Another Day with James Farmer

Well, today was a very fun day!  Months of planning and collaboration from the members of my garden club resulted in a beautiful fund-raising luncheon featuring James Farmer!  The vision and most of the work was done by Betsy Powell, a relatively new member.  Betsy thinks big! She's so creative and so full of energy that it is a rush just being with her and her ideas.  This is one of two 6' arrangements that she did for either side of the stage. 

If you were attending, the first thing you would see coming off of the elevator is a sign-in table flanked with very large iron vases filled with vibrant fall foliage.  Here's an example of the details that went into this event.  All of the signage, invitations, and miscellaneous paper pieces were crafted with these hand painted images of this beautiful season. 

The next thing our guests experienced was this beautiful table for hot cider.  Don't these copper pieces look beautiful, especially in the fall? 

Here's a closer look.

The next thing they see is this beautiful table for the silent auction.

Every table had a different centerpiece, which was auctioned off.  They were all made in a wooden dough bowl, and placed on a wooden slice.  Every one of them sold for $100-$200, and those winners got a great deal.

Aren't they wonderful?

Thank you, Betsy!  You are so talented!

Check out the table numbers.  More darling images.

James said that every successful arrangement needs to have foliage, flowers, and fruit (and feathers in the fall).  I think these have it all!

More beauties!

Every place setting had this wonderful burlap bag filled with a CD by Harrison Powell, and a copy of James Farmer's grandmother's (Mimi's) apple cake recipe, which was served as dessert.  Lee Epting was the caterer and our meal of potpie and a delicious salad was sooooo good.  You can see more about Epting Events here.

Each white napkin was topped with a cute little lady apple.

You can see the crossed burlap runners here in a pale grape and salmon color.  Sounds a little daring, but they went beautifully with the fall ingredients. Didn't it come together nicely?  

And then, James......what can I say......he is just the most charming speaker.  You can see another post I did on him a few weeks ago here.  Do you see the stuffed pheasant on the olive bucket that he started with?

Well, this is what the finished product looked like.  My sweet friend, Blanchette, won it at the silent auction and had to rent a truck to take it home, it was so tall!  I would have loved to see her husband's face!

And, just as cute as James, was our pianist, Harrison Powell.  I am so grateful to him.  He donated his time to entertain us, and also donated a CD for every attendee.  His music is original, and has much the same feeling as George Winston.  Beautiful!  Read about him here.  You'll be impressed by his mission and his talent.  And then, at the end of the day, he made trip after trip up and down seven floors to help women to their cars with their centerpieces.  His mama raised him right!

This is the location of our event.  It was held at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta.  They have been the well-deserved recipient of some nice donations from our garden club.  They have been ranked by U. S. News and World Report among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the nation.  We are very proud that one of our members founded this hospital when her son suffered a spinal cord injury in 1975.  It is now a 152 bed facility and it gives me chills to see what a superlative hospital this is and the life-changing difference it makes in their patients and their families. Read more here.

Thank you Betsy for your vision and your very hard work!

I loved being a small part of it!

James Farmer at ADAC

CUTENESS ALERT:

I have seen James T. Farmer III several times and each time I am charmed and inspired.  And greatly awed by him.  James is the quintessential Southern gentleman with a smile that will melt you and a wit that will keep you laughing the next day.  He is an Auburn University grad, majoring in horticulture and art history.  He's also an interior decorator, landscape designer, writer, cook, and event planner.  And currently an editor at large for Southern Living.

Here's an image from his blog, "All Things Farmer".  This post gives us behind the scenes looks at his latest Southern Living article.  Isn't this beautiful?

Here's another photo from his blog.  I love this tablescape featuring a stuffed fox on a Thanksgiving table.  I'm ok with taxidermy on a dining table, how about you?

This image of his landscaping ability makes my mouth water.  I just love this!!!!

Last week, he presented at Janus et Cie at the Atlanta Decorative Arts Company, and I took a dear friend who promptly fell under his spell, as well.  

He began with a quick demonstration of a wonderful fall floral arrangement. 

He started with sweet gum in a long, ceramic pot,

added Free Spirit roses and hydrangeas,

and highlighted  it all with some bright blue and purple. 

Beautiful!

The second part of his presentation was several recipes from his several cookbooks.

His newest is this really great one, published by Smith, Gibbs.  The photography is lovely and you will be so taken with his stories describing the recipes and the events.  It is dedicated to his grandmother, whom he speaks about lovingly and often.  She was clearly a huge influence in his love of entertaining.

