BOTANICAL BLISS

BY LISA KRESL | PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Courtney Goldberg doesn’t have a green thumb, but her home-based plant business has put her in the black.

Her succulent arrangements, accented with patterned sand, gemstones and natural elements, have been spotted at charity luncheons at Neiman’s, Ascension, a Kent Rathbun event, medical spas and downtown office buildings. Urban Spikes, a name inspired by the porcupine quills she sometimes uses, has a word-of-mouth following after just two years.

“With cut succulents and low-maintenance plants, you don’t have to have a long-winded knowledge of everything,” she says. “I’m like a designer of plants.”

Goldberg says one of her biggest sales barriers in the beginning was customers’ fear that they would kill the plants. When she started selling her creations at the Crescent Court Farmers Market, she created signage that read, “You don’t have to take care of us.”

“It takes the worry off,” she says. “You can have green in your space without the pressure of, ‘Did I water it? Did I overwater it? Did I kill it?’ ’’

Goldberg is in the garage workshop of her Mason Dells home. She’s in the third trimester of her pregnancy with her third boy. She points out meticulously organized bins of colored sand, dried mushrooms, driftwood, agate, smoky black quartz and coffee beans. She orders the succulents from Holland, and they arrive in boxes.

Inside her pristine home, ready-made orders are tucked into the corners of her dining room and living room. Three-hundred succulents for the Crescent Building, 500 for McKinney and Olive. Another grouping waits for an Earth Day celebration. Her Dachshund, Spike, wanders in.

Goldberg’s 3- and 5-year-old boys are away at Akiba Academy. Don’t they like to play in the sand? Sometimes they like to make an arrangement, she says. “But this isn’t a really fun area for them — unless they’re riding their scooters.”

Urban Spikes has two employees, and Goldberg is considering finding a studio. “I’m pretty sure this is a business at this point.”

THEY COME FOR A SHAMPOO AND SET, BUT LEAVE NURTURED AND INSPIRED a Friday morning and your

HE IS THE KEEPER OF SECRETS, a make-shift therapist. He has known you since before you had children and accepts you just the way you are. Seeing him is the only time you can relax. He is your hairdresser. Some women at Park Plaza Salon have been coming to see the same hairdresser for 40 years. They come once or twice a week for a shampoo and set. Their hair is set tight in green curlers, dried then styled and sprayed. The world swirls around, but the relationships and hairstyles remain the same. Assisted living caretakers or relatives escort some clients to appointments. The women sit back in the styling chairs swathed in pink, orange and turquoise smocks, recalling when they were socialites or models, photographed and featured in the newspaper. A few have dementia but respond to the nurturing, loving hands of their hairdressers. It’s a Friday morning at the salon, and the women emerge coiffed and ready for the day.

You can read your book, in a pair of scissors to kick off career.

Dutch Art Gallery

Fine Art & Custom Framing

LISA ADAMS REED

“Magical Mystery Tour”

Solo Show

Original Cold Wax paintings

Meet the Artist

Thursday, July 5th | 6-8 PM

Visit with artist Lisa Adams Reed during our First Thursday Event in July

Artist Demonstration

Saturday, July 7th | 11 AM-2 PM

Painting: “Blue Jay Way”

DAN “THE COMPUTER GUY”

Computer Repair

972.639.6413 stykidan@sbcglobal.net

Don’t panic! Let a seasoned pro be the interface between you & that pesky windows computer. Hardware & software installation, troubleshooting, training, $60/hour — one hour minimum.

The Reading Ranch Tutorial Center focuses exclusively on literacy offering a phonetically based program in reading, writing and spelling enrichment for children (PreK thru 4th grade) and meets individual needs giving them a strong foundation while ‘filling the gap’ for children that need literacy support.

Coming this Fall PreK-AM/PM classes

Summer AM/PM classes (June, July, August)

Open 7 days-a-week New Writing Lab! Intervention or Enrichment

12” X 12” | Original Cold Wax

10233 E. Northwest Hwy. Suite 420 Dallas, TX 75238

214.348.7350 dutchartgallery.net