Archive for the 'Flowers' Category
Ever wanted to be a part of a flash mob? The energy of being involved in the 2010 Olympic Flash Mob was unlike anything I can describe. There is really something special about dancing with a large group and here is your chance to give it a try.
To celebrate the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival the VCBF is putting on a Cherry Blossom Umbrella Flash Mob Dance complete with pink umbrellas! Part Bollywood and part Singing’ in the Rain, this upbeat flash mob is sure to be a blast for those who participate! Sign up at: www.vcbf.ca .
January 25 2012 | Flowers and Vancouver | 2 Comments »
Making fragrant jars of homemade bath salts couldn’t be easier. In vintage mason jars, bath salts look beautiful on display and make wonderful gifts. Here is a recipe to make your own as part of the Natural Skincare Series.
Materials:
- Epsom salts
- 100% pure lavender essential oil (not fragrance)
- dried lavender
- vintage mason jars
Directions:
1. Fill each mason jar about halfway full of the Epsom salts.
2. Add just 10-15 drops of essential oil, replace lid, and shake.
3. Remove the lid again, add 1 tablespoon of dried lavender flowers, replace lid and shake (again)
4. Add more Epsom salts to full the jar then (you guessed it) replace the lid and shake shake shake.
December 16 2011 | Flowers and Harvest and Projects and Recipes | 9 Comments »
Exciting news today, everyone. Pantone has chosen the new colour of the year for 2012: Tangerine Tango, a vibrant red-orange that they say builds on the verve and vigor of last year’s colour, Honeysuckle, by continuing “to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward”.
For the garden, I can think of a whole bunch of really great blooms that I have been coveting (like the Hot Papaya Coneflower and the Geum magellanicum from Annies Annuals) and some that I have always been drawn to (tulip, gladiola, and crocosmia Lucifer all from my garden).
1. crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ 2. gladiolus 3. tulip ‘Ballerina’ 4. Alonsoa meridionalis ‘Red’ 5. Geum magellanicum 6. Antirrhinum majus ‘Defiance’ 7. Echinacea purpurea ‘Hot Papaya’ 8. Superbena® Royale Peachy Keen Verbena
Are people really going to update their wardrobes, homes, and gardens just because Pantone has chosen a colour for the year? Probably not, but I must say that in the past I have been strangely drawn to the colours they have chosen, and that’s before I knew there was a colour of the year.
Last year, I really couldn’t get enough honeysuckle. That pinky-gold colour graced my wardrobe and my garden. I didn’t bring it in the house though, it didn’t speak to me for home decor. That is not case for Tangerine Tango however. Apartment Therapy compiled some great images combining Tangerine Tango and Grey-Brown, which is exactly what I was going for with this set of Garden Therapy Handmade throw pillows which already grace my home (and look striking in my eucalyptus-colour bedroom).
So I suppose either Pantone is reading my mind or these trends are really based on something. Pantone says that the color of the year selection is a very thoughtful process. To arrive at the selection, they quite literally combs the world looking for color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films that are in production, traveling art collections, hot new artists, popular travel destinations and other socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from technology, availability of new textures and effects that impact color, and even upcoming sports events that capture worldwide attention.
So what do you think? Do you like the colour? Will it have any impact on your choices next year in the garden or otherwise?
December 08 2011 | Flowers and Garden Therapy Handmade | 6 Comments »
While shopping for interesting foliage to add to my holiday planters and wreaths, I was stopped in my tracks by this interesting beauty: Euonymous europaeus.
There are some really fascinating winter blooming plants that I have seen, like witch hazel ‘Diane‘ and white forsythia, but I wasn’t familiar with this one. Turns out these aren’t the blooms at all but the fruit that has set seed. Regardless, the show was splendid and completely stood out in a sea of holiday green and red.
