Pinterest interest.

A few months ago, I was introduced by a fellow florist to Pinterest.

It took a little while to get used to the idea of 'stealing' other people's finds - I know how thrilled it is when you finally find exactly what you are looking for on the net. But then I worked out that if 'people' - read 'me' - didn't want to have their treasures taken, they didn't have to put them up there for all the world to see, and steal.

Now, I think it is just fantastic, and a great tool for my work.

For those who might not know how it works, the principle is the same as cutting out pictures and sorting them into folders or pinning them onto a corkboard. You know - ideas for the garden if only you had one, clothes you'd like to make if only you could sew, houses you'd like to live in if only you lived in (insert favourite city). So, once you have joined up, you can search for all these things and many more, and just 'pin' them onto your board/s. Others can search for them too, and then pin them on to their boards. And they do. Very quickly !

I recently need to show a bride to be some ideas for floral decorations for church pews. I was able to find several examples from other weddings, and when she came in, I could quickly and easily show them to her.

Today I discovered the beautiful work of a Belgian-born florist living in the USA, whose name is Francoise Weeks. Her style of work is one that I am constantly trying to develop myself, and her attention to beautiful detail is outstanding.




I do make sure that I always acknowledge and give the provenance of the photo wherever possible, and hope that others do the same to my photos. These are all from her website (see below).

If you haven't looked at it before, go to Pinterest immediately.
My user name is calyflo.
Find out more about this lovely lady here.



Note to self: learn how to better position the photos, and find out where the cedilla is on the keyboard !

Two lovely emails !

Last week I received two lovely emails from two lovely customers. Neither of them were solicited, and both of them made me very proud.

The first was from a bride, "Ms M", who got married at the Abbotsford Convent on an extremely horribly wet day. The ceremony was supposed to be held in the garden in the rotunda, but just as I was leaving to go there, car all loaded with peonies, lilies and roses, and garlands and tulle, I received a phone call saying that the ceremony was now going to take place at the Convent still, but on a site I'd never seen. In fact, I had 30 minutes to do whatever I could before the guests started arriving, then Ms M's wedding would take place, then we had 30 minutes to take the decorations down again before the next re-located wedding was to take place in the same space.

Somewhere in between all that, we had to deliver the table decorations to the reception venue, which, fortunately was a mere stone's throw up the road.

(You might be able to tell that I am re-living the stress of the day just writing about it ! The personal flowers were fluffy white peonies which I had nurtured for days).

We managed, but it was very stressful. I haven't yet mentioned the fact that when we arrived, the Saturday Farmer's Market was just finishing up, so there was no parking, lots of wet people scurrying, a zillion children, and us, trying to find the spot for a wedding !

So, you can perhaps understand why, two days later, I was so happy to receive Ms M's delightful email and equally delightful photos, especially as I thought she'd be honeymooning on an exotic desert island:

Hi Denise I just wanted to send you a very BIG THANK YOU for our wedding flowers! We absolutely loved the bouquets, so many people commented on them! And thank you so much for adjusting your plans for flowers at the rotunda to the courtyard! It looked very beautiful! Also loved our centerpieces!! Lets just say everything was perfect! Attached are a couple of pictures from the day! :) I will highly recommend you to family and friends!

Thanks again, M












The second one was from a young lady in Hobart, Tasmania, who wanted to surprise her little sister with a wrist corsage for her formal.

I was a little worried about how it would travel in an Express Post Overnight Box, but as I was gently packing it, I felt reasonably confident that it would arrive safely. Whether or not it would arrive in time was another matter. I wanted to leave posting it as late as possible, as the Singapore orchids in the corsage would be fully wired. Her email tells the story...

The timing was perfect and it was beautiful. My sister loved it and was proud to be the only girl with one!!! I have attached some pictures of her wearing it. Gee she was beautiful!!!

Now, doesn't that make your heart sing !

Buttons and More

Over the past few weeks, I have been participating in an on-line course in button-making !

Why ? You may well ask.

I came across the wonderfully inspiring blog site of Karen Ruane, acclaimed textile artist, where she mentioned that she was about to launch a course called 'Buttons and More'.

On her blog site, I read about embroidery and what a fundamental, very historical and creative activity embroidery is. From the earliest times, once a fabric had been woven, it was decorated. I have always enjoyed sewing and dressmaking, and, having learned about 3 stitches when I was at primary school (first item was a hot water bottle cover with a sleeping cap embroidered on it), I decided to brush up on my stitches.

