Roses

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How fun it was to play with this  huge bouquet of roses. I bought them at
 ~ link ~ Apko Roses - greenhouse
Look at them! This entire bundle was $20! They are seconds, which means the
blooms are a bit too open or the stems are not perfectly straight. I think there was about
7 dozen, random colors random sizes.... random fun! 

So I tried a few different arrangements

First I tied a bridal bouquet with the red "Naomi" roses
I know, a bridal bouquet.... why?
Because it's fun... I don't know! 

Here's how, in case your getting married next week or something....... ahahaha!

Just hold as many roses as you want in your hand and wiggle them around
until you like the look, some people like tight compact, some loose and airy....
once you like the look wrap the stems with floral tape, wire, anything
to hold them together. Chop the stems to the length you like.
Then wrap it again with ribbon, I added a few crystal pins ....  adding heirloom pins seems to be  popular with brides

Not an heirloom but I found this pretty dragonfly in one of my "treasure boxes"!

Ok so if your not getting married any day soon then just take off the jewels and ribbon and call it .......a lovely bouquet of roses!  ..... in my grandmother's silver sugar bowl

Next I picked out the  white ones called Avalanche 

.....now don't those scissors look like my grandmothers too?

I don't even know where they came from but I highly recommend NOT using them to trim roses, but in my social media crazed ~ aiming for beautiful pictures ~ totally staged ~ photo shopped to death ~ attempt ......I thought it was a better choice than a super sharp knife... which by the way is what you should use, (I'm sure you know!) and cut on an angle so there is more surface to absorb water, and a good idea to pull off those guard petals on the outside of the roses ...the ones that look a little  misshaped and usually have green on them (see pic, actually there, not intentionally staged!)

Anyway I trimmed them off short and tucked them in with grapes on a two tiered cake stand that has yet to see a piece of cake or cupcake! .... I just like cake stands ... now I've used it! hmmm.... still no cake in sight!

When I was done playing with the cake stand I floated the roses in this glass bowl 

Next a mixture of colors ..... a nice little present to take to grama? ....garden party?

The tea cup in the front of this picture I bought in England for my mom ages ago when I
went to "press" my clients wedding dress, she called when she got there with the dress and said "why don't you come to the wedding?", as I was humming and hawing she asked if it would help my decision if she said her dress needed pressing? haha, it did! ....such fond memories and I remember as I was leaving thinking what do you bring home from England .... china right? My mother has since passed but the memories and teacups live on....

Last but not least these orange beauties named Enya ...... They are flawless!

So, simple, stand alone in a vase .....or party ready!
The hydrangeas are also from Apko!

Ok enough about roses and enough photo shopping!

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful blooms!

~ Janet

Special Olympics ~ Rhythmic Gymnastics

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Last week marked  the  Special Olympic Summer Games in Vancouver 

I created the unitards for the B.C. team!

Here is the " inspired and created"  process.....

~ first decision ~ the style

and fabric choices 

~ measured all the girls a few months back when they gathered for a tournament

~ next cutting and appliqueing  

now one might think that you would make a pattern in there some where especially after years of pattern making at design school! .....but I don't actually make or use patterns, the laying out of the fabric and taking scissors to it seems to work for me,  ..... it's like making cookies eventually you don't need the recipe or the measuring spoons.....

~ then I added Swarovski crystals for sparkle 

..... hard to believe but I used 70 gross of Swarovski's in total, which is 

10,080 stones ..... glued on 16 unitards! 

Fitting day with some of the athletes ~ Danielle, Ashley and Katie 

Scrunchies

and finally performance day!

Joanna Morris ~ Kelowna

Darcy   Muzychka  ~ Prince George

Captured moments courtesy of  ~link ~  Mario Lam 

Katie Hawksby ~ Abbotsford

Alison McKee ~ Victoria

The excitement and reward for all their hard work!

Team B.C. won 10 gold medals, 13 silver and 18 bronze!

Joanna ~ Christina ~ Artisia 

Joanna

Danielle

There was a great article in the Vancouver Sun showcasing one of the athletes, Ashley Rosenberger
with an insight into the journey of becoming a Special Olympian

here is the link  ~ Vancouver Sun

                                    Congratulations to all the girls and their achievements!

and thank you for letting me be a part of it!

Janet

Alysha's Wedding

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A stunning bride and I take no credit! I did make her dress but she would have been

stunning no matter what she wore! 

The first layer of her dress was peau de soie, then yards and yards of tulle floating over the skirt and  french embroidered lace for the bodice. 

 It was the perfect lace for trimming out flower clusters and sprinkling them down the dress.

 Alysha wanted buttons up the back and after a fruitless search for the right size and color,  I ended up covering them myself. Which is actually easier than you would imagine!

~ A wedding day moment with her mom ~

And then there was Graydon ....the adorable ringbearer!

I made his pillow out of Alysha's wedding gown fabric... the perfect match!

Here we have the roses a few days before....opening nicely.

     

... and the roses wedding day.

I love arranging wedding flowers but ended up catering the dinner and couldn't help much with the flowers. We had a little "DIY" flowering arranging night a few weeks before the wedding with her florist inspired friends. They made it happen.... look how pretty!

  

wedding moments beautifully captured by...... 

Link ~  Whitney Krutzfeld Photography

 also posted on .....

Link ~ Style me Pretty

Love this one!  The perfect cake. One of seemingly dozens  her cousin Lara

made for the wedding. Not one the same!

Congratualtions Brendon and Alysha!

Raspberries & Chocolate

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 It's July and the raspberries are ripe!

I have a small patch but they are everbearing which means I have raspberries

from now until november! Love that! 

So I thought I would make a little chocolate something to go with the raspberries.

I am always inspired by chocolate, you can do so much with it

And especially Callebaut!

I took a strip of parchment paper and dripped dots of melted white chocolate randomly along it

Used the freezer to quickly harden them 

and then drizzled dark chocolate over the polka dots, a ziplock bag with the corner snipped

makes that super easy

At this point I slightly hardened the strip in the freezer again and then gently wound it in a circle and 

put it back in for a few more minutes to completely harden

Then peeled off the parchment......love parchment paper! Bless whoever invented that!

and then there you have .....a chocolate.....? well who cares what it is ...its chocolate!

I painted the plate with a few swipes of pureed raspberries (pastry brush works great for that) added a scoop of ice cream, and then gently dropped the chocolate over the ice cream, and added raspberries

Summer dessert! 

I might add that just melting the chocolate and dipping the raspberries in is 

also quite a good dessert!