Here are a couple of the follow ups from last week.
A decorative planted design in a self-made container. Mine and Paula’s 
Spring has sprung!
Happy St. David’s Day y’all!
I was lucky enough to see my first daff today, on the day of all days, St. Davids Day!
I wasn’t lucky enough to have the first pinch of the month however, the boy did beat me to that…
We have quite a few vases/jugs now full of daffs dotted around the house. Let the Spring commence!
It’s so lovely this time of year to see the spring bulbs emerging here there and everywhere, I found these little treasures earlier on in the week.
Snowdrops, miniature Cyclamen and Crocus… CUTE!
The follow ups (part one!)
Here is the creation/ result from the selection of flowers photographed on my previous blog “Little Something’s”!
The Brief;
A textured arrangement suitable for a wedding centre piece …
If you have seen my posts before, you will be familiar with the fact that I adore texture , so I was pretty much in my element today at Moreton.
I have placed it on a table at home with a chunky burnt church candle as unfortunately my original plan of a storm lantern failed as the vase was too wide !
Little something’s…
Little somethings Can change your mood and maybe the outcome of a pants day!!
Here are a few snappies from the past few weeks when I’ve been unable to what I call ‘properly’ blog about experiences over busy Valentines week etc etc
First pic, a centre piece we created for the wedding fayre at Compton Verney last weekend.
A great success and I was able to use my favourite roses! The avalanche variety. Result.
Second pic, just some really gorgeous pink roses to brighten up a dreary grey day!
Third pic, flowers- these are what I will be working with for Thursdays design at college… A textured decorative arrangement ….
Fourth pic, two frameworks for next weeks practise, modern buttonhole design. I shall show you a step by step guide when I have completed the design they are just wool covered copper mesh backgrounds with a few teeny weeny buttons to add decoration
Fifth pic, the lost dog – my neighbour found this little chappy ( no collar ) one evening last week, after nearly 2 hours of calling around the locals, and before we were about to take him to the stray dogs centre, his owners came to his return! They turned out to be relatives visiting a friend in the village who lived the other side of the village ! Naughty pup!
Sixth pic, ribbons, I just love ribbon!
Seventh and eighth pic, FOOD ! This trusty little doughnut came from the local bakers and got me through a busy afternoon that day !! And for the bread and butter pudding … Well this was just a tasty delight !!
Paper mâché part one…
Today we had a ‘Blue Peter’ day of cutting and sticking and generally making a messy mess!
We made containers out of paper Mâché to be used in next weeks assessment, a dish garden.
We are yet to decorate the outside and inside of the bowls but here are some steps in which we took to get us started !
Step one – chose your container / decide on a shape.
Step two- find an old paintbrush or you can usually buy these in pack of 4+ quite cheaply from supermarkets
Step three- tear your lining paper into strips ( if you don’t have lining paper , newspaper works just as well
Step four – cover your container in petroleum jelly ( Vaseline ) this ensured the paper won’t stick onto the bowl and can easily be removed . Clingfilm also works well here
Step five – water down your PVA glue
You’re ready to start layering up your paper mâché creation !!
Progress….
Layered up and put out to dry for 24hours at least !
Here are some of the lovely floristry ladies layering up their designs !!
Watch this space for the finished beautiful products!!
Vegetative Designs
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This week at Moreton …
Creations:
A vegetative non-traditional wreath and a vegetative dried hand tied bouquet in a collar
The meaning of Vegetative, no it doesn’t mean to include a carrot… It simply means the use of materials in their natural form with no manipulation or decorative input.
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The non-traditional wreath:
This was an assessment piece :
45 minutes .
Spring flowers: hyacinths, daffs, tulips, muscari ( my fave ) narcissus bulbs, iris, galex leaves, ivy and plus the saviour…. Moss !
Grade achieved : distinction
A vegetative dried hand tied bouquet in a collar
I re-used my competition collar for this design as it has dried beautifully and surprisingly all in one piece! It brought back lovely memories of hot gluing bits and bobs, hours on end ! But it was worth it
Here I had to use material that was either already dried or that could dry,
I rescued the purple hydrangea from a previous bouquet and left it to dry over December and this worked beautifully in the new creation. Other material such as dried wheat, luecadendron etc were easy to source . Not an easy design I have to say …
Next week… A foliage based tribute with a form linear top spray, a grouped, textured decorative hand tie in a collar, and a form linear hand tie in a container ….
Busy week to come !!
The place of escape
CORNWALL
Fave South Western part of the UK; always a charmer.
We spend New Years and after down in the sea-side delight with friends and family. I couldn’t resist the opportunity of borrowing a zoom lens for an afternoon so was able to return to my snappy happy self after brief neglect to my DSLR.
See below for some fun shots; leave me a comment on which is your favourite if you wan. If you don’t, then just enjoy!
I also purchased my first piece of Cornish pottery, created and made by Rebecca Harvey, a local wonder.
I love.
Hello Stranger…
It’s been some time since my last post, and I simply can do nothing than other apologise…
It was a fab build up towards Christmas in the shop and it rapidly became manically busy towards the day of Christmas therefore I was unable to concentrate on anything other than a good catch up with Eastenders and a well earned cup of tea each evening! But Spring is near and we all have a fresh start into the year 2013.
I wonder what treasures this year will bring.
I promise I’m not counting… but only 36 Days till Valentines and 81 till Easter… The next times of madness !
Here are a few delights to sweep away those January Blues :
Pink and Yellow Tulips. or… TwoLips as some my say.
It’s definitely not too early for the Spring collection
Pinky/Purple Hyacinths…..I can’t help but sing in my head ‘Hyacinthus Orientalis’ when I see these! ( College Plant Identification tests… some of the latin names never abandon your memory !)
Anemones
Lovely tiny China Tea-cups planted with spring bulbs. Gorge.
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Mumss presented a scrummy Toffee Apple Crumble this evening… this isn’t the actual picture of what it looked like (it disappeared too quickly !) but I like that jug. The recipe is on this website
To finish off, I decided to take a look at Tom Fletchers Wedding Speech. It really is sweet (guys grab the sickbucket!!)
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A Christmassy Birthday party
Today I created some ‘ simple but effective’ table decs for a birthday event at The Baraset Barn in Tiddington, Stratford .
Gold twigs with burgundy baubles tied on with decorative ribbon, placed in tall vases filled with cello and water to create a ‘crushed ice’ effect then reflected onto a circular mirror plate , lovely.
Cute as a button
A few cute Christmassy things to help get us in the mood for CHRISTMAS in just over a weeks time !!
Button Tree decs. very easy to make and trés cute:
Handmade father Xmas dec by the lovely Leigh!
My ‘cute as a button’ baby Nephew Samuel :
Christmas tree 1 & 2 !
Half made snowman….
