Putting on the Photographer Hat....

My dear friend Myrna of Petal Chic has been dabbling in hand dyed, handmade silk flowers for the last several months and she's really getting good. The issue is that she has no models. Since I took a photography class I had the idea to ask my adorable nieces to model her hair flowers. Yesterday afternoon, I got a chance to shoot the hair flowers in perspective. The girls had so much fun and enjoyed getting new clothes and getting to be models for an afternoon.
I tell my photographer friends that I'm not good at engaging my subject and telling them what to do or making them feel like a million bucks. Remember, 99% of the time I'm photographing my flowers and I don't have to tell them what to do. My nieces are just photogenic and they were totally excited to be the models. I had to remind them to look the other way so I could focus on the flowers.
These are some photos I shot that I thought turned out great and really show off Myrna's lovely work! They aren't for sale just yet, but definitely bookmark her Etsy site (www.petalchic.etsy.com) because at some point she will be offering these on her website!I'm certain that we'll be doing this again. It was a great experience for me and I had a blast spending time with my nieces. :) Myrna is such a crafty person and she doesn't stop until she gets them perfect. I'm very touched she had enough confidence in me to do this photo shoot!

Peonies for a Good Cause

One of my past clients, Erika, asked if I would be willing to donate some clay flowers for an upcoming gala to raise money for the organization she works for. It's called Bright Side Manor. It's a non-profit, assisted living facility for seniors. This is the piece I'm donating to Bright Side Manor.They are hosting a gala event on October 6th to raise money in order to continue doing wonderful things for these elderly seniors who live there. I was happy to help and be a part of this event. All of my grandparents have passed on as have my husband's. Grandparents and the elderly are so crucial in our lives and we don't even realize it until they leave us. Places like this that keep our elderly active socially, mentally and physically. This goes a long way to keep them happy and healthy!Anyway, if you live in the New Jersey area and would like to be part of this gala event or would like to donate, please visit www.brightsidemanor.org.

Gardenia Bouquet for a Bridal Photoshoot

I'm super excited about this bouquet. Yes, it is a just a simple but elegant all gardenia wedding bouquet, but it's because of my client and her photographer! You probably recall the awesome photo of this bride and groom, compliments of Critsey Rowe! The bride contacted me on a Tuesday, the week of her wedding and asked if I could get a gardenia hair flower to her by Friday. So jumped through hoops to get it to her.The day of her wedding it poured and so a lot of the photographs they hope to capture were unfortunately not taken. Melissa and Jake have asked Critsey to come back out next month to do a portrait session. Melissa told me Jake's favorite flower is the gardenia. So I decided to make the new style of gardenia flower that I've been playing around with, which I think is more indicative of what many gardenias look like.

I am TOTALLY excited to see the photos when they are released. Melissa and Jake are a HOT couple and I'm so honored they asked me to create a bouquet for the shoot and so that she can keep it forever! :)

Bridal Shower Tea Centerpieces

A few weeks ago as we were leaving to go on vacation, I got a message from a bride who was really interested in my teapot arrangements. We had several email exchanges and she asked if I could make teapots with her favorite flowers. Those flowers are cherry blossoms, lavender hydrangeas, lavender hyacinth, pink and white sweet peas. I was planning initially to make them in my mini teapots, but one of my other brides who also had a bridal shower tea gave me a ton of her larger teapots and thought this would be perfect for this order.

So, I just finished 5 teapots with these exact flowers. These make great centerpieces as well as gifts to special family and friends who helped throw the bridal shower or maybe as the prize for winning a bridal shower game!
I'm looking forward to working with my bride as she's interested in having me help her with her bouquets and wedding reception centerpieces! This would be a BIG order for me especially since they'll be flying to Oahu for the wedding!Things are very busy in the studio. Lots of orders to continue to fulfill. More photos early next week on other projects I'm working on.

Tropical Wedding Favors

One of the orders I have been working on was a last minute request for a small number of wedding favors. The bride is having an intimate beach wedding in Hawaii and loved the Melanie and Andrey wedding favors I had on my website. Love the bright and vibrant colors of pink, orange and yellow! I love the 3x3x3 favor boxes I get from Eco-Friendly Market.

Ivory, White and Cream Bouquet = GORGEOUS!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been busy trying to work on orders and teaching some of my C3 students who are trying to finish the first set of 4 projects so they can attend the C3 workshops in October.I just finished this bouquet today. I think to date it has to be the largest bouquet in diameter that I have made. Roughly 13" or so in diameter!. My client, Jennifer loved my Yuanita bouquet of all corals and greens. She however wanted it in whites, creams and ivories. Yuanita's bouquet was one of my favorites. Granted as well my techniques have vastly improved over the last year and my style has changed.

Jennifer specifically asked that I not use any greenery so I was a little worried how it would turn out, but it truly is gorgeous. The hints of green and yellow as well as the white, ivory and cream really give it great dimension and color even for a muted, monochromatic bouquet!I have to finish her boutonnieres and corsages in a few days and then this order will ship. Lots of printing for me to do as well as some mini teapots for a bridal shower.

