Florets - Floral Quote - # 113 - by Lewis Miller

"I tend to like combinations that either follow each other on the color wheel, like red, red-orange, and orange, or that falls on opposite sides of the wheel, like orange and blue. Successful color pairings are ones that have an unexpected twist, like coral with pink and rust, which is an alluring mix of hues. The rust is crucial in that trinity; without it the resulting floral arrangement is too sweet, it's as though your teeth will fall out just from looking at it! Salmon and olive; ruby, cerise, and coral; dusty lavender,aubergine, and champagne: these surprising combinations keep your eyes engaged and delighted."

~ Lewis Miller ~

[Lewis Miller: American, New York-based floral designer, founder of Lewis Miller Design, making flower arrangements for private and corporate clients and author of Styling Nature.]

[Quote from: Styling Nature by Lewis Miller, 2016.]

[Flowers: Ranunculus.]
[Container: Vintage glass bottles.]

[Styling and Photography © Ingrid Henningsson/Of Spring and Summer.]

Enjoy your flower arranging and have a fabulous and floral Sunday!

I'll be back on Monday with more floral delights from Of Spring and Summer.

Ingrid 

~ xoxo ~

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A Bunch for the Weekend - # 51 - Colourful Tulips

 This week on 'A Bunch for the Weekend' - I'm featuring some colourful tulips all from the farmers' market and Forever Green Flower Company.

You'll need:

- multiple stems of tulips in a lot of different bright colours - here I have used tulips called - 'Ballerina', 'Havran', 'White Marvel', 'Apricot Beauty' and 'Attila Graffiti'.

- medium size vases in clear glass or neutral colours - I have used vintage milk bottles and large glass jars

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- a pair of florists scissors

- a florist bucket filled with fresh water

Condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase. This is to reduce any growth of bacteria from deteriorating leaves. Also remove any broken or bruised leaves.

Cut the stems at an angle - this is to increase water absorption.  

Put in a clean container with fresh water and leave in a cool, dark place over night or at least for a few hours, to let the flowers absorb the maximum of water, before making the final arrangement.

You might have to re-cut the stems while making the final arrangement to suit the size of the vase or container and to get the right proportions.

Tulips of this beauty speak for themselves. They just need a simple vase or container - leave a few leaves on the stems as a bit of greenery -  but make sure the leaves are above the waterline in the vase. 

Cut the stems in proportion to the vase - not too long and not too short - and remember that tulips continue to grow in the vase. Also remember that tulips are thirsty flowers - so keep the vase topped up with water.

This is such an amazing time of year full of colourful tulips. 

In other words - Tulips Galore! Enjoy!

Have a Great Floral Saturday and a Happy Weekend!

I will see you next week with more DIY flowers from 

Of Spring and Summer.

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

[Styling and Photography © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer]
[Flowers from Forever Green Flower Company.]


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Purple Asters

These arrangement of lovely purple Aster flowers in two shades makes me very happy right now. Two little tight bunches in clear glass vases. The beautiful vintage periwinkle blue vase is French and used to contain furniture polish but now makes a pretty little vase. I bought it from a company called Velvet Ribbon. They sell a charming selection of vintage stuff sourced from all over Europe.

The arrangement sits on a collage that is a joint collaboration by my wonderful daughter and me. It is made directly on a stretched canvas, we used vintage sheet music, two decorative tissue tapes, one with butterflies the other with varied styles of antique calligraphy. The two tapes are both from Cox & Cox. 

We also used some rubber stamps with birds and plants from The Paperie, a company that sells some great stationary stuff. 

Several weeks ago I found some fantastic white fabric lace tape that I needed for a different project so we were able to use some of that as well. The lace tape is sold by a French company called Lovely Tape.  

I love this retro plate decorated with the pattern 'Homemaker'. It was designed by Enid Seeney for Ridgeway Pottery in 1955. Woolworths sold it in their shops until the 1960s. It is decorated with archetypal images of 1950s style, such as the boomerang-shaped table and a two-seater sofa.

The little black heart, buckle, buttons, and clip-on earrings are all Victorian mourning jewellery. During part of the Victorian period black was the height of fashion and black jet and glass jewellery was very popular.  

It took me a long time of to find these spoons. When I finally found them they turned out to be French as well - I know, a lot of French stuff in this post! I had seen them used by two of my favourite food bloggers - Aran Goyoaga from Cannelle et Vanille and Beartice Peltre from La Tartine Gourmande - and I just thought they were adorable and had to have some! The company that makes them is called Sabre Paris and they sell a large collection of acrylic cutlery as well as lots of other things for your table.

The two adorable floral washi tape are from What You Sow. Lyndsey has an internet business and sells, to quote her business card, "Unusual gardening things for the creative gardener."  

Have a wonderful day filled with flowers!!

xoxo Ingrid

Pink and Green Moodboard

My local Farmers Market was selling these gorgeous pink Dahlias and I just had to have them. The colour made me think of spring and I thought: "Maybe I can make an arrangement and pretend it is spring!" Not because I don't like autumn because I do, I like the autumn very much. It is a wonderful season in the UK and London has it's own micro climate. The weather is very mild with a lot of clear bright blue skies and many flowers are still in bloom and leaves stays longer on the trees. 

