David + Sarah

NY

2012-02-01T12:36:00.005-07:00

Steph & Adam and Jordan & Amy came up from DC to meet us for the weekend in NY in december, and it was so fun. Hanging out with friends you havent seen for a long time is good for the soul. We ate a lot, and window shopped, and shopped. We saw the Rockettes christmas performance, the tree in rocker feller, and visited the Met. I didn't take my camera out once, these are all phone pics.

phone pics from Oregon

2012-01-15T22:57:00.010-07:00

Nate and Katie moved from Salt Lake in November and moved to the Oregon coast. We had been wanting to go somewhere cozy and hunker down for new years, and their house was the perfect place. Plus, there was a gaping hole in our lives when they left, so we needed a reunion already. They are renting this incredible home with an overlook to the beach. It is woodsy and beachy all at the same time. My lungs were breathing that amazing oregon air in so deep. (I came home and had an asthma attack after an attempt to run outside during the inversion, ha!) David and I fell in love with their place instantly. Were able to unravel and refresh- something that we have somehow forgotten to do in our travels over the last couple of years. We cooked delicious food, went for treasure walks on the beach, took naps, woke, up, and fell asleep to the sound of the ocean, had a fire on the beach on new years eve, and stayed awake long enough to blow a kazoo at midnight.

Christmas

2012-01-15T22:56:00.003-07:00

Managed to not take any pictures this year.

Here are a few phone pics of food, flowers, and a plastic santa that david got me. We have been making out own pasta, it is fun. I made a buche de noel again, even though i swore i never would again. those things take all day.

I was sitting in the front room on christmas eve night and out of the darkness of the night the santa head started bobbing in the front window. sneaky david.

NY

2012-01-15T22:51:00.007-07:00

Mid-December we took a trip to New York so I could attend a flower class taught by my flower idol Ariella Chezar. It was everything I had hoped for.

hair today gone tomorrow

2011-12-21T12:34:00.002-07:00

I cut davids hair, it was time. I really love it shorter. More pics without a hat soon.

2011-12-18T14:24:00.003-07:00

On this trip we met up with people that we didn't really know, but knew through kinfolk or flowers and hung out with them. We met up with someone almost every other day and it was so much fun. One afternoon we met up with Luisa Brimble, who were were connected with through kinfolk. She is a really talented photographer and a sweet, warm person to be around. She brought some australian native flowers she had gathered (some from her yard-a girl after my own heart) and wanted me to put them together for her. She took some snaps of us at the beach outside the cafe we met at. Here we are looking awkward as usual when told to pose but not pose for a photograph. I love them, thanks luisa!

great barrier reef 3

2011-12-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

This was the last site we went to and it was so pretty. The colors were much more subdued but the shapes were really neat. Too bad I am a maniac with disposable cameras so i only had three pictures left here.

That clam was about six feet long.

great barrier reef 2

2011-12-14T09:11:00.001-07:00

look closely in this one. (cant see it? ok, that is a fish in the bottom left corner. peek a boo)

the great barrier reef

2011-12-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

the highlight of australia for me was the great barrier reef. it was magical and i felt like a little kid. we went to three different sites and all of them were so different from the next. the colors and textures of the fish and coral were unreal, i was breathing too fast the whole time because i was so excited. good thing we had those trusty noodles with us. no shame here, we snorkeled with noodles. its pretty exhausting to swim around all day and those things make it a breeze when you want to just float and stare into the water.

2011-12-10T09:26:00.000-07:00

i always want to go on little planes over wherever we are traveling, to see the arial view of things but we never do because it is always so expensive. this time we found some black and white flyer about flights over the great barrier reef for really cheap. we called and went right then for our flight. we got there it was at a flight school, and no one was around except for this really nervous desk guy that had no idea what he was doing. im not really sure if what they were running was legit, but it was pretty, and cheap and we came out alive so its fine. the desk guy was sweating while he was telling us how to put on the life jackets. we asked the pilot how many flights her had done that day and he said "seven, so if i fall asleep you know why." then he didn't speak a word to us the whole flight.

it was so incredible. i am hooked and now i am going to save up so we can do it everywhere we travel. i really regret not going over volcanoes in iceland, and i want to fly over game reserves in africa.

the great ocean road

2011-12-02T11:13:00.011-07:00

phone pics

2011-12-02T10:29:00.009-07:00

kayaking in cairns. david and i really aren't beach people, we try over and over again to enjoy lying on the beach but we just hate it. we went to cairns in australia so that we could go out to the great barrier reef, but in the down time in cairns we were going a little bit crazy trying to find some fresh water. we found this river and were excited to go swimming until we saw signs everywhere warning about crocs. so there was no swimming, but we got some kayaks and had some fun still.

arrangement i made out of wild flowers. i took pictures of it and then david gave it to a lady who was watching us the whole time.

cathedral cove in nz
incredible wire art on the freeway outside of melbourne, australia

we met up with david's childhood friend for dinner and a stroll around the city, this is his daughter.
share a coke with your mate!

