WFT Extra 007: Cherry Blossoms

For people in Japan, April is one of the most important months of the year.  It's the celebration of a new period.  Our fiscal year, school year and even employment start in April with the addition of mother nature: Cherry blossoms.

It has been quite hard missing this season for almost 10 years by being in the US.  My husband and I used to go to Brooklyn Botanic Garden every year for their cherry festival when we lived in NY.  It was very fun and the blossoms were beautiful there.  But their cherry trees are mostly "Yae-zakura", which blooms a bit later than "Yoshino" (spicy); the most common one in Japan.  "Yae-zakura" actually looks a lot bigger with more layers of petals than "Yoshino".  So for me, the blossoms in Brooklyn weren't quite the same as what I used to enjoy seeing in Japan.  But this year, we were lucky enough to enjoy them here in the States!  This weekend, we went visit Washington DC, the most famous cherry blossom site outside of Japan. 

We got a piece of last minute information from my husband's uncle who lives in Virginia as to where to see the blossoms.  The place is a subdivision called Kenwood in Bethesda, MD by Kenwood Country Club.  It's not so big of a subdivision but it's very historical.  The developer focused on landscaping of the area and planted trees way before the first house was built (click here for the detail story about the area). 

The weather was not as nice as the day before but at lease it wasn't raining yet.  When we got there, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Each street was like a tunnel made of beautiful cherry blossoms and this was EXACTLY how I remembered one street by my grammar school.  And the timing was so perfect that the blossoms were almost toward the end and when the wind blew, there was a phenomenon similar to a snow of petals coming down from all of the trees.  It reminded me of my favorite line from the beginning of The Tales of Heike, "The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind."  This scenery was literally dream-like, as my husband said, and we enjoyed every second of it.  We both  envy people who are able to live in this area.  The important thing to remember, though, is that it doesn't last forever.  This short period of time of the year makes it so special.  If you have a chance, I highly recommend everybody go see it next year (but please remember to be respectful to the residences)! 

009: Mini Bouquet Haute Couture

I was watching the Japanese TV channel at home on Monday afternoon playing with my son not knowing there was a new show starting.  It was called "Super Flower Lesson".  I could not believe what I was watching.  It's a show about flower arrangement taught by a famous French floral designer, Catherine Muller!!!  I kind of ignored my son and was staring at the TV for 25 minutes... This was exactly what I was looking for.  Anyhow, it showed who she was, her short bio, how she showcased her design in the grand lobby of The Paris Opera House for a charity event, etc.  It was so inspiring. Then, the program showed a lesson of how to create her signature piece "Bouquet Haute Couture".  It's a bouquet that she presented 10 years ago that made her famous.  It is a spherical bouquet of Calla Lilies, Christmas Roses and Anemone that keeps a long stem with some green Orchid cascading down even onto the bottom of the stem.  It was so nice to see an real floral designer showing how to do certain techniques, which I never knew.

So this week, I decided to make my own take of "Bouquet Haute Couture" with my $10 budget.  That was a real challenge.  I went to Fleur de Lis to see what they had this week.  They showed me hot pink Carnations first.  They were quite beautiful but I wanted to stick with materials that Catherine used in the show, so I asked how much the Callas were, which turned out to be a mistake...   They were $9 a stem!  I'm used to the grocery store price and didn't know how drastically the price can change.  So the whole Calla based bouquet idea was gone.  They showed me other interesting flowers that I was interested in but it was getting farther and farther away from what I was originally intending on doing.  So I started over again and decided to get the Carnations they recommended.  They were $1 a stem.  I got seven of those, a Tea Leaf and some Lily Grass.  I got a Tea Leaf so that I could wrap it on the stem to thicken it and Lily Leaves were the substitute of Ivy vines that Catherine used to tie the stems.

Luckily (;p) when I came back from the shop, my son was sleeping like a champ in the stroller, so I left him in it and started working on the bouquet.  I think with the small amount of flowers, I did pretty well on making them round and puffy.  The problems came after that.  Obviously, the Tea Leaf was way too big compared to the size of my bouquet, so I needed to split into two pieces to be able to wrap it around the stem.  Then I added the last flower at the bottom of the stem.  Then, the last thing was the Lily Grass...  I tried and tried to fasten the stem with them like the original one was with Ivy.  But I failed so badly.  Well, sometimes it just won't work.  I felt difficulties of working with live objects so much.  But I managed to put the grass in a glass vase and made them look like ballet shoes ribbons like she mentioned in the show.

It's probably better to have a bit higher budget to make a bouquet, but I really enjoyed it.  And most importantly, I learned a lot!!!

WFT Extra 006: Christine Noelle Design

Here is another great neighborhood flower shop that I would like to share with you.  Christine Noelle Design is located on 106 West Oak Street in Chicago (Oak St. & Clark St.).

It's on the first floor of a 6-story historical brick building.  They have a nice tall storefront facing Oak Street with modern arrangements in the show-window and full of bright colored flowers in the background.  When you get into the store the bright white walls capture the colors of flowers which they display on a large farm table.  The super high ceiling at the top of the walls, have old crown mouldings that were originally in a theater in Paris, one of the shop persons told us.  They have two custom suspended light fixtures that look like wire hoops of a petticoat.  The whole store interior is a modern French country style, I would say, and I can see the owner's meticulous design vision throughout.

