We first stumbled onto the Victorian language of flowers while we were planning our wedding in 2008: lavender roses for “pure love,” tuberoses for “sweet voices,” etc., etc. (Three- to five-year-old nephews walking down the aisle with delicate vines of ivy to symbolize fidelity, though=Better...
“Nice weather for ducks, as they say,” Lee Roversi remarks, apropos of this rainy Hawaiian morning, and apropos of the actual ducks we're about to meet. Unlike the chickens that would wreak havoc in the garden, she says, “We can keep them free range —...
It’s official: One half of this blog is going back to school. I've just started my first semester of the MFA program at Warren Wilson College just outside Asheville, NC. A mountain town with a full-bodied musical presence, Asheville boasts an interesting roster of residents...
Over the last nine months, we’ve toured a variety of gardens — from L.A. to Montauk to right down the street — in which we ask people about their VIPs (Very Important Plants), design solutions, and how they entertain outdoors. But when it came to...
Ryan and I are big believers in joining the dirt with the dapper, the glam with the gardening — which is why we are jazzed to be featured in the new issue of Riviera magazine. Jazzed and honored. The story, written by AnnaMaria Stephens and photographed by Robert...
“This place is classic Hawaii,” the guy tells us from across the pool table at Stevenson’s Library at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. He’s a local and has been coming here for years. For Ryan and me, this is only our second trip to the hotel...
While on vacation last week, we indulged in quite a bit of 2013 hindsight. (I mean, what else do you do while on a sluggish drive from NYC to DC?) This was the year we nurtured our surroundings like never before, experienced an exciting coup,...
You know that feeling you get when you come in from the cold and there’s a hot toddy waiting for you, all roaring with lemony steam? It gets the heart pumping and the skin glowing. It's a feeling that lights up the darkest December sky! With...
I’ve been smearing myself with fragrant oils for a while now, ever since my tween-age years (y'know, back in the aromatherapy heyday of the 1990s), but I’ve never tried making my own infusion until now. The idea to make a skin salve with calendula flowers came...
When we were planning this gift guide, we asked ourselves, “Selves, should we do a roundup of products available online like we did last year (before we’d launched to the public), or should we go to an independent brick-and-mortar that exemplifies outdoor living and that...
