Jan

04

Hello 2012

Change / Home Life / Productivity / Reflection

Well, hello 2012!  It feels like this is a big year of expectation for many people in our country.  No, not just the olympics, but a sort of “let’s pull ourselves out of this” mentality for 2012.  If anything, it’s the year when I stop saying “the year two thousand and eleven” and start saying “twenty twelve” which sounds infinitely cooler.

I’m excited for this coming year.  Last year, I took on Floral Footsteps full time, from “in my spare time”.  I meant to take it on part time, but there was too much work for that… so full time it became!  It truly was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  I don’t regret it.  My new years resolutions for 2011 were almost all completed, which is really encouraging.  Last year, this business made real progress.  It made progress because of people offering opportunities and asking me to do business with them.  I am so very grateful to every single one of you who ‘did business’ with me last year in 2011.  Thank you.  You have helped make this dream of Floral Footsteps come true.

I’m looking forward to working with an even greater number of clients, photography clients, brides, book writers and more in the coming year.  I love working with you all and watching your and my creativity grow as we work together.

So, I bet you’re just dying to know what my new year resolutions are, right?

Well, my resolutions for Floral Footsteps are as follows

  1. continue in the good work.
  2. always work as hard as I can.
  3. To be as creative as I can be.
Simples.
I have some personal resolutions too, they’re pretty normal:
  1. get fitter (standard January resolution)
  2. stop saying sorry (I say ‘sorry’ in far too many sentences!)
  3. remember a date night with husband (don’t let ‘work’ get in the way!)
  4. Remember to rest.
Also, I got a scrapbook for Christmas.  I’ve received scrapbooks before and not known how to use them.  This one I’m going to use, good and proper.  My patterned tape arrived today from the States, which is timely for my scrapbooking.  It’s my second order, I love the stuff.  I buy it from this shop.  Patterned tape makes life more fun, presents more beautiful and helps me with my creativity.

Sam continues to enjoy sleeping on our sofa.  That dog has such a luxurious life.

 

 

 

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Nov

11

November in Durham

Autumn / Durham / Home Life / Nature / Photography / wild


There really has been much activity the past few weeks, but as most of it is Christmas activity, I’ll save the unveiling of my hard working until later on in the year…

Instead – here’s some lovely bleached snapshots of plants and seeds this late autumn – they make you feel really chilly.  I shivered just looking at them.  And, I took these photos with manual focus, of which I am rather proud.  It’s so difficult to work with manual focus on portraits, because people move so quickly, but on a still November day, manual focus works a treat for highlighting just the right small part, keeping that in focus, completely changing the feel of the photograph.

And finally, as it is 11/11/11 today, I wanted to share with you another picture I took on the same day as the above.   I’m particularly proud of this shot too, as I only took one photograph, and I haven’t even touched it since.  I love it just the way it was shot.

I was walking with my husband through town, and we passed a poppy growing from a crack in the rock on the street.  The sun was setting by this point, so the poppy seemed to just glow.  It was really uplifting to see a single summer flower blooming in the street in November, things like that tickle me pink.  I’m really fond of poppies, and would go as far to say as they might be my favourite flower ever.  Today, it’s a great reminder too of all those who sacrificed their lives, so the rest of us would be safe.  Thanks to those who have been before us.

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Sep

27

Colour Palettes in My Home

Colour / Home Life / Photography

I’ve always been a fan of bright colours, and unusual blends of colour.  I love it.  I walked past the orchid in my living room earlier and thought “hey, that would make a nice photo”, so I’ve decided to share with you today some colour palettes from my own home.

Firstly, the orchid and the green wall.  This is in my lounge.  I spent a long time looking for this particular green.  Bold, but soft, warm, calming and natural all at the same time.  I think we got there in the end.  The image above makes it look a little tired and grey, but it’s not normally, it just depends on the light in the room.  There’s huge sash windows in my lounge which let in plenty of light, causing the walls to always be changing colour.

Secondly, there’s the bright red wall with the tea cosy hanging up.  We painted our dark kitchen in red on two walls, I think I intended this to match the teacosy in the photograph.  A hand-knitted present from my Grandma a few years back.  It’s warm and cosy and suits the cottagey feel.

Thirdly, is a picture of a shell my Mother gave me about a decade ago in our bathroom.  We’ve got wood cladding in our bathroom which we painted a gorgeous sea-turquoise colour, to match very natural, warm calico walls so we can driiiift away.

My house is really quite teeny. You walk into the lounge, through to the kitchen and out to the bathroom.  The bonus of living in such a little house is that if you stand in the bathroom with the door open, you can see all three of these colours through to the front door and I love it.  Such a strange blend of tones, but in my head, it works perfectly.

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Sep

12

Watercolour Rose Backgrounds

Home Life / Illustration / roses / watercolour

My lovely Nan, Rosemary, will have a funeral service on Friday – and as Roses were her favourite flower, I painted them with rosemary as a backdrop to her order of service I’m designing.  Thought you might like to see the outcome as the backgrounds are quite pretty.  Just a quick snapshot of the simple rose watercolour background designs, one original one in colour, and the other faded and black and white.  We’ll be using the faded black and white one for our order of service, so it’s not too bold.

