Floraging returns!!!

I’m so pleased now that Spring is well and truly here. I went walking today up past lots of agricultural fields to the next village along our valley, Ecorans. It’s a cute little village, so small it doesn’t even have a boulangerie! In fact it makes Collonges look positively busy!! It’s a pretty walk.  There are so many trees out in blossom, and tonnes of pretty little wildflowers everywhere. Of course I collected a little stash to bring home. I love the leggy yellow primulas that are blooming everywhere. I’m hoping this jar I’ve sneaked inside doesn’t set off another batch of hay fever in the house!!

 

 

Hello Finn!

It’s been a busy time!! What with having a new baby, a crazy toddler and a trip to Nice, the weeks have flown by. Finn was born on valentines day. He is so far (touch wood!) an easy baby, sleeping and eating great. He’s very smiley too. So altogether pretty perfect! Poor child though, born to a florist on valentines day!

Well, here he is at 2 months old!

   

I had a such a fun trip to Nice for my mums 60th birthday with my sisters. Ice-creams, a bit of sunshine, good food, drinks, and lots of dog spotting, it was great!! I got the train there. Great for people watching, and my french is improving just enough to be able to eavesdrop just a little!

   

 

There’s been some flowering too of course! I so much prefer designing in a vase or a jar than sending the flowers off in an aqua pack. All that plastic wrapping just doesn’t really feel quite right, (and takes ages for me to do!) but I like to keep the flowers in water and not everyone wants a vase. Hm! I’m currently exploring some other options, so watch this space!

   

   

  

So what’s next? 

Well, I’m obsessing about what to grow in the garden! I just received a package of seeds from higgledy garden in Cornwall, England. I’ve been stalking their website for ages, so am very excited! Last summer we were travelling around so I didn’t get to grow anything, so I can’t wait to get started! I’m trying to come up with a bit of a plan for where to put everything, and hoping that at least some of the flowers and veg grow. (Of course, I have already caught some mystery bugs eating up my strawberry leaves on the porch, argh!! And don’t start me on the HUGE beetles living in holes in the grass! Skin crawling!!) 

I will be keeping a track of my failures and any possible successes on the blog again!

Am I allowed to have favourites?

No not children (on that note – still waiting the arrival of #2) – arrangements!

In January we had our first non-family visit to our new life – my best friend, right from the start of high school, and her Scottish husband and baby. We had a great time, showing them around, lots of eating of course including a visit to our local auberge and a new cafe and creperie discovery that we hadn’t been to before in geneva, yumyum, and chilling out at home watching silly tv and playing poker at night. I think they liked it here too, (or if they didn’t they put on a good show!)

Hi Katie and Dave!

Anyway, It seems only fitting that after the Scottish visit I received an order for a Burns night party in France. I thoroughly enjoyed hunting out some tartan, and found some gorgeous delphinium and thistles for it too. I think this is one of my favourite arrangements yet…. Something about that blue!

Christmas round up.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on the blog…. Whoops!

The run up to Christmas was really busy, ending with me making up some bouquets out of the back of the car to deliver just before heading to the airport to fly back to N.Ireland for Christmas…. It was tight but we made our flight! I had Maisie along for the ride, so we stopped by a couple of gorgeous big horses to give her some entertainment while I worked….. A fun clash of home and work life. They were quite disappointed with our snack selection though, so we’ll have to be better organised next time.

I enjoyed making up some really Christmassy arrangements too. I loved this icy table centre, and got back into traditional reds and whites in a big way! It’s still a pleasure delivering around here. I’m discovering lots of new places, and coming into contact with some interesting people!

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Where have you been?!

Wow, I’ve been away from the blog for a long time! Well, winter was long and pretty uninspiring. But the sun is out, and everything’s blooming at last!

There are lots of life changes coming up for me, but before that….

