Hey Mr. Rock, say hi to your mother for me...

I just love Whiterock... When we go to the West Coast, every night that's not already booked we usually end up there. It's a really cheesy place when you think about it, with touristy shops and overpriced restaurants, but we don't care. Aaron's happy 'cuz he can smell the ocean (I can't), and I'm happy 'cuz we bump into people like this... I mean, this guy was from another planet, surely. Just hangin' out with rocks. And I thought I was the only person who did that! I'm nowhere near as talented with them, this guy looked like he made a living doing this... I would've asked him, but he was in such a trance I didn't want to bother him. Plus, he looked kind of scandinavian, I'm pretty sure he didn't speak english... Now, that's one phrase you never find in foreign language guides: "I really love what you do with rocks".

Jordan + Mikael, summer 2009

PART 2 : TABLES & DECOR

I've mentioned this in a previous post, but this wedding was the most eco-friendly I've done so far... The flowers were 100% local and organic. Some of them I even picked myself, on the side of the road or in the alleys in my neighborhood, including the grapes, the hosta leaves, and the polygonum (the stalks that look a bit like bamboo).

It was a beautiful sunny day, so instead of working in the studio, I took everything outside and worked in the yard. Within minutes, the place was buzzing with bees and other bugs, all enjoying the freshly cut bounty. I thought to myself that if I was a bride, I'd be pretty stoked to know that the flowers we all enjoyed at my reception were also enjoyed by other living creatures, and up until a few hours before the party... No chance of that happening with imports that are so completely saturated with chemicals that no living being would go near it... Except us humans. Makes you wonder...

As well as using responsible products, I didn't use any refrigeration for this wedding. Some flowers I picked up on the morning of the event, and the ones that got delivered a day early were tucked away in my basement for the night. I have to admit I ran downstairs to have a look at them as soon as I woke up! This means all the arrangements, including the bridal bouquet and boutonnières, were made the day of the event. RUN... RUN... RUN... On top of that, all the containers were repurposed by the bride herself from her grandmother's collection.

This was all made possible by the fact that the wedding ceremony was at 6:00 and the reception at 7:30. Man, I just love late weddings... I wish all weddings were scheduled this way. None of that wondering what you're going to do all afternoon (I usually have a nap). And then the party can last all night! How can a bride enjoy her wedding (and wedding night!) if she had to wake up at six in the morning to start getting ready? Well, I suppose not everyone feels the way I do about getting out of bed early...

This wedding was featured in Brooklyn Bride, be sure to check it out (here).

Gleaner's bouquet #2: Northern Ontario

I hadn't made a bouquet that looked like this since, like, grade four... But what else was I going to do while Aaron slept in the car at a tiny road stop in Northern Ontario? He'd been driving 16 hours a day for a few days straight on our way back from Saskatchewan, so he did need a well deserved nap... If just to minimize our chances of ending up in a ditch near Wawa. So my first thought, wherever I am, is to look for flowers, and I had some time to play around... This bouquet just reminds me so much of the ones I used to make for my mom when I was a kid! Even when I was eight, I used to own a Canadian wildflower identification guide (which I still own, one of my most prized possessions) where I would look up my daily finds while eating maple butter straight from the jar with a spoon (I had to hide behind a sofa in my mom's bedroom, because of the sweets)...

Atelier Carmel on Brooklyn Bride!

Jordan, who's wedding I did this summer, pitched her wedding to Brooklyn Bride, one the great wedding blogs out there... I'm sure it took them all of three seconds to accept the story, as everything about this wedding was noteworthy. SO! Go have a look (here), the pictures are fantastic, moody, vibrant and artistic, and convey so well the look and feel of the evening...

And you can get the details from the bride herself, from the food to the attire...

My meager harvest...

Between a rainy summer, squirrels and inadequate care on my part, the tomato plant really didn't stand a chance this year... Still, the fruits it did produce were just so perfect and dainty... I had to take a picture. Is that the blog syndrome, where you start taking pictures of anything and everything? Well, in a way I've started paying even more attention than before at the small everyday things that make me (I don't want to say smile, so substitute any verb you find appropriate). That can only be a good thing, no?

Green vintage feathers...

There just aren't that many places in Montreal to shop for vintage, girly, crafty things... So good finds can be far and few between. These are some incredible feathers, probably from the forties, that I found in a tiny shop on the Plateau. They're meant to be used as is, all glued together, as a hat ornament, but I slowly pull them apart and use them individually. You can see the little curls on both sides of each feather... I bought a few different colors, but the green ones fit in so beautifully with foliage that they quickly became my favorite... The shade is so natural and organic... Sometimes it feels like a waste to use them because they are so close in color to fresh leaves that they almost get lost in the arrangement. But then, when you discover them, it's such a treat!

The woman who owns the shop told me that she was just tending the store (ribbons & buttons) one day when a guy parked his cube van in front of her store, walked in, and offered to sell her an entire stock of millinery material from the twenties, thirties and forties. That was 20 years ago, and she's still slowly selling the feathers, old silk flowers, pins and ribbons she got that day...

Jordan + Mikael, summer 2009

PART 1 : THE WEDDING PARTY

Still to come (soon!), the reception arrangements...

This wedding was just the most fun I've had in years... The bride and groom were incredibly nice, had a great vision of what they wanted, and pretty much gave me carte blanche. This was the first time that 100% of the flowers I used were local and organic. Yay! Even the containers were repurposed, as Jordan found them all in her grandmother's basement. She also wanted something the bridesmaids would be able to hold on to and wear again, so the corsages and boutonnières were all made from fabric, feathers, buttons and ribbons. They'll look very pretty in these gals' hair or on their hat this fall...

Do I have to mention that the bride looks AMAZING? Jordan, you look amazing.

A few pictures are mine, but the others (the really, really good ones) are from their photographer, Irene Suchocki... Click here for her website and her blog...

There was a wide variety of flowers, but I predominantly used dahlias, bachelor buttons, ammi majus, zinnias, scabiosa and celosia...

Toxic beauties... It's not squash.

POISONOUS BRUGMANSIA + CURIOUS DOGS = GEORGIA O'KEEFE

When my neighbor Maurice gave me this plant 3 weeks, ago, there was nothing but leaves on it... It had flowered for him all summer, but he didn't feel like over-wintering it, so home it came with me. When we came back from the West Coast a few days ago, this amazing spectacle was waiting for me... I guess it had one last go at it before packing it in! Unfortunately, this all happened after we decided to get rid of the poor thing, because its very existence was threatening the health of more important creatures, our animals. I thought I could pull it off, making sure the dogs and cats didn't get too close, but I found a couple of chewed up leaves this morning in the living room. Then Tim's stomach started to make surreal noises... Brugmansia can cause temporary paralysis, hallucinations, or death if you ingest too much of it (and our dogs ingest anything and everything...). Shamans in Central America call it Jimson Weed, and use it in their rituals... No such fun for our guys.

So there, the toxic beauties were transformed into translucent arrangements that afterwards reminded me of one of my favorite painters, Georgia O'Keefe.

Terrariums... Hurry up before the winter comes!

I was just procrastinating today when I stumbled on this simple project idea... Anyone who knows me for more than five minutes knows I'm pretty much obsessed with mosses and lichens... My house, balconies and yard are overflowing with specimens I collect on my not-so-exotic adventures. Just yesterday I brought home some lovely chartreuse tree lichens from the Okanagan Valley. More than likely though, they'll just end up like their predecessors, just sort of crumbled up and yellow from inadequate living conditions... So I'll try this soon, and see what comes out of it! I mean, it looks like it would be hard to mess this one up!

FOR COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS, go to Made with Love...