Episode 11: Garden gossip 2

On this month’s edition of garden gossip Sarah and Keeley tell you about the flowers they have been working with recently and what’s inspiring them.

You can find Flowers & Folklore on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, YouTube and lots of other places.

Hi, I'm Sarah. Hi, I'm Keeley. And you're listening to Flowers and Folklore. If you love flowers and folklore and odd floral facts, then you're in the right place.

So this is a garden gossip edition and this is the second one in our series where we just get together and chat about flowers that we've been working with and what's inspiring us at the moment.

We're going to kick off the episode with some listener feedback. This is in relation to our nasturtium episode, and we had a wonderful voice note from Laura, who's based in South Africa. Keeley and I have been referring to her as... nasturtium lady so hopefully she takes that title on she sent us this really

gorgeous gorgeous message so we'll just read out a clip yes so laura says i'm

halfway through listening to your delightful whimsical just totally charming chat on youtube about nasturtiums and there's already so many things i want to respond with I just loved the artwork and the poems and the different pieces of information, and I just wanted to share because your enthusiasm rubbed off on me. I just loved, loved, loved, loved it.

That's four, by the way, four loved. And I've only listened to one, but I'm definitely going to go back and listen to more. So Laura is originally from the United States, but moved to South Africa as a child. And one of the first places they moved to had a rockery in the garden filled with vibrant nasturtiums.

And she says, maybe I was just small, but they were the biggest nasturtiums I've seen in my life. I remember the roundy lotus leaves being the size of side plates. It was my delight to go out to this rockery when they were blooming and climb in

the middle of them and drink the fat glistening dew drops out of the leaves. She goes on to say that she used to love to pretend she was tiny and that her world was just filled with these enormous flowers.

She also shared, I just love them because they're fun and they're really beautiful. And while they look like a common flower that just grows everywhere, when you look at them and pay attention, they're really quite amazing. I love the spur at the back of the flower.

I love their colours, their shape, and I've picked bunches of nasturtiums before. And the fragrance is not a typical floral fragrance, but it's beautiful. Also, when you put a bunch of nasturtiums in a vase and arrange them how you like, the next day they will have wriggled and changed their positions.

So you'll have a whole new arrangement, which I just love like that. I like that. Isn't that beautiful? I feel like tulips are the same where they wriggle around and make new positions. And I think that's a really great thing about flowers.

And I love that she used to pretend that she was tiny and climbed into the big flowers and had them all around. And the way she describes it, it's almost like she's like the nasturtium fairy. You know what I mean? It's just so, so beautiful. And Laura also has a couple of interesting facts to share with us.

She says, because Sarah and I in the episode of Nasturtiums, if you haven't listened to it yet, you should. We'll add the link in the show notes. But we were talking about how they just seem to spread everywhere and we were putting it out to the listeners to ask...

you if you had any ideas how they managed to spread so widely and easily. And Laura says that each flower produces only two to four seeds and it doesn't sound like a lot, but they germinate really easily. And so that's how she thinks they must just spread so easily.

The dried seeds can also be ground and used as a pepper or seasoning, which I think I'd like to try that actually.

Yeah, let's try that.

Yeah, yeah. And planting them next to your cabbages or spinach can protect them from pests. Amazing. Very cool. What a good flower. They're not just a pretty little picture. They're helpful.

If you would like to share your stories, it doesn't even have to be in relation to one of the flowers that we've shared. Just any flower that you love. We'd absolutely love to hear it. The best way to get in touch is via our Instagram, which is

flowers and folklore podcast keeley's better at checking messages than i am so so instagram yeah our instagram is the best place to go or you can also email us our email address is flowers and folklore podcast at gmail.com it's so nice that we

have listeners from all around the world so i think that adds just another layer of interest when it's yeah just some a different perspective on flowers um to mine and keeley's

Absolutely. And it's just so lovely to hear people's personal connections to something that we feel so personally connected to and makes us feel all the more nerdy, but all the more connected to our kind of people.

Keeley, what flowers have you been working with recently?

