Tiniest flowers of all...

I looked outside my window this morning (OK, it was more like noon) to find a few inches of snow covering the ground.

All of a sudden, I had visions of trying to push Finn in his stroller over six feet tall snowbanks. Having to put one of those horrible clear plastic covers over his ride to protect him from the Montreal winter winds, the kind that freeze your eyelashes together if you blink for two long... Or just the simple prospect of not leaving the house at all for 4 months.

These pictures eased my panic. Just for a few minutes, though.

The smaller things...

Sometimes it's overwhelming, sorting through hundreds of pictures of flowers... They start to all look the same. To me at least. And most of the time, there isn't an interesting story to go with them.

Still, some of them are worth sharing. So I lumped together a few pictures that are great examples of smaller arrangements...

You don't need to spend tons of your hard-earned money to get charming centerpieces.

When I worked at the flowershop, all the clients with more modest budgets got sent my way... My colleagues preferred concentrating on big spenders! And while it's obvious that bigger budgets mean more flowers to work with, it doesn't necessarily mean you have more liberty and opportunities as a designer.

When you are working with very few elements, the concept has to be strong and the execution has to be perfect. It's challenging and exciting. You have to be inventive with containers. Willing to experiment with different branches, foliage or fruits, all of which can stretch you budget more efficiently than actual flowers.

So small wedding have always been some of my favorite projects. I still remember a couple I worked with almost 10 years ago... Their budget was 15$ per table, which we finally upgraded to 16$ per table. In a shop where most centerpieces went for 75$ to 125$, this was considered pretty much impossible. The result was simple and elegant, and the couple was maybe to most satisfied and happy I've ever helped out.

These arrangements are all made with 3 flowers or less, coupled with inexpensive, locally harvested greens and branches.

First bouquet as a mum...

After Finn was born, my friend I used to work with at the flower shop sent me some flowers... She new I like to do things my way, so instead of making me a bouquet, she filled up a box with a bunch of the stuff I love. She called it the Ikea bouquet, because I'd have to assemble it myself... It took me a few days to find the energy to do anything with them, but when I finally did, it felt really good to take a moment for myself doing something I love. Before I started I went for a stroll in the alley to pick up a few "weeds"... The hairy looking vines are a species of Clematis, one I think is native to Eastern Canada. A couple other things too, polygonum and some stuff I can't identify...

It's interesting because it's not colours I would've picked out spontaneously, but the resulting mix was just fabulous. I naturally gravitate towards deep, saturated hues. These were far more subtle and varied. Just goes to show, I really have to expand from my usual choices of reds, pinks and purples...

I can imagine a wedding with a long harvest table filled with these. So perfect for a fall celebration. The place mats would be a dirty shade of purple, like the hydrangeas. Place cards would be light peach and olive, and maybe a few mustard coloured candles?

I'm already looking forward to the 2011 wedding season...

Pink & purple hues...

In this arrangement...

The peonies and the rose are cultivated, but everything else is from the neighbourhood alleys. Queen Anne's lace, black eyed Susans (without their petals), campanula, veronica, hosta leaves... The bachelor buttons are from my own yard! This is the first year I've actually had room back there to do some experimenting...

And some stuff I can't name. I usually have my trusted "wildflowers of the city" identification guide, but with the renos and everything I can't seem to find it. Oh well.

Miniatures...

Some (most) of my favorite flowers bloom in spring. And most of my faves are special to me for sentimental reasons, reminding me of my childhood explorations and experimentations. Even at five or six, I had a mental registry of what grew where... A patch of violets, lilacs or lily of the valley was carefully catalogued somewhere in my brain for the following year. To this day, I can still remember what flowers/weeds/trees grew around each house we lived in.

Unfortunately, unless you work for Martha Stewart Magazine, you really never get to use these flowers in real life. They're expensive, finniky, and most won't tolerate an hour out of water. A bride once showed me a picture of her dream bouquet... It was a lily of the valley posy from Martha Stewart Weddings. I had to tell her that considering the price of lily of the valley in Montreal, her bouquet was worth about 1500.00$. She was pretty disappointed...

Anyways, this year I decided to have fun. Who cares that these literally wilted within 30 minutes, even in water? The pictures don't look worse for it. And for the time they did last, they were the prettiest things on earth... Needless to say, these all come from within two blocks of my house, from the alleys and neighbour's gardens.

In these... Cheap hard boiled egg cups from Loblaws, violets, rhododendron, lily of the valley, prunus branches, tulips, myositis.

Autumn gleaning...

Ah!

The things you can find in the city...

Magnolia branches, blue juniper (with berries!), euphorbia, rosehips, and a few books, too.

Can't wait for damn winter to be over...

Sexy birthday flowers...

Pretty Sexy Thirty was the theme for my birthday this year... I asked everyone to dress up, so the house had to look amazing also! My old boss gave me a bunch of flowers for the occasion, and I sat at the dining room table mixing them up before the guests arrived... I can't think of anything I'd rather spend my birthday doing. The fuchsia renuncules with the green center were just outrageously perfect. The celosia's colour was so subtle, peachy beige from one angle, then glowing pink from another... Stuff like that makes me believe in some sort of higher power, whatever you want to call it. Also, my DVD box set about insects has that effect...

The crab apple is from a neighbour's tree, before the berries got all mushy, and the cosmos leaves and black eyed susan centers are from an alley nearby... Cabbage leaves from an old dying specimen in our yard, geranium leaves from the living room... Oh, and hiding in there are some beautiful lycopods brought back from our last day trip up north.

Slim pickings...

I pride myself on being inventive and resourceful when it comes to harvesting local greens and branches... But recently, even I can't find a thing. The alleys are a sad sight, my friends. I found these nice crab apple berries about a week ago... When I went to get some more yesterday, they were all brown and mushy. The wood was pink on the inside... I have to find a way to let clients appreciate tiny details like that... Can't wait for January so I can start forcing buds.