Thursday, May 29, 2008

Wedding arrangement

This is a photo of one of the arrangements I made for Jo's sisters wedding. It was very large and along with the stand was heavy. Although it wasn't made in situ it was in the room where it had to go, I was worried that the staff would not be able to move it. Jo was a bridesmaid and said it was where it was supposed to be on the day and good.

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Monday, May 26, 2008

N.A.F.A.S. at Chelsea flower show

This was part of the display for the N.A.F.A.S. stand, this year it was the Kent area of N.A.F.A.S. that were asked to design the exhibit, their title was kaleidoscope and a very good job they did at interpreting the title. Their team leader was Brender Jackson.

These are just a few of the wonderful flower arrangements that were on display Wednesday 21st

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Chelsea flower show

After missing the train by 30 seconds because there was nowhere to park my sister Julie and I got the next train to London arriving not much later than the expected time. Fallon my daughter and Sally my sister’s daughter came with us to spend a few hour’s with us before we headed off to the Chelsea flower show. After some debate we all agreed to go to Madam tusauds wax works. After what seemed like ages waiting in the queue we found our selves in a hall with all the latest celebrities. Most are really life like and the setting’s are appropriate, but I did think Hitler should have been in the house of horrors along with sadam.

Sharing the beat with Bob Marley

Fallon and her cousin Sally with Will Smith at Madam Tussuad's

Don't know who is going home with Johnny Depp
Me looking over George Clooney's shoulder at his cards, looked more like him when we were there
Fallon coming first, don't know at what
Fallon not coming first, she let Sally win!!

After some over priced, luke warm, nothing like the picture food we said our farewells to the girls who headed for the London eye and we headed for to Chelsea. After several years of going to the show the excitement has in no way wavered. Just the fact of being there seeing the new gardens and even the same stall selling their goods is great. It amazes me how much time, planning and effort has gone into making the gardens and flower halls look their very best. My sister can't believe how they get the large tree’s and plants into the gardens and to look so natural as if they were always there. The planting of the flowers look so natural and give you good ideas that you would not have thought of had you seen them together. My only tiny complaint is after some of the short flowering plants have died (and they are the feature flower) what will be there for the rest of the year.
A lot of the gardens were very green with just a splash of white, white fox gloves seemed to be the plant of the year. There were many water pools most were very still with just a slight movement.
As every year the N.A.F.A.S stand was great. Their interpretation of a kaleidoscope was amazing giving them a silver guilt medal, they should be very proud. It was good to see the BBC giving this art some good air time. I have not been able to see all the coverage of the show on the TV but what I did see there was no mention of the individual N.A.F.A.S competition. There were some stunning designs hopefully some of them will appear in the Flower Arranger magazine later in the year.
I can not close without saying a few words about Dermot Gavin’s garden which only got a bronze. The garden design was for people to get together, to sit in dappled shade to have a drink with, sit and talk in a calm atmosphere it deserved more than the bronze in my opinion, well done Dermot.

Dermot relaxing in his cool garden

The garden done by the Australian's

From Life to Life -A Garden for George

designed by Yvonne Innes this was a garden entered by George Harrison wife Olivia Harrison depicting his life and his love of gardening. One of the few gardens to have a variety of coloured flowers

A Gadogan Garden, a future communal courtyard garden for a hotter London with the climate change, design by Robert Myers.

Real Life, Designer Geoff Whiten an sustainable garden for real people.

This green cool garden was designed by Tom Stuart Smith for Laurent-Perrier and won best in show. I just loved the cloud trees and the gentle walk through and around the garden.

I can't begin to explain the sight that hits you when you walk into the huge marque and see all the stands with the very best of their variates of flowers and plants. How the Judges can decide what medals to give is a mystery to me but I guess they have the experience. You could spend hours in there. As it was getting late by the time we wondered round it was virtually empty a real treat. I was sad to leave the show for another year but we had planed to meet up with the girls at Trafalgar square so with a slow walk back to the exit spotting the odd celebrity we said our farewells.

