marigolds for margaret (this is for you Marne!)

note:  this blog posting will be much more interesting if you google:  Margaret Russell

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to New York for a couple of days for an event at our showroom.  Of the many showrooms in the New York Design Center, our showroom was chosen by Architectural Digest to participate in their annual "AD LOVES" event.  We were ONE of SIX showrooms in the entire building and they actually made the other showrooms close their doors during the event.  It was a huge honor and kind of a big deal!

We have a brilliant stylist who does his magic on all our showrooms and he came to NY the week before our event - which meant the showroom looked fabulous, but the flowers he purchased a week ago did not.  Said brilliant stylist left simple instructions:  go to the flower mart and spend about a hundred dollars per vase and beautify the showroom.  We were in a bit of a rush getting the showroom ready for the big event so my boss (who is also the president of our company) went out and bought marigolds and beautiful blue hydrangeas.

And then we tried to talk each other into doing the flower arranging.  We threw out every sterotype we could.  My boss claimed the Japanese girl (me) surely should be able to arrange flowers.  I claimed that the two gay guys in the room would do a much better job!  In the end, I lost the the proverbial arm wrestle and the task fell on the Japanese girl.  My mother tried to teach me many life skills, but I don't recall flower arranging being one of them.  So with all the creativity I could muster, I grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped off the rubber bands holding the stems together, cut off the celophane wrap and literally plopped bunch after bunch into the vase. 

The hydrangeas looked fairly passable, but the marigolds, well, they did their very best to perk up the showroom with their bright orange blossoms, but alas, even marigolds have their limits.

I self-consciously moved them from the front to the back of the showroom and then when my boss walked to the back and started laughing uproariously...well, that did nothing to boost my flowerful ego.

The clock struck six and our guests started to file into our showroom.  The AD Loves event is basically a glorified open house with invited guests visiting each of the six showrooms.  The crowning event is when Margaret Russell, who, if you followed my google suggestion, you know is extremely well-known in my industry (understatement), comes through your showroom.  I hoped she would overlook the flowers which were usually such a highlight in our showroom.

As she walked towards the back of the showroom, I walked towards the front.  David accompanied her while I escaped.  And then after a respectable visit, she moved on to her next destination and David told me the line of the night:

Said Margaret Russell to David:  I love your marigolds.