Eggplant Purple Peony Cake Flowers

A past bride/client contacted me recently from Australia and she asked if I could make a couple peonies for her sister who is getting married next month. She loved the peonies I made for her wedding cake but she wanted the peonies to be in eggplant purple or aubergine with a bit of bling. 

I love how vibrant and vivid the color is on these peonies. The large one will sit on the top of the cake and the smaller one in between the layers

Custom Orchid Arrangement

My client and past bride, Joyce asked me to create an arrangement that she could put on her altar with a gold statue of the Bhudda. Joyce always challenges me with her requests because she usually picks flowers I haven't yet done before. She wanted dendrobium orchids, cattleya orchids, miltoniopsis and bulbophyllum aruicomum, which are the national flower of Burma. 

After Joyce showed her mother the arrangement, she said that I didn't get the bulbophyllum orchids right. The tough part is when you have to depend on the internet and you can't find a detailed image of the flower you want to replicate. Nonetheless, Joyce is very happy with the arrangement and is excited to put it next to her Bhudda statue.

She said she would try to get me a replica of the flower so that one day I can create the orchids correctly!

Cake Flowers (Poppy, Gardenia and Peonies)

I love how one flower can make a beautiful statement on a cake. It's simple yet beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I love a full cascade of flowers on a cake too, but there is also beauty in just one big bloom.

I had the opportunity to make these for a client this past week: gardenia, poppy and peonies. The peonies are actually a set of 3, painted with gold highlights per the client's request.

 This red poppy with green and yellow center was also made. Initially the client wanted a green and yellow center but she decided to have the stamens in black instead. So this one below is for sale on Etsy. You can find the listing here.

Custom Plumeria Favor Boxes

My past bride, Keva, contacted me recently to see if I could make 5 more favor boxes but with custom colored plumeria flowers and matching ribbons and tags. This was a fun one. I wasn't sure how they would all turn out but I'm pleasantly surprised how well they all work.

 

It's a great way to see that you're not just stuck to one color plumeria for your favor box!

Custom Floral Arrangement for a Past Client

I'm always very thankful for repeat business from my past brides. This particular client/bride ordered from me years ago and she still asks me to create special arrangements for her and her loved ones. Her uncle recently passed away and she asked me to create a floral arrangement for her aunt in memory of him. 

She asked for fragrant roses, jasmine, gardenias and orchids. Mostly in white and ivory tones but with hints of color. I think it turned out really nice and hopefully it will bring her aunt some love, happiness and peace during this difficult time.

Joyce asked me to create another arrangement, which I will be starting tomorrow, so another blog post on that later this week.

We Got Snow...

While this post is a little late, I just had to share these photos. We live in Southern California and as you can imagine, unless you live in the high elevations, it's pretty rare to get snow. We live at an elevation of 1600 feet so the winter storm from Canada was forecasted for snow levels to drop to as low as 1000 feet. 

I kept telling my husband that they are forecasting snow and he, being from the East Coast, told me there is no way. Well, at about midnight the of the 30th/31st, the rain turned to snow. Of course, we figured there's no way it would be there by morning. I awoke to the sound of kids' voices at 6:30 a.m. I looked outside and viola, it was WHITE as snow!

Since we are new to the area, everyone said that it's been 10 years since they had snow and that it stuck. I had experienced snow when I was little in the Bay Area and never again saw snow that stuck and I'm much older now. My son has not even experienced the snow so he was in for a treat. We weren't prepared by any means so it was hard to go out and have fun but we managed to throw some snowballs. Even Molly our little Boston Terrier loved the snow!

It was a nice way to bring in the New Year, but boy did it become an inconvenience. No one here is prepared for snow. It literally stuck around until January 4th! We're happy to be back in warmer temperatures and it's forecasted to get close to 80 this weekend!

Peonies, Sweet Peas and Lilacs

Another project I just finished today was this beautiful custom arrangement for a lovely woman in France. She saw some arrangements I did for Susana of the citrusandorange blog years ago. She asked if I could do a similar arrangement but with slightly different flowers and colors. She wanted various shades of pink. 

Sandrine asked for peonies, lilacs and sweet peas. The arrangement turned out beautifully. Thinking if I have some time, I would like to create some of these to sell in different colors of course. Originally I had done the peonies in the deep pink, but she wanted a bit more contrast so we ended up agreeing to add some yellow into the inner parts of the petals. 

I've included both the original and the final arrangement photos. So thankful that my arrangements travel such distances and that people are still willing to order my flowers to decorate their homes with.

 This arrangement definitely gets you ready for Spring!