Dahlias are one of my favourite flowers and it is most definitely not a spring flower, so my dreams of spring did not last for very long. I did the arrangement as a hand-tied bunch which simply means holding the bunch in one hand and adding to it with the other. It makes a more densely packed arrangement and you have more control over the shape. When you are finished you cut the stems and tie it with raffia or string; or if you use a vase that is not too wide you can put the bunch straight in the vase. In this case I used a vintage metal milk pail from Sweden.

In a small pail I made a separate arrangement using variegated Pittosporum. The little vintage pail was probably originally for cream and is also from Sweden.

The cut branches of Pittosporum comes from my neighbours garden, but I have just bought one for my own garden from Crocus. I like the variegation as well as the slightly wavy edges of the leaves and the contrasting dark coloured stems.

As cut branches for flower arranging it is perfect and lasts for ages, a must for anybody who likes arranging flowers.

The old metal milk pail is from the 1950's and made by a Swedish company called Skultuna. The company is 400 years old and is still designing and producing mainly brass products.

I had fun painting some small wooden blocks with different colours. I was picking up the pink in the Dahlias and the grey  in the pails and as I often do I used Farrow & Ball colours. The grey is Elephant's Breath and the pink is Cinder Rose, they are both beautiful chalky matt colours.

I buy the wooden cubes from a company called Craftshapes.

I love all the textures, contrasting sizes and different materials; hard & soft, small & large, glass, wood and metal as well as the colours in the plant material mixed with the softer greys. 

This very large glass funnel is a vintage apothecary funnel from Sweden. It is clearly marked as made in Germany and it has some rather unusual ridges on the inside - I am not sure why.

I stuck a cut branch of Pittosporum in the narrow end of the funnel. It will obviously not last for very long without water so I did it was just for fun. I thought it made lots of interesting angles and lines in the image.

Have a lovely day!

xoxo Ingrid

(text/styling/photography: ingrid henningsson)

Little Treasures

A little while back I did this post with green painted pots. I am always wary about making posts too long, so I thought I would make two. Here are some more images from the same shoot. They are all of little treasures that I have collected over the years. 

The first one is a vintage oil canister for an old Singer sewing machine that once belonged to my mother. It has such a lovely shape and is well used. 

I love the faded colour of these old game pieces. The board that belonged to them is long gone but I wanted to keep these little treasures because I enjoyed the shape and the colour. They were just right for the colour I painted the terracotta pots and looked beautiful on the old handwoven Swedish rag rug.

I found these old stamps when I cleared out some stuff back in Sweden. It was a whole roll of them dating back to 1983. Sweden is well known for producing beautiful stamps  and I loved this engraving of the seeds from an Acer platanoides or Norwegian maple. 

This large pair of scissors also belonged to my mother back in Sweden. It is well used and tarnished to a beautiful silver grey.

And the last image I enjoy because of all the little triangles.

Have a lovely weekend.

Take care.

xoxo Ingrid

Flowers and Poetry

Instagram and iPhone 4s, a photo by Of Spring and Summer on Flickr.

Beauty x 2 - flowers and poetry. Stock flowers and vintage Pelican books from 1945.
I am having lots of fun using my iPhone and Instagram.

Flowers for the Weekend

Playing in my "studio" with pink and white stock flowers. I bought the beautiful flowers at the local farmers market.

I also folded up a piece of floral fabric that had a similar colour to the pink stock and I stuck  it to the table top with some washi tape. A nice way of edging an unfinished piece of fabric as a temporary little table cloth.   

I love the texture of the stock petals - a bit ruffled, wrinkly and veined.

Slightly imperfect but still very beautiful.

I am using a French white vintage enamelled container as a vase. The writing on it is charming and I love using really anything that holds water and that does not rust.

Condition the flowers when you get them home by cutting the ends off and putting them in water for a while before arranging them. The flowers will last a lot longer with a little care.

If you need more advise about how to take care of your cut flowers click on the tab at the top of my blog labelled FLOWER ARRANGING TIPS. There are lots to read on how to look after your cut flowers.

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo Ingrid

Playing with Tulips

Beautiful flowers, pretty floral china, colourful fabrics, some buttons and a camera and I am ready to play. Here are a few more images of me playing around with flowers and pretty things. 

I hope you enjoyed my little series of dark purple tulips on different backgrounds. 

Have a lovely day!

xoxo Ingrid 

Kay Ellen Design, Jenny Doh and some White Ranunculus

  

I was delighted when Kay Ellen from the blog Kay Ellen Designs contacted me and asked if she could feature me on Jenny Doh's blog Crescendoh. Kay Ellen is the guest curator there this week and she is featuring two blogs every day.

Thank you Kay Ellen and Jenny!

Please come over and have a look!

I found these amazing white Ranunculus at the farmers market and could not resist their beauty.

I have combined them with a beautiful blue grey colour. 

Some beautiful light blue ribbon with white stitching from Jane Means is tied around the clear glass vase, some rick-rack ribbon, two  miniature books and some fabric all in varied blue grey colours.

Have a wonderful day!

xoxo Ingrid 

An Interview with Of Spring and Summer

The creative, talented and very lovely duo Antonia and Fabio Duealberi have done an interview with me.

You can read the interview with me over at their beautiful blog DueAlberi.

Have a very lovely day!

xoxo Ingrid