How to Make Store Bought Bouqets Look Great! 2018

This fearless, awesome group met just a few weeks ago. Hold onto summer by admiring these beautiful "after"pieces!

 

A Wedding bouquet

I was practicing a new technique for making a cascading bouquet for a bride recently and ended up making two bouquets. This one didn't make the grade.  

Some weddings are planned out in advance and you get to know the bride and groom quite well. It's a strange kind of intimacy. Usually the affair lasts only till the day of the wedding.You can be in contact daily, exchanging photos, thoughts and a creative journey. Then- it's over. The little flower world you have created is taken apart and dispatched. Sigh... 

Other's are a simple delivery request for flowers without fanfare or much knowledge of flowers on the bride's part. As was the case for this cascading bouquet. The once standard meet and greet in person is now done by email. So I didn't meet Sarah till the delivery. She paused (not all women in this state of preparation do) and seemed truly delighted. The flowers for this wedding, with the garden roses and dusky pink carnations was one of the most scented groups I've made. Making them was a feast for the senses. It made me wish that I had been making them for a couple I had more of an the opportunity to connect with. 

Ah well. Regardless of the depth of the relationship, I give the best I have. Keeping that effort true and strong is what matters and requires as much intention as practicing any mechanical technique.

Aurora Bell, Chapter 3

My cat told me that it is here. She is on red alert; her tail smacking the bookshelf perch that allows a bird's eye view of all the action on the quiet side street below our second story. The coyote is back. Every day once or twice a day, it passes to and from it's territory in the hidden creek nearby. I run downstairs and chase it off when I see it, "hazing" it's called and recommended by the nearby Wildcare Facility -so that coyotes don't get too comfortable in urban settings.

Aurora Bell has in fact been up close and personal with Mr. Coyote. A few weeks  back a neighbor called to tell me that she and this young male coyote were sitting was only 3 feet from each other. By the time I got outside he and she were circling round a car. Inter species friendship or stalking? Not going to find that one out. So now she is a mostly indoor cat.  A move neither of us ever expected down the the urban flat lands of Gerstle Park. I feel bad for her. She's young and loved to roam. Time for a different life.

Six weeks later finds me crouching down in the bushes across that little side street. My neighbor drives by and I poke my head up and nod. Hmmm... what is she doing, they might briefly ponder. Why I am on a cat walk with Aurora. She is now somewhat leash trained, which means she doesn't spring up vertically anymore at loud sounds and wiggle out of her harness. 

Cat time.... At first I was rather annoyed by the inconvenience of giving her a daily outside time, rather than just enforce an indoor life. But how could I do that? Outside time is supervised time, off leash in the yard and on leash out of it. I have to watch her so there is little time for weeding or doing tasks in the garden. I can take my phone out and answer some texts, but mainly I am following her. Her pattern is arrive, roll, lay and what? Asses her domain? Then move on. We repeat this here and there and there, which sometimes takes me into the bushes and other odd places that I didn't realize I would be squatting, sitting and waiting on a daily basis.

 
Now I mostly enjoy this little enforced meditation. Do nothing. Enjoy the garden without seeing it as one giant to-do list, see the neighborhood from a new perspective. Breath.

             And spend time with my girl.

Rose Workshop at Garden Valley Ranch

I pulled into the hidden driveway at Garden Valley Ranch at an ungodly morning hour and no one is  around. Yes! I was hoping to be here by myself for awhile. As I've begun doing destination workshops, I've discovered a secret agenda to enjoy these flower filled places alone, in the soft early light. It's a little mediation, a time of appreciation and quiet before all the tasks at hand.

Garden Valley is not only a rose farm but an event venue so the grounds are beautifully magical; the many vistas perfect backdrops for wedding photos. But today's gathering was not that of a bridal party, but for people who will go to great lengths (or distances, in this case, Petaluma) for the adventure of working with uncommonly beautiful flowers- they are not just for brides, ya'll. Today we were working with the queen of the flowers, Roses.

                                                                                                        Photo courtesy Garden Valley Ranch

And here is the work made that day:

Pave' Workshop!

The rainy skies cleared, so where was everybody? A mix up in printed times caused a staggered arrival and finally our group was gathered.

It was a mix of those who have worked with flowers a lot and those who had no experience. The best combination really. I think there is something about a group of people with a spirit of adventure and goodwill that lifts everyone up, no matter their experience level.

