fairy bouquets

Spring has finally arrived!  Happy to let go of winter and move on to days getting warmer.  I am forever in love with strawberries and anyone who knows me knows I love using the foliage and flowers in arrangements.  Such fond memories from my childhood of walking through our garden, picking strawberries.  We used to pick the berries for our dessert and my mom would whip the cream, sometimes even vanilla ice cream.  I guess its the true sweetness of childhood?  My mom talked to us a lot about different fairies living in the plants and wild strawberries (or in the garden) have always seemed so magical to me and a sweet place for a fairy to live.

How could they not want to live with daisies and strawberries?

Daisies are another favorite - their sweet faces pull me in.  When I was a kid, I used to love making fairy bouquets mostly out of tiny weeds, pinched between my fingers, almost small enough to put in a thimble.  In keeping with that magic, I made my son a fairy bouquet with strawberry flowers and foliage, flowering thyme complete with a butterfly and mushroom, tied with a fine wool string with a little bow and long tails.   Pure magic!

 I think I could just make fairy bouquets all day.

Week 11

I subscribed to these moon lists  a couple months ago and its a nice little surprise each full moon.  The idea is described here.  I miss websites like this, like that feeling you have when you find something amazing at a used book store that feels like no one else has ever seen.

Week 10

A little jasmine, colds, chicken soup, pruning, rain, sun, rain.

March

Looking forward to longer days.

week 8

Bringing the spring colors inside on these cold days.  Painting, mixing colors, everything childhood should be.  

This Bjørn Wiinblad vase makes me so happy, she has flowers coming out everywhere, just my kind of woman. 

violets

An explosion of scent and color, violets are such a sweet treat.  

They are hardy in the garden but a fleeting cut flower.  Expect a couple of days of life in water.     

Such sweetness from a little handful of flowers.  

A look at last year's violets.

flowering branches

Mid-winter is feeling like spring with days in the 70's here in California.  I cut some flowering quince from my front yard and fell down a rabbit hole.  

Hellebores I picked earlier in the week at my mom's with a beautiful lichen covered branch that fell down one windy night a few weeks ago that I've been saving.

Muscari take me back to childhood and remind me of little flower fairies with their tiny florets and the blue is other worldly.  Mine started pushing flowers in October!  They're one of my most favorite flowers (my list is very long and changes with the season).    

I love watching the quince fade out to a pale petal pink.  I remember the days when people didn't want Coral Charm peonies because of the fade that is admired so much today.  Oh, the ever changing floral trends.

My preferred floral tools have always been No. 2 Felcos and a pair of Joyce Chen snips (they can wear through pretty quickly but are the best size for me and have good action while they are sharp, they also fit nicely in your back pocket, most get accidentally thrown away).  For the longest life of your quince or any flowering branch, scrape down the sides on the bottom inch or so with your Felco's (or knife) and cut on a diagonal with at least one sharp cut up the stem, sometime's I'll do two (like a cross). For more tender woody stems like snowball viburnum or lilac, smash stems with a hammer (or back of shears) after you scrape the stems.  You will get the longest life-span from your flowers by properly conditioning so don't skip.

winter walks

The first weekend of the new year and we woke up to a beautiful, heavy fog.Foggy mornings seem to give you more of a chance to slow down without feeling a sense of time going by.  At least they do for me.  My family spends a lot of time meandering the trails near our house.  On this morning, my son was looking for mushrooms and I was busy looking at the remnant grass and seed heads of summer and fall in the meadows.  The decaying blackberry canes and the last of the rose hips rotting and withering.  I closed my eyes and thought of other seasons here, the flush of wild roses in the spring flouncing and adorning the sides of the path.  The meadows lit up with explosions of colorful confetti when the mustard, wild radish and lupines are in bloom. The sweetness of the blackberries ripening in the summer heat.  Listening to the birds, always busy, chattering away making nests or screeching as they swoop to snatch a mouse. 

nests

I thought I was making wreaths, but now they seem like nests.  I still have my old fruit box on my back steps filled with bits I collect that I don't want to fly away.  Mostly beautiful leaves, aged hydrangea and dried ferns.  

f l o r a l c o l o r

Watercolor experiments with florals

collage

Making collages for New Year's cards this year.  In an effort to tidy my house, I have let go of so many magazines I used to collect. It makes it that much more fun to have to seek out things to clip - I was surprised to get some good ones from the holiday REI catalogue.