So mainly the past month, I've been focusing on getting ready for my floristry exam, or at least in the last couple of weeks. So it's not so much that I've been working with flowers that have been really exciting and inspiring. It's been mainly the techniques and the foundational basic principles of design and

elements and principles of design and elements to bring into an arrangement to really make it sing and make it work and make it something that you could actually offer to other people so that's been my main focus i've been working with roses and more of the wax flower lots of foliage

dramas as per usual but that's just apparently my life and what else have i been working oh and lots of smoke bush i keep i do keep snipping some smoke bush from my neighbor's yard it is right there it's right there

I'm so jealous of your access to Smokebush.

I am going to go over and introduce myself. She's really lovely. Elliot knows her. They've connected before. I keep meaning to go over there and offer her some flowers and maybe some cupcakes and say, hey, just can I snip some of your smoke bush every now and then and actually have permission? Yeah. That's really nice.

It's over on my side of the fence. It's not like it's – I'm not crawling into their garden, but I still feel a bit evil. But, yeah, the smoke bush and those colours are just so stunning, like the deep, deep purples. A menta rose is the last rose I worked with, and it was just so, so pretty.

It's almost like a cappuccino-y pink colour. It's just divine, just gorgeous. So I'm realising that what I actually love to create is more, at least at the moment – I love the more monotone work, but with lots of texture and lots of like rhythm to the arrangement, but not necessarily in contrast,

contrast not coming through in the colour, contrast more in the form. That's been really interesting, yeah.

That sounds incredible. We want to see photos.

Yeah, I often give my arrangements to my grandmother. I drop them off at her apartment and she loves them. So it's nice because then I get to see her as well on a regular basis. And yeah, so she's always very excited by my flowers. I'll definitely add some photos in.

But I also did make a wire posy a couple of times, which was a technique that is extremely time consuming. You have to wire every single flower, every single bit of filler, every single leaf that you want to use in this posy. But the effect is absolutely super cool because it means you can kind of manipulate

the flowers to... how you want them to sit. And it made me feel excited about the idea of working with wire and flowers. And while I also really love the messy kind of organic for whichever way they land floral vibe, I do really love that.

I also love the idea of playing with the wire and making it a bit more sculptural and seeing what could happen as, as we get to do that. So I definitely felt something start to zing when I was working with the wire.

It does really open up like just a whole world of possibilities with wire. I had to learn all those techniques when I was at Flourish College. And then when I worked in quite a traditional flower shop, we would wire all bouquets. But now I've kind of embraced my own style. It's rare that I use wire.

I'd maybe use wire when I'm making like mad headdresses or if I'm wanting to do like an alternative buttonhole. But I don't use it a lot, but I love the process of it. I know most florists hate wiring because it takes forever. But I find it really therapeutic, like just twiddling and making little stitches. Yeah,

I just find it really enjoyable, but I don't have a need to do it, which is a bit of a shame. Yeah. Yeah,

I can see that it's – because it's quite dated, I think, as it – I think it used to be very in that floristry would include wire as part of the – a visible part of the arrangement. And it was – it was quite beautiful back then and quite unique.

And now it's sort of very – that's so, you know, 90s or early 2000s look. But I think it could be quite cool to use wire to create more sculptural pieces and pull things into arrangements that they wouldn't normally be able to go into because –

Yeah, it just, it just, I just feel like it opens up possibilities that, yeah.

You've just triggered something in my brain as well. One of the textbooks that I got when I was at floristry college, I remember it specifically saying that it used to, it became quite fashionable, maybe this was in the 80s, to be able to see like the little stitch on a leaf or something.

It kind of showed that you had a really skilled florist make your flowers, which I think is mad. I feel like you're not meant to see that yeah mechanics should be hidden um yeah I guess maybe when it was like new and novel it was yeah like it was just that little pop to show

that it was like an artisan who'd created it okay interesting that's so fascinating

wow yeah I'll try and find the book that it was in um I'll have it somewhere in my

bookcase yeah that's so interesting what about you what have you been working with

lately So I kind of finished the year on a bit of a high. I was like deep, deep, deep in wreath making, but I kind of took on way too much, right? Which is very, very typical of me. But I had someone get in touch about doing a photo shoot and I'd kind of spent all

my marketing budget for the year. But then they sent me the mood board and it was, I can, in fact, I can probably include the mood board in the show notes. And it was just really dark, like gothic and opulent. And then the venue that they used was like a five minute drive from here.

