Leah Holman, proprietor of Zuzu's Petals, grew up near Seattle, Washington, in a family that enjoyed restoring older homes. With this early appreciation for quality workmanship, Leah's aesthetic eye developed further as a student living with European families, and then through her extensive education in interior design, historic preservation and urban planning. She met her husband Michael, himself an architectural historian, while attending a postgraduate program at the Preservation Institute in Nantucket. Despite a successful career in municipal government, Leah decided she wanted to focus on more creative pursuits. Zuzu's Petals now affords her the delight of creating, by hand, pieces that are finely and exquisitely detailed. For Leah, urban planning and industrial design present the same challenges: "to preserve the qualities that make a place or piece special, while addressing contemporary needs in ways that are both beautiful and functional."