Here is some more info on it from Wikipedia:
“Euonymus europaeus grows to 3 to 6 m tall, rarely up to 10 m, with a stem up to 20 cm diameter. The leaves are opposite, and are lanceolate to elliptical, 3 to 8 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, with a finely serrated edge. In autumn they often show a beautiful bright red colour.
The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in late spring and are insect-pollinated; they are rather inconspicuous, small, yellowish green and grow in cymes of 3-8 together. The capsular fruit ripens in autumn, and is red to purple or pink in colour and approximately 1 to 1.5 cm wide. When ripe, the four lobes split open to reveal the orange seeds.
The fruit is poisonous, containing amongst other substances, the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, as well as an extremely bitter terpene. Poisonings are more common in young children, who are enticed by the brightly-coloured fruits. Ingestion can result in liver and kidney damage and even death.”
December 02 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Photography | No Comments »
In celebration of the newly opened Garden Therapy Handmade Shop we are giving away a set of six Studio Blooms art cards. These cards have vibrant 4×6 photos of the flowers photographed for the throw pillows in the store. Each photo is affixed to organic, recycled paper cards. Givaway runs from now until December 15, 2011. Sorry, contest is open to the US /Canada only.
And the winner is….Yolande! What luck the very first entry was chosen.
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 26
Result:
1
Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Here is how to enter (for each item, come back here to comment so we know that you entered):
November 30 2011 | Contest and Flowers and Garden Therapy Handmade | 26 Comments »
We’ll continue on our theme for making homemade holiday gifts again this week for this Weekend’s Project: a DIY Beeswax Flower Mason Jar Candles Tutorial.
The beauty of these candles is that you can screw a lid on them, decorate them up, and they’ll surprise the lucky person who gets to open them. They are also wonderful for out-of-town friends and family as they can safely be shipped without damaging the flower.
Materials:
- soy & beeswax jar candles
- various colour of beeswax sheets
- tacky wax
- popsicle stick
- cookie cutter
- box cutter / knife /scissors
- pen with the ink cartridge removed
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Instructions:
1. Make some soy & beeswax jar candles in wide mouth 250ml / half pint jars like these. Fill jars so that they are only 3/4 full (note: they are too full in the photo shown) as this will allow you to have space for the beeswax flower and also be able to screw the lid on the jar for wrapping / shipping.
2. Now you can begin decorating! Using a cookie cutter, cut out a flower like shape from a sheet of the beeswax. We used both honeycomb and smooth sheets for different textures. Using the pen, punch a hole in the centre of the flower then slide it over the wick onto the top of your candle.
3. Cut a second colour of wax with the cookie cutter. Using the knife or scissors, separate all the petals. Then spread some of the tacky wax (a sticky wax that acts as glue for the petals) with a popsicle stick around the centre of the flower. Arrange and press each petal around the wick. Carefully bend the far tip of each petal upwards to create a 3D effect to the flower.
4. For the third layer of the flower, cut out smaller petal shapes with the knife or scissors. Generally 6 petals will do. Again spread the tacky wax and adhere the petals gently bending each tip upwards.
That’s it! No really, it’s that easy.
For bonus points, you can decorate the jar and the lid. For some cute printable labels that will fit mason jar lids click here.
We will leave you with a photo of a pretty black one that looks lovely on our night stand next to an Anthropologie ring holder.
November 26 2011 | Flowers and Projects | 23 Comments »
We are so proud to announce the launch of Garden Therapy Handmade on Etsy. This labour of love involved combining the passion for gardening, photography and home décor into one unique project: Studio Blooms.
But a harvest? Why, yes! Flowers were grown in our home garden, photographed in studio, then enlarged to mammoth proportions in order to showcase the magnificent details of each individual flower. The photographs were digitally designed to be giclee printed on a beautiful linen-cotton canvas and sewn to perfection. Little details like expensive hidden zipper closures and feather/down inserts were taking into account. Then each one was hand washed, dried, and ironed, ready to go to it’s new home.