Hope you like them.  It’s tough doing these things for your own family, but a real privilege too.

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Jun

20

One Man and His Bees

Home Life / Illustration / Meet the Parents / need a gift?

My Dad is an inspiring man. Having no degree, and few qualifications, he has worked hard at things he is good at, and really has done well. I don’t mean in monetary terms necessarily, but in that he consistently does a good job, and has made good decisions with good timing.
He also has a habit of gaining ‘almost obsessive’ hobbies. When Dad starts something, he keeps going until he finishes. Sometimes, this involves missing dinners, ignoring cuts and bruises and completely forgetting what time it is. This attitude filters into hobbies too.  Recently, one of my Dad’s hobbies has been beekeeping. It started when a hive of bees came to live in their conservatory. Dad was advised not to extinguish the bees, but to house them in a hive and collect their honey. He and my brother spent ages trying to coax the bees into the hive, involving my brother on a ladder in a tree, batting off bees with a stick, but the bees eventually buzzed away and never came back. Since Dad had already invested in the hive and equipment, he then bought some bees and they found their happy home in my parents hive. These bees absolutely thrived in my parents garden, feeding off all the beautiful plants and trees they have there. Now, two years later (I believe), my parents own four hives of bees and are selling the honey they produce.
My parents asked me to design their honey labels for them. Here’s what I came up with:

Dad loves his bees. He spends an abnormal amount of time in his beesuit and checks on them really regularly, probably too much. Recently he’s been learning about rearing queen cells (which is how bees create their new queens) and created a new colony. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for checking on his new colony made his bees a little jumpy, and last week, they flew off in a huff and despite Dad’s best efforts, will probably never be seen again. Oops!

So Dad, thanks for being a great Father – for the wisdom, support, and for being thoroughly entertaining!
Happy Father’s Day
xxx
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Jun

06

A Yorkshire Based Camper Van Adventure

Adventure / Camper Van / Home Life / Springer Spaniel

This weekend we took some time off. We wanted to make the most of the sunshine, but instead made the most of 10 degrees, rainy, cloudy weather with a mini adventure in our t25.  We camped at a lovely small campsite by a waterfall, called Yore House Farm – we paid just £4 each for the pleasure of the use of a breezeblock toilet area and had a chilly, but fun night.  It was the first time we’ve slept in Avril the Camper.

The next day, we visited Wensleydale Cheese Centre at Hawes, which was pretty awesome and after tasting various types of cheese (probably over 20), we had a taste for adventure and headed up over Buttertubs pass.  Before driving it, we didn’t realise it was 25 degrees roads, but we did it none the less, both the accelerator and the brakes were well tested…

We let Sam the Spaniel take the wheel for a while, but he lost interest pretty quickly!

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May

22

Nap O Clock

Home Life / Rest

Yesterdays wedding was a marathon. A race that I just about finished in time, just. Avril worked a dream (apart from when she ran out of petrol at one point, and after filling up with emergency fuel, she wouldn’t start, so in my platforms and party dress I went outside to push the giant neon yellow truck to get her started. She started – I am very macho!) Most of the time, she started every third or fourth time, and we delivered all we needed to on time. The Bride and Groom were very happy indeed. I am looking forward to showing you the snaps tomorrow!
For now though, here are some photos taken of me asleep on our wooden trunk in front of our lounge window, napping in the sun.
A florist definitely needs a nap on a Sunday.  It’s my new rule.
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May

15

Dog and Ball

Home Life / Springer Spaniel

I know this isn’t exactly fitting with Floral Footsteps usual blog posts, but it made us laugh so much we thought we’d publish it.  This was our greeting when we came home this evening.  Samuel the Spaniel loves his new toy – a ball on the end of a string.

It’s the jump at the end that makes us giggle!

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May

15

Dog and Ball

Home Life / Springer Spaniel

I know this isn’t exactly fitting with Floral Footsteps usual blog posts, but it made us laugh so much we thought we’d publish it.  This was our greeting when we came home this evening.  Samuel the Spaniel loves his new toy – a ball on the end of a string.

It’s the jump at the end that makes us giggle!

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Apr

18

Freak Fritillaria

flowers / Home Grown / Home Life / Nature / Photography / Spring

Fritillaria are such beautiful flowers, so delicate. When the sun is on them, their pixie shaped leaves seem to tilt outwards and upwards. However, in my garden this Spring I seem to have only been able to grow freakish fritillaria.
Most of my fritillaria flowers seem to be siamese twinned, a bit like a narcissi plant would divide. I’m not a great fan of this look in flowers – I think it takes away from their individual beauty a little bit, sadly.
The freakiest flower that’s somehow appeared is an albino fritillaria! I didn’t even know flowers could lose their pigmentation, but apparently, they can. As the siamese twinned heads make my Spring flower bed a little uglier, I believe that the albino fritillaria flower makes up for the loss. It’s a bit like a large, uncommon white bluebell, a welcomed variation and really pretty when the light hits it.
Am I the only one who has ever grown an albino fritillaria, I wonder? Or have any of you garden-lovers out there managed to grow a freak flower or two?
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