And ah, the agony and ecstasy of a manual camera. The ISO was set really high and gave the photos a grainy sixties feel. I feel like these arrangement photos could have been pulled out of an old "Life Magazine"!

Pave'/Flower Carpets Workshop!

It's Pave' Workshop time again. I usually hold this workshop around Valentines Day. As many people come back again and again to do Pave', it will be held later so we'll have a different seasonal group of flowers to play with. These flower carpets are more like painting to me than any type of arrangement. A flat shallow container of water holds the short stems and there is a painterly aspect to creating these shallow 3 dimensional compositions that can be geometric and tidy or sprawling and natural. In keeping with my promise to myself to broaden my color palette, I am exploring colors that are not magenta and mauve. 

Workshop Details:
Date: April 7, Sat
Time: 9:30-1:30
Cost:$115 includes all materials but not container
Where: College of Marin
Link for workshop, listed under HOME AND GARDEN
https://marincommunityed.augusoft.net/

 

P.S.
Those gosh darn dandelions. And the sour grass; just can't stop them from getting in everywhere!

And speaking of Pave's being painterly; I find this resulting photo flattened and floating in an interesting way. If a painting were made from it that was big enough to fill a wall, it might have the feeling of a photo realist painting- or not.

Daily Vase, daily life...

Where have I been? Do you ever just look up and wonder where two weeks, or even two months have gone?
I wonder if people's perception of time has changed with all attention on screens every moment. It sometimes seems like life is lived in the little moments of a text or an email or a Netflix or the latest thing Donald has said and- wow, wasn't it just Christmas and now it's almost spring.

Thankfully, the nature of flower work commands a certain kind of attention that has one focused on the seasons. Roses may be available all year round from some part of the world, but the fragile spring flowers like frittilaria, muscari, fruit blossoms, magnolia, etc, etc are fragile and ethereal. A sigh of delight, manifested in matter -  those have a short window.
You have to pay attention or they will go by.
 

So, a few to share.

Above, we have tulips and hellebore's,  and young buckeye branch mixed with a tillandsia plant from warmer climates that insisted on being part of the party.

Below are anemones, coming in like crazy. The first of the field flowers ( or hoop house flowers). This black, purple, somewhat crimson color is my favorite this season.

 

Bold and Dramatic!

Is the last flower long gone? And the vase- have you used it again, since or is it washed and put away? Now that the day is a distant memory, it's a great time to revisit that arrangement made in early February!

The passage of time gives a great perspective on what you did without the filters of the day. I'm hoping you feel a sense of pride for what you accomplished on your floral journey, cause the arrangements were pretty awesome.

 

 

My Belated New Year's Resolution

                                     A Darcy Rose trying to masquerade as a Peony                            


 Is late January too late to become resolved? 
Because I'm really serious about this one. 

It's this color, this dark pink/ magenta. It keeps following me around and I can't shake it. It's the color of a lot of my clothes and the minimal lipstick I own. It keeps popping up in my paintings, in my house. It's everywhere. And then there are flowers; the queenly garden roses, peonies, and dahlias- what is that one- that's the size of your head? Emory Paul, that's it- the one I special ordered two weeks ago.

 

If someone were to ask what my favorite color is, I would never, ever, say dark pink/ magenta- It's too girly, too...But just look around- gotcha!

And why do I have such a problem with it, is the question? I think it represents doing something habitually. It's fine to have a go- to color. But it makes me feel in a rut to continually reach for it.
So this year- this year I will resolve to
not go on auto pilot and explore other colors madly, deeply.

And a Happy New Year

Wreath Season came on and I can't tell you how much fun it was to play outside the box of the traditional wreath. I firmly believe that it is necessary to allow oneself to do adventurous and goofy things in all things creative to keep growing and keep a fresh perspective. Give yourself permission to make something completely out of your comfort zone. There will be something of value to hold on to when you step back in. 

This year I experimented with materials that have been sitting around my studio that were picked up here and there because they were interesting and seemed to have potential for what??? There were bags of cotton fiber and copper wire, leftover flowers left to dry along with leaves that are naturally gold on their back-sides. A friend brought over a piece of beautiful leather that quickly was incorporated as a wrap. Spray paint was involved as well and the hot glue gun. And tassels- did I tell you that I've become a tassel maniac?

They feel like rough sketches; ideas to be refined down the road- or not. 

Wishing all of you a healthy, rich and rewarding New Year. I am so appreciative of the flower loving community that has grown around the 7petals Workshops  and look forward to creating more adventures in the New Year!

                          With and without celosia