For the love of flowers!!

So,  being a floral designer during December has been  a lot of fun with the presentations at South East Flowers and Capel Manor College in North  London, along with Christmas work shops with Heidi Lawley  and  being part of the National  poinsettia day in  the west end at the fabulous Neill Strain  store. The poinsettia star  that graced the outside of the flower lounge was  brilliant  and the press  did a fabulous  job promoting it. I also got to work   on a  truly lovely wedding at the Ritz hotel and the bride carried the prettiest bouquet of lily of the valley  to compliment her amazing  dress .
 Our house is now decorated and we are ready for Christmas and I  am  looking forward to working with  more talented and  fabulous people in 2014 and  to kick start the year, I will be travelling up to Manchester to teach at The UK school of floristry on January 19th . Tickets are still available if you are looking for a last minute gift. Hope to see you there  and  Merry Christmas to you all.

Next demonstration .Tickets now on sale from Capel Manor College

Southeast Flowers

I don't know if you agree but don't you think the Christmas adverts come on TV  really early with  most of us not  feeling Christmassy in November. Well, I have a cure for this.. You need to go to a Christmas flower demonstration and come away so inspired  you want to drag your  tree out of the loft, deck the halls and cover the  floor in glitter for the next 7 weeks. That's the feed back I had on Wednesday night after my Christmas demo at Southeast Flowers. Over 60 enthusiastic flower lovers joined us in Ashford and it was a brilliant evening with 12 raffle prizes all up for grabs. I have a day at home today on paper work but the temptation to decorate the house with Christmas sparkle  is far more appealing and I'm raring to go. 

Watch this space for forthcoming workshops and demonstrations.

CHRISTMAS DEMONSTRATION
Wednesday 13th November  at SOUTHEAST FLOWERS - ASHFORD-   KENT.
 I am delighted to have been asked to present a Christmas demonstration for  my fabulous  wholesalers in Ashford and we  hope to see you there.
 It will be a great evening with lots of  ideas for Christmas and great products. Chris, Nick and the  team at Southeast are fabulous hosts and are holding  several demonstration's  to inspire you  this Christmas season. Give them a call to find out  who is demonstrating and be sure to come and say hello to me on the 13th .Contact Southeast Flowers on 01233625678 

On October the 16th I headed to amazing Thailand to demonstrate for the university of Thailand. I was invited to launch a new variety of flower and the show was attended by 150 floral industry representatives and hotelier's. It was the first time I have ever had an interpreter and it was very amusing at times as some words didn't translate too well and caused a lot of laughs from the audience.
Seeing all the orchids was truly amazing and we visited  the depot to see how the orchids are processed before shipping all over the world. We then went out to the farms to see how they grow and met some of the  fantastic workers.    

Amy from Amy's orchid's who  grows and export  the most AMAZING flowers ever !!! www.amysorchids.com direct from Thailand.

Ready to be inspected and packed

 Packed and ready for shipping

Orchid farm . Flower heaven !!

October  has been a busy month  with weddings and the lovely Samantha  married Andy  in Tunbridge wells and the theme was "Romance" with freedom roses and pretty foliage's. Samantha carried a bouquet of  red freedom roses and the bridesmaids  carried a hand tied designs of  avalance roses . The table designs were red freedom roses in  glass vases  with aspidistra  collars .

In September I headed off to sunny Spain to demonstrate  for the  Torrejevas  flower club near to Alicante  and  had a lot of  fun with lovely ex pats who all have a love of everything flowery.
The day after I returned from Alicante I boarded a plane  for Belgium and spent two fab days  book signing for  Fluer Creatife at the  fabulous Alden Biesen show.

 July and August were  such glorious months  filled with warm sunny days and  some really lovely weddings of friends of the family.  Tessa  was married  to Adam at the beautiful and historical  Chiddingstone  Castle  here in Kent and her vintage look  was so soft and pretty and delicate set against the  imposing interior of the castle. The sun shone all day and it was one of the prettiest  ones I have done in my career as a floral designer .

Jonathan married his  beautiful Brazilian bride  in August with the  ceremony being held  in the stunning Tonbridge  Boys School  chapel  here in Kent. Fusing the two different nationalities together and interpreting their wishes was exciting and creatively a dream wedding .
 The chapel, although full of  beauty in its décor looked stunning with typical English  pedestals and fabric to soften the look.
 Back at the reception at the family home  set amongst  acres of beautiful gardens, we created  a real  HOT party look within the marquee and brought the two nationalities together as one.