Here's the platter of autumn chicken salad he prepared for us.  Note how the addition of the apple and sweet gum leaf makes the platter look so appealing.  

And here's my favorite souvenir of the day!  A hug from the sweet guy himself! 

Great Day at ADAC!!!!

As a design professional, I'm lucky to be able to use the Atlanta Decoratiave Arts Center for "to the trade" business.  It is filled with a multitude of heavenly showrooms and offers some really lovely events.  I've heard so many great designers such as Bunny Williams, Nina Campbell, Carolyne Roehm and Charles Faudree there, just to name drop a bit.

But TODAY they hit a home run with their ADAC in Bloom Event!

It was co-sponsored by  flower magazine, and wow.....did they ever do a great job!

It was billed as a chance to "celebrate and explore nature's influence on the world of design with a talent-packed day of lectures, book signings, and demonstrations".  That sounds like a lot to deliver, but deliver they did!!!!

This photo is from the event sign-up area of the website, advertising ADAC in Bloom.  I'm wild about how the hydrangeas reflect in the antiqued mirror of the tabletop.

First, we were welcomed by Margot Shaw, the Editor-in-Chief of  flower magazine.  What a firecracker she is!  She's a thoroughly Southern girl from Birmingham, Alabamba who founded this magazine five years ago to educate and inspire flower enthusiasts while showcasing the many talented floral professionals within this thriving, diverse industry. 

 Go to http://www.flowermag.com/archives/ to review what she's been up to.  I could do an entire post about Margot and flower magazine (and I might another time), but wait until you see who was on the panel:

Yep!  That's Karen Carroll, Barry Dixon, Tara Guerard, and Jon Carloftis.  (Tara's last name should have a little French accent over the e, but I can't figure out how to do it!)

First up was Karen Carroll, Vice President and Editor in chief of Southern Accents before it's sad demise.  She's now a freelance editor and writer for flower magazine.  She has been a guest blogger at The Skirted Roundtable.  She had a great outlook on the perfection of nature and how we, as flower arrangers or florists, could never improve on it, but rather edit it to our specific needs for each event or arrangement.  She also gave a very nice nod to bloggers for being a resource to learn, learn, learn.  

Do I need to tell you anything about Barry Dixon???????  He's a well known, well published, well admired interior designer.  His interior books are beautiful and a great resource for anyone who loves great design.  His childhood provided the chance to live in several exotic foreign countries and yet, his heart is in his 400 acre farm in the countryside of Virginia, near Washington, D. C.  He was definitely the clown of the panel, but that didn't stop him from giving us a great panel discussion.  I remember that he said "if God made it, it's good enough for me to use it".  I love that!  What a charmer.

Can you say "tastemaker"?????  Tara Guerard is all that and more!  She owns Soiree, which just might just be the premiere event design company in the South.  (the world?)  She's funny, irreverent, and oh, sooooo talented.  She did a presentation which featured several of her incredible weddings and spoke about the details of each.  Man, I love the details!  Even if you can't use Sylvia Weinstock for your cake, you can still use some of Tara's fresh and tailored look. She has a great blog which you can see here.

And then there was this cutie!  Jon Carlotis, gardener to the stars!  Jon specializes in rooftop gardens and does a lot of work on those dreamy roofs and balconies in NYC for some really big deal people.  He just finished doing four gardens for the rooftop of Google's headquarters in NYC.  It is the third largest office building in the city.  But he's a Kentucky boy through and through.  I'm going to be in Ky next week and I'm jumping off of I-75 to see Welcome Hill, his childhood home where his retail business, Rockcastle River Trading Company is located.  He also has a presence in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Well, wherever he is working or living, he is one great speaker with charm and wit and lots of love for his dogs and family.  He's "doing God's work" when he's planting, he says.  

And who didn't love the talk by James Farmer?  This thirty year old charmer had every woman there falling in love with him.  He had the best stories about his Mama, his Meemaw, his days at Auburn, and his life long home in middle Georgia.  I could have listened to him talk all day.  I love that he takes a responsibility to bring landscape, architecture, food and gardening to the people of his generation. Go to www.jamesfarmer.com to check him and his books out. 


Here's a handful of photos from the demo that Margot gave in the Ernest Gaspard showroom:

I'm inspired beyond belief and grateful for flower and ADAC.  I drove home (in Atlanta rush-hour traffic, no less) with visions of flowers and tablescapes swirling around in my head.  Let's see where this takes me in the next few weeks.  I may not be able to sleep tonight.  I'll probably be on my computer checking out what all of you are up to!