Australia

2011-12-02T09:53:00.003-07:00

We loved it, and we want to go back some time.

2011-11-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

geysers

2011-11-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

something about being around geysers or any geothermal anything makes my skin break out. after we left this place my face looked like i had been attacked by bees, it lasted for almost two weeks. that is why you will not see me in many pictures from this trip. that green moss is as true of an emerald green as the stone itself. i loved the colors here. i want to get out my paint marbling stuff and make some paper inspired by these colors.

iphone

2011-11-27T12:13:00.012-07:00

phone pictures from the trip, i probably took more on the phone than i did on the camera. stay with me, they are pretty scattery.

three weeks into our trip and my hands were still all scratched up from weddings i did before we left.
stole everything in the arrangement from gardens around town. i left it for the front desk at the motel because we were a couple of hours late checking out and they weren't happy. the cleaning lady just stood outside our door forever. waiting.

all blacks vs. canada

i love this setting.

remains of geyser acne, captured when i accidentally switched the direction of the camera on the phone.
this was made out of rocks that were all woven together with thick wire.
classy
cathedral cove, nz

this trampoline was broken and dangerous.
little ferny flower arrangement i made with pieces gathered from a hike.
wasn't sick, but he sure looks like it.
an orchid farm we visited.
i have about ten pictures like this of david every time we go on a road trip.
we met a bunch of flower people on the trip. these guys ship flowers to the wholesalers in LA that i buy from during our winter and their summer.
fiji vs. samoa
i got a really bad haircut right before we left. my hair was slicked back pretty much the whole trip.

more nz

2011-11-27T09:57:00.009-07:00

above is the view from the botanical gardens in wellington, nz. on of my favorite flowers is in that first picture, helleborus.

we went to the bay of islands in nz. everyone said it was a place we couldnt miss. we got there and didnt feel like being on a huge boat all day with 100 people and eating orphanage food at a lunch buffet. so we got on a speed boat that does everything in an hour and half. we pretty much just cruised around the whole bay driving past everything and then hit the road again. it was cold, and the boat was driving so fast your eyelids would flap if you tried to look forward.

on the road

2011-11-27T09:19:00.017-07:00

we stayed at a lot of roadside places on the road in both nz and australia. we had a few really good ones, and then some like the pic above that were just rooms above bars. the place in the top picture was really incredible. It had an entire glass wall with doors that opened up to the outside. there was a jungle right outside the door. you could smell the jasmine vine and hear the birds that sound like wood flutes from inside the room. they had a commons room with a pool table, and a couple of trampolines outside too. it was just a skip away from the beach.

we were pretty much slaves to anywhere that had the internet. we would stop at every mcdonalds we came across because they have free wifi and that is something that is otherwise unheard of in both nz and australia. we actually had to plug our computer into the wall at some places and had dial up at others. we also stopped at hostels and paid them to let us just shower there and use their internet.

one night we found some really great a-frame cabin/hotels to stay in. we were in the middle of no where and for some reason we were a little bit creeped out, so we kept making sure the door was locked. in the morning a woman just walked into our cabin. it caught all of us off guard, and then when she re shut the door she yelled "sorry! the key was in the door". oops.

more nz

2011-11-18T09:54:00.011-07:00

we drove around pretty much the whole north island. i am getting pretty lazy with taking pictures, but you know how it is when you are driving on a trip...you just keep driving and it is so easy to never get out of the car.

we went to some glow worm caves, and i think that was my highlight of nz. you go on a tour with a guide, so we thought it would be kind of hokey. we got down into the caves and he showed us like two glow worms. we thought the tour was done and felt like we got suckered in. then we went down further into the cave and he said "alright, lets get into the boat one at a time". we had no idea there was water down there. it was pitch black and we blindly stepped into to a tiny tin boat. we crammed waaaayyyy too many people into it and were so close to the water ( I think, but we couldnt see). it was creepy dark cave water that has eels and strange creatures in it apparently. the guy next to me was having an anxiety attack and kept talking about how if the boat tipped he would freak out. i wanted to scoot away from him because i knew he would drown me if the boat did tip, but we were squished so tight i was pretty much sitting on his lap. there were a network of ropes in the cave and the guide stood at the front of the boat and pulled us around the water reaching from one rope to the next. it was silent and sort of eerie down there. the ceiling was covered with glowing worms, it was like a fairy tale or something, i want to go back.

when we came out of the cave i slipped in some mud while trying to reach for a pretty leaf and though i had broken my knee. when i fell i yelled and david just a few feet away but from behind the car said "are you ok?" in a crackly voice i said "no" along with a few choice words and then jumped to my feet and started hobbling away. i had an adrenaline rush and right after i fell i felt like the most important thing in the world was for me to get up as fast as i could. david is so funny when i go crazy, i can see fear in his eyes. he panics and just repetitively asks what he can do while i am just spouting away. i couldn't walk obviously so he had to carry me to the car. i thought my knee was doomed, but i nursed it back to health and could walk again within the week. phew. false alarm. its been a while since i've cried because of an injury, i was sort of embarrassed.

