Church Flowers

There had been a little gap in the church flower rota for J and myself, I hadn't been able to go to the Christmas decoration and arrangements date, but this date was a good date to be in and around Church as I had only recently heard the news of the death of someone of whom I was a huge fan.

When we arrive at Church our first job is to clear up all of the arrangements from the previous weeks and as far as possible re-use anything that can be used, if it fits in with the colour scheme of the week, if not those flowers may be re-used in another part of the church not around the font and altar areas.  We always want to get as much value out of the flowers that we use as possible.

I did the font and the outside pedestal and J the inside pedestal and poor box - I wasn't happy with the font arrangement but it got some lovely feedback so I guess it did the trick.  The feedback we get is always very good so we are making the parishioners happy and that is what we are after.

The Entrance Pedestal - Reusing a lot of the previous week's flowers

Ciao
Sue
XX

Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading Learn To Be An Optimist by Lucy MacDonald

Church Flowers (Again) On A Sad But Special Day

It was Church flower time again and it worked out really well, as it was the 19th November and that was a very appropriate day for me to make some nice arrangements. as it was the anniversary of my Mum's death, the 31st sadly.  As I may have mentioned before I was a teenager when I lost my Mum and so the numbers have racked up over the years.  It is only a matter of months now and Mike and I will have been together longer than my Mum and Dad, which from my perspective is a strange sort of fact - but not surprising given her early death.

We were doing flowers as a memoriam for a member of the congregation and I asked J if she minded if I brought some additional flowers and made a special arrangement from me for my Mum. 

So despite the sad nature of the day we had a lovely time as usual and it felt very fitting to be in Church.  Some photos of the arrangements we did ..... I wanted to do this one on the font it is my favourite spot in Church to do!!

 a closer look, yes it breaks some rules but why not, the large chrysanthemum were quite pricey so I only got 3 and not 5 or 7,  and leucodendron safari sunset always looks good, but I love this style of container they have at Church, it works in many ways including upside down.  Of course I can see all of the mistakes - the line of yellow roses could be a little further over to the right and bigger blooms would have helped, they do extend out to the left but you can't see them in the photo.  I always feel with the font that I want to take some interest around the back of the arrangement too for the congregation who sit behind the font so it becomes more an all around asymmetrical arrangement!!

 J's pedestal, she said she wasn't feeling it, but once the lilies were opened I think it would have filled out and looked even better.

 J's favourite spot on the poor box.....

 There were some ornamental cabbages (Brassica oleracea - possibly crane bicolour or white crane) so I teemed them with some contorted hazel, foliage and made a modern arrangement on the Missionary table which worked so well and looked lovely against the white painted wall.  It had the beginnings of a Christmassy look about it.

Sadly I wasn't available to help out with decorating the Church for Christmas as it was on a Saturday when I was busy with Jamie's activities and Mike was working, but fingers crossed I may be able to help out next year.

Finally an arrangement I did at home using garden foliage and 5 Iris, simple line arrangement, in a glass dish with stones - it has a Ikebana feel about it too.

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (not off my reading challenge)

Time for Church Flowers Again

Suddenly it was time for church flowers again, it seems to come around sooner and sooner every time.  Due to a bereavement of one of the congregation there was a larger budget than usual and there were so many flowers that J and I were very very busy.  We were lucky that we had some extra help too with a couple of the ladies who also do the church flowerscame in to help and they did a lot of clearing away of the last set of arrangements and doing some topping up etc.  One of the ladies was friends with the lady who had died and so she did the pedestal and did a superb job of it.  Here are some of the arrangements - it was a long session and I was really tired by the time I got home!!  Even with the larger budget these arrangements come in at less than £4.00 per arrangement  (materials only) on average - that is pretty amazing for what was produced!!

The lovely pedestal

Some final ones left in a vase - we were starting to flag!!

The Missionary Table

The poor box, top and bottom (one of my favourites below)

The font (this is one of mine!)

One of these either side of the altar and below was on the altar

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Flowers, Church Flowers and More Flowers

Flowers have as usual played a large part over the summer holidays and I have lots of flower related stuff I have to think about for September but more of that in due course.  I made an end of term flower arrangement for Jamie's teacher, even though he is a man - why can't men be given flowers?  This is the front view of the arrangement .....

and this is the back, just a standard oval shaped posy to match the basket using roses, gerbera, and a variety of chrysanthemum ........