And so I was just like, I can't say no. So I On a day where I should have been probably catching up on sleep and tidying up the studio, the reef making, I was on site at a venue called the Marlborough, which is in the south side of Glasgow. A really interesting venue.

The room we're working in was like really dark red within like pops of chrome and gold and It was a really beautiful room. And I, yeah, I just had so much fun. It was nice to kind of get a break from just a ton of foliage.

And so I was using a really dark hellebore, which I thought was very timely because it We've just recorded a hellebore episode. There was also some really dark hydrangea as well, which obviously in the run up to Christmas and being like a bit out of season, it just meant they were pretty expensive.

So I'm going to have to make the most of all these photos and use them until everyone's sick of seeing them. I also had some really rich red spray roses and then some black viburnum berries. And I was using the viburnum berries during wreath making and they were incredibly popular.

So it was just like kind of handy that I had some leftover. And then also a really dark purple eustoma, which was just gorgeous. And then I had some pops of lighter, softer tones coming in. And then the person who was organizing the shoot,

she had found some really nice images of people working with like a lot of grapes, like really dark grapes, which I know it's like having a moment to kind of use food in your arrangements. And she was just like, I'm going to go buy a ton of grapes and you can just style them on the day.

And so she came with like £32 worth of grapes. Pounds is in money's worth. There was so many grapes. I'm sure they're going to be finding them around the venue for like weeks to come as well. And then I had some really nice tapered dinner candles that were left over from

when I was at the witchy wedding fair. And so they were in like a really dark plum and then a very dark red. And so I got to use them with some nice brass candlesticks and it was just like opulence and moody, just totally my kind of vibe.

I've done styled shoots in the past, but it's been mainly a focus on like bouquets. Whereas to actually do a style shoot that had like a nice big tablescape, that felt like that was really fun. Everyone on site was so friendly as well. I think that's one of my favorite things about doing shoots is obviously you have

to, I'm having to fork out money for flowers, which isn't ideal. But then when you get to meet all those connections and see like the hard work that everyone put in, the cake maker had made like a gorgeous cake, but she'd also made a tiramisu tower, which was incredible.

And I was just like, I need to get some flowers in, like at the bottom of the tower. And so I'd made these like mad arrangements that had, like some parts of it were quite tight and clustered. And then I had big pops of noreens popping out, which are fast becoming one of my favorite flowers.

They are very, very fun. And so it was just, it was just a really nice way to kind of end the year, I guess. And then all the leftover flowers I got to use at my Christmas party. And so I took everything apart and then I've got some, I have two gorgeous like brass troughs

and they have never been used for a wedding and I use them in so many shoots and I've just never had it like no one's ever wanted them for their wedding but I use them all the time in my own home and so I had that like pop of gold coming through

and then I'd love to know your thoughts on this Keeley but I go back and forth on how I feel about painted florals I most of the time it looks tacky but I feel like a painted foliage it makes me quite happy and so I got some chasmanthium which is also known as wood oats

and it it's just like it looks like a type of like floaty grass and it'd been painted gold and I made some really good arrangements and they were like they were just popping out and catching the light and dancing with the the candles and it

just it made me very happy so I'll share some pictures um and like everything was kind of like maybe past its best like it wasn't quality that I'd share for a client but in my own home it's fine to have Like, you know, some drooping hellebores and some wilting roses.

Oh, I love that so much. I'm envious of those guests that got to go. I bet you it was so beautiful. It sounds incredible. So I quite like the painting of foliage, I think. I think you can get some really lovely effects like you just said and described

beautifully I also I don't know I go back and forth I really do go back and forth about because I know sometimes I see some flowers sprayed with things like glitter and things like that as well and I mean that's bad because of the ethylene is going

to kill that flower so fast anyway but I don't know I think I don't I'm not into the painting of florals like painting the roses red, like the cards in the Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland. It's just, it's not the vibe.

Yeah, I feel like with flowers that it often just looks bad. And a dyed flower, or you can usually tell it's dyed as well. Yeah, but there's just something about it on a foliage. And obviously, you then can't compost it. But I feel like if I ever get in painted foliages,

I'm able to reuse them over and over again, which makes me feel less bad. It kind of lowers the footprint of them a bit.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah I'm a sucker for gold.