pretty flowers in nz

2011-11-13T15:42:00.010-07:00

2011-11-13T15:31:00.003-07:00

these windows are at the auckland art museum, i would love some like this in a mountain house. every few feet there was just an additional piece of glass placed at a 90 angle from the window, and it creates this look.

rugby

2011-11-10T23:53:00.007-07:00

We spent a month in NZ and Australia this september-october. We went to NZ to see some of the rugby world cup games. David played rugby in high school and college, and I have been really into it since david introduced me to it (watching it not playing it). Im not usually into sports that involve crowds in stadiums, but rugby really has a hold on me. I describe it as "brutal leap frog", if you've ever watched it, you know what i'm saying. We had so much fun getting rained on at games all month. The games were great and the bratwurst were delicious. Rugby is like a religion in NZ so it was really fun for david to be around people who all cared about it as much or waaaaaay more than he did. There were a lot of really great commercials that would get me all pumped up before each game, but I cant find them online to share. We really grew to like this song too, they played at half time of every game.

We moved between Auckland and Wellington for the games. Hotels/hostels/room rents/anywhere that has a bed across the country were all booked out waaaaay in advance. David and I of course just show up and think we can find something. One night in wellington we booked the cheapest hotel we could find available, but it was still pretty nice. When we got there we saw hoards of people outside with cameras. Turns out we were staying at the same hotel as NZ's rugby team, the all blacks. David was star struck because we saw them all hanging around in the hotel, rode elevators with them etc. His favorite is Richie Mccaw and he saw him run up the stairs with an injured ankle. We got to meet several others, including Piri Weepu who is another favorite, he's the little guy in the last picture kicking the ball.

september at causey dam

2011-11-07T16:42:00.005-07:00

i love september.

left overs from summer

2011-11-01T12:23:00.008-06:00

market day

2011-10-26T04:37:00.000-06:00

In mid-september I opened up my studio for the 9th & 9th street fair.

It was fun, I sold bunches of flowers and a few other things and visited with people all day.

Visiting with strangers about my flowers is pretty close to being one of the scariest things in the world for me so I am thankful for all of my friends who are so supportive and came to hang out, and to david for being good with people and doing some of the visiting for me.

some days are perfect

2011-10-19T21:37:00.000-06:00

this was one of them in mid-september

the studio

2011-10-18T04:05:00.010-06:00

Wedding season is over now and I realized I never really showed you my studio I was working in all summer. This spring we spent two months here every night, slaving away on this tiny 250 sq. foot space. I have a basement too, but we just left it ugly. The after photos were taken by Yan Photography, and you can see more of them in Issue 1 of Kinfolk. I kept the space fairly minimal because doing flowers is messy, and its a small space already so I need all the space I can get. David and I did just about everything ourselves here. We learned a lot, and it pretty much burnt us out on ever doing house projects again. But we did it all for about $1,200 which is pretty amazing.

We started by ripping up carpet that was glued to concrete and had about 12 years of plumber dust in it. We ripped fake paneling off of wall and the counter. We patched holes in the plaster walls. We tore down a water damaged floating tile ceiling and flourescent lights. We drywalled, laid reclaimed hardwood flooring in the front of the shop and laminate in the back. We tiled the counter and had a concrete top made for it. We built a platform for the cooler and moved one in and then out once it froze my flowers....and a new one back in. We built the pipe shelf in the front, and with help painted the mural wall. We made the giant chalkboard to cover up the ugly side of the cooler, and trimmed it with pieces of our old fence which is also the trim in the space. We painted every surface in the space with three coats of paint. We built my work table, trimmed the windows, built the lights out of exhaust fans I got at a junk yard. We brought loads of vases to the space and hauled away enough garbage to fill a dumpster daily...finally we put a bell on the door.

And?

I love it. I never would have survived the summer without it. When I got it I thought I was jumping the gun a little bit, but I had no idea that I would be spending my whole summer there. It is the perfect little place and is in the perfect location, I couldn't really ask for anything better.

dinner

2011-10-08T22:08:00.000-06:00

the one new years resolution that we have kept this year is to have people over for dinner more often. it was good motivation to cook more. sometimes it was fancy and sometimes we just threw everything that was in our fridge on the grill and called it dinner.

either way it was nice, just nice to share the evening with other people.

no matter how busy the day was, at the end of the night i felt relaxed, and content. ready for the next day of work. it made eating dinner like taking time off from work, it made it feel like a real luxury.

nate took some of these pictures.

2011-10-05T18:42:00.005-06:00

I've got some flower work and in interview in the new issue of Utah Style and Design. A couple of the shelves in our house are in there too. I didn't realize how bright my house is until they put it next to those all cream shelves! I look like a real estate agent in my bio pic.....it was a busy week and I thought if I threw on a blazer people wouldn't know that I hadn't slept in days....joke is on me.