Traded some collages with other people through Instagram - it was fun sending cards to people that I only know through photos online.   Email me if you are interested. 

clematis

Some old and new photos of clematis.  Just a few stems can make such and impact.  You can really never go wrong with green and white.

Some clematis growing along the banks of the Russian river entwined with wild grape.  Such a beautiful summer display.  

First hydrangea I've cut all year, I've been saving it for fall because I love it aged.  Tinges of green and pink and speckles - it's hardened off so will probably just let it dry.

Little basket I made earlier this summer.  Looks so sweet turned upside down and used as a frog.

Late summer

Summer is coming to an end.  Very much looking forward to cooler days.

Summer Festival

Went the the sweetest festival at Fort Ross over the weekend.  We made candles and baskets.

They had games and circle dancing.  I loved all of the different colors and patterns of the women's Russian dresses.

They had a basket making booth.  It was mesmerizing and calming to make one,  I'd love to make some more.

This woman in the chapel reminded me so much of Tasha Tudor.  The chapel is so beautiful and worth a trip to Fort Ross.  

A sailor making knots and telling stories of maritime history.

Spotted this plein air painter on the bluff as we were leaving.  Nice way to spend the day.

Week 29

It is still very much summer, but there is a faint feeling of fall in the air.  The light is changing and it was noticeably cooler this morning.  Some snaps from around my house this week.

Made pizza two nights in a row this week. When its cooler like this, I can handle having the oven on 500 °.

Flower Friends / summer

A seasonal get together with other floral designers where we pick from our gardens and forage to make no-fuss arrangements and bouquets on the fly. Somehow I missed spring, but with summer in full swing I asked my sister, Zoe and mom, Lisbeth, both veteran designers if they were up for it again.  We had worked on a couple for winter which were so much fun.  

Zoe holding a bouquet I made with herbs from my garden and lavender, Shasta daisies and the cutest asters I picked from her's.  A true hippie at heart, I found this breezy vintage dress from India at an estate sale a couple of years ago.  It looks wonderful with this loose bouquet.

This cafe chair has been beautifully enveloped by some grapevines over the summer.  Makes for the perfect spot in the garden to enjoy a glass of wine.

Summer is all about color - look at these mirabelle plums and borage together!

A basket full of plums, asian pears and borage gathered from Zoe's garden.  Find other season's here, spring / summer / fall / winter.  Or, scroll through them all.

All flowers & styling by Zoe Honscher, Silvanie Farmar Bowers and Lisbeth Hansen.  Photos by Silvanie Farmar Bowers

summery bouquet

Made a quick bouquet out of some of my dried bits.  With the right ribbon this could even be a cute bridal bouquet.  With a lace shift dress, in a wheat field?

rainbows & summer colors

The true essence of summer, flush with juicy colors like watermelon, peach, apricot, cantaloupe, coral, tomato, goldenrod, raspberry and tangerine.   

Zinnia are such a happy and cheerful summer flower that come in so many amazing colors.  They look great simply arranged in a tomato can.

Summer is all about freshly picked fruit, I've been making these popsicles from Molly Orangette at least once a week.  I like to use vanilla yogurt and use less sugar.  Make them in the morning and eat them in the afternoon.  They taste like heaven.  

Yellow

Summer is upon us and a time for breezy arrangements with snips from the fence, garden and side of the road.  

This Shungiku (edible chrysanthemum) is so pretty with butter to marigold coloring. Perfect for your vase, salad or stir-fry.

The fennel is just starting to bloom here and I couldn't resist snipping a few stems from the side of the road.  The smell is amazing.

Circle of Flowers

Flowers can be whatever you want them to be. I leave collected bits and old stems to dry in the apple box I keep by my back door. Sometimes I put them together with new things blooming in the garden.  What started as quick wreaths in the winter, I've realized has now become a five minute meditation for me.  I don't what they will become, I let my mind wonder and my hands put them together.  For me, doing flowers is a time to let go, relax and see where it takes me.  Over the years, you get better and it becomes a muscle memory. 

I think we tend to want to put parameters on things and visualize the end result.  The part I enjoy the most, are the moments in between, thinking you're doing one thing, getting lost and finding something else.  It's more the process than the end result.  I also feel like this when I take pictures, which is why I tend to take a lot of photos of flowers.