I think gold can just look so stunning with so many different coloured arrangements. It can be such a beautiful add-on so I'm with you on that one for sure.

I'm also going to mention Astertians again because when I'm wreath making I re-watch the extended editions of Lord of the Rings as I'm mossing all my wreaths and so this year I think I had 178 bases to marks so a fair few that's crazy yeah i know ridiculous so i was

re-watching lord of the rings and when sam returns home so this is right at the very end um sam returns home from saying goodbye to frodo as he's boarded the ship to leave middle earth and he is walking by his garden like down the path by the garden

And it is full of nasturtiums and they're like lining along the fence, but also spilling out. And it just looks, it's just so natural and it's so real. And I just thought it was such a, I mean, everyone involved in that project loved Lord of the Rings.

And it was just so evident because like we talk about on the episode, Tolkien had lots of thoughts on the spelling of nasturtiums and we know that they're included in the text. And I just thought it was, it's just a really subtle nod.

to how much they like enjoyed the work of Tolkien and it made me very happy.

That's so beautiful and absolutely as soon as you said that I thought there's just no way that that's an accident like that's not they just haven't planned those flowers there like they knew what they were doing and it's just that incredible dedication to making the world come to life.

So what has been inspiring you recently Keeley?

Well, I have been planning my little tree house, which is, it occupies my thoughts probably more than it should, but I haven't done much on it yet because right now when I have a spare moment and I need something happy to think about,

I think I either pick up the Brambley Hedge book and I go through and I look for inspiration. or I try and work out which season I want to plant my tree in. So by that I mean I'm trying to make it as accurate as possible according to the books.

So it either needs to be in summer, spring, autumn, or winter. And... I'm thinking, I've narrowed it down to being either autumn or winter. See, if it's in winter, then I can make it summer sometimes, which means I can add little, Christmas sometimes, which means I can add little Christmas decorations and things like that to my treehouse.

So if it was in autumn, the berries, sorry, the covering for the tree, like the outside of this treehouse, would probably be something like a blackberry bush. We, you know, filled with the berries, that kind of thing, which would be stunning. Or if it's in winter, I'm thinking I could probably do ivy.

I could maybe cover it with some ivy. So I don't know. Decisions, decisions. I'm back and forth. I don't know. What are your thoughts?

So what I'm hearing is you need to make four, four trees. I should have known. One of each season.

I should have known. You enable my... Insanity. I mean, that's definitely an option.

But yeah, to start with, I think I'm leaning towards winter for this one. And if I do make that decision, then it means I can actually start doing it and creating the little pieces for it. And so every flower that I use in it, every plant, every item, it needs to be accurate to that season.

So that's why I needed to choose it. Um, the other thing that has been playing on my daydreams and, you know, skimming and dreaming times is more renovation type stuff. So for my bedroom, I've been trying to come up with a collection of fabrics and textiles that actually work together without it looking too,

too floral or too vintage or too cottage. Because I love floral textiles. I think they can be really beautiful. It's just such a fine line between it being looking a bit outdated and a bit like off. And it looking really chic and classy and just dreamy.

So I'm trying to find the right kind of textiles in some gorgeous bedding that would also match with some gorgeous blinds and things like that. And it has to be floral.

That sounds gorgeous. I'm going to need photos. That sounds perfect.

Yes, I'll have to send you the links that I'm looking at at the moment. So it's all just daydreaming at this stage, but it's a fun, fun thing to do. And I've got two links for everybody that I'm going to put in the show notes. There's this incredible artist who paints or creates on these building walls, crochet,

so floral crochet, lace kind of And it just, look, I can't describe it. I'm not doing it justice. I'm going to bring it up and see if Sarah can explain it better than I can.

Oh, my goodness. Okay. Wait. It's enormous. Like, it's...

Yes.

Yeah, the scale of it. The scale of it, but also it's so intricate. It's kind of hurting my brain in a very good way because it's like the juxtaposition of the sheer size of it. But then also it still manages to feel like delicate lace.

Yes. It seriously looks like when they do a wide view shot of the buildings, it looks like the building is covered with lace, this floral, gorgeous lace, but it's all painted. And so she's just incredible. She's a Polish artist known as Nespoon. It's nes.nespoon on Instagram.

