Floral Media: Couture Prairie and Flea Market Treasures by Rachel Ashwell

I first came across Rachel Ashwell back in 1996 when she published her first book Shabby Chic and I have followed her ever since. She had by then founded her iconic brand also called Shabby Chic and opened her shop in Santa Monica, California. Rachel is originally from England but since many years back based in California. 

Rachel has published eight books, she has had her own television series and has shops in Los Angeles, New York, Texas, San Francisco and London. Her last venture is opening a bed and breakfast called The Prairie in Texas and this is the book about her journey from start to finish. The book is called Couture Prairie and Flea Market Treasures published by Cico Books/Ryland Peters & Small. The gorgeous photographs are by Amy Neunsinger.

What I love about Rachel is her ability to make her interiors look effortless. They are full of creatively used old pieces of furniture and lovely, almost always floral fabrics and linen mixed with lace.

My absolute favourites are all her incredibly romantic flower arrangements and that is what I wanted to focus on in this post.

   
I have often used many quotes by Rachel about flowers in my blog series called Florets - Floral Quotes. Her use of flowers are so much part of the shabby chic look and in her latest book she says that "Flowers are truly like oxygen to me and absolutely intrinsic to my style."

On her blog earlier this year she did a post that she called My Love Affair With Flowers. Rachel says: "Not a day goes by when flowers don't play a significant role in my life. Whether by way of my design work of prints, inspiration for a palette, gratitude for a beautiful fragrance or heaven on earth in my garden. My appreciation and need for flowers crosses over into obsession, never quite enough...."

I admire her sense of style, her enthusiasm, her total commitment to her work even when times are hard and I obviously love her passion for flowers!

Almost every page in the book has some kind of flower on it - weather it's real flowers in vases or silk flowers. Rugs, cushions, curtains and wallpaper are all covered in floral prints. The vintage furniture she uses often has flowers painted on them. She also uses a lot of floral china - from platters, tureens, bowls, cups and especially jugs and vases that she fills with gorgeous floral arrangements. In the book she talks about her favourite flowers - larkspur, delphiniums, lisianthus, hydrangeas, stocks and roses - and what a great choice - all very romantic and beautiful!  

You can find Rachel on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest as well as her previously mentioned blog.

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I have had an unscheduled break from blogging these last few weeks. I have done a writing course, both kids now also live back home with us and we have had workmen in to paint the house - so chaos descended on us. Things are now almost back to some sort of normality and I hope to be back to a more normal blogging schedule. 

See you soon again.

xoxo Ingrid 

Flowers Every Day by Paula Pryke

Paula Pryke's book Flowers Every Day was published last year by Jacqui Small and the beautiful photographs were taken by the London-based Rachel Whiting.

In this very interesting book Paula shows us how we can combine flowers and plants from our own garden with flowers bought at the market or flower shop to make very reasonably priced flower arrangements .   

The book is divide up into the four seasons and for each season Paula shows us how we can enjoy flowers in our homes every day of the year. 

Each chapter has a section on what's good to grow in the garden. Paula has picked out her favourite flowers and has planting plans for beds and borders to help you produce a plentiful supply of flowers all year around.  

She tells us what flowers and foliage are good to buy from the florist, farmers market or super market; she looks at cost, longevity and availability.

The spring chapter covers early spring flowers like Muscari and Hellebores featured here in lovely little coloured glass vases.. 

This lovely pastel Easter table arrangement has gorgeous Ranunculus and daffodils in a long low vase decorated with washi tape.

Another stunning table decoration arranged in a bark basket with spring flowers in pink tones.

For Mother's Day lunch she has created napkin decorations using the classic spring flowers - daffodils, Muscari and hellebore tied with a stem of willow.

A summer arrangement for a light lunch in the garden. Solomon's seal, lambs' ears, phlox, stock and purple asters. It's like having 'summer' in a basket!

This arrangement consists of one type of flower in a simple one colour vase. An abundance of summer flowers that works every time!

This is a wonderful autumn arrangement - a branch of purple slow berries and five huge heads of Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bela'. An asymmetrical and quite dramatic arrangement in its simplicity.

Here is a lovely little Christmas arrangement using simple glass bottles with a few different foliage sprigs and berries from the garden.

The last image is of some hanging glass jars with sweet peas - simple and beautiful. 

I hope you like the book as much as I did and happy flower arranging.

See you later!

xoxo Ingrid

Decorate by Holly Becker

Most of you are probably familiar with Holly Becker's best-selling book Decorate. It was co-written with Joanna Copestick, published in 2011 by Jacqui Small and the photographs are by Debi Treloar.

It's a brilliant book that has - "1,000 inspirational design ideas for every room in your house." My blog is about flowers and floral styling so I am going to look at the parts of the book that covers flowers, vases, table settings and outdoor areas. 

The chapter on flowers has a sections on how to display flowers and another on how to choose containers.

