wreath workshop re-cap!

 

 gorgeous graphic above by Lindsay Crafter

 

I had the pleasure of teaching a winter wreath making class that was hosted by Bits and Pieces Rentals at Murray & Finn in downtown Summit, New Jersey. It was a lovey evening!

 

Most of these photos were taken by the lovely and talented Adeline Ramos of You Look Lovely Photography!

  

Table settings:

The wreath ingredients to choose from:

The fragrance from the evening was tantalizing! Fresh cedar, bay leaves, white pine and eucalyptus mixed with the scent of hot cocoa.

Demonstrating and making pretty messes:

 

Me and the final wreath!

The ladies at Murray and Fin and Bits and Pieces Rentals did an amazing job. They sure know how to throw a party. The food and drinks were so tasty and the camp-out theme was pinterest worthy.

 

 

A few attendees, hard at work:

 

A finished wreath! The evening was truly a delight. We enjoyed chatting and laughing well into the evening. I was so impressed by how everyone's wreaths came out. I will be teaching some more workshops in the near future so stay tuned!



 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by You Look Lovely Photography. Photos 1, 2, 5, 18- 20 by me.


If you are interested in hosting a workshop in the New York City, New Jersey and surrounding areas and would like me to teach, please contact me!

-flores del sol and Anthropologie workshop

a closer look at the flowers in the great gatsby

The Great Gatsby won two Oscars at the Academy Awards last week in the design category. The movie took large strides in inspiring both fashion and decor last year. Catherine Martin was the production manager and won Oscars in both best costumes and best production design with set decorator Beverley Dunn.

The flower scene in The Great Gatsby is my favorite, both in the novel and the movie, although the later far surpassed my limited imagination in high school English class. The scene is set for Gatsby to reunite with his beloved Daisy and no luxurious detail is spared.


"The flowers were unnecessary, for at two o’clock a greenhouse arrived from Gatsby’s, with innumerable receptacles to contain it. An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in. He was pale, and there were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath his eyes."

 

Daisy and Gatsby sharing a moment amidst an explosion of lavish hot house orchids. Stems of cymbidium, dendrobium and phalaenopsis orchids in a cream, soft green and white color palette.

 "We chose to put a ludicrous number of flowers, particularly orchids, because that would've required hothouses and would represent Gatsby's extraordinary wealth." production designer Martin said.

 Martin, who also won two Oscars for production and costume design of Moulin Rouge, answered a few questions for the LA times on the art deco floral design inspiration:

What was the inspiration for those outrageous floral sprays in Gatsby's house?
I looked at interiors done by Elsie de Wolfe, but the main influence was Constance Spry, probably the most famous florist in London in the 1930s and a favorite of the duchess of Windsor. For her time, she was extremely wild and surrealist, adding cabbage leaves and unexpected country garden things to arrangements.  We chose to put a ludicrous number of flowers, particularly orchids, because that would’ve required hothouses and would represent Gatsby's extraordinary wealth. Constance Spry was one of the first people to put flowers in urns and ceramic swans and other unusual containers, but her arrangements tended to be a little less full. I chose to override her style a little bit and fill the arrangements out. The modern eye wouldn’t understand such a deliberate period look.

The Harlem apartment of Tom Buchanan's mistress also has a giddy gaudiness. How did you achieve that?
I worked with Karman Grech, who has original wallpaper sample books from the 1920s and had a floral with lots of red and pink reproduced. In the Fitzgerald book it says the couch is upholstered in something that looked like the 18th century painting of a girl in a swing by Fragonard. So we had that digitally printed onto the upholstery fabric.
 

I was hard pressed to find out if they were silk orchids or fresh until I came across this article pointing to an all artificial orchid scene. This explains their particularly perfect appearance, not one bruise or brown blotch in sight! What a visually stunning movie.

I put together examples of some of the orchids used:

Photo credits warner brothers and lucky magazine.

flowers for the NJ Devils

No, this was not a Christmas party, I designed flowers for a party for the New Jersey Devils! The party was at the Liberty House in Jersey City in Liberty State Park with sweeping views of NYC and the statue of liberty. It was difficult for me to get a good photo of the arrangements with the skyline stealing the show! I did find some reproduction hobnail glass vases that I absolutely love, you can see the dots slightly in the light in the photo above. Lets go Devils!

a brooklyn backyard wedding

I had the chance to design for a gorgeous brooklyn backyard wedding. 

The pretty scene was set amongst the textures of brick and ivy and featured on Style Me Pretty.

 

Photos taken by Isabelle Selby Photography

For the whole photo gallery, visit style me pretty here.

The bouquet and boutonniere are available for purchase in my shop here.

flowers for all!

Have you heard of flowers for all.com? If not, listen up!

I was contacted by flowersforall.com to see if I would try out some samples of their flowers. I went on their website and found out they are a well-known and respected high end flower company that grows luxury flowers on their farms in South America. They cut the flowers fresh for orders and ship them directly to you! They have high credentials when it comes to using environmentally responsible practice and also ongoing commitment to work practices that protect the environment and their workers which is an important aspect in the floral trade. Because they are shipped directly from the growers, they are exceptional in appearance, quality and longevity and at the same time, affordable.

I picked out a box each of white roses, peach spray roses and bright yellow alstomeria. They were delivered by fed-ex directly to me from South America. As the fed-ex man handed one of the boxes over, the scent of fresh flowers caught my attention and he said "enjoy them!".

I couldn't help but open the boxes up right away. They were packaged lovely for gift giving, wrapped with a satin ribbon and a kind note. I cut them and let them drink up. Already, even without designing and just snipping them all the same length, they were beautiful! I waited a few days for them to open up before designing.

My favorite of the samples I received were the peach spray roses. They bloomed so lovely and were full of ruffled petals. I left them in my girls' room and they would not stop sneaking sniffs because of their lovely scent.

the vibrant alstromeria:

After the flowers opened up a few days later, I picked out a vintage milk glass pedestal to design in and used my trusty kenzan (the proper japanese ikebana term for a flower frog). I snipped some mint that grows wild, myrtle, citrus branches and lengthy wandering jew vine from my garden and started designing.

I loved the results of my garden themed design. Each of the flowers were top of the line and opened up beautiful. Just look at those white roses!

My apartment smelled wonderful for days as the citrus, flowers and mint all mingled together. I am confident that you will enjoy your experience ordering from flowersforall.com for any floral occasion and I am grateful for the chance I've had to share their beauty with you!