They even offer classes on a variety of topics, from floral arrangement to bath bomb making, which sounded like a lot of fun.  I would love to try them sometime.  There were two people at the store getting ready for a class that afternoon, and they were so nice to take their time to chat with me and my husband.  I haven't purchased any flowers from them yet, but I will try to go there soon, when it's nice out, to take a long walk with my son. I'll be sure to write about the beautiful flowers from this beautiful store!

008: March Sadness / Orange Crash

It's the season of NCAA, March Madness.  This year, I was doing great up until Ohio State totally screwed me up followed by Florida and Kansas.  I even called out Illinois going through the first round.  I picked U Conn to go to the final four and I am still proud of that.  However, I am extra sad this time.  Every year, I was way off from the beginning and it never bothered me all that much, but when you do pretty well and lose it after a while, you get extra depressed, don't you?  That's how I feel right now.  I was in a pool with 180+ people and I was in 6th place at the beginning of the weekend and now I don't even know where I am...  Who would have ever thought that Butler and VCU would make it to the final four?  Well, enough with the basketball crap, I presume.  Let's talk about the flowers.

So the theme of this week's WFT is "March Sadness" or "Orange Crash".  Obviously, "March Sadness" is my feeling right now knowing that I am so out of the pool.  And "Orange Crash" is a parody of my dear team, U of I's "Orange Crush".  The Orange is Crashed out of the brackets.

So I didn't go to a florist this time.  Instead, I went to a grocery store and bought a stem of green Hydrangea and a bunch of white Snapdragons (Antirrhinum) and some oranges.  I kept the whole color scheme white and serene to emphasize a empathetical appearance and add bold orange items; mandarin and kumquats, for the "crash".  It actually looks pretty nice.  It's a nice volumetric technique to use fruits and veggies when you have a tight budget.  It's ironic how sometimes sadness can make such a beautiful creation.  After the therapy, I feel a bit better:)

WFT EXTRA 005: Eco Friendly Spout

Here's an eco friendly spout which you can attach to any regular plastic bottle.  It is designed by a Swiss product designer Nicolas Le Moigne.  I got it from my sister in Japan as a Christmas gift last year and I love it so much!  It's actually perfect for watering my moss ball.  It's small and easy to store. 

It was introduced a while ago (in 2005, I believe) but unfortunately, I don't think it made its way out to the US yet.  I hope somebody will carry it soon because it is a very nice product. 

007: Spring Wedding

This weeks WFT is dedicated to my little brother and his wife.  They got married this weekend in Japan.  Since I couldn't be there for them to celebrate together, I decided to use this perfect opportunity to arrange the flowers for them. 

Of course I got the most popular flower for wedding, roses.  I got perfect spray roses that are royal pink.  It was $3 a stem and had four blossoms on it.  Since I went a bit over budget last week, I tried my hardest to be under this week.  The challenge was that a wedding arrangement had to have a large volume to accentuate joy and happiness.  So I got a stem of Mountain Heather and some white flowers that cascade down like Willow (I don't know the name of it, sorry).  The total this week was only $8!!  I also had some leftover Lilly Grass from last week that I could incorporate in.  I used a simple cereal bowl for a vase for the arrangement.  I started with the backdrop, which was the heather flowers, then made a trail with the willow-like flowers and Lilly Grass off to one side.  The main items, roses, were placed at the center where the two supplemental volumes met.  I originally had four roses placed but my husband reminded me that four is not a good number in Japanese culture since it sounds like "death" ("shi" in Japanese) especially for a celebratory occasions like a wedding.  So, I took one out and made another small arrangement with it for our bathroom:) 

We were supposed to attend the wedding that was held in Yamaguchi, Japan (south west of Tokyo).  Unfortunately, we decided not to travel there because of the disaster that happened about 10 days ago, especially with our young son.  It really hurt all of the family's feelings but they totally understood our concerns and supported our decision.  But it turned out to be the most memorable wedding I've ever attended except for my own.  We got a live feed of the wedding via Skype and felt like we were there.  There was one problem though - that it started at 12:30 AM CST and lasted until 2:30 AM when we hung up because we started passing out in front of the camera.  Anyhow, it was really fun.  Modern technology rules!!!

006: Happy St. Pat's Day!

St. Patrick's day is almost here!  This week's WFT is all about green.

My husband's father's family has an Irish heritage and we celebrated an early St. Pat's day on Sunday -  of course with corned beef and cabbage!  I thought it would be nice to bring some gifts for my loyal WFT readers (my in-laws) to thank and celebrate their holiday.  I needed to make two arrangements, so I went a bit over budget this time with extra stuff like boxes.  But I managed to do two under $15.

I got two stems of light green Rose and one stem of green Mum for the main flowers.  Because I had a tight budget, I needed to get something that fills up the boxes, so I got a green Dianthus.  It is a type of Carnation and the one I got is all green, which makes it look similar to moss.  I also got Lily Grass for an accent. 

First, I placed floral foam wrapped with tin foil in the boxes and started placing the Dianthus.  I got two stems of those assuming not being able to separate the leaves into smaller pieces, but I could.  So, I spread them in the parameter of the boxes.  Then moved onto the main flowers: roses and mums.  I added those in pretty much the center of the arrangements.  Then at the end, I sculpted Lily Grass crossing over them to make an illusion of a "dome" or "basket".  My inspiration was flowers in lawn.  I made them exactly how they wanted to look like, but the Lilly Grass accent totally made them look more sophisticated.  I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I enjoyed arranging them:)