We'll add the link so you can have a look, but it's absolutely stunning. And mind-blowing. And the second thing is I found this amazing guy on Instagram. His name's Jonathan Hebert. And he basically calls himself a garden gnome. And he makes the most stunning floral head crowns. And he looks like Santa Claus, basically, slash a garden gnome.

And he's just the most loveliest, beautiful person. Like, I feel like I know him. He just is so warm and lovely in his Instagram content yeah and he just makes the most absolutely stunning floral arrangements so he's definitely on my list at the moment yeah I feel like he's the

version of if I was an old man I'd be him he loves the head crown he loves the head crown I love the head crown

He does, he does love it. Did you see one of the comments on the post that I sent you? It says, God damn it, Tom Bombadil, stop being rad.

He's literally, they're literally calling him Tom Bombadil. I just love it.

I was just about to read that out to you because I thought, how funny is that that we've just talked about Lord of the Rings? So accurate. And someone else has said, are you father time? Oh my gosh, I could watch his stuff all day long.

I know, he's just beautiful. So you are very, very welcome, everybody, because those two links will have you busy in some lovely places for some time. What about you, Sarah? What flower-related things have been inspiring you?

So I don't know if this is really lame to say, or maybe this sounds like I'm blowing my own trumpet, but I loved, I love wreath season, but This year, I mean, each year I feel like I get better at teaching. And I think this is year four or year five.

But some people are just so creative and make the most incredible wreaths. I'll maybe put a collection together that you can all see. But it just makes me so... happy to like see people be creative workshops last for like two hours so the fact

that people put this time aside to come and do something creative a lot of them have never done it before as well and so that's i think that's really impressive because going and trying a new skill can be quite daunting And then there's,

I get a lot of people who also are repeat customers and who have been someone who's been along every four years, which is just incredible. And it's nice to see that they now start to experiment and try new things. Some people come knowing what they want to create

and just like go for it and it's just it's just really incredible i probably make it much harder on myself by providing so many materials so we always have like the classics like spruce and pine and then um i bring along eucalyptus as well because

everyone well lots of people like eucalyptus but then i usually have maybe four or five other types of foliage as well and then there's also lots of different embellishments and so it definitely makes it harder when i'm setting up because there's just so much to bring in but scott obviously always helps with that and there's usually

about 15 different types of ribbon for people to choose from and so that also makes it harder as well because people take their time to decide and it's not like a speedy process but it makes me happy like that's i feel like that's the signature

for my wreaths is that people will come along and they'll say oh i've been wreath making before but it's just been like, it's been dictated and everyone's kind of made the same looking wreath. Whereas everyone makes a very different looking wreath and they're able to really express themselves and make something very personal to them.

And it's, it's just incredible to witness people trying new skills. And it always leaves me feeling inspired and not even in my own floristry. It's made me, it's kind of encouraged me to get back into painting as well. So I treated myself to some

oil pastels which I've never used before and they're very messy and I'm having fun but I feel like you know people took the leap to come and try wreath making and kind of pushed me to then try a different medium as well which yeah I love that

yeah it just it makes me so happy and then when people send me pictures of their wreaths on their front door and they're really proud and it just it honestly makes me so happy

that's so beautiful and that's incredible what a special thing to have that yeah

well yeah so I've been going down a rabbit hole of like floral tattoos and so in the hellebore episode we mentioned Eleanor Gandor and we'll include her Instagram in the show notes but I've just been yeah feeling really inspired I definitely want

I have I have a vision I have a vision for one of my thighs I have this is maybe a bit of a tangent But I started getting a tattoo maybe back when I was early 20s, maybe even earlier than that. I had some like IV growing up my thigh, on my left thigh.

And for whatever reason, it just, it's been chaotic, right? And it's still not finished. And I'm now like mid 30s. tattoo artist kind of just um fell off the face of the earth and actually still owes me money but that's not I'm just kind of yeah I've given up I've given up but

I'm looking for an artist who can finish it off but then maybe even add in extra bits I would love like some kind of maybe brambles or wild roses or like something like entwined with the ivy The IV is quite green as well. And I want it to be, it's quite bright.