Karyn's harvest

2011-09-25T23:23:00.001-06:00

Davids sister karyn's family got bees this year, and we watched them harvest their first batch. it was so much fun to watch someone else do it. chris put us to shame, he was so calm and collected throughout the whole process. we are so scattery.

beets

2011-09-23T23:14:00.000-06:00

our beets were tiny and looked like they had a miserable summer, but they tasted good. i never thin the seeds out enough, i hate ripping up any of my seeds that are growing.

harvest

2011-09-19T22:57:00.001-06:00

this poor bee lost his leg.

we harvested the honey in august, this time with a billion people in suits roaming around the back yard with us filming it for kinfolk. i wore a makeshift outfit that was 1990's better homes and gardens/diane keatonesque.

the honey is sooooo delicious this time around. it tastes like roses. i wanted to enter it in the fair and win a big blue ribbon to pin on the bees' box for them. i was actually going to but i was out of town on the day you had to submit it.

speaking of leaving town, we are leaving tomorrow to go to new zealand for a month to attend some of the rugby world cup games. woooooo!

indian paint brush

2011-09-17T22:32:00.000-06:00

i love them. albion basin has sooooo many. we went up with nate and katie one night for a picnic with take-out.

dinner

2011-09-15T22:28:00.002-06:00

i was really busy with work one night and so david made spaghetti dinner for us. bottled sauce and pasta is a staple at our house for no-effort nights. but-david brought the food in and he had made some little caprese skewers with mozzarella and tomatoes and basil from our garden. can you see them? he even put them on fancy toothpicks.

2011-09-12T23:28:00.001-06:00

happy anniversary

2011-09-11T01:08:00.007-06:00

just over a month ago we had our four year anniversary and we spent a night up at sundance to celebrate. there we decided to take a pottery class, ive been wanting to learn pottery for a while and we had free time so we went for it. twas fun. i want to make huge pots for my garden someday and have a workshop on the back of our garage to make pots together.

it was a good 24 hour break, then back to work work work!

mountains

2011-09-07T23:11:00.000-06:00

its so pretty up there.

curtains

2011-09-05T22:26:00.000-06:00

david drawing, and light coming through my favorite curtains.

oh the times, they are a-changin

2011-09-02T22:23:00.001-06:00

fall is coming and it is nice out there.

sooo many flowers

2011-08-30T16:01:00.010-06:00

it seems that as soon as i send a batch of flowers off to a wedding and scrub the buckets (who am i kidding i hardly rinse them) then the new ones come in. wedding season is nutso, it consumes both me and david. i leave to set up at a wedding and he gets home from work to clean the studio before i return from the wedding. its a good little system (for me), but we are definitely feeling ready for our upcoming vacation.

at a wedding on sunday i was off putting the finishing touches in the dinner hall when the wedding coordinator for the venue was lining all of the bridal party up to send them out to the ceremony timed with the music, telling the to take deep breaths etc. as they were walking out the door david gave them each a towel to blot the ends of their bouquets with and gave them direction on how to hold their bouquets. i was running around in the other room and he handed the bride her bouquet when she almost walked through the doors without it. i am thankful for him. we had to go back to the venue late that night to pick up everything. it was in deer valley so he decided to book a hotel for us up there. he ordered extra pillows in the hotel.

i am thankful for him.

...somewhere in tel aviv at a flea market

2011-08-22T00:40:00.002-06:00

no, i'm ok

2011-08-19T00:33:00.000-06:00

david always says "no, i'm ok" or "no, i'm good" instead of no thank you.
i do it too sometimes.

in the middle east some of our communication with people was pretty hysterical.

we were endlessly asked by taxi drivers etc if we wanted to go to their shop, their house, their favorite place, on and on...and he would reply something like "no, i'm good".

and they would reply "yes sir, yes, you are good, but do you want to go to my shop?"

i laughed so hard every time.

i tried writing it down after one particularly funny interaction while in a taxi, and this is how it came scribbled out....equally as difficult to translate.

back yard

2011-08-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

a bear has gotten into the bees

2011-08-16T11:00:00.001-06:00

I was gone one weekend and david sent me a text that said:

"You are never going to believe this, I'm sorry, but a bear has gotten into the bees".

Of course I wrote back "what?!"

and then he sent me this picture.

petra

2011-08-16T00:30:00.000-06:00

this was at petra. don't really know why, but i love these pictures. the colors and shapes, and they way everything is laid out? pretty

North Carolina

2011-08-12T00:13:00.000-06:00

I went to North Carolina clear back in May to an antiques festival I had heard great things about. It wasn't as good as I expected, but I still had fun. I stayed with our friends greg and kate, she works at a cute shop that has a soda fountain. We visited the gardens at duke, drank lemonade, and watched the bees buzz around their crazy mud hive. It was fun. I love the South, I want to find the vw westfalia van of my dreams and take a big road trip all the way from here to north carolina next year.

camping

2011-08-10T11:23:00.016-06:00

this is post is to make all of those friends of ours that never come camping with us really regret it and promise to come next time.

