Episode 13: Garden gossip 3

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. Today's episode is a garden gossip edition. So you're going to hear me and Keeley chat about things we've been working with, things that are inspiring us.

Keeley is going to kick off the episode by telling us what flowers she's been working with recently.

So last episode, I spoke about a secret project that I was working on that was inspiring me and was taking up all my daydreams. So I'm very happy that I can now share what that project was. And it was my first ever wedding as a florist. And that just happened to be my own wedding.

So we were planning a secret project. ceremony in our backyard under the fairy lights, an evening wedding. It's summer here so it starts getting dark quite late. So it was an 8.30pm service just as the sun was setting and it was just us and the

minister and a couple of witnesses and it ended up being just completely magical. I knew that I wanted to do my own flowers even though I probably have no real business doing so just yet because I don't really know the ins and outs of it all.

And just to make things extra fun, that day ended up being, we had a heatwave warning. It was 38 degrees that day, Celsius. And so because the wedding was in the evening, I wanted to give myself like three hours to do the flowers and then

some time to get ready, get my hair done, makeup and things like that and get dressed. And so I was out in the middle of the day in the backyard. So we have these two beautiful big trees, which is pretty much the entire reason that we bought this house was for the trees.

And we knew we wanted to get married under these trees. And it was actually also where Elliot had proposed to me the day that we got the keys. We went out to the backyard and he proposed to me under this tree. So we knew we wanted to get married and say our vows under these trees.

And so we'd cut out an alcove on the ground beneath those trees. So it was this beautiful kind of recessed area where we put floor rugs down and I decided to, I wanted to create a grounded arch in that area and then have a, I was going to have some sort of backdrop.

But basically I knew in my head that's what I wanted to do. But in terms of having specifics around what I was going to be using, I was really kind of flying by the seat of my pants. And it wasn't because I didn't care. It wasn't because I didn't have

an idea of what I wanted it was because I had to kind of be adaptive to what was available and also what the weather was doing because originally I wanted to use hydrangeas and I was going to put each of the hydrangeas into like a little test tube bottle and make sure that

they all had access to water and things like that so that they stayed nice and happy. But when they gave out a severe heat warning, I was like, hmm, that's not really going to work. And the hydrangeas I was going to be getting were from Facebook Marketplace for like $2 a stem.

So it was like a total steal. And I was like, damn it, that's not going to work. So I basically just thought, you know what? magnolias let's just go magnolias and so i ordered like 150 or 100 stems i can't remember now from my supplier and then i was going to also be getting roses the

mentor roses which have this lovely kind of you'd probably hate it because it's like such a blush wedding color it's so boring so boring so bridal so normal But I just thought it would look really – that colour looks so lovely with the magnolia. But anyway, those roses ended up not being available.

So on the day – that's what I was going to use for my bouquet. I had the magnolia. They came in. But on the day, the supplier messaged me and said, oh, we couldn't get the roses. So when I drove out there, I was literally choosing my bouquet –

on the day figuring out with what was there and what was available. And so I just went with my gut and I literally just chose the pretty things that I could find and made it up on the spot.

What flowers did you end up choosing for your bouquet?

So for the bouquet, I actually first was drawn to the most beautiful amaranthus. It was a sort of burgundy crimson colour and I just fell in love with it and decided somehow I needed to make this work. So I started with that. The next thing I found was the thistle,

Which is weird because I never liked spiky and I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would choose thistle. But something about it just stood out to me on that day. I don't know if it was the colour. I don't know if it was you inside my head. I'm not really sure.

Yeah, because I'm sure in one of our episodes, I'm sure you slandered the thistle.

I did. I did.

This is true. And so I don't – even on the day, I remember thinking, what – Who are you? Why are you choosing this all? But it just, maybe it was the way the blue and the burgundy, just the colours just turned in so beautifully. I really don't know. But it just, something about it really felt right.

And maybe it's because, I don't know, I have Scottish... heritage on my dad's side of the family, maybe that came through. And I was like, or maybe, I don't know. I just had you in my head that day, I think. And I was like, yeah, I'm just going to go through this.

And then I went with Queen Anne's lace to kind of give it a bit of, them a bit of distance from each other. And then I chose magnolia leaves, obviously, to tie in with the grounded arch. And then I sat in the car and I said to Elliot, you know what?

