. As if to say, “Look at me, look what I can do” laying amongst a bunch of other stems. I find the stems of flowers can be as beautiful as the blooms, with all the color variations and variety.

We arrived home after midnight from what was such a great and inspirational trip. Right back at it this morning–I open the Market shop at 10. I can hardly wait to zip through the flower stalls before…



 

 

White Parrot Tulips

20130218-083846.jpg Actually, make that white parrot tulips with a heavy dose of green running through them. These are just divine. My Saturday morning walk around the Market was filled, as usual, with stellar visuals–the produce and flowers a feast for the eyes. I hope I don’t bore you with another tulip post, but they make me incredibly happy, I just could not resist. What I still find to this day so amazing about tulips is the variety. This version, just keeps getting better & better as it opens. To highlight the singular beauty of each petal, I cut them quite short and put them about the house in simple clear drinking glasses. That way they could be enjoyed in each room. Natural works of art.

20130218-084612.jpg



 

 

These Became These

20130129-075838.jpg Tulips really are so, for lack of a better word, magical. To think of these tight buds doing a magic trick and becoming the below. Unfolding and doing the dance that I always feel so privileged to witness–the parrot tulips exploding into a riot of orange, as if to say, “Look, see what I can do.”

20130129-080544.jpg



 

 

A Festive Dinner

20130114-080411.jpg When I learned that Grant K. Gibson was going to be in town from San Francisco for the week-end from his friend, local designer extraordinaire Brian Paquette, I said we would host a dinner in his honor. We carry Grant’s ethereal black & white photos at Watson Kennedy. He is also a fab designer as well as a blogger. We love having out of town artists that we show to dinner when they are in town. It is a lovely way to get to know people better–and we love any chance we can to get a fun group together. The 2 of them are also good friends with Cassandra Lavalle of the coco+kelley blog, and she and Brian are customers of Watson Kennedy, so we knew a festive dinner it would be!

20130114-081137.jpg The tulips looked so great at the Market, the creaminess of the white setting the tone for the entire table. It is generally 1 thing that gets my mind racing when I put a table together. I also wanted to leave the top of our antique French fruitwood table exposed and not use a tablecloth. The coloring of the table working with all the earthy objects.

20130114-081832.jpg In this case it was actually 2 things. Our collection of mini vintage trophies from England were another. From his blog, I know Grant has a love of trophies, so I wanted to inject a bit of what he liked into the table setting. They work perfectly holding clear votive glasses and would add the flicker to the table.

20130114-082217.jpg I had found these amazing vintage English brass candlesticks on a New York trip and had yet to use them on the table. This was the dinner for it. They are quite tall and I used really tall beeswax tapers so they added quite a bit of height to the overall look.

20130114-082410.jpg From there I just start adding. I like a really full visual table filled with many vintage objects. My favorite white plates, with bone handled silverware. Horn cups, bowls and napkin rings. A Riedel wine glass with a simple dotted glass for sparking water. A creamy French napkin.

20130114-082806.jpg Our friend Catherine had given us these vintage marble grapes. I thought the hotel silver bowl needed a little sprucing up.

20130114-082948.jpg The Parish-Hadley gold hook a nod to all the design talent at the table. I think Mister Hadley and Sister would have approved.

20130114-083229.jpg The shell salt and pepper holders adding a bit of beach to the table.

20130114-083404.jpg The table was set. We both worked the shops on Saturday, so I knew everything needed to be done on Friday. When I snapped these photos the sun was out and the light was just dancing about.

20130114-083626.jpg It was just such a fun eve with a full table of folks, great conversation, and good food. I know many of you asked about the menus in past posts. I will go over the game plan on food tomorrow. It was just lovely getting to know everyone a bit better. Below are the links to each of their sites. Do check them out for a little start of the week inspiration.
Grant K. Gibson
coco+kelley
Brian Paquette



 

 

The Beauty of White Tulips

20130104-060955.jpg With tulips arriving earlier and earlier each year, they are the perfect bloom to set about. Even the grocery is getting into the action with an early start, and buckets of tulips have been out for some time. White tulips always seem to have a majestic vibe to them, and I think they look great solo.

20130104-061313.jpg I have written a bunch in the past about single stem vases, but I have been asked often by readers and customers what to use for containers. Really anything that holds water will do.

20130104-061805.jpg

20130104-061831.jpg My favorites are clear, vintage apothecary bottles with some sort of writing on them. I really like seeing the stem in the water, and my love of fonts is fed with the writing on the bottles.

20130104-062045.jpg Using single stem containers really allows the beauty of the flower to shine. They are also a great way to stretch a buck and get quite a bit of impact with only a few stems or a bunch or two.

20130104-062304.jpg

20130104-062355.jpg I even like putting flowers cut super short into jars & bottles, like this vintage apothecary jar. It treats the vessel sort of like a terrarium. That painting of Bailey was a Christmas gift–we flipped when we saw it. More on that later. The white tulips spread about for visual enjoyment for the week.

Happy Friday!



 

 

Buckets and Buckets of Tulips

20121217-071239.jpg The Market on Saturday morning also had one of my favorite vendors who mainly brings in tulips. Yes tulips! It made for a happy morning.

20121217-071808.jpg Bucket after bucket of lovely hothouse tulips. They really did bring a ray of sunshine to what was a very cold and rainy day.

20121217-071853.jpg Tulips do so well in the cold, so they were looking pretty perky even in the chill.

20121217-072009.jpg But the red were the ones that caught my eye. A bit festive Holiday, a bit of Spring. They are a perfect hit of happy color placed around our home in the city as we head into this most busiest of weeks.

A fun week to all of you out there!