Terrarium remix

My absolute love of terrariums is no secret. I've blogged about them before.  I’m pretty much obsessed with them. In fact, it’s fairly accurate to say that at least in my work universe, they keep me sane. Every time I’m in the office and start to feel stressed or overwhelmed, irritated, disgruntled, or any sort of anxiety, all I need to do is stroll over to the terrarium section, and spend a few minutes re-centering amongst the little indoor gardens. If we don’t have any particularly inspiring terrariums around, I often leaf through our multiple terrarium books, gaining inspiration, planning out my next project, and drooling just a little bit over the perfect miniature garden creations.

My favorite Terrarium book is Terrarium Craft… and what do you know, it’s written by  local terrarium goddesses, Amy Bryant Aiello & Kate Bryant of Artemisia on 28^th in Portland (AKA my Terrarium Mecca.) Ok, I’ve actually never been, but I drool over the book enough, and wistfully look at the blog enough, to know, that I cannot actually go there until I have some money saved up, and my credit card is paid off, because I’m pretty sure I will build terrariums until I am out of money. (It’s a sickness I think…) 

Ask anyone I work with (and thankfully most of them have my same terrarium affinity) it’s like there is some magic aura that surrounds even the idea of terrariums. They are calming, and breathtaking… and words cannot even express my reactions to them. Yes, I swoon over them… pathetic? Maybe. (I even tend to make excited almost growly noises when I see terrariums places… and my voice gets high pitched as I say “look at you!”) 

I’ve been giving terrariums as gifts lately… because as much as I love to ogle over them, they are even more fun to make. And what better gift, than a living environment, picked out, and assembled by hand? Naturally, I always make terrariums with a glass of wine in hand… and there have been several occasions in which I’ve stayed into the evening at work, or even wandered into the back green-house on an afternoon “off of work” with a glass of pinot noir, and an armful of succulents.

Over the weekend I was in Portland, relishing in a day off of work, drinking mimosas, and hanging out with friends. It was this surreal day of almost spring time weather, we went to a fair (there were pig races!) and after leaving my friends for the evening, I even had a first date. And as I was walking to meet him at the restaurant, I was pretty much stopped in my tracks, because there, a block away from the restaurant was Artemisia.  I looked longingly across the street as I walked by, and made mental plants of walking back to my car after dinner ever so slowly, and taking in every window display.  The date itself, was good and bad. One of those great first dates where the guy is cute and interesting, and there is good food and wine…. Only I was feeling violently ill, and only managed a few bites of my food and half a glass of wine. I wanted to stay, and drink and chat, and get to know him… but when you are focusing on not throwing up, it really does put a damper on things. I felt awful too, because of course on bad first date the best excuse is illness… the “oh I’m not feeling well” is code for “I can’t get away from you fast enough” but in my case it was really true! The only thing worse than having to leave a date because you are ill, is actually throwing up in front of your date (which, thankfully I did not do!). I bowed out gracefully, I begged for a rain check, promising to never ever eat fair food again before entering his company… and as I walked back to my car… I knew I couldn’t stop and take in all the beauty of the window displays… I was sick, and he was watching me walk away, and even though all I wanted to do was press my face against the window, and let myself be grounded and calmed by the utter tranquilness of the terrarium, I slowed my pace only a little, took a little gasp at their beauty, and kept walking to my car… He hasn’t called. And who can blame him? I’m sure I was terrible company… at least I got a glimpse of my Mecca. 

 My most recent creation

If you are looking to get inspired, Amy Bryant Aiello & Kate Bryant are offering a free class next weekend at Portland Nursery. It is sponsored by Powell’s Books, and I’m sure will be a wonderful time.

They also offer Terrarium classes at Artemisia.