i'm convinced that all you really need is one night of peeing in the woods, granola stuck in your beard, and dirt under your bandaids to feel refreshed and ready for another week of work.

apples

2011-08-08T19:08:00.004-06:00

the staghorn fern in our bedroom finally died, so i got this bubble to hang on the wall with flowers in it. it is a bit precarious with these apples hanging above our heads, but its so pretty i'll take the risk. i love the end of summer.

nap time

2011-08-02T14:05:00.005-06:00

I have always scoffed at uptight adults for spending their time and money on certain things. they have it all wrong, i thought. i would much rather spend my money on this, or my time on that...they have lost their senses. as we have gotten busier, i have changed my mind about a few things. i can't decide if i have finally been taken over and i am now a drone-like adult, or if i have just finally come to my senses.

1. naps. i am constantly moving and my idea of relaxing is to do yard work all weekend. but, naps are good. i am so glad that i have finally realized this

2. facials. i used to scoff at people who would waste money on pampering, but i get it now. it is worth it.

3. car detailing. i am amazed by how good it feels to have a clean car. my car is a mess all the time, i live out of it. and no matter how hard i try, i cant get it as clean as they can. i am still a bit embarrassed to admit that i spend money on this, but i am telling you all here so that you will go and do. i take all of my scoffs back.

kinfolk

2011-07-31T23:30:00.009-06:00

we are really grateful to nate and katie for inviting us to be involved in kinfolk, and are so blown away by the talented group of people working on it. being a part of it makes us really happy, and we can't wait to get started on the next issue. it is a wise and beautiful publication.

here are some peeks of parts we were involved in. david wrote an article, it is subtly witty and intelligent. there is an interview with me in there about flower stuff, photos of those in the magazine by yan. a picture of sunday dinner at our house, photo by nate.

foxglove

2011-07-27T00:16:00.018-06:00

i love our garden right now. it is wild and weedy, just the way i like it.

we have one foxglove that is absolutely perfect. most of our foxglove get picked as soon as they bloom so that i can use them in flower arrangements. this one has survived so far because i love how it is so isolated in our garden and i don't think any bouquet deserves it.

we harvested the last of our peas and then accidentally left the bowl of them outside. we have a big bowl of dried peas now.

mt. aire

2011-07-19T08:54:00.018-06:00

this was the best little hike, it is called mt. aire and it is up millcreek canyon. it is super easy, and when you get to the crest the air really does change. it smells fresh and the view is pretty. there are butterflies and wildflowers all over. we spotted a coyote at the top.

i enjoyed staring at that rock for extended periods of time. i have ideas to decorate an entire space inspired by this rock. i love the grass clumps, the color of the moss, the jagged peaks, all of it.

every time we are in the mountains we just want to stay there.

that being said, you'd think we would spend more time there than we do. preferably at a lake house like this and this. i guess if you only looked at my blog and didn't know me in real life it would seem that sit around on vacation and in the mountains was all we do. but its not. we are busy people.

its all about the way you present things.

you see, today for example i am cramming for a labor economics test. (with blogging breaks)

im glued to the couch and i am studying hard, i have to pass the test so that i can graduate at the end of the semester. it is stressful, etc. etc.

i could also tell you that whilst doing so i am wearing a striped robe, eating local apricot goat cheese, camembert, and blueberry wensleydale cheese smeared on fancy bread and you would again, think differently of my life.

summer

2011-07-13T10:28:00.001-06:00

Untitled from sarah winward on Vimeo.

kinfolk

2011-07-10T22:45:00.004-06:00

we are excited to be contributors to a new magazine called kinfolk, a magazine focused on taking a more natural approach to small scale and casual entertaining. it is a collaboration between a lot of people, and we have really enjoyed being involved. this first issue is going to be out this friday, be sure to take a look.

Kinfolk from VsTheBrain on Vimeo.

2011-07-09T01:16:00.000-06:00

the mountains. i love them.

2011-07-08T22:47:00.000-06:00

lookin' a little rugged

(alright, this did actually happen, but i MAY have held it for a photo op)

we keep trying to go hiking and we run into too much snow every time.

on the fourth we went to park city for david to play in a rugby game, followed it up with brunch, took a long afternoon nap, then decided to go hiking at 6:30 pm. we got up the canyon and started hiking and were making good time until we got to this peak. then we had to hike straight up on snow or slopes of slippery shale rock. we finally made it to the top just after sunset then had to race back and try to find the trail before it got too dark. hiking up the snow/ice was not so much fun, sliding down it was though. as we were driving down the canyon we could see the sky in the valley flashing with the light of fireworks, and we made it to a look out point just in time to catch a fairly decent show. it was a good day.