I want it to be much darker, but just trying to find a tattoo artist whose work I love, who's happy to finish someone else's work has been a little bit tricky so if anyone knows anyone who would do that take on that

challenge i would i would love to know because i'd love to get it finished but also just kind of tweaked what my vibe yeah so i've been going down a rabbit hole i love that and then i feel like i'm always the negative nelly on this podcast but can i also talk about what's not been inspiring me

absolutely so last week i went to go and see the second part of wicked and i loved it like it was great um do you hate it keeley i'm just for the listeners i've got my

thumbs down i'm making a funny face so i did not i did not love it but continue

so i mean the second part wasn't as good as the first part but the first part just has better songs i they do create an incredible world um and i know this is going to be such a niche thing and i understand why on movie sets it has to be the case

but i kept kind of being transported out of the world every time i clocked all the fake flowers there was just so many fake flowers but they had shots of like the tulip fields which were real tulip fields or at least they looked real and then like the flowers coming

down like the staircases and on the balances and all things like that they just looked so fake they just it just it really distracted me but I know that's probably a really niche really ridiculous thing to mention no not at all I mean I loved the

art direction in that movie I don't I did not love the movie but they did create a really cool world but I do know what you mean because it does it's very obviously a not real. There's enough in there that just feels it's a movie set. It very much looks like a movie set. It doesn't fit.

But I wonder if they're doing that because that was the original Wizard of Oz movie where when she goes through to Oz, she leaves a real world and she's in like a dream world. And it very much looks like a fake world in that original movie.

She steps through the door and she goes from black and white into colour. And she's surrounded immediately, the doorway is surrounded immediately by fake flowers. And they're very, they almost look glass-like or they're kind of transparent in it. So it's so obviously fake. It's so obviously like a dream world.

So I wonder if that's what they were trying to capture. But because I think we have less of the vintage camera vibes, like everything is now just 8K, 8K, 1,000 billion, show every single pore on every single person's face. It loses the dreaminess.

Yeah, I think that's it. Which I think is needed.

So you know you're looking at footage. You know you're looking at a movie set. We've lost the – that's a whole other rant for me to go down another day. But I don't love that style of filming because it's so – it's too clear.

It's too – it just – you lose – it looks like we're watching sets and props rather than it being a world.

Yeah, that's spot on. I think you've probably summed up. Yeah, it just felt a bit jarring. Yeah.

But I wonder if you were to go back and watch The Wizard of Oz, like even the first scene where she goes through and she goes through the door and she goes into the colour land of Oz, just have a look at it. And it's like, it's obviously fake, but it's almost like an exciting version of fake.

You're like, ooh, what is this place? Like it's dreamy. It's not like, oh, what is, that's not right. That doesn't look real. It's not, you know what I mean? It's a different vibe. So I'd be interested to see if you feel the same.

Yeah. It's been a while since I've watched it. So I'll go over, that can be my homework for Christmas. I'll go and watch it and then report.

Definitely. Please do.

What have you got coming up soon?

I'm working on a secret project at the moment. So I can't share what I'm working on right now. It is flower related. It's quite magical. It's very dreamy and I'm enjoying planning for it and thinking about it and exploring possibilities. And I absolutely will share more about it soon and photos and things like that, of course.

But at the moment, it is occupying most of my creative spare time to think about this project and to think how I might be able to pull it together. So that's a little teaser. And also I'm working on a few episodes for my own podcast called Creative Courage. And I'm really looking forward to,

I've got about six episodes that I am scheduling very soon to go out over the summer break, well summer for us here on this side of the world. And Yeah, I think they should be some really good episodes. I've been enjoying working on those. And I've also created a freebie for people.

It's not flower related, but it is creative related. If you are in any way an idea person or someone that has a billion ideas all at once and they all feel important and significant and you're not sure which one. you want to run with, this freebie might help or it should help.

