I'm a bit of a magpie...anything odd or unusual or old or all of the above and I'll have it somewhere. I'm a hoarder but a practical hoarder I do have the intention of using what I collect honestly! I'm not like the people you see on ITV's ''life of grime'' programme...plus what I collect isn't out of date biscuits or broken fridges. I'm a florist that when working on bridal pieces for my customers I like to add things that give a hint to their personality or theme of the wedding. Trinkets and oddities that can be treasured years after their day and wow their guests on the day......
I've now got in stock an array of old wrist watch enamel faces that are so quirky and beautiful in their own right it's untrue. All different sizes and styles I can't choose just one as my favourite, and you know what you can't make me *sticks tongue out*

I am desperate to use them on an Alice in Wonderland styled wedding or a Steam Punk ceremony......oh how I would love to create a gorgeous boutonniere with one of these faces......sooo if you are so inclined then give me a call you'd be making a Kentish floral designer very happy indeed!!


Gayle xx

Vanilla Frappuccino brain freeze in a 1940's Bubble. . . .

On Sunday19th June I had the pleasure of finally meeting a really lovely lady that I have had contact with via to and fro emails since the launch of the 'Love Lust List' . . . her Twitter profile states - ''Mummy, Wifey and Make up Artistry (lover of)''.... this endeared me to her way before our meeting on Sunday and the welcoming hug that I received upon coming face to face on the eerily quite Teddington High street at 7:50am only confirmed all my expectations that I had had, whilst also starting of the next 5 hours work together with a warm friendly feel.

Carolanne Armstrong Make up Artist (extraordinaire may I add) replied to the congratulatory email I sent to all my fellow suppliers that had made 'Rock my Weddings' - Love Lust List in the South East region.  Carolanne not only responded by saying Hello back but to ask if I would consider designing and creating floral pieces for a 1940's styled Bridal Photo shoot??? ....who me......oh go on then! 

I am a sucker for all things vintage and want to show the modern day Bride different possibilities for their wedding day flowers. I've had an idea for a bridal range for a while now that I have been desperate to explore and this era and photo shoot was a perfect opportunity and excuse for me to finally bring my ideas to life and have a play!! A number of images have inspired me for the shoot two of them being above. I love the Vogue cover and it's balanced red beach ball. Red speaks to me in retro tones...ladies lipstick, perfectly painted talons, head scarfs and sports cars what more can I say D' VINE! I had to use it in my designs somewhere...anywhere...and boy did I.

One by one the team of talented ladies grew outside Teddingtons one and only place to buy original vintage fashion ... Mela Mela vintage Boutique. Our motley crew involved period hair styling from Christina Jessel, stylist Grace Hockie, production assistant Alex Hockie, wonderful cupcakes from Charlotte Thoms, Make up of course from Carolanne and flowers by myself and all this documented with the breath taking images of photographer Anna Rosell.

Our gorgeous models did such a fabulous job Miss Lisa Mart, Miss Charlotte Thoms, and Miss Marie Hayward... not only portraying the eras typical  beauty but in also making me feel like one under dressed and sloppily styled individual (finding solice in biscuits didn't help matters)!! But seriously I was blown away with the unified combined efforts of this all women team....talk about sisters doing it for themselves! People were literally stopping on the street to have a peek and there were a number of smiles brought to strangers faces (generally men may I add). The 5 hours spent with coffee in hand, good company and being surrounded by beautiful vintage treasures flew past and I never wanted to leave my vanilla frappuccino (free care of Starbucks) brain frozen 1940's bubble that had been built around me, but alas all good things come to an end....or do they??....we shall have to wait and see!!....hey ladies ;)

Gayle xx

ooooooooooooooohhhh Georgia...

Back when I was 16 and still blindly believing that Graphic design was my destiny and creative fulfillment in life I was introduced to (in my humble opinion) an incredibly inspirational female artist - Georgia O'Keffe. I was enthralled by her use of colour and detailed magnified frames of flower anatomy which seem at first glance to be flowing ribbons of intense colour.....

After spending half a term compiling a project for my course on Georgia I fell head over heels in love with her flower paintings....they evoke a different sense and emotion in me but generally make me a very happy bunny indeed!!...

these are but a few images that I could scrabble together of her flower works to show you some of which are personal favourites of mine....

(I adore the black Iris - top left, and the white Pansy reminds me of my Dad)

Gayle xx



                  

It's taken me a while to get to grips with the whole Internet social media and blogging scene to be honest, and I'm embarrassed to say so. I have a love hate relationship with Facebook generally and didn't quite get the micro blogging of Twitter let alone blogging! (I never had a diary when I was a child)..for the past 12 months when networking with other Wedding & Event professionals to inform them of my services I've  been asked numerous times... 

''Have you got a Facebook page, are you on Twitter...what's your Blog address???''

WHAT!! I've always seen all these forms of media as a way to connect with friends and not a tool for business therefore I kind of lost my way in my panic of ...

''I gotta get me a blog...and what the hell is a #tag!!!''