Untitled from sarah winward on Vimeo.

spring

2011-07-04T17:13:00.003-06:00

it is still spring in park city.

last monday we were up there and i even got to pick some lilacs. their smell filled the whole car and just about put me in a flower coma. flower stuff has completely consumed me and david both for the month of june. we still managed to squish in a lot of family and friend time by sacrificing sleeping.

i had one particularly rough week with three editorial photo shoots and four weddings. i am fairly confident that the only reason i made it out alive is because of this fortune cookie that i got the day before all of the madness started. (note the filthy nails....that is as clean as a florist's nails get)

july is much easier. we are so exhausted that we have been pretty lazy so far. i am counting two naps in the last 48 hours. we have some weekend trips planned, lots of hikes and bikes, and maybe a BBQ or two.

oh i get by with a little help from my friends.

2011-06-22T23:41:00.007-06:00

i am more or less finished with the wall at the studio, thanks to a little help from my friends.

do you see a resemblance?

2011-06-21T09:59:00.000-06:00

i do.

sounds

2011-06-10T08:10:00.000-06:00

i sure have been blogging a lot this week. i am milking days that i don't have chaotic flower stuff going on for all they are worth. and i'm avoiding writing some of my final papers...

here are videos from india this february, all thrown together. india is so visually overwhelming that i think other senses (besides maybe smell) sort of turn off for sake of your sanity. i don't seem to recall the sounds of india except for at night when we were trying to sleep. i love that i have these videos to remind me of them. though my camera skills aren't the best, i think the first clip in this video is incredible. what you hear and see is a man swimming and singing in the ganges at sunrise. too bad i didn't record longer, i think i accidentally hit the button and didn't mean to be taking a video anyways...but i'm sure glad i did.

India 2011 from sarah winward on Vimeo.

the beginning

2011-06-08T17:35:00.004-06:00

this is the start of a wall at the studio i am painting. i am shamelessly copying the pattern on some fabric that i want but wont be buying because it is $317 a yard. i cant even take credit for the roses that are painted so far, my friend did those. i always attempt to design and live in minimal spaces but sooner or later i always bring in deep colors. this time it was sooner rather than later.

bees

2011-06-07T15:16:00.007-06:00

there was a tradgedy in april.
our bees were doing well and healthy, buzzing around, they still had honey in their box from last year, but on top of that they were drinking a full can of sugar water every two to three days.
then-one day.....dead. all of them.
someone in our neighborhood somewhere sprayed pesticides and it killed all of our bees.

it was really sad to clean out their box, but i am so amazed at how gorgeous their honeycomb is every time i see it. we are keeping the screen from that top picture to frame it. do you see the leaf that is hidden in there?

we got new bees a few weeks later and they are doing well. it sounds crazy, but i don't feel like i have as strong of a connection with them as i did with my other 10,000 friends.

moral to the story? don't use poison in your yard, it kills more than your weeds.

three weekends ago

2011-06-05T10:40:00.020-06:00

these are my favorite swimming shorts of davids, he calls them his "jimmy johns".

i can't believe three weeks have gone by since this. time is flying by lately.

we crammed so much into this weekend. we spent a full day gardening, attending some family things and then a rugby game, and we got a few days of hiking, biking, and relaxing in southern utah. we camp in the same spot every time, it feels like home. it rained all night one night and the tent had a leak and there was a steady drip right on my head all night. we woke up and were the only ones in the camping ground that toughed it out.

bathrooms

2011-05-29T11:49:00.000-06:00

years ago i told myself i wanted to take a picture of every place that we stayed, i thought it would be a fun documentation. i would forget 90% of the time, and never felt right starting because then it wouldn't be a complete collection. here are just a few from the trip, the bathrooms seemed to be the most interesting. so stark, and sometimes alien-like.

kid in a candy shop

2011-05-24T21:57:00.001-06:00

if you know david you know how much candy he eats.
if he sees treats, he has to buy them, just because he is an adult and he can.

it drives me nuts, because i would never buy that much junk...but if it is there i will eat it.

i think this was in india.

india

2011-05-20T11:48:00.001-06:00

in-transit

2011-05-20T10:15:00.000-06:00

i already said it, but i think being in-transit is sometimes my favorite time of travel. i enjoy a long gaze out the window and a half-understood conversation with a taxi driver.

2011-05-17T10:21:00.006-06:00

Untitled from sarah winward on Vimeo.

i am sorely disappointed in myself for not taking more videos on our trip. i am kicking ymself thinking of all the incredible times we should have taken video! this isn't anything special because i just threw the ones we did have together to make me feel better. you will only see david in them for tiny clips. when we got home i sat down to look at the footage and realized that most of my videos were of birds, or other people singing, i am never to be seen in them at all.

i'd say i'll do better next time, but i highly doubt we will ever get to live this trip as it was again. this video show snippets of morocco, egypt, jordan, and israel. please forgive me if the music in the video drives you nuts. we listened to music like this everywhere for months. its monotony was driving me nuts at the beginning of the trip, but then it became really calming to me eventually.