It's going to take you from having all those ideas and take you through a system to work out which ones are the right ones to focus on right now and then help you choose the one that you do want to move forward with and focus on in the next season so you can stop doing

trying to do them all at once or just looking at your big long list of ideas and then not taking steps on any of them it's going to help you get a bit more focused and choose the one to move forward with so i'll add the link to that in the show

notes when this goes up as well that's amazing and so generous i have seen the spreadsheet the idea catch a spreadsheet i think it's really fun so yeah everyone

should go and get it thank you what about you sarah what are you working on next what have you got coming up

so i well i've got lots of bits of admin to finish off right and then i am gonna put my out of office on for two weeks that is the plan i'm gonna have a proper break and then luxurious yeah i i worked out there was like a period where i

basically worked i think it was about 30 days straight where i didn't take a single day off and not oh my goodness yeah it was just wreath season was just bonkers so i am going to be very intentional at taking plenty of time off and so there's a project that i'm working on um which is a diy

wedding flower course and it's kind of like halfway done it will be out in january but i'm thinking i need just a break from everything right now and then that will be like the focus for january and i will i'll probably share like a discount code

with podcast listeners if they that they're welcome to share with their friends if they know anyone who's getting married and wants to have a go at doing their own flowers. But I am, yeah, I was really enjoying working on it until re-season started. Everything kind of had to fall away for me. But I'm excited.

I'm excited for a break and then to get back into it. So I will share my progress probably on the next episode of Garden Gossip.

That's so exciting. I think it's going to be amazing. I've had a little glimpse into what Sarah's working on and it looks unreal. So I'm so excited to see how that all comes together. And taking two weeks off to really be able to dedicate to that is... Incredible. That's so, so good.

I'm so excited for you to have that time. Gosh, I can't believe you had 30 days straight without a break. I'd go mad.

Yeah. I'd be like falling asleep at like the dumbest times. No, I was like really tired, but it was also making me irritable as well. Like I was very conscious that I was just kind of, yeah, getting annoyed much quicker than I would normally. And it's not, it's not the goal of my business.

I'm not someone who wants to always be really, really busy. Like I don't see that. as success success for me is someone who has enough work but also enough time off to be able to do the things that they love and enjoy and so yeah that could be my

new year's resolution and it only happens at reed season like i'm never that busy throughout the rest of the year which is why i feel like i do say yes to a lot during reed season because i know it's just for a burst of time and not always but

i am conscious that next year i'll just hire more staff

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That'll make a big difference. Yeah, yeah. So, Sarah, before we go, I have an important question to ask you. I need to know which Christmas movie you will be either binging or watching in the lead up to Christmas or on Christmas Day. What's your go-to?

A Muppets Christmas Carol, always.

Oh, I wasn't expecting that one. Okay.

Oh, really?

Good choice. Yes.

So Scott's not really into Christmas films. And so I've been trying to entice him in. We watched Love Actually over two evenings because we both got sleepy. So we watched Love Actually and he enjoyed it. He said he's not interested in Home Alone. So fine, I'll watch it on my own.

But my favourite and the one I always wait until maybe Christmas Eve to watch is A Muppets Christmas Carol. I absolutely love, I just love the story, but there's a version of it that's read by Hugh Grant. And so I always, obviously that's not with the Muppets, that's just the original text.

So I listened to that over the weekend as I was tidying the studio and getting ready for Christmas drinks at the flat. Even though I've just finished listening to it, it just whet the appetite. I just love Moffat's Christmas Carol. And just the commitment to the film and Michael Caine doing it all so straight-faced. Just perfect.

Yeah, he's amazing. He's so good. And it's just a perfect film. So that is... That'll be like my Christmas Eve treat. And Scott is going to wash it with me. And so that'll be nice and cozy. We can maybe make like hot chocolate or something and just have a really cozy evening.

That's so cool. I love that.

What about you?

Well, I have to admit that I do love a bit of a dumb Christmas movie. I'm quite happy to get lost in a world of just complete nonsense. And so I like watching the sort of silly Hallmark ones that, I mean, they're all the same, like girl meets boy overseas in some kind of insane job that,

you know, is completely not doable in real life and everyone looks amazing and lives in the most amazing houses and... It all turns out magical. So I quite like those ones. But I have to be honest and say that I think the Christmas movie we will be watching is going to be Die Hard because that's,

according to my son... that is the ultimate Christmas movie. So I think that's what we'll be watching. I even made a Christmas decoration finally for, it's a diehard Christmas decoration with the Bruce Willis character kind of coming through like the pipe and he's holding on like a little battery operated candle. I'll have to show you. That's amazing.