This was my first button attempt - well, the first one that I have gone public with !


You can see the beautiful buttons and toggles made by the other 30 or so course participants from all over the world on Flickr.

People's Choice Award

Well, I didn't win the big prize of $500 worth of goods from Apack, but I AM up for the People's Choice Award: I'm one of 8.

If you go to this link, you can vote for whomsoever you choose ! There are some lovely designs there. If you are short of time, just head to D - Calypso, and click on the button next to the name.

Voting closes on November 25 at 5pm .

Big congratulations to the winner, Annette of FlowerFusion in Queensland. You can see her design here.

My First Competition

Earlier this month, I decided that I would try my hand at competitions. Not quite sure why, as I'm not really a competitive type, but I thought I'd have a go.

I entered one where I had to use one of 3 products from a supplier called Apack, the sponsors of the competition, and selected a heart-shaped 'posy-holder' made out of sisal. Usually, the florist would icorporate a posy of flowers in the centre.


The one in the photo is pink, but I used a red one, because the theme of the competition was celebrating a 40th Wedding Anniversary, or vow renewal, and the traditional stone for 40 years is a ruby.

I decided to make a table arrangement, and to put either a candle or a bottle of champagne in the centre.


I covered the heart shape with flowers that included roses, ranunculas, bottlebrush, sedum, rose hips and buds, Singapore and oncidium orchids, and various little leaves.


It certainly looked very romantic. Imagine the delighted surprise of a woman being led to a table for two in a chic restaurant, to discover this thoughtful gift awaiting her ! Of course, you don't have to wait for a 40th anniversary: red+ heart+ candle + flowers= romance. What about Valentine's Day !

The competition closed on October 14, and will be judged from photos on-line. You can look at the other entries at /www.flowergoss.com/forum/thread/apack-flowergoss-online-cup-competition-2011-upload-photo-to-win-500-apack-voucher#2810

Once the winner has been announced, there will be a "People's Choice" award. I'll keep you posted !

Ombre

The word ombre means 'shade', and with fabrics the effect is obtained (in this white to navy dress, for example) by dipping the fabric in dye for increasing amounts of time, so that the one piece of fabric has a whole range of colour hue, from pale to dark, or vice versa. You could also use different pieces of cloth, leaving each one in the dye pot for progressively longer periods of time, so that the colour intensifies with each dipping.
Flowers can also be selected and arranged this way, as in the pink table centre from Martha Stewart Weddings.
You would probably obtain the best effect by using many different types of flowers so that the colour range can be more nuanced.

I'll never forget, however, the impression of the way that the same flowers are graded by colour at the flower market at Covent Garden. Here in Melbourne, we don't have the luxury of such a range.

Imbolc: ask for inspiration.

I can't believe that the last 'celebration' was autumn... and now we're nearly through winter ! Today in Melbourne, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is high summer . It's 22 deg. celsius outside !

This conveniently brings me to my thoughts of the week....

On August 1, here in the southern hemisphere, the celebration of Imbolc took place...Imbolc, the festival of early spring, when the earth begins to stir... when signs of life are apparent to those who care to take notice... when the goddess returns. (Note: when I first planned my flower shop, I wanted to call it 'Persephone', but I thought it would be too hard having to spell it all the time ! I must say 'Calypso' isn't that much easier. See website www.calypsoflowers.com.au for origin).

This is a time to choose what you really want to do this year, to think about this, and to make preparations whilst the pace of life is still winter-slow and you don't have to rush into things.

In the northern hemisphere, where the festival takes place on February 1, the special flower which symbolises the new almost-beginning is the snowdrop. I remember the joy of finding them as a child in England. I'm not sure what the Australian equivalent would be ?

In my garden, with the last few days which have been so mild, my sweet pea seedlings (grown from seed) have shot up 2 inches, my lettuce seedlings are almost ready to nibble, and the mint is re-establishing its dominance in the mint corner. The oranges are still growing - we try one every week to see if they are sweet enough to eat. (This week, they are sweeter than lemons, but still not yet ready).


At work, I am starting to talk to brides about their spring weddings, and I have started to collate ideas for table centres and bouquets, everything from peonies to forest glades !

This was an experiment for a table centre combining a silver birch log with a bowl of flowers. I just used the flowers that I had available, but it would be beautiful with ....well, with just about anything , really!

Back to my spring planning...