Was it easy? Um, well, no. There were months of prints and reprints to get just the right detail to each inch of fabric. There was wash testing. There was cuddle testing (that was a particularly tough one). In the end, it was so worth it. We think these soft but durable pillows are the perfect art for the home. We hope that you agree!
Please visit the Garden Therapy Handmade store to check out all the designs, 9 in total. Favoriting, liking, tweeting, or any other social media sharing would be greatly, greatly appreciated and happily returned in kind. And thank you for your support.
November 14 2011 | Flowers and Garden Therapy and Photography | 14 Comments »
Today at the garden centre we saw these fabulous “jack-o-planterns” stuffed with various sedum and kale. Great inspiration pieces for a weekend project. Love!
October 25 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Projects | 5 Comments »
For this weekend’s project, we took a bunch of golden hops and tucked them into grapevine wreath. With a crow nestled in it has just the perfect balance of “festive” and “ominous” to become Halloween décor.
Without the space to grow hops in our small, urban garden, we were excited to receive a gift of freshly cut hops from the country. the Golden Hop Vine (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’) is a vigorous-growing deciduous vine and the prettier sibling of the common hops used to make beer. The cone-shaped flowers are green in the summer but when it’s time to cut the vine back in the fall, the flowers start to turn. The flowers arrived a pale yellow, but have dried to a rich golden colour. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some hops, here are the instructions on making your own Halloween Hop Wreath.
Materials:
- grapevine wreath
- golden hop stems
- scissors
- Halloween decoration (crow or other)
Step 1: Pick out strong stems 3″-6″ long with clusters of hops at the ends. Snip off the leaves and flowers at the base of each stem, enough so that the stem can inserted into the wreath and hold.
Step 2: Starting at the inner bottom edge of the wreath, tuck each stem into the web of grapevine branches, enough so that when the wreath is hung they will not fall out. Insert the stems around the grapevine wreath from inner bottom edge of the form to the upper top edge. As the hop flowers will hang once mounted upright, this will ensure that the wreath will look symmetrical. A good practice is to periodically lift the wreath to its finished position to check the arrangement. Give it a light shake at the same time to remove any flowers that are loose.
Step 3: Use your creativity to decorate the wreath for the season. We used a crow but a spider, rat, or even a severed hand would have been just as compelling.
Step 4: hang your wreath and enjoy the flowers as they deepen in colour and release the most delicious hop aroma.
October 22 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Harvest and Projects | 4 Comments »
It’s no longer possible to deny that it’s autumn (no matter how hard we try) so perhaps it’s best to start winding down along with the temperatures and light. Hanging some dried lavender around the garden could be just the aromatherapy needed to help de-compress after a long day, or perhaps it will just make you smile. Regardless, it’s a quick weekend project that will leave you calm enough for an afternoon read or a good night’s sleep.
Materials:
- wire coat hanger
- scissors
- twine or wire (in a colour that matches your flowers*)
- dried lavender
Instructions:
The best part about this project is that you don’t need any special materials beyond what you can likely find around the house. Start by bending a wire coat hanger into a circular form. The hook of the hanger will be hidden when the wreath is complete, and it makes it easy to hang the wreath when finished.
Gather a bunch of dried lavender and snip the ends with the scissors to get a nice neat edge. Secure the bunch to the form by winding the twine around it a few times and tying a knot. (*We’ve used green gardening wire for demonstration purposes, but a twine or wire colour that matches your dried flowers will have a much cleaner look in the end.)
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Leaving the twine on the roll, wind each new bunch to the form as they are added. Continue adding bunches until you complete the circle. Tuck a final bunch under the first bunch, and secure with twine and tie off.
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Be sure to work on a table or tarp where you can collect the dried flowers that fall of in the wreath-making process. Those wonderfully scented blooms are great for
lavender sachets, cooking, or soap-making. We keep a big jar in the house over winter for a variety of uses.
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October 15 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Harvest and Projects | 8 Comments »
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