For Dani's 30th bday, she picked up some cheery flowers and had me arrange them in mason jars. Now you know how I feel about rustic, so I decided to make them modern by creating densely packed flowers rather than a loose feel. I didn't have floral tape, and gerbers are very hard to work with due to their shape, so it was a bit of a challenge. It came out very pretty though, and I love the color combo she chose. Very festive and cheery! Open a peony by pushing back the petals. Take a super open peony in your hands and push it back in before inserting into the jar. Gather bunches of 3-5 gerbers in your hand, cut stems short, and place next to peonies. What you will need:
2 bunches Dahlias, light pink 4 bunches gerbers, red, white, pink, yellow 2 bunches ranunculus, white, yellow 5-6 mason jars A lot of patience:) Add hints of color such as the bold yellow and red against a bunch of soft colors. Form little bouquets in your hand, cut stems short, and insert on an angle. Like I mentioned, this is much easier with floral tape.
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This is one of my fav bouquets of the year! 12 Large callas
1 Bunch of fern Cream and Grey Ribbon Spiral the callas in your hand, turning them all in the same direction. Use tape to secure. Add fern all around and tape again. Wrap with ribbon. Voila! (warning: a bit trickier than it looks!) I just finished my new book Dine & Design on the Fly: Everyday Meals Under $3 a Serving with a Side of Flowers for Easy Entertaining Whew! That's a freakin mouthful. Needless to say, I'm stoked! My agent and I are working on The Flower Chef, which of course I'm even MORE stoked for- and yes, you'll still get your free copy. I suppose I was just inspired by all the recipes I wrote, and none of which I made a couple of nights ago- wait, I did make the chili, that's in the book, and went on a cooking rampage. Alex was on his computer kind of perplexed at the manicness happening in the kitchen. Hence, him giving me headphones to watch Breaking Bad. He's not caught up yet. And holy shit, can we talk about the amazingness that is that show! I digress. I hope this inspires you to cook something delish! 1 package of organic, cage-free chicken strips 1 package of cranberries 1 cup of orange juice 1 cup of sugar In a small pot, mix sugar and OJ. Boil, then simmer, and cranberries. Cook on low for ten minutes. In a hot skillet, put a tablespoon of EVOO. Brown chicken on each side so it's crisp. Add a pinch of salt. I forgot to put the chicken in the panko crumbs I bought. Damn it! That would've been better. Next time. 1 package of organic spinach 1 package shelled edamames 2 bulbs fennel cilantro dressing Slice fennel and place on a baking sheet. Douse in olive oil. Roast (bake) on 350 for about 15 minutes or until soft. Let completely cool. Place all ingredients in a bowl, and mix with dressing. Voila! 1 package frozen shrimp, thawed flour olive oil In a large dish place shrimp. Cover lightly with olive oil. Place a few cups of flour on top and then coat all of the shrimp. This is WAY faster than the dipping method. Season with salt and pepper. In a very hot pan, place olive oil. Cook shrimp until white. I wanted to make a hot sauce, but didn't have butter. That's two for two on mess ups. To make the sauce, in a pot, mix butter, mustard and chili sauce. YUM. 3 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks mushroom gravy chicken stock As I mentioned, I don't have butter. Boil the potatoes until almost falling apart. Drain and cover with chicken stock. Mash, and and salt. Top with massive amounts of gravy. Definitely a healthier recipe, by accident! Told you I went on a cooking bender. I didn't even have time to drink wine, but I did have time to watch Breaking Bad while I was slaving away on the stove. Alex gave me his wireless headphones to wear while it was playing on my computer. 