One Swainky Couple: Hunting for the Perfect Planter

K: Brandon and I have been persistent in our hunt for the perfect planter (you can see our inspiration here, here, and here). We're looking to add a little curb appeal and color to our front porch stoop and feel like a medium sized pot would be an ideal addition. During our quest, we stumbled upon this beautiful garden shop in the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio. It was an outdoor oasis with gorgeous plants and a fairly large selection of planters, all in varying sizes. While we didn't come to a decision (Brandon and I are like to weigh our options heavily), it was fun to shop around together before we grabbed a quick bite at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It made me realize that couples should do more shopping together, but with a mutual goal in mind. Instead of taking your guy to go shoe shopping with you, find a project or an item that you're both looking for. Maybe it's an addition to your home, or the perfect set of dishes for your next dinner party. Either way, any shopping excursion is more fun with the one you love.

B: I visited Case Verde Landscaping with my mother several years past. Upon entering, I was entranced within this petite luxury home furnishing store. It contained 18th century French dressers, modern whitesmithing, handwoven Turkish rugs with price tags of cars, gardening accents, foliage, and oddly enough, rugs and horns of animals from around the world. Returning a visit just a few days ago opened memories, inspired decorative creativity, and allowed Katherine and myself the opportunity to browse planters they possessed in stock as well as planters from their retail distributers in Vietnam. Case Verde Landscaping is surely a store that contains more than I can manage to place within a paragraph.

K: In the picture above, Brandon jokingly told me "he'd found our planter". We loved the shape and color of this pot; however, it's about 10 times too large for our little front porch. We discovered that we differ a little bit on color overall (Brandon likes a more rugged, natural rock and I like something with a little color to it and a smoother surface). That didn't stop us from finding a few that we could agree on, although not in the right size. For all you gardeners out there, can you help us out? What's the best place to look for outdoor planters?

On a separate subject, this top is an old-time favorite of mine. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it is 7 years old...however, I've mentioned here about how I like what I like, trendy or not and I'm not afraid to wear my favorite pieces, as long as they hold up over the years. Right now, OTS tops and dresses are everywhere. I'm kind of waiting for them to cycle out, even though I do have my favorites. My prediction is that the next trend will be backless or open-back tops and dresses. It's another subtle way to show some skin for summer, without being obnoxious or obscene. I've linked several tops that are low cut in the back so that you can shop them for yourself.

B: When discussing potted plant varieties, Katherine left the task in my court. Since color is a huge component of my life, the vegetation combinations would have to possess petals with vivacious hues and deep rich foliage fillers. Katherine's perfect planter would possesses qualities of a smoothly glazed green patterned bowl. This being said, my mind ventures towards purple sweet potato vines and astilbe flowers during the summer timeframe. We are certain we will love our future front porch planter, we just hope the neighborhood deer will not love it quite as much as we do.