Rainy Day Wedding

Torrential rain had been forecast for the day of Rebecca's wedding. And torrential it was !

It was about a 45 minute drive into the country, to Yering Station winery, and on the freeway we were barely able to see the car in front of us. Poor things ! At least they had the option of having the ceremony totally undercover in a renovated barn.






The team were still setting the tables for the reception when we had finished our part, and so I don't have a photo of the finished tables, but I'm told they looked fantastic, with her hand- embroidered lavender bags, place names tied to linen serviettes with a sprig of lavender and raffia, and little vases of dried lavender too.

I do have photos of the rain (!), of the finished candles, and of her L..O..V..E.. mugs, filled with 'country bunches' in the theme colours of lavender and white, which were to grace the bar.

I'm told that once everyone had arrived and was inside, everyone had a great time. Can't wait to see her photos !

Rebecca's Candles

Earlier this year, I was approached by Rebecca to do the flowers for her wedding. I had done her sister's flowers a couple of years ago, and I was thrilled to be asked again. Rebecca's theme was lavender, and the wedding was to be held at a winery, so she wanted to incorporate those country elements in the design. Can you believe that she was hand embroidering 22 lavender bags - using no less than 3 shades of purple - to give to the female guests? It didn't take much to work out that she had a very keen eye for detail !!

I made a sample candle decoration. The candle was 20cm high, and had a woven structure around it, like a very small tray, upon which we could place the elements that she wanted: lavender, lichen-covered twigs, freesias (which would feature in her posy), grapes, and anything else that might take our fancy.

The sample one had Singapore orchids, grapes and lavender.

To make it I heated on the stove, short pieces of wire which I then embedded into the candle. Note: use pliers, the wire gets a bit hot. You need to have an odd number - there were 17 'spokes' in mine.

Then I wound long pieces of raffia under and over the spokes to the required radius of the base. I had found some purpley-grey cake stands onto which I was going to place the finished article, and they were about 20cm in diameter. I roughly joined the raffia pieces with a knot and left the ends loose, so that later I could tie the flowers and twigs to the base. I also didn't want it to look too sleek.

When it was wide enough, I tied the various bits and pieces on to the base, and then trimmed the ends. I finished the ends of the wire by slipping on a lavender bead, and then bending over the end of the wire to avoid any unfortunate finger piercings and subsequent tetanus shots at the reception.

The major change from Mark I candle was to use a taller cake stand, and make the raffia base at the bottom of the candle, rather than a couple of centimetres from the bottom.

I was really pleased with the result, and thought that it would make a great Christmas decoration, especially with some sparkly ribbon, or red raffia wound through. If you use the raffia base that is a bit higher, i.e Mark I, you could place the candle in a shallow bowl, and then poke real flowers through the base, so that they can drink water from the bowl.

Good idea ? I have to say that the original idea came from Master floral designer, Gregor Lersch, in his book "Floral Craftmanship", and I thank him for it.

A hint of mint and lemon.

Mint, lemon verbena, white roses and freesias guaranteed that Lesley's posy would look and smell fresh throughout her wedding day.

I started off with a small problem in that the roses which came in were huge, which is great... unless you want a soft unstructured look, which I did.

I found some open spray roses, and these, together with the wild 'tails' of the freesias and the bright green tips of the mint and verbena, gave the posy a less structured look.

To finish off the posy, I framed it with white sweet peas. Very sweet !

Let me tell you that nothing makes a floral designer happier than a bride saying "Oh ! That's exactly what I wanted!"

Thank you, Lesley, for allowing me to be part of your wedding !

To see more of our weddding flowers, go to www.calypsoflowers.com.au

Urban Waste...not !

There's nothing that can stop me in my tracks as quickly as a kerbside collection of green 'waste', waiting to be picked up by the local council ! I can spot a sawn-up silver birch, bundled-up bamboo or trussed-up twigs a mile off, and if I can lift them and/or squeeze them into the back of the mighty little Peugot, in they go ! Nature's bounty !

Recently in my neighbourhood, I found a tangle of branches from an unidentifiable tree, each of which branch, on its own, was worthy of rescue, being of a fantastic wind-blown shape. They were all rather large though, and would have needed to be displayed in a warehouse-sized room.

I have broken these branches down into smaller pieces and used them in several ways, and I've still got heaps left !

One became a sort of nest above branches of silver birch (from another street collection), which had been screwed upright on to a wooden plank for stability. Originally these branches had candles on them, and were used to decorate a table at Christmas. This time, I affixed water tubes to them and put stunning violet Vanda orchid blooms in each one.

I was also able to make little hand-tied bundles of twiglets, which I could then jam in to a favourite rectangular ceramic vase, and use to support these beautiful deep-sea-blue anemones. This tricky technique also works really well to support tulips in a wide-mouthed vase.

Then, finally, I tied little twiglets on to 2 metal candle holders which have been waiting for years to be used in an interesting way.

Just another example of what is one person's trash, is another's treasure.

Iris - The Messenger

A customer ordered a bunch of blue iris last week, and when I asked if he would like them gift-wrapped, he told me that he would be putting them first in to a vase, and that then they would be wrapped and taken home by the receiver.

When he came to pick the flowers up, he told me of a social worker with whom he had once worked whose work involved reuniting families. She made a point of always having flowers in the room when important information was being given, because she wanted to create a memorable setting for a very memorable event, and she hoped that people would always make the connection between the event and the flowers (my type of thinking, that !)

The customer said that he was going to be giving a woman special information about her mother.

I didn't ask at the time why he had chosen the IRIS for this occasion, and it was only later that I realised that in the Language of Flowers, Iris was the messenger of the Gods, sent to earth to bring good news to mortals. She was the goddess of the rainbow, because of the number of colours that the blooms could have.

He must have known that ... couldn't just be co-incidence.
Could it ?

More pictures from Tasmania...

Don't know why I couldn't add these...

Peppermint, persimmons & pizza

We spent the Queen's Birthday long weekend with friends in Hobart, Tasmania. Our hostess is a fantastic cook who used to run , with her then husband, a Middle Eastern restaurant.

Outside her dining room window was a truly wonderful persimmon tree. We sampled one of the fruit, but it was not yet ripe. I love looking at them, and frequently use branches of them in autumn flower arrangements, but I'm afraid I find the taste most unappealing - it's like taking a mouthful of cat fur. I'm told it's the tannin in the fruit.

On the Sunday, we drove to the beautiful Peppermint Bay, about 45 mins south of Hobart, for lunch. It was a truly beautiful day - warm enough for short sleeves if you were sitting in the sun, and freezing if you weren't ! Much to the chagrin of the waitstaff, we moved table 3 times in a (futile) effort to chase the sun, which seemed to be moving faster than us.

With eight mouths to be fed on Sunday night, our hostess made a huge amount of pizza dough, and we each, in turn, put on our own topping. This was a great idea, as new, hot pizzas came out of the oven every 20 minutes or so, and everyone was involved with the preparation of the meal.

This time we mangaged to get to the airport in time to make the plane home. A lovely long weekend !