Ana and Luke are truely the sweetest couple you have ever met… true sweethearts, so young and so in love!! Photographed by the amazing Trish from Tealily Photography , i had the pleasure of creating a little Floral Wonder and Styling!! i was so excited to be working with Trish, we had such fun that we’d find ourselves excitedly “yelp” from all the visual delights! Set amongst a beautiful Apple orchard in Bilpin NSW, it was a magnificent Autumn day to shoot Ana and Luke, our Traveling Hearts. The city girl and country boy travelled the long distances to be together for many years carrying their heart with them always to see one another, no matter how far the journey…. It was an amazing day, even our flower heart got a good work out!! Big Congratulations to Ana and Luke who recently married last month! Thanks to the wonderful Bill for his spectacular Apple Orchard, Karen for her lovely tandem bicycle and the ladies at Mountain Retreat , Bilpin  for allowing us shoot on their amazing property!! Heres a sneak peek….Happy Friday everyone! X

Today is our 1st Birthday!! Thank you to everyone for their support ; family, friends and co-creatives! It’s been a magnificent year, and look forward to another blooming year! much love XOX

Every epoch has had its favorite flowers. If we would form a correct opinion of the ideas, manners, and habits of a nation, we have only to look at its bouquets.

We pride ourselves on being the first to advance the following aphorism: Flowers are the expression of society.—from “The Fashion of Flowers,” in Les Fleurs Animées

As a masterpiece of botanic illustration, the engravings in J.J. Grandville’s Les Fleurs Animées (The Flowers Personified) speak for themselves. Exquisitely etched and hand-colored, the 54 plates depict an enchanting world of flower ladies, traveling amidst a floral tableaux of haute couture and insect courtiers. As a work of Victorian social satire, its intent is found beyond the delightful whimsy, and is conveyed in the book’s introduction:

As the story begins, the disenchanted flowers assemble before their Flower Fairy to request release from a 19th-century landscape that relegated them as adornment and inspiration for society’s art and romance:

”Your Majesty, the flowers here present beg you to accept their homage, and to lend a favorable ear to their humble complaint.

For thousands of years we have supplied mankind with their themes of comparison; we alone have given them all their metaphors; indeed, without us poetry could not exist. Men lend to us their virtues and their vices; their good and their bad qualities; it is time that we should have some experience of what these are.

We are tired of this flower-life. We wish for permission to assume the human form, and to judge, for ourselves, whether that which they say above, of our character, is agreeable to truth.”

The Flower Fairy concedes: “Go, deluded flowers; — let it be as you propose. Ascend upon the earth, and try human life. Ere long you will come back to me.” And the ensuing vignettes follow their pursuits: Thistle as piano teacher, Iris as trinket-vendor, Daisy as fortune-teller. The femme fleurs embark on a journey to contend with a society that had defined their personalities, a world of Victorian beauty so adorned with their likenesses, that it is said it was impossible to say where the flowers began, or the woman ended.

Rose

‘Nenuphar’ (Water Lily)

‘Flèche d’Eau’ (Arrowhead)

‘Bleuet et Coquelicot’ (Cornflower and Poppy)

‘Aubépine’ (Hawthorn)

‘Narcisse’ (Daffodil)

Capucine (Nasturtium)

‘Bal’ (The Ball)-’Reine Marguerite, Campanule, Fuchsia, Pied d’Alouette, Muguet, Pyramidale, Liseron’{China Aster, Canterbury Bell (Campanula), Lady’s Ear Drop, Larkspur (Delphinum), Lily of the Valley, Pyramidale Bell Flower, Morning Glory}

Ciguë (Hemlock) and below this ‘Thé et Café’ (Tea and Coffee)

The ultimate luxury camping- outdoor extravagance! Made to order “Le Tipi Harmonie” by french designer Alexis Tricoire. Covered in plants, which are arranged in spirals over the wooden structure- which is insulated with recycled cork and rubber. Enjoy  relaxing with the oversized pouffes inside!  Clever!

Introducing the astonishing Abelardo Morell. Morell is well known in the photographic industry for creating Camera Obscura images in various places around the world and photographing these.The Camera Obscura (Latin; “camera” is a “vaulted chamber/room” + “obscura” means “dark”= “darkened chamber/room”) is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved. His views range from brazen New York city panoramas  to warm Italian vistas.After years of mastering the invention he eventually switched to colour and began turning images right-side up with a prism. Replacing film with a digital sensor( which is more light sensitive) he cut exposure times from hours to minutes, permitting him to capture clouds, shadows, and other fleeting atmospherics. Dream -like hypnotic mayhem, and surreal post card views project playful mind games  asking the viewer “What belongs to what?” .

