Floral Fusion - Sweet Peas and Blue Bottles

As a little girl I used to garden with my Dad - much, much later on in 1993 I took my first gardening course and I have been gardening ever since. Since then I also trained as a gardener and garden designer for three years and I taught plants and plant knowledge for six years - all at The English Gardening School in London. 

   

There has been a large amount of gardening magazines that has gone through my hands - I don't want to dwell on that subject for too long. The only one I still subscribe to is the Which? Gardening - it's the Consumer Association's gardening magazine - I find I can still learn lots from reading it.

Well, in the last issue they featured sweet peas and roses two of my favourites and when I found sweet peas at the local farmers market I was really inspired. 

As vases I am using some cobalt blue vintage glass bottles. A few are medicine or apothecary bottles - it says "POISON" and "NOT TO BE TAKEN" on some of them.

When I am not using the dark blue glass bottles they usually sit on a windowsill in our study and they are beautiful when the sun shines through the glass.

Some of my vintage blue buttons in little blue bowls are always pretty.

Little blue and white cups from the flea market - these are Blue Fluted Plain from Royal Copenhagen - a classic design that is now also made in a re-interpreted more contemporary design.  

In the early 1980's I started to collect blue and white floral china and I was known to frequent an antique shop on Mill Lane called Putnam's. It was owned by a lovely lady called Antoinette Putnam but she moved her shop to Covent Garden and we lost touch. Antoinette also designed fabrics inspired by the blue and white floral china she sold in her shop. 

I am so happy to still have one of her fabrics, this blue and white floral fabric that I have used as a background is called Lottie. 

Sweet peas are adored for their scent and colours - and they are great as cut flowers. Sweet peas are hardy annuals and they are a fantastic climber for a cutting garden. You can grow them up a tepee, over an arch or as a tunnel.

I hope you are having a great week - see you on Sunday for my weekly Florets - another inspirational floral quote.

Ingrid xoxo 

Floral Fusion - White, Pink and Grey

My inspiration for this weeks Floral Fusion comes from the June issue of Elle Decoration.

There are some lovely features all with a light and summery feel to them. There are among others two homes from Copenhagen in Denmark and two chic Parisian apartments. 

A favourite feature is one about the Italian interior designer Enrica Stabile and her shop in Milan. I came across Enrica back in 2001 when she published her books Comfortable Country and Open Air Living -  books that still sits happily on my shelf and I still find inspiring. I was very happy to see images of her collection of antiques and her shop based in converted saucepan factory hidden away in the backstreet of Milan. 

The collection of vases that I have used are all in the white and grey tones. The taller vase in the back is a Hornsea slip-ware vase made sometime between 1962 and 1973 - the stamp on the base identifies it from that time - I found it in a charity store not so long ago.

In last weeks Floral Fusion I showed some red dice and joked about that I must come from a long line of gamblers - well here are some more white vintage dice. Maybe they weren't gamblers - people just played more board games back in those days. 

The round rings balancing on the empty cotton reel - are curtain rings and in the front are little piles of vintage game markers.  

Two vintage necklaces - the bottom one is an Art Deco necklace and the top one is from around 1900.

The fabric is a vintage French linen sheet - thick and very heavy - with a hand stitched seam in the middle and all the edges are also hand stitched. The seam in the middle tells you that it was woven on a narrow loom and then stitched together to make a wider sheet. 

Three flower arrangements - all pink flowers but one type of flower in each vase - and then grouped together for more impact.

The pink Ranunculus makes a wonderful contrast with the grey 1960's vase. I love the dark band across the middle and the squiggly white lines.   

The pinks are massed together in a little textured handmade vase - the scent is fabulous! 

The tulip season has been longer then usual this year - spring came late and it's been so cold and I have loved having access to an almost never ending supply. 

These pretty pink tulips I put in a Swedish white ceramic vase with an interesting textured pattern made by the Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien.

I'll be back on Sunday with a Florets - my Floral Quote by a florist or other flower lover.

Ingrid xx

Floral Fusion - Bright Red

In the May issue of Homes & Antiques there are lots of floral, gardening and botanical features - especially one called Blooming Marvellous. It's a feature full of flowers, floral vintage china, floral prints and vases. It's also full of vibrant colours - so I was really inspired to do a post with lots of strong colours and red was what I was drawn towards.

Red is the colour of roses, rubies, strawberries, lipstick and Ferraris. 

Red is also associated with danger, sacrifice, blood, passion, fire, anger, socialism and communism, and in China with happiness. 

So - it's a colour loaded with associations -  both good and bad.

 
I found some bright red tulips at the little local flower market and I already had some red Ranunculus from last week - so I made three little arrangements. 

Among my collection of vases I found some red and pinkish red - ranging in age from Victorian through to the 1930's and 1970's as well as a brand new one - the mini bud vase.  

From the top are two red vintage Murano glass bowls found at flea markets, two red necklaces both contemporary and a miniature beaded bag that contains a little silver heart.  

The fabric is from The Village Haberdashery and is called Bike Path in Dahlia - from a collection called Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics.

