Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category

The other day we stopped by Hadley & Harriet’s quaint boutique that is located on Lemmon Avenue. As the door was opened, we were amazed to see the floor almost covered with some of the best looking gift baskets around - they were almost overflowing with great trinkets and gifts and then adorned with stylishly sophisticated ribbons.

The crew at Hadley & Harriet are working feverishly this time of year - but as a customer, it’s fun to browse the many themed baskets as you walk amongst them. Needless to say, many in Dallas have embraced the services of Hadley & Harriet to easily take care of their gift giving needs.

But there’s a lot more to Hadley & Harriet than just gift baskets as they specialize in interiors, decorative accessories and events. They can assist clients - by the hour if needed - with all sorts of interior design needs such as paint, flooring and textiles. If, after having their design services, you’d rather keep your interior looking great, take advantage of using their venue and courtyard to host your own events whether it’s a baby shower or luncheon.

Our weakness is always decorative accessories…candles, pillows, object d’art. They have a great selection of house blend candles and our personal favourite is Orange Vanilla. It’s a great place to browse and indulge yourself.

For this time of the year, alleviate some of the stress and have Hadley & Harriet put together a wonderful gift basket for all those people on your list. With prices starting at $20 per basket, it’s hard to resist such an easy solution. Some of the themed baskets they create include: Corporate, Birthday, Wedding, Baby, Wine & Cheese, Chocolate Lovers, Coffee or Tea Lovers, Writers or Candy.

Contact Information:
Hadley & Harriet
www.hadleyandharriet.com/
3922 Lemmon Avenue
Dallas TX 75219
214.559.4440

Beginning today and running through 4 January 09, the Nasher Sculpture Center is mounting an exhibition in celebration of its founders for the 5th anniversary celebrations.

In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection presents a personalized and intimate view of the Nasher Collection and the couple that assembled it. Featuring the great masterworks of the collection, as well as a selection of significant and personally meaningful works from its humble beginnings, the exhibition highlights the personal stories behind the works of art, including Patsy and Raymond Nasher’s partnership in pursuit of the finest examples of modern and contemporary sculpture; their close friendships with artists, art dealers, and curators; and the insights that came from living with and sharing the works of art that they loved.

The exhibition unveils several important works in the collection that had not yet been shown at the Nasher Sculpture Center, including masterworks by Willem de Kooning, Pablo Picasso, and Tony Smith. Many, such as Jean Arp’s Torso with Buds, had remained in the Nasher residence because of their personal significance: the Arp was the collection’s first major modern sculpture, which Patsy had given to Raymond as a gift on his 46th birthday.

The Dallas Arboretum is in the midst of the “Autumn at the Arboretum” festival now through 2 November 08. Special events for this weekend include:

For those that wish to visit during the less busy weekdays, click here for discount coupons.

Blazing heat, choking pollution and skyrocketing electric bills. What’s one way to combat all these problems at once? Plant trees.

Trouble is, compared to other large cities, the Dallas area doesn’t have nearly enough.

But a dedicated corps of volunteers stands ready to fulfill a mission that could make life better for us all: plant more trees and cool down our urban oceans of concrete.

They’re training to be “citizen foresters.”

To fully understand the benefits of trees in the city, you have to go where there are no trees in the city. When the outside temperature hits 100 degrees, the temperature on the pavement can hit 120 degrees. But where city streets are lined with trees, the temperature on the pavement can check in at 90 degrees. That’s almost 30 degrees cooler.

But how many trees should be planted? And where?

Other cities around the country have counted trees by hand. But that takes 10 years or more.

Eventually, a high-tech camera will fly over the city and identify the variety, quantity, and location of the city’s trees.

Armed with this information, the army of volunteers will be sent to places like Harry Hines Boulevard, where trees are few and far between.

And the planting can begin.

It’s going to be a truly spectacular spring weekend in the Dallas area.

Jump on your bike - or for you poor souls that only have a car you can get into that - and head towards Ennis for the annual Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival.

You’ll see first hand why this is state flower of Texas!

In it’s only stop in the Southwest, “The Amazing Chocolate Tree” is on display now through 6 January 2007 at the Dallas Arboretum.

This traveling exhibit follows chocolate from it’s roots as a cacao plant to the final process of candy making. Some of the exhibit highlights include:

There is a fee sample at the end!

I’m afraid of my garden.

A more accurate description, I guess, would be that I am afraid of the mosquitoes in my garden. All the rain that we’ve had over the last three months has provided me with a healthy, robust garden in full bloom here in the heat of mid-August, but has enabled tiny blood suckers to create thriving vampiric colonies beneath the wide, shady leaves of my caladiums. I can’t venture out there for even a moment without being set upon by throngs of the vile creatures — my legs and arms riddled with swelling welts.

Earlier this week, Dallas County Health and Human Services announced four new cases of West Nile Virus in four different city zips. You remember West Nile, right? Don’t confuse it with that twenty-four hour East Nile bug.

No, no.

That West Nile will mess you up.

Now, I’m not what you’d call an organic gardener, but I do try to be mindful of the chemicals I put into the world. As such, I don’t normally hit the garden with toxic agents. I’m all about the earthworms and the butterflies. I’ve got lots of birds out there, too. Don’t want to poison them, y’know?

I like birds.

Got no beef with them.

But the ’skeeters?

Them’s gotta die.

I’ve bombed the garden three times this summer.

And they keep coming back.

I’ve got the garden of the living dead out there!

You think holy water might work?