Luxury Grand Prix tablecentre piece

 

Christmas at The Flower Studio

I love this time of year as it is an excuse to work with Grand Prix roses. When I presented this to my client they said I can believe that mother nature makes such gorgeous roses! And I couldn't agree more. They are pure luxury with there velvet petals.

 

Bridesmaids bouquets

 

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Bridesmaids Basket

 

Stunning

 

Ruths wedding flowers

 

Ruths wedding

Lovely wedding photo of my brides wedding flowers for the bridesmaids.

Tablecentre piece

A lovely pink and purple arrangement to sit in the middle of a table. It uses very pretty and delicate pink spray roses as the focal flower.

Funeral Work

 

Funeral work

Funeral work for the Flower Studio this week.

Buttonholes

Using the lovely Akito pale pink roses they make very smart buttonholes. They have been finished at the end with a pearl button.

Little Bridesmaids Basket

Pretty little bridesmaids basket using a selection of lovely delicate pink roses, lisanthus and some frilly carnations.

David Austin Bridal Bouquet

A sumptuous selection of David Austin roses for my brides wedding. Using the varieties Miranda, Emily and Rosalind. The smells is so lovely and it very pretty.

Wedding Bouquets with David Austin Flowers

This is the wedding flowers I made for my bride Ruth's wedding this weekend. Using the delightful David Austin roses it is a true English Country Garden wedding design.

Sweet Avalanche Rose

This is another flower I will be using in my wedding designs. Sweet Avalanche rose is so delicate and very pretty - perfect for a bride.

David Austin Roses for a Wedding

Have been lucky enough to get commissioned to make some wedding flowers using the stunning David Austin Roses. They are beautiful and really lovely to work with. I will be making a fabulous bridal bouquet and all the bridesmaids and wedding party accessories in this rose pink bloom. They have a very delicate fragance to them which is very rare in roses that you buy on the high street as they have been breed out of them. You have to pay a premium for them but they are definitely worth the investment for a special ocassion.

Summer Holidays

My blog has been rather ignored of late and I feel very bad about that. We have had a 9 week summer holiday with the children at home and this has kept me rather busy. But we are back to school now and I will be back to work and blogging again! Have some very exciting projects in the diary so watch this space...!

Sweet Williams

I just love this colour combinations of pinks - mother nature really does know best when it comes to putting a design together. They can just speak for themselves such beautiful flowers.

To new arrivals

And then we have to make flowers to celebrate the beginning of a new life. Welcome to all those lovely new babies and congratulations those clever Mums.

{Definitely Spam?} Funeral Work

Had to make a funeral piece this week - always the sad part of our job.

My brothers fantastic Alliums in his garden. Wow!

Delicious array of flowers on a cake stand

This is the finished design for the Henley Arts Trail - all sitting on a fabulous cake stand to go with my theme for a Birthday Tea Party. Fabulous!

Flower Birthday Cake

This is my Flower Birthday cake I have made for the Henley Arts Trail - love it. And you get to save a few calories too! Thanks to the help and design idea from my lovely floral friend Michelle.

Henley Arts Trail - 29-31 May 2010

This bank holiday weekend I will be selling my work along with lots of other artists as part of the Henley Arts Trail. I have made some pieces of floral work which can be seen at Woodcliffe Hall in Wargrave. So take a few hours out of your day and visit some interesting artist studios in lovely locations and buy some unique gifts.
http://www.henleyartstrail.co.uk/

Beautiful garden rose

Let the pretty rose speak for itself.....

Pink Mixing Bowl

I was set a challenge this week to make a flower arrangement using a lovely pink mixing bowl from Cath Kidston. It was a gift that my customer wanted to give her cake making friend, but she felt it needed something extra. So I added these matching pink gerberas and carnations into the mixing bowl - the result is good enough to eat! I think I may have found a new gift line to add to my catalogue. 

Spring Blossom in my garden

I have resorted to picking some spring blossom from my garden this week to make some flower arrangements, as my supplier has been effected by the volcano disrupting the distribution of flowers in the UK.

It hasn't stopped me from being creative and I love the sense of satisfaction from making things using the flowers which have grown in my own garden. 

My easter table design

Decided that I liked the arrangement I made for my friend so much, that I would make one with white roses for my easter table. It is nice to have fresh flowers in your home when you are having lots of visitors and this was perfect - lots of compliments from people and also another commission so great!

My two little easter chicks

My two little chickens collecting easter eggs from the easter bunny. After the excitement of collecting lots of chocolate my daughter had to give her brother a celebratory kiss! I think he had just given her a favourite Lindt easter bunny that he found - sweet.

We then spent the afternoon at Cliveden and had a walk round the grounds and gardens. The National Trust had set up an easter trial for the children. It was a shame that the glorious magnolia trees, bluebells and not all the daffodils were out yet but because we had a very cold winter there blooming season has been delayed by a few weeks. We ended the day with rolly- pollys down the hills in the gardens of Cliveden - what a grand day.

Commission for an Easter Table

More delightful creations made with roses for a friends easter party and she wanted pink roses as a centrepiece. This big goldfish bowl is so versatile you can put flowers around the top, bend them inside the bowl or just float the flowerheads inside.