Here are three gorgeous Ranunculus in a vintage Poole Pottery vase from the 1970's.   

I come from a long line of weavers, spinners, seamstresses, milliners and collectors of buttons - nobody ever threw away a single button. So plenty to go through when I empted my mothers and grandparents houses back in Sweden.

Here is a sample of vintage red buttons as well as a little red wooden hat pin. All stored in an recycled Bonne Mama jam jar.

I also seem to come from a long line of gamblers - judging from the large amount of vintage dice!!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have found some inspiration among all the red! 

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Fusion - Here Comes Spring!

I have a lovely book of flowers that cheers me up every time I look at it. It's called Flower Power and it's written by Malin Hidesäter and the photography is by Anna Skog.   

Originally written in Swedish - it was then translated and I have the English edition. It was published in 2007 - so it's not a new book but I managed to get it on Amazon Marketplace.

Malin is a well-known Swedish florist and I love all her colourful flower arrangements in the book. 

This is not a book review -but I just wanted to tell you where my inspiration for this weeks Floral Fusion came from.

The main flower that I have used is a lovely double orange tulip with green streaks and I'm afraid I have to admit I don't know the name of it.

I used an old re-cycled tin as a vase and I decorated it with a bright orange washi tape - that has four different patterns on it. So already lively and bright - perfect for the occasion!

The other little container that I used for the secondary very small arrangement - is a vintage - ready for this - fish paste jar! I tied a narrow strip of fabric around it's neck as a little colourful decoration.  

As my vintage objects I have used a small round bowl from the 1960's that has an interesting orange glaze and an odd little vintage button or decoration of some sort - the holes are around the edge not in the middle - probably from the 1930's - also in unusual colours. 

You can also see a strip of the washi tape that I used to decorate the tin with.

The three large vintage letters are part of a small collection of D's - that is the first letter in our son's name and I bought them when he was just a little guy - to decorate his room with. The two larger red ones are wooden and the smaller one is metal with an enamelled yellow colour.

The two fabrics that I have used as background are from The Village Haberdashery in West Hampstead - my favourite fabric store. 

The bright orange one with tiny cream dots is called Recess by American Jane Patterns and the lighter one with very small flowers is called Toy Box II is designed by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill Fabrics.      

A few more little treasures - from the top: vintage child's hanger with silk thread wound around the hanger and small bits of ribbon, a necklace that my daughter gave me as a present bought in France, orange multi-patterned washi tape, vintage button/decoration and at the bottom a strip of torn and frayed fabric - the same as the background fabric - just to add some texture.

The last image is a close-up of the fantastic orange double tulips in the washi tape decorated re-cycled tin. 

Thanks for visiting and for making comments.

Till very soon!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Fusion - Dark Blue Anemones

My inspiration to this weeks Floral Fusion came from the book The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo - a brand new book that I reviewed the other week.

In the chapter on Anemones I spotted that the flower heads were arranged across the page and from that I got the idea to float some Anemones in a bowl.

The bowl is part of my floral blue and white transfer china collection and this one has an all-over pattern of pretty pansies and daisies.    

To make the arrangement just cut off the flower heads leaving only about 1-2 cm/1" of stem. Just like Hellebores and pansies Anemones looks lovely floating in a bowl of water. It's not an arrangement that lasts very long but is beautiful for a few days.

If you make an arrangement in a vase only add a small amount of water - the hollow stems of Anemone tend to rot much quicker when they sit in deep water.

The three other little containers are all blue and one is English and the other two are Swedish. The coloured glass container is a Victorian fairy light that could hold a candle or be used as a vase.

The other two are Rörstrand Blå Eld part of a dinner service design by Hertha Bengtsson and made between 1950 and 1971. There is a very subtle pattern in the blue glaze that looks like knitting. The Swedish Blå Eld means Blue Fire and this little container were originally made to hold cigarettes. Yes, those were the days when people smoked at the dinner table and I remember helping to set the table with cigarette holders and ashtrays.    

I found these three vintage Bakelite belt buckles from the 1940's when I was clearing out my grandparents house in Sweden. 

In among other things I also found a bag of little skeins of vegetable dyed wool. An aunt of mine trained in the late 1930's as a weaver in Stockholm and doing vegetable dyeing was part of her course. These two skeins are as the tag says dyed with cochineal and indigo. It's amazing to see how the colour is still strong even after so many years.

Here is a beautiful ethnic dark blue glass bead necklace - it's quite long and heavy and the beads are different size, they vary a little bit in colour and has a rough surface. 

My grandmother gave me a set of 12 tiny silver spoons when I was a little girl and I always thought it was such a sweet and generous gesture and I as far as I know she only gave it to the girls - I have no memory what the boys were given.

What I now like about them are that the top of the handle has a flower and leaf motive and as expected the design is called Rose. 

  

The fabric that I have used as a base is a Vuokko fabric designed by the Finnish designer Vuokko Nurmesniem - who was one of the leading designers at Marimekko. 

I hope you have found some inspirational ideas from my mix and match Floral Fusion.