I've got that on my tree at the moment. So that's probably what we'll be watching. But yeah, If I can have a third answer, I would say my Christmas movie in my head would actually be Lord of the Rings. To me, that's a Christmas movie, even though it's not Christmas at all.

But it's a Christmas movie to me. So, yeah, that would be my choice, but it's probably going to be diehard.

No, I'm with you with Lord of the Rings. And now I associate it because I only allow myself a rewatch once a year. to keep me motivated for mossing all the wreaths. So I totally get, it feels like a winter film, yeah.

I only watched Die Hard like for the first time a couple of years ago and I loved it. Scott and I watched it together and I can see why it's a Christmas movie. What you just said about decorations just really inspired me because I, so I love, I get really, really sentimental about Christmas decorations.

And there's a few that I have on my tree that are just like just so full of meaning. And I am probably going to share a couple on Instagram. But if people would like to share theirs with those as well, I would love to see them because I love Home Alone. I've got one of the turtle doves.

the is the uh person is it how did you yeah it's a duncan's toy shop isn't it he gives the two turtles kevin then he gives the other one to the bird lady and so i got i found someone on etsy who made replicas and i gave one to my sister because

we live like she's down in england um so i don't get to see her as often as i'd like but she i remember when i was giving her the gift and i started crying but before she'd even opened it and I don't think she I think she thought it was nice

but she's I don't think she's as sentimental as I am but every year I put on the turtle dove and it just makes me think of her And then I've got one, in fact, I think my sister made it for me, or like, she didn't make it herself, but I think she got it for me,

that has grandma written on it, because our grandma died a couple years ago. And then there's one that has now got more meaning, but we have one with Abby's name on. Obviously, we used to put on, well, she was alive, but now it's kind of got more significance because this is Christmas without her.

And so I just Christmas decorations make me they fill me with joy. But also, this sounds ridiculous. But there's also when I'm decorating my tree, there's also like grief alongside it. And I think that a nice thing to have the two things together because, yeah, like I know it adds a level of sadness,

but it also I think it's important to kind of have the memories that are associated with the decorations, even if they're not always like completely joyful. I've also got some really stupid ones as well. So I've got just the gold T-Rex. And then every year I like to get a new Christmas decoration.

And so when Scott and I were down in London a few weeks ago, we went to Liberty, which is the first time I'd visited Liberty, which is this incredible department store. And I got a glass heart, but like a, what's the word? Where it's like a real heart, not like a...

Like an anatomically correct heart.

Yes, that's the word. So it's like gross and creepy and I love it. So there's like a weird mix of stuff on my tree. But yeah, that was just a tangent that came into my mind. But do you have, you also, do you love a Christmas tree decoration?

Oh, my goodness, Sarah. I am like, I think about Christmas the entire year. It's so bizarre. I don't even really know why. I just know that it was always special to me growing up and it's something that I feel like it just suits my style of creativity so much. It's lights, it's sparkle, it's extravagance, it's abundance,

it's rooted in joy and hope and new beginnings and I just absolutely adore it. And decorating for Christmas is really, like, I take it very seriously. Yeah. Um, and so I do have a few on my tray at the moment that are very special. And from my,

I'm in granddad's house and one of them's like a little wooden nutcracker and the other one's a little angel. And then I have a brass instrument on there as a memory of my granddad who used to play the, I think it was the tenor horn. And I used to be downstairs with him as he'd practice.

I've still got his music stand. Um, and yeah. yeah and he would wait for me to come up from canberra every year i'd have christmas up there in sydney and he'd wait for me to arrive and we'd hang up we'd string up the christmas lights together and then flick them on together and they

were those beautiful incandescent vintage colors not the gross led lights that we have today so it is absolutely i think you nailed it it's so beautiful so precious but there's grief it is very much a time that you you remember the christmases

in the past and who's no longer there and and finding a way through the beauty that you're creating and the things that you are adding into your homes to remember people as well so um and moments and memories and yeah so i think i think that's quite beautiful

Yeah. Oh, thank you for sharing that. That was, yeah, that was really gorgeous.

You too. It's so nice to, yeah, because it's definitely quite a special time. So thank you so much for listening today. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you have, as always, if you have some interesting folklore about flowers that we've discussed recently or something that we haven't brought up yet, please feel free to

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