The Fruit of My Labor

Well, he's not the fruit of my labor - but he was one of the perks. The shop I worked in all week is in a strip shopping center, and it borders a beautiful, small lake with sweeping lawns. This lake is home to at least 50 Canada geese, and today, as I worked in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, this guy became curious enough to visit. I cropped the photo so you wouldn't see the present he left for me (on the sidewalk no less). A steamy pile, if ever there was one.....LOL. Was he critiquing my flower arrangements? By the time I grabbed the camera, he had turned and was waddling back into the grassy area but by tapping on the glass, I got him to turn his head to look at me. My friend and co-coworker went outside to toss him a piece of cantaloupe, but he wasn't interested and began pecking around in the grass. Later, he went back to the melon. I think he just didn't want us to know he liked it. Ingrate.

This is a bride's tossing bouquet that I made today. It has freesia, roses, alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), parrot tulips, bupleurum, seeded eucalyptus and lisianthus. After I took this photo, I tied on some beautiful sheer, wired ribbon with satin edges and left long streamers so that when the bride tosses it, it will look beautiful flying through the air.

A woman brought this ironstone cachepot into the shop and told the owner that she wanted an arrangement made to look like a hat. She left a sketch of what she wanted it to look like, and her idea was that it be made with feathers or ferns coming high off one side of the hat and "dripping" gems or jewelry on the left. You can barely see the gems. but they are attached to very small wires on the lower left. Her color scheme was cream, white and green. I think I captured it well enough; she was very happy when she came to the shop to get it.

I asked her what the occasion was, and she said it was for a party for an older friend's birthday. Her friend was a lover of vintage hats and clothing. Two other arrangements that she ordered were in containers made from formed wire to look like a teapot and a cup of tea. They were wonderful (another designer made them) and I should have taken a photo of them too, but I didn't.

There were many other things I worked on and didn't get to photograph; there is not much time to stand around taking pictures in a busy shop, especially on a day when you have 2 weddings and a lot of prom corsages and boutonnieres to do. Maybe next time.