Christmas is coming...

It's nearly december & I have to admit that making all these christmas wreaths has made me feel very festive indeed! I just can't wait....

I am making these wreaths to order - they are made of real pine and contain a mixture of lovely dried apples & oranges (which smell just delicious!), baubles, berries, lavender, cinnamon sticks & even dried chillies (a personal favourite of mine!).

This wreath is called 'an alpine christmas' - I imagined it to be hanging on the door of a cosy logcabin somewhere in the mountains!

 This is my 'crazy christmas' wreath - the one I  have made for my home & which I have already hung up! Obviously, it features a lot of orange & brown colours! 

I have also been experimenting with christmas table arrangements & have come up with these rustic terracota centre pieces - they look really pretty when all lit up & are not too imposing on the table!
All of these are made to order so please message me on my facebook page if you are interested!

Vintage & Makers Market...

It's been a while but here are a few lovely pictures from  the Vintage & Makers Market which I did in April at Shire Hall. - 

The images were taken by the talented Kirill Teslia - check out his work here.

Dahlias...

At the moment I am loving all the brightly coloured dahlias around - they are definitely the most fun looking flowers, just like giant pom poms! I did a vintage fair today & used some beautiful purple & orange ones for my display. 

me with my stand!

These are some of my favourite varieties spotted at Hampton Court -

Victory Bouquets...

Today I have been creating some of the 4,400 Olympic Victory Bouquets at Writtle College. It's such an exciting event to be involved in & really great experience. Here is a bird eye's view of my first creation today...

There's quite a of work to do even before construction, all materials have to been conditioned & grouped...

The bouquet itself was designed by Jane Packer & contains 4 different types of British grown roses, lavender, wheat, rosemary & mint which also all have been produced in the UK. It is designed in quadrants to reflect the 2012 logo & the lines of materials in between them are supposed to represent British ingredients - they also provide a lovely scent!
There's been quite a lot of different opinions on these bouquets as they are not in any way a typical victory bouquet - they are far smaller & simpler but I really like them - I love the rustic, understated look to them.

Me with a finished Victory Bouquet!

Athletes with the victory bouquets...

Goldwell hair dressing awards...

On Monday, I did an exciting day's work with Yan Skates -  a bespoke florist specialising in exclusive event work. The event on monday was a hairdressing awards ceremony held by Goldwell Hair products in a very swanky bar in Oxford Circus. The theme or trend of the evening was "Fascinature'. 

We spent most of the day wiring up flowers & then suspending them from the ceiling -  making them look as though the flowers were emerging from these wooden ornaments. 

The flowers were suspended in a snake like pattern across the whole length of one side of the venue creating a colourful rhythm through the pale wood. 

It was really great to work with some really high-end materials - including these vanda orchids  & cymbidiums. We also used celosia, ginger lily, a selection of grasses & very unusual 'Grafiiti' anthuriums which quite literally looked as though they had been spray painted!

We also used these amazing bat orchids which I'd never even heard of before - I almost can't quite believe they're real! - They have a very dark, sinister feel to them but are quite beautiful. 

Strands of honey suckle was used to adorn the light features - again, placed to look as though they are emerging from the object itself. 

We planted up these beautiful Hibiscus plants - the bold colours had such a great impact in the muted lighting of the bar. 

Just to give some idea of the 'Fascinature' concept, here are a few images of the Goldwell hair trend which Yan so skillfully interpreted into floral design. 

Desperate Romantics...

I thought I would share a slightly more in depth post about our gold medal winning exhibit at Hampton Court Flower Show! The theme for the whole of the pavillion was 'Romance & Roses'  & here's a little of what we took inspiration from. - 

Although the actual stand was based upon 'The Lady of Shalott' by Waterhouse, we were also inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The original idea was a combination between The Lady of Shalott & Millais' 'Ophelia' - one of my favourite Pre-Raphaelite painting. We liked the idea of using, wild, rambling roses & rustic, meadow flowers such as the poppies & cornflowers depicted in 'Ophelia'.

This is 'Lady Lilith' by Rossetti.

I loved the BBC series 'Desperate Romantics' based on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Here are some more images & details of our stand!

I loved the ethereal combination of the white roses, pale blue nigella & frosted senecio leaves which decorated the outer edge of the boat.

 A sea of David Austin roses forming the Lady of Shalott's cape!

 The sides of the stand were built up like riverbanks - I love the naturalistic styling of them. The water was made up of blue & green glass chipping which provided a really lovely contrast.

The jacket was made up of  preserved stakys leaves which look & feel so much like velvet. The bodice was incredibly detailed and made up of astrantia, spray roses & ornithogalum.
We chose various love letters & poetry to make up as messages in a bottle of Lady Shalott's lost love.

Hampton Court Flower Show...

First of all, I am soo pleased to say that my team's idea / concept for ' The Lady of Shalott' has won an RHS gold medal &  best college exhibit at Hampton Court Flower Show! - I still really can't quite believe it... here is a quick snap shot of the stand ( a more in depth post on it to follow!)

I had a really great time exploring the show yesterday & can't wait to return on saturday! Here are a few of my favourite gardens...
This garden  is called 'The LandForm Garden' and was designed by Catherine MacDonald. It won a gold medal plus best summer garden & I can definitely see why. - I think what striked me the most about it was the unusual combination of colours & materials. The oranges and yellow sit so beautifully against the blue.

This garden is called 'Our First Home, Our First Garden' and was designed by Nilufer Danis. I completely fell in love with it - it's quite small & cosy whilst looking really contemporary at the same time. This garden also won a gold medal and the best low cost high impact award as it cost only £7000!

This garden is the Badger Beer Garden and was designed by FlemensWarlandDesign. What I loved about this garden was the rustic, naturalistic planting & the simple country feel to. I also loved the beer bottle path!