Celebrations of a Love & a Life

Today I've been involved in celebrations of a love & a life. First the love. Dayna & Paul are Fernie Locals who quite possibly picked the whitest day this year for their wedding! Dayna was a dream to work with. Originally we had planned on a bouquet made entirely of orange orchids. Unfortunately when the order came in on Friday the flowers were frozen solid, time for plan B! After a few phone calls and a quick drive to Cranbrook, I was able to secure purple orchids and some tulips and came up with this beaut! Congratulations Dayna & Paul!

Now for the celebration of a life.  This piece was made for the funeral service of a Fernie local.

Because of the need to change to Plan B with the wedding flowers I was left with wedding & funeral both to be done on sunday night. It was a late work day but luckily I got some help with the prepping of the funeral wreath. The wreath was first lined inside and outside with white carnations, next the middle was filled in with variegated pitt. Finally a burst of color and texture was added to the bottom (blue eryngium, orange mokaras, Orange lilies, red tulips, white roses, yellow mimosa, and variegated tropical greens).

Glass half full of warm fuzzies?

I'm not sure if I'm in denial or just going for the glass is half full approach... This is what it looks like outside:

 And this week is COLD, some reports are saying we could hit a record low of -42C (about -44F). Despite the fact that it is too cold to... well do anything; I've been trying to think warm thoughts (while sitting on my portable heater). There are plenty of Albertans who came here to ski, but are making their way downtown to find a warmer past time for their holiday- shopping. I decided to use lying as a marketing tactic (white lies!).

This is what I put in my window- it was meant as an encouraging statement, but now I'm wondering if maybe it's more of a mocking statement. I watch people bundled up and bending into the wind, stopping to read my little note. Does it give them hope and some warm fuzzies? or make them want to curb-stomp my sign... I choose to believe the warm fuzzy one.

We recently got our INDABA spring order in (which include the chalkboard-pots from the previous pic!) All this new merchandise has given us a chance to rearrange the front a bit. I've notice that this shelf in particular has been getting a lot of attention today. Not sure if it is all the bright colours, or that everyone has warm bath/showers on their minds... and I'm sure the all the amazing smells don't hurt either!




And last but not least here are a couple warm & tropical arrangements! (Sarah made these ones!)

Take Two: Fernie Photo Shoot

This week I had a photo shoot with Fernie born & raised photographer Robin Hellewell (who also happens to be my cousin). We convinced a couple of photogenic friends to  play models for us. I came up with three fall designs ideas for a casual wedding in the Elk Valley. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jesse Aarsen & Faye Neufeld for being good sports!