Vintage Flowers

A friend of mine recommended this book to me...

She told me she had been able to buy her bargain copy from The Works (A high street discount book and art supplies store). Whilst shopping in Bristol with my daughters, we popped into The Works there...but sadly no copies of the book were available. None at Clarke's Village, Street...The Bath store was the same story...I also asked at Waterstones, but they didn't stock it either. I'm not sure why its so scarce, as it was only published in 2011.

I then tried on-line at Amazon...I was able to order a copy, but 4 weeks later and no book, they finally got back in touch to tell me that they couldn't fulfil my order and so were cancelling it...

Maybe it just wasn't to be?...
Until, that is, our jolly jaunt down to Poole at the beginning of last month! On the off-chance I thought I'd just check in their branch of The Works...And there, in the Hobbies section, were three copies of Vintage Flowers! I grabbed a copy, not believing my luck; Price: Was £25.00, Now £5.99...I took the book to the cash desk and was told they'd been marked down further and were now £4.99!

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More an inspirational book, than a 'how to', the creative florist and author of the book ,Vic Brotherson, makes the sometimes daunting prospect of flower display seem accessible to all. The simple text and beautiful photographs showing vases and containers many of us may already own at home, means the task appears achievable using her style. With no real need for expensive shop bought blooms, a few stems from the garden will suffice, and so the results are not about any financial outlay, but more about having fun!

Vic is the owner of Scarlet & Violet, nominated by Time Out as one of London's best specialist shops. In her book she says that "I have never been formally trained and learnt 'the rules' entirely through working in flower shops and from admiring and reading endless old flower books. Technicality certainly isn't my strength, but this lack has worked to my advantage and allowed me to explore ways of using flowers in a less inhibited style than I might have done had I been taught."

What I love about this book is her use of old containers - some almost outshine the flowers they hold...

I always thought when I opened my little shop that I'd be able to offer a few small posies for sale amongst my merchandise. I dreamed of filling the odd chipped cup, lidless tea pot, or redundant vase with water and to arrange simple flowers from my garden. Sadly a low footfall means many of the arrangements would go unsold, so there would be a lot of wastage. Occasionally I've added floral accents - such as the watering cans shown on this post, but have not really gone for it in a big way.

I think if I had not been able to sew, I may have been a florist ...I love flowers, colour, and  gardening too...It may have been a natural progression...
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Anyway, inspired by my new book Vintage Flowers, I thought I'd create a simple country style posy today...

I decided to use an old vintage tea pot as my container, with a similar glazed design to some jugs in the book. 

All the flowers came from our garden and include apple blossoms, cowslips, bluebells and pulmonaria. 

Like spring sunshine!

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I've had my parents-in-law and sister-in-law staying with us for a few days...

My sister-in-law bought me a lovely bouquet of exotic flowers. 

Proteas from South Africa are amongst them.

Call me old fashioned if you like though...I don't think you can beat simple spring flowers from your own back yard!...Placed in a tiny vintage pressed glass vase that was passed-on by a friend...(thank you Helen! x)

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Thank you too, to all who visit my blog and for the comments some of you leave here. I'm taking a short break from my blog to free-up some time to think. 

Take care,

Niki x