I'd rather have a table full of roses than "diamonds round my neck", Emma Goldsmith

Bouquet of pink and white roses

From a box of roses to this bouquet of flowers for a leaving present. A Mum to be is leaving work and I made this gift. I sell such a bouquet for £40 as if has 20 fabulous roses in it and I need to have a weeks notice so that I can order my flowers from the supplier.

A box full of roses

I love it when the postman brings me flowers. It really makes my day. How I love being a florist as it gives me the chance to work with such wonderful materials and produce fabulous arrangements.

Wedding consultation

I love my studio it is such a light and airy space. I enjoyed setting it all up for when a bride came to have a chat about flowers.

8 week old cutie!

Oh so cute - weddings and also new babies what a great way to spend the day. On Friday visited my friend and her new baby boy only 8 weeks old, so cute and cuddly. We really enjoyed catching up and having lots of cuddles with Pavlos. And getting to chat about flowers for Mums future wedding next year too.

Purple Ribbon for handtied

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Bridesmaids Bouquet

This is a cute bridesmaids bouquet with small roses and purple verbena, tied with a lovely purple ribbon which is the favourite colour of one of my brides.

Meeting my brides

I've been out and about meeting some brides last week and have been getting excited about what I will be doing over the summer months for them. I've been making a few tasters so they can see what I do. With June and July weddings we have such fabulous flowers available during the summer months and I think that really the only way to go is with a full seasonal display of delphiniums, peony's, hydrangeas, aster, pinks and of course roses. And stock, simple but elegant no need to mess with it, just let it speak for itself.

Mothering Sunday

I have just been to my daughters school assembly today and had such a lovely time watching and listening to the children talk and sing about their mums. How important we are to them and how we make them feel so special - I cried when my daughter said the special pray - she was beautiful and made me so proud. At the end each mummy was given a love heart decorated with theses words

A Mother is a special friend,
Who knows your past,
Believes in your future
And loves you
Just as you are.

Wishing you all a lovely Mothers Day.

Then after the excitement of this morning I came home to my post bag including yes the usual billls! - but the fabulous brochure of David Austin with all their wonderful new roses. They produce stunning English cut garden roses and are some of the most highly desired flowers in the world. Unlike most mass produced roses which have a small petal head, lacking in scent, David Austin roses form large blooms packed with delicate petals which when opened are truly spectacular. Hurray I can now supply these flowers to all my lovely brides. http://www.davidaustinroses.com/

Thought for the day

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." – Iris Murdoch

Van Gogh Exhibition at the Royal Academy

Went to the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy on Friday with my good friends Karen, Anthony and my brother Dan. I really enjoyed the exhibition, it documented the great struggle that Van Gogh went through to develop his talent. It proved too much and he rather sadly took his own life, but he left behind a wonderful legacy in his collection of artwork.

The painting Flowering Garden with Path was a highlight of the show for me. Such a fantastic use of the contrasting colours - red, green, blue, orange, yellow and violet really animate the painting of a Provencal garden. Definitely a colour combination to try in my next flower commission - just to try and capture the essence of the artwork would be amazing.

We ended this great day with what else but afternoon tea including an indulgent glass of champagne - truly scrumptious! 

Glorious Gerberas

I've been commissioned to make 8 of these pretty cerise and orange gerbera arrangements. Such a bold colour choice but it definitely has some wow to it.

Ravishing Ranunculus

This is my latest commission. A gift of orange and yellow ranunculus - these are such a gorgeous flower and the colour combination is inspiring. Really reminds me of a sunset and the arrival of those warm summer days. I liked this bouquet so kept some of the flowers I got from the market and made a very similar arrangement for myself!

Blooming Hyacinths

I just love my display of blue hyacinths. I planted lots of bulbs 2 months before christmas and put them in my warm dark airing cupboard. They started to sprout with green shoots in January and we have got the final lovely flowers blooming now. The smell is amazing. Lots of effort to propagate your own bulbs but it is definitely worth it.

Another Lulu Guinness Design

Lulu Guinness Flower Shop Bag

Went on a shopping trip with my good friend Nikki to get a little retail therapy this week. It's a great way to keep up with trends and what's in and out of fashion. A big trend for spring is definitely the floral theme - flowers are covering lots of things this year - it is definitely floral, floral everywhere!

But my favourite item that I would just love to have is this gorgeous Lulu Guinness Flower Shop bag. The inspiration came from the famous Columbia Road Flower Market in London and the picture captures your typical flower shop window display - fantastic. Can I have one please! Need to get a few more flower commissions with a £250 price tag!

Flowers and that feel good factor

According to a study at the State University of New Jersey, "the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behaviour in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed".

Jeanett Havilland- Jones, a Psychology professor at the university says: "Common sense tells us that flowers makes us happy. Now science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional wellbeing."

Mirror Cube Arrangement

My Valentines creation, a dozen red roses with foliage in a mirror cube vase. Delightful.

If God had not created women, he would not have created flowers

My favourite spring flower

Peonys my favourite flowers, such a frilly head of petals. I cant wait for spring when my supplier will have them in stock. Lots of my springtime creations will feature this beautiful flower.

the flower studio

I want to celebrate and share with you all that I have been creating in my world of floristry. I spend hours designing and making my artwork and I finally want to share it with the world.