This amaranthus would be so stunning with the magnolia leaves on the grounded arch. And so I went back in there and I bought like another like six bunches or something of the amaranthus to go on the arch. And I'm so glad I did because it just ended up being so pretty. And then in the car,

I was Googling like what all the meanings were of these flowers that I'd randomly chosen. And it was actually kind of cool because they were all really quite appropriate. So the meanings, at least what I found, I mean, I'm sure there's a million other meanings, but it was protection, sanctuary, purity and everlasting love.

So I think it ended up working out really well.

That's stunning. And it looked incredible. Like just from the photos you sent, it honestly, it looked like something from a movie. It was genuinely, yeah, it was so perfect. So we will definitely have to share photos.

Yeah, it honestly ended up just being so stunning. I've actually got a friend of mine who came over and did my makeup and hair. She took photos. I didn't know she was taking them while I was out there with my little cap and trying to be like Elliot had set up like an air conditioner.

outside while I was sitting there doing it. I wish I'd had more stems and more time because at the end I needed to ask the girls, my friends, can you just help me finish? And they ended up putting the amaranthus in the grounded arch because I was like, I just don't have time.

I'm not going to get this done. And as it was, we were really pushing it towards the end of the day. But it all got done and Honestly, the entire wedding was just kind of figuring it out as we went. I got my dress the day before. It was just, yeah, very much a let's just wing it.

And it somehow paid off.

I would say that that happened with every wedding I did for like the first two years. So I think that's just a rite of passage you have to go through. Yeah, you just you just have to go through it to be able to learn it really.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I feel like I learned so much just from that one wedding. If I was treating it as a wedding, not just my wedding, I definitely learned a lot that I will take into future weddings, but I can totally see how you could just end up running out of time every single

time because there's always more you could do. There's always more you can tweak and change and rearrange and You get ideas as you're going. So, yeah, so that was my, that's what I've been working on. And I have, I did try and press my bouquet after. That was a fail. Fail, guys. Total fail.

And I have been drawing some amaranthus to maybe use in something. So I've got a little keepsake from the day, but the photos will be enough and the memories will be enough, I think.

Yeah. yeah that I mean it would be special to have some of the dried amaranthus but yeah there is something like I do always encourage people to think about how they want to preserve their flowers um like and give them plenty of time to think think it

through and choose how they're going to do it if you dry stuff out or if you have if you have I don't know if you have it like sat around your home or whatnot like things do just collect dust as well. So sometimes just having the photos is like plenty.

Yeah, I think I'd never thought that I'd wanted to preserve my bouquet or I don't know that I love the look of flowers pressed behind glass unless it's done really well. So it was really more of an experiment to see if I even wanted to continue down that track. I think just in the moment –

Because everything was so magical, I was just trying to hold on to that sense of glow and the magic of it. I was like, I have to hold on to it forever. But then really, you can't. It's a moment that's over. You just preserve the memories as best you can. And yeah, it was just really magical.

So I'm very grateful it all worked out.

Yeah, it looked beautiful. And I didn't know that that was where Elliot had proposed that. And that made me emotional.

That was so beautiful. Even that was so beautiful. And it was raining and then there was a rainbow behind us. It was very, very special. So, yeah, to be able to get married under those trees. We're calling it the party tree now because it's filled with fairy lights and we're never taking them down.

And I think we'll always be able to host beautiful outdoor gatherings under there. So that's where we got married and became husband and wife. So it's always going to be really special right there.

What type of trees are they?

One is a chinaberry and the other one is a Chinese elm.

Oh, very nice.

Yeah. But that's me. What about you? What have you been working on?

So mostly nothing. I have had, I was going to say it's quiet, but it hasn't been quiet. It's been quiet in terms of not having many flowers in the studio. January is normally just the month of admin. And I am feeling really lucky this year that I've had a good amount of inquiries for weddings,

not just for this year, but quite a few for next year. And I've even had a couple for 2028, which just, yeah, like it's nice. It just feels really nice. I'm feeling really lucky. But yeah, it has been a lot of time spent at my desk. I do, I really enjoy winter.