Here are some recent pictures, mostly of arrangements made in Bow Street Flowers, and also of a really nice spring garden I saw on the way to work. It was at the Swedenborg chapel, where Emanuel Svedberg’s mystical ideas inspired a religious movement. Kind of interesting!

This was the last mothers day I’ll work in Bow street, as we are moving away soon…. just another couple of weeks left in Boston, then it’s California for our first stop, finishing up in Switzerland in September! I feel really sad to leave here, we’ve had a wonderful three years, made some great friends and had so much fun.  But I’m looking forward to new adventures! The next big challenge is going to be learning some French, then I’m hoping to find someone like Shelley at Bow St to take me under their wing again………

Valentine’s day

Valentine’s day 2014 working in bow street flowers, featuring roses, garden roses, sweet peas, anemones, lilac, ranunculus, tulips. And lots of snow!

Thanksgiving

My favorite new holiday we get to take part in in the US. It’s a great link between Halloween and Christmas. It stops me singing christmas songs in November, something everyone can be thankful for!

Here are just a few photos from this week. Flowers made in Bow Street Flowers, watching the Watertown raiders football game while getting totally frozen, baby friendly flowers to bring to dinner, yummy meal with our friends upstairs, then fire, games and wine. I love this holiday!

Now bring on Christmas!

Apples and pumpkins galore

We managed to go apple picking at last! I’ve wanted to go since we moved here, and never made it, so it was quite a momentous occasion! Yes we ate apple cider donuts. They were great! We picked loads of apples, way more than we’ll ever eat. But we’re trying hard! My culinary skills are pretty limited, but I did manage to stew some up yesterday which we ate last night with brown sugar and ice-cream in front of Downton abbey. Yum!

This is a floristry blog, so I will also include some flowers in this post! I love the tree pumpkins in this arrangement. I’d never seen these before, so couldn’t resist buying them and testing them out in a couple of arrangements (even though they were from Trader joes and I feel like a traitor to the owners of flower shops everywhere!) I’m hoping this fireplace might be home to a fire soon. Just got to persuade the landlord……

This is a delicate little wreath for the door, just some vibrant bittersweet and Japanese maple I brought home from a walk. I’m on the lookout for other bits to use for my next one. Watch out neighbors!!

Harvest workshop

Recently I had to opportunity to attend a workshop up in Maine at snug harbor farm which was led by Sarah of Saipua. I went with my ‘bow street flowers’ family, it was really fun!

It was an inspiring day, with tonnes of beautiful flowers to work with, including the famed ‘cafe au lait dahlia’, and lots of other flowers all grown locally. It was really interesting to meet the other floral designers, and see their work! And of course to watch Sarah design, and talk about the flowers….. I tried to take in as much as possible!

This is the arrangement I made. And managed to get home – Marisa and I had them wrapped up and strapped up like babies in the back of the car!

They just keep coming.

We had a wonderful trip back home. The wedding was beautiful, and so much fun. The groom was Scottish, so all of his male family and friends were in kilts, which looked amazing, and Katie was a really stunning bride. There was champagne, guiness, Mauds ice-cream, a ceilidh and more dancing. We had so much fun seeing all of our friends who had gathered to celebrate, from all over the world. When we all manage to get together it’s like we are all 18 again! I was so happy and honoured to be one of Katie’s bridesmaids.

I was lucky enough to be able to help with the flowers for the chapel the day before the wedding. The highlight was a visit from a lovely old priest who suggested Katie’s sister might like to become a nun! Unfortunately in all the rush I didn’t take any photos of the chapel which weren’t slanty, or in the dark! The rest of our trip was great too. We saw lots of our family and really enjoyed having babysitters around. We managed a day ‘up the Port’ on the North coast in Porstewart, one of my favourite places in the world. It was cold, windy and beautiful.

Meanwhile back in Boston, normal life continues, and I came back to a blooming garden full of peppers! I can’t believe they did so well with no watering. More cosmos too of course!! I love them in this vase.