Throughout the book are brilliant examples of different kinds of vases and other kinds of containers - sometimes displayed empty like here as a small collection of glass vases in blues and greens.  

This is an effective and stylish example of how a collection of identical containers works visually even without any flowers. 

I love these two images - the single pink rose in a round glass vase filled with silver sequins floating in the water and the blue scabious in inky blue glass bottles of different shapes and sizes. Brilliant! 

Throughout the book you'll find quotes on almost every page and there are some great ones in the flower section. 

Here is another example of containers of different shapes and sizes - all white and with no flowers  - but contrasted with a green jug overflowing with flowers. What a beautiful arrangement for a shelf or mantelpiece. 

This is a beautiful image of a simple arrangement of one type of flower in a clear glass vase - contrasting with a very light coloured dining area.

Holly says that flowers are the costume jewellery of the home and she's not kidding if you look at these brightly coloured vases and flowers. Great stuff!

There is a short chapter called Outdoor Living showing some examples of how to effectively use containers in outdoor areas. 

The last image is from Leslie Shewring's California studio showing not only lots of colourful roses and poppies in galvanized containers, but also lots of other containers that could be used for flower arranging, on the shelves behind.  

All the ribbons are from Jane Means collection of ribbons.

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back later in the week with another Floral Fusion.

Ingrid xx

At Home with Flowers by Jane Packer

This is one of my favourite books on flower arranging. It's called At Home with Flowers and was written by the London florist Jane Packer.

While Jane was writing the book she suffered a stroke and after it was published in 2011 she very sadly passed away in November that same year - she was only fifty-two years old. 

What I love about the book is that all the arrangements are shown in situ - in the rooms or environment where they were planned to go.

You can see how the flowers work with the shape, size and colour of the container and what room it's placed in and how it works with other colours in the room. 

What I also love about the book is the contemporary look and feel of the styling of the rooms and the arrangements - even though there are a lot of vintage and retro containers and furniture featured.  

There are about 90 different arrangements featured in the book and I had a hard time choosing which ones to photograph - there were so many that I liked.

 Another thing I like is the simplicity of the arrangements - some have an abundance of stems, but often of the same flower - and others will have just one or two stems in each vase - but like Jane says herself, "These arrangements are truly simple and straightforward." 

In the book Jane takes you through each room starting with the hallway then living-rooms, kitchen and dining spaces, bedrooms and bathrooms. 

There are also a few short chapters on what to look out for when buying flowers, how to condition them, a little bit on Jane's design philosophy and her favourite flowers.

For me Jane remains one of those talented and creative people that has left a lasting impression in the world of flowers.

Here is a link to a tribute to Jane that I wrote and posted on my blog back in 2011.

I hope you have enjoyed my little book review.

See you soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Matthew Mead's Ultimate Recycled Style Guide

When Matthew Mead contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing a review of his latest book I was delighted and obviously said yes. I love recycling and most of my collection of vases and containers that I use for my floral styling are from flea markets and charity stores. I have also been a big fan of Matthew since 2010 when I first discovered his blog. 

The book, just published, is called Matthew Mead's Ultimate Recycled Style Guide. It's a book full of projects showing you how to transform flea market finds into fabulous treasures.  

In the introduction Matthew talks about his and his team's broad view of recycling, he says: "Transforming one thing into another, breathing new life into tired old wares became our mission." 

There are 25 chapters with several projects in each one - varying from very easy for the beginner to a bit more challenging for somebody with a little more experience.    

I have for obvious reasons focused of the flower arrangements and any floral projects in the book and Matthew had assured me that there was plenty of flowers and I was not disappointed.

Lovely green and turquoise jugs and glass bottles - my favourite kind of vases - wonderful colours to use with flowers.  

Lots of vintage container can be used in the garden for planting and in the chapter called Miniature Gardens you'll find lots of ideas for using flea market finds. 

Match the colour of the flower with the container - like here with some bright yellow daffodils and a painted old sap can.

Changing the colour of clear glass bottles is easy with a bit of paint - just make sure you use a water tube in the neck of the bottles to hold the water and flower.

Hydrangeas in different shades of pink in a simple clear glass container becomes a colourful outdoor arrangement for a summer birthday party. 

Blue and white china is charming to use in combination with flowers - it comes in many different styles and colours and anything that can hold a bit of water can be turned into a vase for an arrangement.

With a bit of inventiveness and know-how you can create some unique arrangements like here: Stack three graduated bowls, fill each level with water and arrange the flowers around the bowls.

A vintage basket with a flat back gets a lick of pink paint - put some pink roses in a watertight container - pop in basket - hammer a nail in the wall and presto - you have a charming and colourful decoration for your wall.  

Matthew also made a sweet dedication to me in the front of the book - Thank you Matthew!

I hope you have enjoyed my little review of Matthew's book and I also hope that you'll have found something that has inspired you to recycle some old treasures.

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Thanks for your visiting and till soon!

xoxo Ingrid