A BOUQUET OF GREEN

Styling, photography and floral design collaboration between Found&Created and Flowers In Your Hair SF

In the Eucalyptus Grove

When walking through a eucalyptus grove, you have to stop and appreciate the beauty of their silvery green leaves, immense height, soothing smell and multicolored bark. Pure beauty. On our adventure, we spotted long bits of fallen bark on the forest floor and immediately began to play. A crown of fragrant bark anyone?

UNDER THE OVERTURNED TREE

CITRUS & GREEN

Secret Santa gifting gone extreme! Challenged with creating a gift which was no more than thirty dollars, partially homemade, girly, and long-lasting - and with my own personal challenge of making the gift appropriate, useful and well tailored to the recipient, this is what I created.  

Surrounded by leftover greens, eucalyptus, rosemary and citrus from a recent shoot, I wanted to use the bits and share the wonderful fragrance which is so quintessential Christmas. Besides using them for packing fill, I created three different infusions; two infused gin mixtures (Ada loves gin) and a sugar scrub (oil free, because Ada despises the feel of oil.) To fulfill the long-lasting piece of the challenge, they were all packaged into beautiful Weck jars. The sugar-scrub was created to satisfy the girly, as was the idea of filling the box with green and citrus bits. The unwrapping was truly an experience and Ada loved all the little pieces as well as the fragrant smell the greens mixture created. Success!

FLORAL FLORAL

Nicole came over and per our usual, I grabbed my camera and coerced her into being my model. I love creating little spur of the moment shoots which blend whatever is around with whatever is in my head.

On this afternoon, I was amused by the contrast of floral on floral prints, in the mood to do some "Vogue" styling and inspired by our Grandmother's impeccable taste. 

While our Grandmother was never as dramatic as these photos, she is throughly represented here; the high backed floral chair that matched the drapes in her living room, this dress which I never saw her wear, but was always in the closets I played in as child, her trademark golden seashell earrings, her gold greenstone ring and even the geranium tucked into the back corner (geraniums and coral flowers were her favorite.) All of the elements here are hers. 

This little shoot was so fun and Nicole and I both felt happy to get to play with Grandma's things, as we chatted and remembered her.

LITTLE BITS

Not enough can be said for workplace perks. I had been helping out at local floral shop during October and loved every second of it. At the end of the day, after cleanup, we could take home the wonderful, but not bouquet quality leftovers and anything we could find in the overflowing compost bins. To say I made a lot of very short bouquets in October would be an understatement.

Thanks Nathalie for posing for the photo!

BIRTHDAY PICNIC

For a dear friends 30th, I helped host a friend-filled, fancy birthday party picnic in Golden Gate Park. The menu, a tasting of a few of Ada's favorite foods, included a soft cheese only, cheese plate, pork and vegetarian banh mi sandwiches, deviled eggs, salads, an endless supply of oysters and individually wrapped kitty cookies! The cookies were a special treat, created by our friend Francis of BananaBakery in Texas, with kitty illustrations supplied by Nono all the way in Boston. Kitties are quintessential Ada, and they were the perfect surprise and finishing touch to bring the tables to life. 

Happy Birthday Ada! Thanks to all of our wonderful friends who helped bring the party to life. Special thanks to Nono, Francis and Banana Bakery for the kitty cookies! All photos, food and styling by Found&Created.

LAURIE & GREG

Laurie & Greg's October wedding was nothing but sweet. The super couple celebrated with family and their closest friends while decked out in whites, ivory and buttery yellow. It all went down on a perfect fall day, on the beautiful grounds of the Hillandale Farms and Golden Lamb Buttery in Brooklyn, CT.

Event design, florals, paper goods and creative elements we done by Found & Created (that's me!!) The gorgeous flowers were home-grown by Caroleen Frey (my Mom!), Linda Mathes and Muddy Feet Flower Farm. Photos by the fab, Maggie Connelly and the whole event was held at The Golden Lamb Buttery.

NEW ENGLAND FLORALS

I've been missing my CT studio lately (in my delay between posts I have traveled the world and switched coasts! it has been a whirlwind, to say the least, but absolutely the best transition I could have asked for!) and was happily brought back to one of the first arrangements I did in the space. Here are just a few pics of an early May found floral arrangement.

BROWNIES

LADYFINGERS LETTERPRESS OPEN HOUSE

Ladyfingers Letterpress, a wonderful lady-owned letterpress studio in Providence, RI that combines hand drawn calligraphy with perfect letterpress was hosting an open house to celebrate their new studio. Teamed up with RISD+events,  I was invited to create the florals and help style the party. 

The open house was being held in early February, a beautiful time of year in New England, but one when absolutely no flowers are blooming. Holding true to my goal of using only local, seasonal and sustainable materials, my solution was found branches. Curls of bittersweet, budding branches and woody bramble was arranged into tall table arrangements and a wall garland.  Wrapped branches of neon twine brought a pop to the branches - the neon was inspired by Ladyfingers Letterpress's use of neon in their own work. 

Below, Morgan and Arley's lovely work which inspired the use of neon twine.  More of their work can be seen on their website http://ladyfingersletterpress.com/ 

Inspiration Image photo credit to Oh So Beautiful Paper, all other images by Found&Created