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Thanks for the visit and for making comments. 

Till next time.

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Fusion - Blue Hyacinths and Anemones

In the April issue of House & Garden - the one published in the UK - I was delighted when I found an article that featured the London florist Vic Brotherson. 

I featured a floral quote by her here on my blog last Sunday - in the series that I call Florets. 

So you will already kow that she owns the charming florist shop Scarlet & Violet in Kensal Rise in North West London.

Her work and her book is inspiring and her shop is like a treasure trove full of flowers and vintage. 

Here is my version of mixing flowers and vintage treasures.

The theme I came up with after finding some blue Hyacinths and dark blue Anemone - was you've guessed it - Blue!

The lovely blue floral fabric that I have used as the base is a Liberty fabric. 

Going through mine and my daughters collections of jewellery I found lots of wonderful blue bead necklaces. Some ethnic others just M&S. 

Walking on Hampstead Heath in North London I found over the years a lot of broken china that was just laying on the paths. For a long time I wondered why that was and the explanation is that during the Second World War they filled bags with sand from the Heath and after the war they filled the holes with rubble from bomb sites. There is a bit of odd history for you!

So the broken china is from Hampstead Heath and the crystals are vintage chandelier crystals.

As you probably know by now I love vases and other odd containers. Here are three blue ones.

The very old jug has a very pretty blue and white floral pattern and underneath it still has a label saying: "Swansea, Woodbine, sheet pattern jug". I bought it many years ago at an antique fair and I still think it's so much fun to use it as a vase.

The solid blue container is a vintage French polishers jar bought last year at the Country Living Fair - it works great as a vase and I love the blue colour.

The small light blue vintage ink bottle is great for using as bud vase for just one single flower cut very short.

At the moment you see a lot of globes in interior magazines. I bought a few of them some years ago from different car-boot sales around London, for very little money. This one was made by a toy company called Chad Valley in the late 1940's and 1950's. 

The two flowers I've used are dark blue Hyacinths and very dark Anemone.

I have used odd numbers - nine Hyacinths in the jug with just a few leaves and five Anemone in the jar and obviously just one single stem in the ink bottle.

The Hyacinths are still in quite tight bud so I will be able to enjoy them for some time. 

If you use old containers like I have done her - don't put them straight on a wooden surface - old china often leaks so make sure to protect the surface. 

Thanks for stopping by and for making lovely comments.

I'll be back very soon with more floral delights!

xoxo Ingrid

Floral Fusion - Purple and Pink

The cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine caught my eye at the newsagent. It was the March issue - I know - we are bit behind here in the UK! Anyway, I was happy to see that they had an article about flower arranging called Short and Sweet - How to Get Big Impact from Tiny Blooms.   

The feature is styled by Tanya Graff and Stephen Orr and has beautiful photographs by Kana Okada. Six delightful pages of floral beauty. Well, what it did was to inspire me to make an "Short and Sweet" arrangement. 

But my pink and purple arrangement almost didn't happen. I didn't have any pink and purple flowers at home. I had not been to the flower market and my local farmers' markets does not have a very large selection of flowers as it has been exceptionally cold and the season is much later then usual. 

The hunt for pink and purple flowers started! Let me tell you it was not easy as it was also Easter holiday weekend, a long four day holiday here in the UK. My wonderful local florist was closed, the flower stall had no flowers in the colours I needed or more to be exact wanted. 

Another florist had "nothing", nor did the next one, we were now several miles from home and my kind and patient husband was now getting fed up as he needed to make a phone call to the US. My saving grace was the Chinese green grocer across from the last "nothing" florist! 

So the flowers I got in the end was some pink and purple Ranunculus and some pink waxflowers.

Ranunculus is a favourite flower but the petals tend to mark quite easily and the stems can rot quickly. Keep the water level low in the vase to prevent rotting and handle the flowers gently. If the blooms starts to droop - cut the stems short and put in a low vase.

Waxflowers are sometimes best bought in full bloom as the buds might not open once cut. A few flowers might also drop off when handled. 

I used two purple glass vases, a medium sized and a very small bud vase. They both have a lot of interesting texture, on the big one the texture is in the glass and on the small one has a textured surface. The big one is bought in Sweden the other one was a present from my sweet daughter. 

The pretty floral fabric is called Toy Box II by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill Fabrics.

The ribbons are from Jane Means collection - purple stitched grosgrain in two widths . 

The little miniature cushion is an Art Nouveau pincushion with an embroidered silk flower on a black background.

The ethnic necklace was a present from my dear mother-in-law and the brooch is from the Art Nouveau era made of pewter and a large purple stone.

As a little DIY craft project I covered three tags with three different washi tapes. I covered one side of the tag with strips of tape and I carefully matched up the pattern so it looks like one whole piece - but it's also fun to be as creative as you like. You can do both sides with tape or just one like I did, it's also very easy to write your message with a pen on top of the tape as its made from paper. I used Jane Means narrow purple ribbon instead of string.

Thanks for the visit!

Till next time - soon!

xoxo Ingrid