2011-05-13T22:39:00.003-06:00

winter is gone and these trees are slowly filling in, but i just got this film developed.

i love these stripey shadows in our yard. sadly, the stripes are getting to be spaced further apart as we lose big, unhealthy trees to various things.

lately

2011-05-13T10:41:00.002-06:00

I showered and got dressed in a skirt for an appointment the other day, and then I realized that it had been six months since I had actually gotten ready...meaning blow my hair dry, put on makeup, and some thought into my outfit. It was a scary realization that half a year had gone by and I didn't even have time to shower.

For the few weeks before we left last December I was a wreck because I was so busy. Then we were gone and were travel gross, and since we have been home we have been so busy that if I can throw a shower in there we are all lucky. Sure I am leaving the house with dripping wet hair the same clothes I have been wearing for a month, but you take what you can get. I have no shame. I have met clients in pants with paint on them, my toes sticking out of my shoes, and glue stuck to my fingers. I may have even accidentally gone to set up for a wedding in my work clothes because I forgot to bring nice ones and we were on a time crunch. I have cooked dinner four times since we have been home, two of those were pasta that I boiled and threw bottled sauce on. Renovating the studio has been a full time plus job on top of full time jobs. We are regulars at the gas station by our house around 11pm getting doughnuts and a soda. My pants are fitting tight, and I have only exercised twice since we have been home.

But we are finished, mostly. We still have details to work out, but no more construction. Last night we ate (takeout-i'm not recovered yet) on the lawn and then planted our vegetable garden. It was pure heaven.

This picture is from my birthday last week. As usual, my birthday wish was to work all day on projects. Around midnight or later in my pajamas we ate a giant specially requested doughnut to celebrate. I think this will be the last year that is my birthday request, no more projects.

I am so ready to start living our normal lives again, and stop the terrible eating garbage food in the wee hours of the morning instead of going to sleep pattern we have gotten ourselves into.

I think summer is a cure for that in general. Have you ever noticed that only winter holidays have specific candies associated with them? Easter and Christmas namely. I am glad that food associated with summer is light and vegetable-y. That is what I like, and I can't want to get back to it.

2011-05-06T23:06:00.000-06:00

honey of a thousand flowers.

2011-05-03T17:02:00.011-06:00

i changed my business name from Ea, and got a studio!

things are really happening and it is so fun.

i got the studio about a month ago and we have been working away on it every night, it feels like we just moved into our house again.

if you have seen me in public, i truly apologize. i've been out with spackle in my hair, paint on my face and my toes and heels hanging out of my work shoes. my construction acne is here in full force. (i get it every spring, because i over load myself with projects as soon as the air is warm enough to bear).

we have gutted the place and are bringing it back to life-a newer, prettier one.

we have also vowed to never drywall a ceiling ourselves again.

one particular piece had a lot of cuts to do on it, then when we got it above our heads it wouldn't fit. we were trying to cut it while we were holding it up in the air. i was standing on the counter and david on a step stool. we held the piece of drywall over our heads for really a full twenty minutes. i was holding it up with my head for part of the time, and my back for the other. we were yelling and struggling to stay alive under its weight. then finally our bodies gave up. i ended up on my back on the counter with my head hanging off one end and my leg off the other, pinned beneath the drywall. i had to grab a nearby ladder to shimmy out. when i got out i looked out the window and passers-by were just watching. thanks for your help guys!

but- the worst is over. we are still finishing up a few of the bones, but most of it from here on out will be decorating and flower arranging. i love the space and it is a perfect location at 9th & 9th in Salt Lake. it will be by appointment only. it is mostly a work space for me, and a place to meet my clients. i will "open" around select holidays.

i am going to keep the really good before and after pictures of the space for when it is actually done, but here are a few. we are doing this all on a self enforced really tight budget. i took a trip to the junk yard and told myself that i wasn't going to leave until i found something that i could make light fixtures out of, and i looooove the way they turned out.

i have really taken to the space so far. i was a bit worried, because i have to have the right environment to make work that i am proud of. but i did my first wedding in the space last weekend and it just felt right. it might be a little ridiculous, but i even got a little teary eyed as i was taking my time placing the flowers into in the cooler, primping, and fluffing them.

in the back of my mind i knew i always wanted to work with flowers, and i am sure glad this is where i ended up.

bagby

2011-04-27T10:40:00.010-06:00

in portland we went up to bagby hot springs.

giant wooden logs carved out into tubs, and water from the hot spring piped to each tub through bamboo pipes. you have to walk down to the river and get cold water to cool your tub down. we were here soaking 'til it was dark and then had to hike back through the forest in the dark with no flashlight. afterwards we went to dinner and i was in a trance. you know the kind where everything that happens seems really profound? and the food tastes so good that you are having an out of body experience? (sort of like the one in i am love) you laugh so hard you cry and then you stare without blinking for five minutes straight? one of those.

portland

2011-04-25T10:04:00.014-06:00

me with a wind-mullet above, and another encounter with old lady winward below.
...and then david met me in portland so we could hang out with emily and jake. we ate food non-stop all weekend and it was so good. think pomegranate raspberry cheesecake that is made with cashews...