I sometimes feel like i am swimming in paper… it surrounds me in my studio in most forms; torn, shreaded, clean cut, scrunched, filed, piled….ahhh you name it! most of all it’s usually written on, illustrated on and drawn on, it scares me to think a fire would ever start. (touch wood..* can i touch wood* when i am talking about fire?… oh dear, anyway!) and  I do my best to re-cycle all of it. Most of it i admit is mine, accumulated for my handwriting projects… but we all have a similar problem, most paper items are delivered to your letterbox.

I came across this lovely website called Vij5 , a wonderful revolutionary sustainable design concept. It’s called Newspaper Wood -material design by Mieke Meijer

Every day, piles of newspapers are discarded and recycled into new paper. Mieke Meijer has devised a solution to use this surplus of paper into a renewed material. When a NewspaperWood log is cut, the layers of paper appear like lines of a wood grain or the rings of a tree and therefore resembles the aesthetic of real wood. The material can be cut, milled and sanded and generally treated like any other type of wood.

NewspaperWood desk by Greetje van Tiem

NewspaperWood stool by Tessa Kuyvenhoven

NewspaperWood cupboard by Breg Hanssen

Another very exciting project i came across was The Paper Convention Collective. The Paper Convention is a collective dedicated to the documentation of Paper Expressionism. It is a simple, powerful statement that aims to encourage and harness emerging paper artists and makers.

“This humble medium has developed into a powerful tool for creative expression and functionality all around the world.Paper is having a resurgence, in what can be seen as a backlash to the massmarket digital design style, paper has slowly climbed the cool ladder, reminding us that all you really need is a simple piece of paper and a little creativity.Introducing the highly anticipated A4 Paper Festival – an event unique to Sydney, Australia (starts 31st May -4th June) and solely dedicated to the uses of print and paper. It will offer audiences insight in contemporary developments with paper, by means of groundbreaking exhibitions, lectures and workshops.

Presented by The Paper Convention, a collective dedicated to the documentation of paper expressionism, the festival will showcase the most extraordinary creations crafted from paper; from small objects & figures, large-scale installations, handcrafted creations, self-published zines, three-dimensional graphic sculptures made by the designers/artists from different disciplines including design, print, graphic design, illustration, fashion, sculpture and animation.”

The Move, Paper Animation from Mandy Smith on Vimeo.

Cressida Campbell has to be one of my most favourite Australian Artists. It’s been 3 years since i bought her last book The Woodblock Painting of Cressida Campbell and i find inspiration within it every time i open it. What i love is how her work showcases graphic elements are reminiscent of Japanese prints juxtaposed with a life lived in and around Sydney.Campbell studied in 1980 at the Yoshida Hanga Academy in Tokyo. She celebrates the small wonders of life, and also captures the time and the place we inhabit. Simple scenes were composed to  create the joy of a moment and  enjoy life’s simple pleasures…

If you have come on the website and noticed something different on our home page and blog, thats because we are looking super cute ! As the leaves fall day by day, the liquid amber trees are telling us there are only a few days left of Autumn.. so we are preparing for the chilly Winter Season. Winter has some gorgeous flowers, some which are dismissed because we hibernate from the cold weather. Our lovely new Mossy Woodlands look was created by the ever so talented ladies at Laura Baxter Design. This season we love Dewy moss, marvelous mushrooms, delicate violets, a “queen of the night” tulip bed you could have a nap on , camellia clusters, creeping magnolia branches and one peeping bunny rabbit, all to inspire you for your winter soiree!  Keep your eye on the secret yellow door.. you never know what might be growing there next Spring!!

Take a look at my interview with Charlotte on Lottie Loves.

I have some wonderfully talented friends, whom i love to boast about because they truly are such an inspiration to me. One of my dear friends Lucinda, has THE most beautiful blog called The Flying Fox.An eye for AMAZing composition, her images are a diary of her travels from “Faraway Places”. From London, Austria, Istanbul,Italy, Milan and many more, Her guidance makes you want to jump in and taste, touch ,feel, laugh and admire all her findings and unexpected co-incidences. Her love of Food, Flowers, Gardens, Art ,Architecture and Interiors are all shown here, no doubt she will find the very best chocolate shop in Milan, or the most stylish bakery in Paris!  I’m in absolute wonderment by her incredible imagery..