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

The sixth night class, handbags

This week was the sixth week of the night class I'm teaching in the shop. Its gone so quickly only two more to go. We have a brake next week as I'm off to the Chelsea flower show on Wednesday the 21st. There was a request from the class to show how to make a handbag from leaves and flowers. Somebody had seen them in a magazine.This magazine is The Flower Arranger and is a the quarterly magazine of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS).It is full of all the latest floral events that have happened and are going to happen, latest trends and fashion, easy step by step arrangements and area news from the many clubs around the country. I belong to the Rotherham flower club, we meet on the first Wednesday of the month for twelve months. Each month we invite a demonstrator to come and demonstrate their talents on stage usually doing five or six designs. We have a raffle with a chance to win one of the arrangements, I have won a couple over the years. As a club we get asked to take part in flower festivals for church's and cathedrals and have done so over the years, the last one I helped with was the rotherham cathedral last year, it is usually to raise funds for the church and very popular. The last event I helped out with was at Chatsworth house in Derbyshire, I will write about it at a future date. To get back to the class night I designed three bags for the class to get inspiration from and I was very pleased with the results. Every one enjoyed this craft work and they were all different and used their imaginations, a good range of different designs. The photo's are the ones I made earlier in the week and by the time I took the photo's they look a bit tired, but for a week old not to bad. They were in the shop on display and I could have sold them many times.

This design used salal leaves which were then sprayed black.

After shaping the wet foam and lining from the bottom 3/4 up with clear cellophane the leaves were pined on from the top working down to the base. The handles were made from steel grass and could be bound with decorative wire. pearl headed pins were used in a decorative way to dress the bag and flowers were added to the top.

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

The fifth evening class

This was the design for the fifth week. I used a black glass goldfish style bowl i put 3/4 of a block of foam in the bowl with a inch above the rim. 5 strands of bear grass were placed length ways and tied together with decorative wire, and shorter length's were put in at all angles and woven through the longer length's. I used three lily heads two lemon Gerbera, four pink carnation, two stems of lilac, rolled ivy leaves and some lovely scented broom. Three more strands of steel grass were placed over the arrangement and tied to the decorative wire. Everyone liked this arrangement very much they all looked great.

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Monday, May 05, 2008

Baby Hannah's Christening 27th April

On Sunday the 27th of April it was the happy occasion of baby Hannah's christening in Coventry. Fallon was one of the Godparents and was honored to be chosen, she played her part well and she looked lovely. Hannah looked lovely too as you can see from the pictures i took, and she was such a good girl never cried all day even though she was passed around me having her every second person. Well I don't get to see her to often so made the most of every minuet. Just for a change the weather was dry and warm until late afternoon when the heavens opened, and traveled back home in torrential rain with Fallon's annoying noisy window wiper, but it stopped me falling asleep. The photo above is of one of the table arrangements I made for the tables in the hotel, baby pink pots,white lily's, pink carnation's, white rose's, pink Gerbera, pink and white spray carnation's and pink broom. There were some balloons and baby confetti on the tables. From the amount of presents that where there looks like Hannah will be ok for clothes for the rest of the year. There are so many beautiful baby clothes in the shops its hard to choose, well Nikki you will just have to have another (in a few years time and another girl).
Fallon with here cousins Christopher and Sally and baby Hannah
With Nikki her mum Sorry missed you off John her dad
Me Me Me

Hannah in her afternoon party dress

Worn out and ready for home

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Sunday, May 04, 2008

week four of the night class

This was the forth design the class had to do last week.It was nice to use some delphinium and we used them at there full height. Two fox tail lilies came out to one side, two Anastasia and three cerise Gerber's. I wanted to keep the foliage to a minimum so just used fatsia and a few salal leaves which covered the dish up well. I knotted some china grass to give a different shape and a few pieces of looped steel grass. Everybody liked this design. some people had clear vases so i gave a few suggestions to make them a bit more interesting. If you crush clear cellophane and fill with water it looks like crushed ice, coloured sisal, layers of sand or pebbles, vertical twigs or lots of cut pieces of twigs, circles of grasses or you could add food colouring to water. Using a dish with oasis that sits on top of the vase leaves the vase empty for you to do these things and experiment.

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week three of my night class

Week three of my night class was a horizontal design. we used aspidistra leaves length ways pining them onto the foam block giving them a wave effect. two stems of monusella were added and then a row of roses. I used contrasting colours of lizzyantha at ether end and then finished it of with steel grass and decorative wire.

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