New Items for 2014 on BRIKA.com

Back in early July, BRIKA's merchandising department asked if I would be interested in relaunching more of my mini teapots and single flower blooms for their online retail shop. I love BRIKA and I really wanted to do another launch with them, but my father's sudden diagnosis of advanced stages of cancer and his passing made it difficult to commit and I had to push it out. Thankfully, BRIKA was still interested and asked me a couple months ago if I would be willing to try again since they wanted my unique flower gifts as an option for Mother's Day!

So, without further ado, here is a snapshot of what you'll find. I created single blooms of gerbera daisies, peonies and gardenias, as well as mini teapots. The peonies sold out in the first day of launch and since they are very popular I hope to recreate some more to sell as they seem to be a big hit!

If you are thinking to buy something unique for your special mom, grandmother, or friend, definitely check out my shop on BRIKA.com! Thank you again to Jen and Kena for believing in me and giving me time to take care of family issues and be part of BRIKA again! Click on any of the links or pictures to get to my shop on BRIKA.com.

Victorian Elegance Bouquets Complete...

Last night I managed to stay up and finish Laura's toss (keepsake bouquet) and maid of honor bouquet. This morning, I woke up and finished her bouquet. Her bouquet flowers consist of light peach peonies with copper centers, peach ranunculus with the signature green centers, copper tone roses and mauvish purple roses with copper tone accents. I have to say, trying to put together a bouquet with peonies is a bit challenging just with the size/shape compared to the other smaller flowers, but I think they all came out really nice. The colors are beautiful together and the copper tones warm the entire bouquet. Laura didn't want any white or ivory tones in her bouquet and she wanted the focus to be on the copper color. So on her bouquet I decided just to use the copper toned flower clusters and add in more of the lighter copper tone roses. I used one more open peony to make the arrangement fuller and added some peony buds to fill in. She wanted her stems wrapped in all brown so I wrapped the stems with double faced chocolate brown satin ribbon and then crisscrossed back with brown organza ribbon.



Her toss bouquet and MOH bouquet were similar yet different. With those I went with the stephanotis with pearl pins and the tuberose flowers to fill in the gaps. I think it also brings out the colors of the other flowers quite nicely. Both of those were wrapped with the chocolate brown satin ribbon, but no secondary ribbon for those. Whoever receives the toss bouquet will surely be ecstatic to have something like this! (Laura.... I really hope you're just giving this to your special wedding guest and not doing a "free-for-all" toss.... Although the flowers are durable, they aren't meant to be tossed. :)

As I continue to make more bouquet orders and see how many people entrust me with their wedding day florals, it really makes me stop and think that the times have changed and people REALLY ARE looking for alternatives to fresh flowers. I think the even better thing for brides in terms of considering clay flower bouquets as an alternative is that someone (me) handcrafted each flower one petal at a time. I'm enjoying more and more the creative side of doing the flowers more so than the invitation side I guess because I continually perfect my flower making techniques. Well... onto the next orders in line (favors, baby shower invitations, guest book and more favors)...

Passionate about Peonies

So I am hooked on peonies. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! I guess that's why of late, my arrangements I've been creating are all peonies. :) Here are a couple new arrangements I made this morning that I just posted on http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/. One uses those beautiful reddish pink ones and I mixed them with a new favorite flower of mine - Yaezakura Cherry Blossoms. They are beautiful double petal cherry blossoms I learned from my instructor, Yukiko Miyai during my trip to Hawaii a few weeks back. I think these two flowers go really well together. Cherry blossoms are so delicate and wilt so easily so having them in clay allows you to have them year long and then some! :)

The second arrangement is also peonies, but in the creamy white (almost a pale yellow) with blue hydrangeas. I love the colors. Plus, brides are into that little "something blue"! :)

I'm still frantically catching up on all my invitation orders and then it's off to the races with FLOWER MAKING MADNESS! I literally have brides lined up from now until October! It's truly amazing how many brides are really taking hold of the clay flower bouquet idea!

New Pictures of Flowers

As many of you know, wedding season has kicked into HIGH gear! Although since last summer, I think it's been that way for me! I wanted to just share a few photos of some things I've been working on for my clients and Etsy.com. There will be more to follow in the coming weeks as I knock out all my orders! I'm excited though at all the bouquet orders I have coming up! It's amazing how many brides are SERIOUSLY considering clay bouquets! Keep them coming!

This first picture is of an arrangement I did for Etsy.com. I love the light pastel colors... It screams English Country garden! These flowers were ones I made for a client's samples and they were extras because the colors didn't work for what I was wanting for her bouquet so I used them in this nice little arrangement!

My new FAVORITE flower is the peony! I feel like I'm getting much better at making them look REALISTIC! This one arrangement was inspired by a Martha Stewart Show segment where they did these beautiful reddish pink peonies and viburnum. The one thing I didn't recreate were the pom pom mums they used to decorate the vase... I don't have that much FREE TIME! :) This one sells at http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/.

The last picture I want to share are corsages I did for a client who found me via etsy.com. She wanted corsages from her mom and her mother-in-law to be. She wanted greens, pinks and oranges. I love this color combination! Just so bold and vibrant, but the flowers are delicate. I hope Amanda likes them! These flowers are also my favorites to make these days - dahlia, ranunculus and viburnum!

Sample Flowers for Miss Pineapple of WeddingBee.com

Since I've been back, I've been working on samples and orders like crazy even with the HOT HOT temperatures we've been experiencing in San Jose. Anyway, I promised Miss Pineapple of http://www.weddingbee.com/ that I would provide her with some sample pictures of possible flowers for her bouquet and her bridesmaid bouquets. I'm still working on the bridesmaid bouquet sample flowers, but this is what I came up with for her bouquet flowers.

To recap, Miss Pineapple's colors are copper, creams, champagne, and muted tones. Kind of a vintage, but modern elegance. So I decided on gardenias or peonies as the main flower and then muted copper toned and champagne roses with some tuberose and stephanotis flowers and of course, creamy white ranunculus. I actually really like the way these came out. I hope she does too! :) I decided to arrange them so she could see what they look like all put together instead of just individual flowers.

I'm looking forward to what she has to say! Hopefully it's good.... :)

Okay, so I finished the bridesmaid flower sample as well. I think they come together quite nicely. I love the addition of the purple, it really adds a vintage feel to the whole arrangement. On this one, I opted for the peach peony with the a goldish copper center, the copper tone roses, peach ranunculus, mauvish purple roses, some copper filler flower clusters and of course the stephanotis and tuberose flowers.