I became a technological ostrich and hid my head in the social media sand. It was all a chore to me which resulted in me writing blogs that made me sound like a whinging Minnie who's constantly annoyed and on her soap box preaching to noone like those that you see up at speakers corner, and linking my Facebook business page to my Twitter so I was killing 2 birds with 1 stone (not one of my favourite analogy's but an apt one in this situation)

I immerse myself in other peoples blogs in my social time and enjoy every minute perusing their pages and LOL ing at quips and cheeky lines, becoming all emotional at tender moments captured in beautiful images and agreeing whole heartedly with advice. Why wasn't mine like theirs??!!.....It wasn't until I spoke to a couple of friends who told me that I needed to write about what I like and some advice written on Kat Williams' 'Rock 'n Roll Bride' blog that a metaphorical removal of blinkers happened.

I am a slushy romantic at heart and love the wedding industry and I am passionate about what I do but that doesn't mean I have to get all ranty and in ya face about it. That's not me! So when I saw the poster pic above ''Love is the new Black'' I thought .... yeah that's more like it Gayle....I'm not going to try and jump on the same band wagon as the other wedding blogs out there but it is my main client base so there will be alot of wedding and bridal influences BUT with my florist twist (I hope!)...so...ahem....fanfair please...welcome to my new Blog :) ... may it inform you more on the pleasures in my life and career. 

Gayle xx

(ps ...I may still get a little bit ranty at times though )

Photo credit - Gayle Evans

It all started when I was young. . .

I'm pretty easily pleased to be honest with you, which is quite worrying to me when I consider the saying my Grandmother used to say. . .

''SIMPLE things please SIMPLE minds''

. . . but anyway so what if I am simple . . . at least I'm happy hey?? I'll let you into a secret about me. Nothing excites me more than a lush green bit of moss especially bun moss, or a twisted and gnarled piece of wood . . . oo . . .ooo . . . or a shiny well weathered pebble mmmmmmmm and I like cones, bark, lichen, twigs, feathers, oh and leaves! (jeesh I feel like I'm announcing my membership into some form of nature based AA meeting) I find nature beautiful and fascinating, without wanting to sound contrived or hippy trippy!

Let me explain something to you which will give you more of an understanding of me. . .

Ever since I was a little girl I've had a habit of picking up stones, twigs, or cones and putting them in my pocket no matter where I was be it in town, on a beach, or down at the local park. This was of great annoyance to my mother as I would always harbour these little treasures in my pockets like refugees and not let on to anyone that they were there. Their discovery would only come when my Mum would wash my clothes, their announcement being an almighty racket echoing from the washing machine as half a gravel drive would spew from my pockets and be spinning high speed and impacting on the sides of the metal drum inside. . .

ooopsy . . . sorry Mum!

But I didn't stop even though my mum would scald me so. Instead an understanding or truce as it were was made. I had an old shoebox alloted to me in the car and the house that I would put my new found jewels in instead of leaving them in my pockets to break the washing machine.

This annoyance for my mother however has now in my adulthood been transferred to my long term boyfriend. (yes. . . yes I still do it) Now being without my beloved shoebox of goodies I have returned to my old ways of pocket stashing. My long suffering boyfriend will no longer lend me any of his jackets when we go walking in the countryside for fear of what may end up lurking there afterwards. I don't know what the big deal is really. It's not like I pick up dog poo or discarded chewing gum now is it. It's just some stones and cones and they are pretty. . . I now am relegated to always making sure I come prepared with my own waterproof coat (of which was actually bought for me this xmas by his parents *chuckle chuckle*) at the weekends when I stay with him.

I must admit what was once an endearing habit of a small child has now grown to a weird obsession of a 27 year old woman. I write this blog just hours from walking in a local forest to me where I not only wore my own waterproof jacket to stuff things into the pockets of (and it has many of them thankfully!) but I also went to the extreme of preparing myself with a rucksack too (there's no helping me really now is there?). Although this was a preplanned excursion before you write me of as a nutter with no hope. I had scouted a large bounty of fallen Larch cones and branches the other week and they will be used in my work so nah, na na ,nah nah'' *sticks tongue out like an obnoxious child* This forest is a treasure trove of wood and bark and mossy licheny twigs. It has row upon row of Silver birch of which is my favourite tree for bark, and is carpeted with cones. . . ahh I'm in heaven! ! !

Now I can understand that this afternoon I probably did look like a nutter to the young family walking their black Labrador. There was I with my bulging rucksack strapped to my back with said twigs protruding from all angles and bouncing, nay smacking me in the head as I walked, and I probably gave the young guys that were riding their BMX's down the gravel paths a giggle but I . . . don't . . . care! On the plus side my manshape must love me as he didn't bat an eyelid  or walk 10 paces infront of me to try and look like he had nothing to do with me . . . although I didn't see his facial expressions. They could have been indicating to the others that I was a care in the community project for all I know! Alas I shall believe otherwise and stay inwardly proud and pleased.

Soooo what ya gonna do with them? . . .wellllll watch this space *grins widely*

Gayle xx

Ps

Now can you understand why I have moss, bark and stones as the textural background on my website and it's used in a lot of my work

ah ha . . . you see, and so it all becomes clear

http://www.bloomingayles.co.uk/