Like I love it when it's cold. I love it when it's dark. we've got lots of fairy lights in the house I must get through like 200 pounds worth of candles like just during the winter like I just always love having a

candle on and I also like being outside in winter I like how bleak it is and how stark and it's just you get to see like the skeletons of the trees that are normally covered in leaves and I just feel like there's lots of lovely shapes to look at and

I am not a fan of the heat and so like a winter sun is just it's just my dream so in terms of flowers not that much I have had one really colorful funeral and it was just such a special selection of flowers that I used and it was someone that I knew

and so she was just like I really trust you doing the flowers and she was just like I just want color like clashing bold color I went for Icelandic poppies in really gorgeous oranges they're just so vibrant and wiggly and full of life and I just feel like that is so fitting for a funeral to have just

lots of colour and lots of like expression and then I paired it with some pink spray roses and then some ranunculus which are just ranunculus kind of get yeah they get they get you through the winter and then we paired it with just some winter foliages and

I even got some ilex berries as well just for a pop of colour and then some gorgeous skimmier as well and so the person who had ordered the piece was a gardener herself and so it felt quite nice to try and kind of honor her hobbies as well. Yeah. So it was just like funeral work is,

it's definitely more emotional when you're doing it compared to weddings, but I just find it really rewarding and just knowing that they can bring a bit of comfort. So when I went and delivered them, just that moment of you get to be around flowers and it can just take your mind off things. And then

Like throughout the day I've had feedback from previous clients who've just said, like, just taking a moment and looking at the flowers at any part through the day, it just kind of like helps them steady themselves. Um, yeah. So I just think of like, I feel really passionate about funeral flowers and having color and,

Having flowers that match the personality of the person who's deceased. And so, yeah, like, I feel like I could talk about funeral flowers all day. Yeah, I think it's just really important to just have really meaningful flowers. So, yeah, that was really special. And I think it will...

stay with me for a while like I I mean I tend to remember most of the weddings and things that I do but I feel like I really easily remember all the funerals that I've done because there's just a real importance to them um so yeah I think that's

the only fresh flowers we've had in the studio like in my flat I did get one tiny little bunch of daffodils with the food shop last week um yeah that's about it that's about all the flowers I've had yeah since reef making, to be honest. I mean, that was just foliage as well. So yeah, the studio is,

I mean, I know it doesn't look it, but this is the tidiest it has been in a long time. Oh, and I also got some blue muscari. which are, I would say, one of my favorite flowers. I've not heard of them. So they are also known as grape hyacinth. Oh, yeah. Pretty, pretty. Yeah.

So they smell really nice. They just smell like spring. It can be quite strong, but I do, I like a strong flower. Yeah, and they're just, they're always quite short. They're usually about 30 centimeters, sometimes a bit smaller. So they're almost there just As like little hidden pops of colour. So pretty. I love working with them.

That's gorgeous. Stunning colour as well. Like really pretty.

Yeah.

I love that. And I've always really loved your approach to funerals since I've been introduced to your work. I know that it's something close to your heart and something that you... It's not just another part of your work, it's something that you're passionate about. And I really, really love your approach to that.

And I think it takes a sort of special heart to be able to do that kind of work. I know that for me, I've already decided I'm not, as a florist, I won't do funerals. I just don't think it's something I could do, which sort of sounds a little bit selfish, I suppose,

but I don't have the constitution to deal with that. And so I think it really does take bravery. And I love that we've got people like you in the world that can face that and go, not only am I going to face that, but I'm going to do my best to bring some beauty into this.

I think that's really, really special. And yeah, thank you for doing that because it's important.

That's so kind of you to say thank you and do you know what I just there's two things that I kind of drum it up to is that I started working in a flower shop when I was 14 and I just got thrown in at the deep end.

I remember someone coming in like maybe even the second week I'd been there and they were just like I need to see the funeral catalogue and I just had no choice I just had to get comfortable with it and we were opposite a hospital as well so there was

we just had a lot of funeral work um and then my grandma for whatever reason I don't know how she ended up so comfortable with death just from a really young age she would say to me like when I've popped my clogs and she would talk about it so

when I was a kid I was just aware there was going to be a point where she died and that's just the way it is and so we would talk about things like the flowers I would make for her and then pearl necklace that I wanted from her and you know we would have times where she'd

take me um my sister like through her jewelry collection and be like what what do you want when I've gone and it was it's just made me like so comfortable talking about these kind of things and not everyone wants to talk about it and you know

that's fair enough I'm not gonna force them but yeah it made me realize oh I should have a will in place and I should yeah, just be aware of these things. A few years ago, I worked at a hospice, and I worked in the charity sector, and you are just around it, around death quite a lot.

And I think, yeah, I think it's quite interesting to talk about as well, without being too morbid. Yeah, I think it could be helpful. I think it helps us lead a nicer life to think about how you want to have like a good death as well. But anyway, that's a whole other tangent that we could go down.

No, I mean, I love it. It's fascinating. But I think the thing that stands out to me as well is what you said about how the guests at the funeral took so much comfort from the flowers themselves, which honestly I could just think about that all day. How does that happen? Like what is it about a flower?