July  2013.
 So, for the last 6 weeks I  have actually been  here in the UK enjoying the  sunshine and working on up and  coming projects. Having had a  heavenly  2 week break  in the beautiful  city  Vancouver visiting friends and  then heading off to  the  HOT and  hectic  Symposium for AIFD that was held in  Las Vegas  this year its been great to catch my breath and head to places  here in the UK I have not been to  for a long time .

Hampton court was  just AMAZING and the first time for me  as a visitor. The RHS certainly know  how to host a gardening show and  it was  fun to promote my book with demo's and book signings.

 Two days later  I headed to Bournemouth and I  had a fun filled  two days  with the  Fusion  flower team promoting  my book and  catching up with  friends from the  flower arranging  world.

 Last week I headed for  Tatton Park  in Manchester for the RHS and stayed at a lovely B&B and really enjoyed the flower show in-between book signing and demonstrating  again .

Next trip is in September and I will be boarding a  plane to Alicante to spend time with flower lovers  from the UK  for a week of  sun, fun and a  flower demo on Wednesday 18th  followed by  a trip to Alden Biesen, Bilzen  to the  Fleuramour show  on September 21st where I will be signing my books . Exciting times ..

June 12th 2013 .
 Just had two fun days teaching at the Paula Pryke flower school in London with really great students.
Paula  has an amazing school and certainly  knows how to deliver a great programme .  Its great to be back in London and back on the freelance circuit .
I'm available for  any freelance work from the 6th July  should you know of  anyone looking for  a qualified fun teacher / team member  for  any event's/weddings  during the busy summer  season..

In May, I headed to Chelsea  flower show to share my book with RHS members and the flower loving public and it was great to  see it for sale on the  shelves of the RHS gift shop .I spent 2 hours  talking and signing books for  visitors.

I'm heading up to Birmingham on Thursday 13th June  for a repeat show at the BBC Gardeners live show and hopefully be spotting some stars.

June  2013
So its  been a while since I last added anything on here and thought it was about time I  shared all that  has happened  and is happening in the life of  this floral designer.

March .. Fresh Floral Jewelry is  official launched in the USA  at the Philadelphia  flower  show.

               I flew out  to Philadelphia  to work as a flower team designer  with  Bill and Kris  Schaffer on the Philadelphia  flower show for Schaffer  designs  and helped  to  create "Jack". the ripper   and  bring their design idea to life ,winning the coveted "best in show " award again for the 5th year  18.000 stems of  flowers were used in the exhibit and designers came in from all over the States and Canada


My first ever book was launched at the show and  it was spine tingling to see it on a book shelf  in a gift shop being sold.


    

My book arrives in the UK . A very proud Dad (in law )

Guildford Cathedral 2013

June 2013
Guildford Cathedral Flower Gala. What a fantastic week working on the Alter exhibit for this fab show. Paula Pryke  headed the  design team and I worked from Monday through to Thursday on the preparation and launch.
 My design depicts the Queens Coronation and  it was left  up for the  coronation mass on Sunday  9th June in the Cathedral . My aim  was to create an English country garden look and  Chris Wolfe  from Southeast flowers  knew exactly where I was coming from and wanting to go with my ideas.




 The crown is made from  bronze mesh shaped into a crown  and 400  freeze dried statchy leaves were glued  onto the wire frame. Reindeer moss was  wired and  glued  around the base and  diamantes glued into place. Wire structures were made and I glued in  aspidistra leaves and trimmed them to fit. I then added  tiny flowers and berries which were   were glued  around the frame. A cushion was made from Purple velvet and the remainder was placed inside the crown.

New Year .. New book ..

HERE IT IS !!! My very first book  and it will be launched on  March 2nd at the Philadelphia  flower show and I will be doing  book signing too...  It will be available  in the UK and Europe from  late March and book stores worldwide.

 

Check out  my web site for the special offer currently running.
Pre-order a signed copy  with
Free P&P  in MAINLAND UK  only until midnight  Saturday 16th Feb  2013

ORDER NOW  FOR THIS GREAT OFFER