my roots

2011-04-20T14:17:00.014-06:00

after being away from people that i knew for so long, i wanted to see all of my family when i came home. so i went out to san diego to visit luke and brenda, and the flower fields. i'm not a huge orchid person, but the ones there were killing me. also killing me? my niece adelaide. i love kids in the morning.

flowers for our eyes

2011-04-17T10:20:00.011-06:00

emily came into town right after we got home, it was fun.

heart

2011-04-13T12:44:00.008-06:00

last fall we ripped up a pseudo xeriscape front yard that still had a full sprinkling system.

before we rolled out the sod i put some bulbs down.

this is something i have dreamt about doing since it was a kid.

when we came home they were just barely peeking through, now some of them are blooming. here is a first installment of pictures of its progress.

because we missed a lot of winter, i'm not as antsy for spring/summer as i usually am. i feel perfectly content waiting for and watching my daffodils and tulips make their debut.

people in my pictures

2011-04-12T11:20:00.001-06:00

it's really annoying when people walk in front of you while you are trying to take a picture, but i think that sometimes the pictures are better. these are from india

another grab bag

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

the bottom pictures here are from the meadow where we met the shepherd. the others are from jordan, india, and egypt.

israel panoramas

2011-04-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

sea of galilee

2011-04-04T06:34:00.000-06:00

the sea of galilee and the golan heights area was our favorite part of Israel, and possibly our favorite part of the entire trip. it is not too developed, and you are free to roam the countryside by yourself. the sea of galilee is a simple, but gorgeous lake. the fact that it is called a sea instead of just a lake already makes it sound more romantic.

we stayed at the YMCA just outside of tiberias. we swore off YMCA's about four years ago after a terrible experience at one in india, but here we were again. however-this was no typical ymca.

there are only a few rooms, and built right on the shore of the lake with views of the water from every room. there are gardens on the property, and path to a hot spring, you can hear the water babbling from your window. after a lazy morning we visited with other guests about art and travel, and went for a dip in the lake.

i could have stayed forever.

we loved the way that modern and ancient mixed here. there were no huge monuments obstructing the hillside, no lines of tourists. the hills were ablaze with yellow flowers, and the occasional modernly dressed man riding through them on horseback, just because he can.

2011-04-01T11:48:00.007-06:00

the rest

2011-04-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

tel aviv, haifa, and some model city of jerusalem

in need of a good laugh?

2011-03-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

buy me a lift ticket and watch me try to get down the mountain alive.

the negev desert

2011-03-28T22:44:00.000-06:00

i couldnt find david for a while.....

found him.

its good to be home

2011-03-25T23:19:00.008-06:00

this is what we woke up to after we got home, i'm glad we didn't miss all of winter.

this snow promptly melted within a few hours.

getting through jet lag was rough. i woke up in the middle of the night standing at our bedroom window looking out, trying to figure out where we were. i saw clumps of snow and thought it was people's laundry that had fallen off the lines. i was trying to hard to understand why everybody's laundry was white. david woke up and asked what i was doing, and i replied "looking out the window" it wasn't until i got back into bed that i realized that the walk from the window to the bed felt familiar, then i figured out where i was. i woke up in the morning and it was really bright and white and i was so cozy and warm. we have stayed in so many dark, not cozy places, being disoriented and in a somewhat still dream state i truly thought i was in heaven for a good minute.

later that morning when i remembered being up and staring out the window at night, suddenly all of these other memories of staring out the window in the middle of the night came back to me. i guess i developed a mild sleep walking habit on the trip, i would wake up disoriented and go to the window to try and figure out where we were. each time i would sort of come to already standing at the window. i'm glad that it didn't stick, because its sort of eerie when i remember all of the random windows that i have only somewhat consciously stared out in the dead of night. eek.

our house felt so foreign. the shapes and size felt so strange, i guess we got used to building styles that were different than they are here. i liked coming home to my plants, they grew up, had a life of their own while we were away. i love when my stag horn fern sheds a leaf.

goon's hands.

dome

2011-03-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

the dome of the rock. i have wanted to visit this for a long time. aside from my interest in the building's history, i love the tile and the combination of bright mosaic with the more natural colored marble underneath.

it was cloudy while we were the, but the sun came out for about .2 seconds to take the top picture of it glowing.

jerusalem

2011-03-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

this top picture was the view out of our window.

we loved jerusalem, but why does jerusalem love gummy candy so much?

so many booths in the markets have gummy candy bins that people are eating by the scoopful. every color, shape, and unnatural color you can think of.

i guess these pictures don't show any sign of jerusalem being a modern European-feeling city that sells bins of gummy candy, but a lot of it is. these pictures probably portray an ancient city just like i said does not exist a few posts ago.

sometimes i am self conscious about what people may think of a place after they see our pictures. i just take pictures of what catches me at any particular moment, and when gathered together in a bunch that i find pleasing, they may or may not be an accurate portrayal. not everywhere in jerusalem looks like this, these are just the parts i chose to take pictures of. maybe next time i go back i will document gummy candy, and the people buying it.