Friday Flower: Orchid

Exotic. Elegant. Enchanting.

People have been fascinated by the beauty of orchids for thousands of years. Orchidaceae, the family of orchids, is the largest family of flowering plants with nearly 25,000 individual species. The majority of orchid plants today are hybrids of Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, and Cattleya. In cut flowers, you will most commonly find Cymbidiums (both large and mini) and Dendrobiums.

At the florist shop where I work, this weekend we have a wedding entirely in orchids. The different varieties of orchids in shades of magenta, pink, and white are a stunning combination. Here's some shots of the bouquets and boutonnieres:

Bride's Bouquet of white Cymbidiums, pink Phalaenopsis, and magenta Dendbrobiums.

Bridesmaid's Bouquet of pink Phalaenopsis and magenta Dendbrobiums.

Boutonnieres of white and magenta Dendbrobiums.

Wrist corsages of white and magenta Dendbrobiums.

Theme Thursday: Apple Picking!

September is here, and that means so is apple-picking season! If you can't make it out to an apple orchard today, why not "pick" some of these delicious apples?

Red Polka Dot Apple Hairclips from Tizzalicious


"He was different" open edition print from Nicky Bee Shop

Medium zipper pouch - Pomme red from Simbiosis by Julie


Apple Adjustable Wrist Pincushion from Bird Watching

And of course, with all of those apples, you simply must have apple pie!

Adorable Apple Pie Ring from Misty Aurora

Pingu!

I have always been a lover of claymation. It's an art form that never ceases to amaze me, as I cannot even begin to imagine how much work goes into it. My husband recently discovered Pingu, and little g has been absolutely delighted with this lovable little penguin and his family. Fortunately I have also been delighted! It's so nice when our little ones take a liking to watching something that we don't mind watching ourselves, isn't it?

If you'd like to watch some clips of Pingu, there are loads of them on youtube. Among our favorites are Pingu's Pancakes, Pingu Boogaloo, and Pinga has Hiccups. But as with anything you allow your children to watch, you should always watch it without them first. While most of these Pingu clips are wonderful, there's one called Pingu Dreams that has a somewhat creepy walrus that might be frightening to some. So always preview!

I hope you will enjoy watching Pingu (or "Mingu" as my daughter sweetly mispronounces it) as much as we have.

Getting back in the swing of things

Those who know me well know that I have a lot on my plate right now. I'm one of those people who loves to have a million things going on all at once...it keeps life interesting. But when you have a lot of different things you do, inevitably, something gets left aside for awhile. It seems that blogging is one of those things which, though I enjoy doing, unless I put it on the schedule, I never get around to it. So I've decided that I would really like to make more time for it, and in order to do this, I need to schedule it in.

I recently received an email from the Crafting in Color team leader, who was looking for volunteers to help out with their blog. They are planning a weekly schedule of posts, for instance, every Monday is Mulit-color Monday. I will be doing Thursdays, which will be Team Theme Thursday. I get to pick a new theme each week, then feature items from Crafting in Color team members that fit that theme. Fun!

This got me thinking, why don't I do a weekly schedule for my own blog too? I don't want to overwhelm myself by setting up a strict regiment of daily posts, but I thought it might be nice to have some themes set up for a couple of days a week to get the blogging flowing again. So here's what I'm going to start with:

Toddler Tuesdays
Theme Thursdays
Flower Fridays

Setting a schedule is the easy part...sticking to it is where the challenge often lies. So I'll start there, and hopefully this will get me back in the swing of things!

Learning about life through floral design

As I mentioned early this year, I won a scholarship to take a floral design class at teleflora headquarters. The class I decided to take was Creative Edge: East/West Fusion with Hitomi Gilliam. I just returned from the trip last week, and the class was completely amazing! I am thrilled that I got this opportunity to gain experience and grow. I expected to learn a lot about floral design, but this class went far beyond learning a few new techniques - it was learning a new thought process.

There were many things that Hitomi said during the course which at the time were in relation to floral design, but they could easily be applied to virtually anything in life. For instance, she was talking about how sometimes the materials you have may not be exactly what you need to achieve a particular design, but rather than giving up on the design completely, you should try to think of a way to make the materials you have work for the design:

"Nature gives you a lot, but sometimes it doesn't give you the right stuff."

How true is that? I'm sure we all have some little thing that we wish nature would have done differently for us. But instead of being down about not having "the right stuff" and giving up, isn't it better to take what you have, and make it work for you? Don't worry about what you don't have, and make the most of what you do have. So simple, yet so brilliant.

Another time, she was talking about how sometimes you keep trying and trying to make a design work, and it's just not going right:

"If something's not going right, perhaps you're doing it wrong."

It's so easy to to just give up, or to put the blame on someone else (or something else) when things aren't going the way you wish they would. But instead of taking either of these routes, perhaps it's better to take a step back and see what you can do differently to change the way things are going.

Not only was Hitomi full of such tidbits of wisdom, but she is also very clever, and gave many helpful technical tips. The class was truly inspiring! Now I'll leave you with some photos of the lush array of flowers we got to work with:

Premiere issue of mhc out now!

I'm so excited to announce that the premiere issue of modern handmade child has arrived! It's jam packed full of the latest handmade fashions and decor, as well as crafty tutorials and fun activities you can do with your kids. So take a peek...I'm sure you will love it!

Open publication - Free publishing - More kids

Now I think I'll go do one more happy dance, then go get some much needed rest.

Wondering why I haven't blogged in awhile?

Because I've been working like mad on this:

Open publication - Free publishing - More kids

Be sure to check for our first issue in August! Yippee!!