....I also had a go at a double ribbon using complementary colours to the flowers in the arrangement, I hope Jamie's teacher liked it!!  I hope it's the photo above that was wonky and not the arrangement (ha ha!!) but looking at it here I may have slightly moved one flower just to take a bit more room up in the greenish space I can see - I am never totally happy with any arrangement that I do!

I also did this little arrangement for my friend Andrea's 40th birthday and I think she was really happy with it too - very simple posy but pretty nonetheless!!

Here is one of the containers I purchased at the National Show in Harrogate - very useful for modern and Ikebana style arrangements and not an expensive container at all.  I had some left over Gerbera and some odd bits of foliage so just shoved them all in this container - not too bad!

I have been loving the Gerbera racquets Tesco have been selling this summer and such good value for money - these were the real thing Gerbera and not the mini Gerbera (Germini) which are slightly cheaper - I bought these for what would have worked out at 50p a stem for Gerbera which is wholesale price - fantastic.  I used some left over foliage which I had and made a very simple line arrangement with a few roses too.  I love the Dracena or Lucky Bamboo which gives a great line and adds movement and interest because of its shape - and it lasts for ever too.  I used the ones in the picture several times over the summer and they must have lasted over 2 months as they were bought for a college assignment.

You can catch a glimpse of the other container I purchased - it is silver and square and fits a foam brick end on so is very useful - I would have preferred it in black but they had sold out - but it would be easy to spray as silver can be a hard colour to use as it is so bright it can detract the eye away from the flower material.  Below is the stand I bought too, which has already been useful to sit the silver container in and allows me to play with alternative ways of display my arrangements.

I have been doing Church flowers again with my friend J, but forgot to take the camera to get some photos of what we did.  Members of the congregation will donate funds to buy the flowers in memory of loved ones and the lady who had donated for that week absolutely loved the arrangements so we considered that to be a great success - we had ended up making 6 arrangements as there were so many flowers from the previous week which were still very usable.

Us flower ladies have also started having little lunch trips out too, which is great fun - visiting garden centres, flower wholesalers and having lunch too - what more could you ask for!!

Ciao

Sue
XX

Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure

And the Rest of the Week

As I am writing this a little behind, I am trying to remember what happened and when - not so easy at my age!! So just a few pictures of Jamie - the proud Mummy type. Below is Jamie just showered and almost ready for bed, saying goodnight to me as I was hard at it finishing off assignments and about the only view Mike and Jamie have really had of me for the past four weeks - standing in the office whilst I natter away about an assignment and then shooing them away "because I have to get on"!!

Charm personified!! How quickly they grow up! Although this is probably him saying - go away with the camera woman, I've had enough!!

Better, Jamie with his 100% attendance certificate, he has 2 of these now for this academic year.

And with his gold award - he is doing well.

I helped my friend June with Church flowers again this week and we had an enjoyable time doing those. And here are a few pictures, I did one for the font and June did the large pedestal.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Songbird by Josephine Cox

Friday - St Mary's Church Flowers

Mike and I went out for a walk this morning with Binnie but this afternoon I was going to church. I was going to church with my friend June to help her with the church flowers for St Mary's Church in Bletchley, the one near Bletchley Park. What a lovely church it is inside too, sadly the pews have gone, but I can see why as it gives the congregation many more ways to use the space.

We had a lovely time arranging the flowers and I have to say I think we have done a grand job and I am sure that everyone visiting the church will love them. June has done a really super job with a large pedestal arrangement, the largest she has ever done and I think she should be very pleased with her achievement, I would be! She also choose the flowers very well and we had tons of donated foliage.

I did an arrangement for the font and one on the poor box, I have to say it was an honour to do them, especially as the poor box dated from 1637 and the font is such a special place in church. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon and I really felt at home at the church, so I think I will probably take Jamie there in future and whilst we do not go to church regularly we do go occasionally and it did appear to be a very welcoming place. I've never arranged flowers in such a wonderful setting or historic place or with such a pleasant purpose so it was really uplifting - perhaps what church is all about.

Here is June's lovely pedestal

mine on the font,

and the poor box.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 7/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52