Garden Art Party #5 a Success!

("intuition" paired with a couple of my purple and green inspired pieces)

Sunday, 8/8, was a GORGEOUS day for our 5th Garden Art Party. This time it was held at the Midas Garden, where we had the first party! The garden was blooming with all kinds of lovely blossoms, simply amazing. We even got to see caterpillars, chrysalis forming and even monarch butterflies! Debbie's mother-in-law so generously allowed us to use her garden again to host the Garden Art Party. We had lots of returning Garden Art Party guests as well as many 1st timers! Lots of new art from zenatona and DK Designs.

(This beautiful piece is "ella")
("capture life" and "secrets")

("abundance")

("lux")
(my purple hydrangeas in a mini teapot)
("aloha" and my floral piece inspired by this print)

("leap of faith" and "grace")

("aperture", "lemon meringue sky", "bubbly" are the large canvas pieces and "don't worry, be happy" and "heroine" in the 5x6" canvas paired with my pieces)

Debbie introduced zenatona "bloomies" which was a hit with everyone. She has this fabulous idea she developed - 4 sheets of seeded paper with a little pencil that says "believe" on it where you can write 3 wishes and give the 4th bloomie to someone so they can make a wish and watch it bloom. The directions are simple, "make a wish, saturate with love, watch it bloom, share with another. " Debbie had samples of bloomies to show how they bloomed with just a little bit of water in a dish and you can see the wish she wrote on the paper. INGENIOUS! They make great little gifts too.I also introduced the gofigurette! line of products as well. Everyone thought they were so cute. Especially the younger generation loved the cupcakes and figurines. We also showcased my friend Myrna's Petal Chic line of hand dyed, handmade silk flowers. They are beautiful and great wearable art for your hair or clothing.
Many of the items did not sell, but are available on my Etsy site for sale, so definitely check out what is still left! I know many of you expressed interest in some of the pieces in past blog posts.I was so happy that everyone enjoyed themselves and although we were so tired at the end of the day, it was a successful day of selling our art, but more importantly meeting new and old friends. Looks like I'll be heading down to San Diego in November to do a craft fair and some classes.("maya" in large canvas is AMAZING!)
Looking forward to the next Garden Art Party with zenatona!

Where Have I Been?

Well, it's been a while since I last blogged. The reason is because I've been on vacation. Yes, I finally took a much deserved vacation. I worked hard to get all my orders done so that my family and I could take some time off. We went down to San Diego area for 6 days and let me just say, it was SO NICE to not work. Well, I did a little bit of work but I don't consider doing a Garden Art Party with zenatona work. Debbie Friedrich had the idea to have a Garden Art Party in the Midas Garden (where our 1st GAP was held) on 8/8. So I asked her if it would be okay if I roped in a family vacation and she graciously offered us the west wing (her daughter's room) for us to stay in the entire time we were there. So we packed up the car and headed down south. We went to Legoland our second day in San Diego which was fun and my son had a blast on all the rides and seeing the larger than life legos all over the park. His favorite were the dinosaur legos.On Thursday, we went to Oceanside Pier and beach. It was a great day to go to the beach. The weather was perfect. My son swore he wouldn't go in, but that didn't last very long. Although the water was cold he had no problem enjoying the waves. That evening Debbie and her girls graciously agreed to watch our son while my husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. We drove down to La Jolla to eat at Roy's Restaurant which is one of our favorite places to eat. It wasn't the Halekulani, but this was a nice treat. Debbie was sweet and did an impromptu photo shoot of our family before we went to dinner.Friday, we decided to go to SeaWorld. This was definitely worth it even though it was super crowded. Loved all the shows and the Shamu Show definitely is one to see! Such amazing creatures!Sunday we had the Garden Art Party, but I will elaborate on that in another blog post. Yup, time to catch up on my blog posts! I'm already back working and teaching non-stop. It's going to be a hectic 3 more months for me so I'm truly grateful that I was able to take some time off and relax.

One more teapot design...

I had high ambitions to work on a few more arrangements, but that didn't happen since we celebrated my niece's 7th birthday yesterday. I did get one special order from a person who won't be able to join the Garden Art Party next Sunday. She loved the teapot design, but was hoping for a pink, mauve, white and purple design instead. So I ended up making those flowers yesterday morning and finishing the arrangement before we left for my niece's party!I have 23 arrangements made! I'm so looking forward to the 5th Garden Art Party and seeing my dear friend of zenatona! Don't forget, whatever doesn't sell will be available for sale on my Etsy site starting 8/10!

Pretty Poppies!

I'm in the home stretch of finishing up flowers for the Garden Art Party. I totally wish I could have an extra week to create several more original pieces, but alas, time is not on my side. LOL. I had these really cute vases or votives that I purchased a year or so ago and thought they were so cute. I figured one day I would use them but just never knew exactly what I was going to do with them. Finally I figured out how I wanted to use them! I decided that poppies would make a great flower for these cute little vases. Simple, 3 little poppies to accent these great colored glass vases!

I'm hoping to get a couple more arrangements done before I have to pack all my flowers up for next weekend's Garden Art Party!