1 can each of the followin kidney beans garbanzo beans small tomato paste large diced tomatoes in juice 5 carrots chopped 3 celery chopped 1/2 onion chopped 1 package soy ground meat Italian seasoning, Cumin, Cinnamon, Salt, Chili powder, Cayenne Pepper Cook carrots, celery and onions in olive oil for ten minutes. Add in everything else. Add water to cover a bit. Boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Add corn, optional. This yields A LOT. Like 8 servings. These are from Eufloria flowers in Santa Barbara. My absolute favorite vendor. They are sustainable and last twice as long. Look at ALL of those leaves. Insane! Thorny bastards too. Cut ONE stem first. Measure against vase, then use that one as a guide to cut all of the rest. Makes sense, right? You can't really tell what I'm doing since I took this picture on the fly, but I'm pushing down the leaves to rip them off. You can see the pumpkin I wrote on for Alex, my cup of soy chai, and our beautiful unfurnished apartment haha. Place the tall vase on the floor. See, your flowers will looks like this, crappy. This will look good because there are SO many roses in a narrow vase, making it easy to move them around. However, if you're working with less roses, like a dozen, you will have to make a grid with floral tape- just like how I teach in my design classes. Maneuver around to create a dome form. I normally take off all leaves, but created a base of leaves for the flowers to rest on, so I kept the top third on. You just don't want any leaves under the water, or else it creates bacteria. Pretty and simple! Don't forget to change the water every day. Fine, every other day. But more than that I'm gonna come over and slap your hand.
When I was doing daily deliveries, the holidays were always so crazy to keep up with. It's like, why are we talking about Thanksgiving in August, and Christmas in September?!?! It makes you want to scream. I do however miss talking to customers, and reading their card messages (Man, have I heard everything. The apologies are always the best. Bud, you're a little too late), and working with flowers all the time. As soon as Flour LA opens officially a retail location, I will be back in the craziness that is service, product, and retail. So, for Halloween and Christmas I did candy filled arrangements. The only difference is candy (switch to green/red peanut m&m's and similar flowers, or blue/white if you're celebrating Hannukah) and flower combo. Jelly beans also work well. So here's an arrangement that was ordered a lot, and that you can make at home. Cut the bouquet short. Insert the smaller vase into the larger one. Pour the candy between the two vases so that the inner vase stays centered. Fill the inner vase with water. Place bouquet inside. Voila!
By far the flower apple pie has gotten the most attention. I should do more things like this, however most of the time a client requests it, I say YES, of course I can make that, then figure it out:) So...here's how you can make a flower pie for your next holiday or party.
Your friends will be super impressed! This should take about 30 min to an hour. Keep in fridge until "serving". Voila!
Here's my emergency delivery man and sometimes it may be 7am and sometimes Alex may have been working all night and some mornings on say a Saturday when we have an event I may call him to come help load the truck if we're behind... He's the love of my life, and that's what loves do. So here's to you good ol' Al and that pretty face of yours for helping your little lady live a beautiful life. The final product was sold this past Valentine's day. We originally used it for a photo shoot between a collaboration of myself with Bryony Shearmur. Our Valentine's collection was used for note-cards and fine art prints.
This is pretty easy and fun to make. Placing carnations in the smushy foam is quite therapeutic, especially if you are drinking wine and listening to the Stones. Background
I'm smiling on the outside, yet on the verge of another breakdown on the inside. As my dear friend Marion put it, Girl you are the most stressed out person I know! I think that's an exaggeration Marion. Er, yeah. After trying to figure out how to make a flower light bulb out of, well anything, I finally figured it out. Background: As you know, I loathe rustic. I will even go so far as to say I hate rustic. It's overdone and boring, and if I see one more wedding blog post faded rustic photos, I'm going to puke. Putting two flowers in a mason jar and calling it an arrangement is asinine. One of my favorite clients of all time asked for...wait for it... yes, rustic. The gem put her faith in my hands, and allowed me to go with it. I thank you, favorite client of mine, for allowing a designer to design. So how did I do that?
I used floral picks to stab the apricots, artichokes, and kiwis, then inserted into foam. Easy as pie! Pro Tip: Place edibles in after the flowers to fill in holes. |
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