Because that's so powerful in such loss. something so small and can have such a big impact. I find that just truly fascinating. why I don't love the idea of using artificial flowers for things like weddings and things like that, because it's not the same thing. And getting something, and I know this is a tangent,

but getting something to last a really long time is not, I don't think it should be our goal in use of flowers. The whole point of a flower is creating something so beautiful. It is temporary. It's such a beautiful, symbolic parallel to our own lives itself.

this existence is temporary as horrible as that thought may be but it's also beautiful because it's something really precious fleeting fleeting and precious and yeah we make the most of it as we can and yeah so I don't think fake flowers could bring that same comfort and bring that same beauty and energy so just yeah that's a

very interesting topic to I'd love to chat with you about one day for sure

Yeah, maybe we could do a bonus episode where we talk just about death. Love it.

Let's do it. I mean, we talk about death anyway in all our episodes because flowers are dark little things, aren't they? Let's be real.

Yeah, they are. They are. And, yeah, I do think that's what makes them so special is that, you know, if you have – I was just like, oh, for a few days, he's going to be really magical. But if I was to get them as artificial within a few months, they're dusty.

And then they just blend into the background. There's like photos that I have on my wall that I couldn't even like point. I couldn't even say what's on my wall because I just walk past it every day and tune it out. But that just doesn't happen with fresh flowers.

No, you're constantly changing the energy in a room. And even if it's just cutting some foliage from a nearby tree or something, putting that in your house completely free. You don't have to go and spend money on flowers. It changes the energy in the house. You bring it in, the room feels fresh.

Anyway, it's a whole thing we could chat about.

What flower-related things have been inspiring you recently?

Well, just keeping with the wedding theme, and I'm sorry, not sorry for that. But we are – so what we've decided to do, we had the secret ceremony, and then we are actually having a – we're going to host a garden party and have guests over.

And so we're going to get our wedding photos done on that day, and then we're going to come back and have a garden party here. And so I've been – thinking about our wedding cake because I wanted to make us our cake because one of my little, you know,

side quests has been learning how to do cake decorating for some unknown reason. And so I wanted to make our wedding cake. And so I've been looking at how to actually create really beautiful 3D flowers and like what might be possible to, with, you know,

sculpting the petals and putting them together and it might end up being a complete fail and I may not end up doing that at all, but I just, at the moment, I'm playing around with what might be possible and what, yeah, what direction I want to go. So that's been inspiring me.

That's amazing. That sounds so cool. And as you were talking, it made me think, i'm sure you wrote a Substack post ages ago about icing a cake and that stayed with me and i think even if it ends up not looking amazing a homemade wedding cake is

just so meaningful that i think yeah you should just do it even if it i mean it's gonna look good because everything you do looks good but i yeah you you absolutely should do it that's so exciting

But the last sort of thing I just wanted to say that I have been inspired by was this most stunning... I just stumbled across her and she's actually amazing. She's on Substack and Instagram and just such a beautiful, heartfelt creative. I'm really excited to dive into more of her work.

Her name is Meg Fatherley and her Substack is In Progress from Meg Fatherley. And she... just posted this little note on Substack about how she'd given herself 20 minutes to use some scraps of tin and she made a beautiful snowdrop sort of 2D sculpture, which is just absolutely stunning. And I just thought, far out. Wow.

Like that's what you can do in 20 minutes if you just give yourself permission to play and no pressure, no strings attached. I'm just going to take 20 minutes and you make a stunning little sculpture. So shout out to Meg. Thank you for being such an inspiring creative. I think your work is just beautiful.

It's so beautiful. I want to buy it. Right? Yeah. I know it was just her just having a play. I would buy it. It's so beautiful. It makes me want to try, but I'm not patient. I would not be able to make anything as beautiful and I would get really frustrated.

But working with Tin, that does sound quite fun.

I think she does create beautiful artwork that she then sells and some of them are little written quotes and others are... more sculptural images. But yeah, we'll definitely link out to her work because it's really, really stunning. And I definitely would like to get a piece of her work in my home, I think.

It'd be a really nice little reminder. Yeah, do it. But yes, what have you been inspired by lately in the world of flowers?

So there's quite a few things but one I've been desperate to share with you since Christmas and maybe I'm wondering now if I have actually mentioned it to you but I'm going to tell you all about it now anyway. My best friend Kendall is over in Northern Ireland and she is an excellent gift

giver and she got me a copy of The Secret Garden But it's like an interactive, illustrated copy. So it's beautiful. I'm just going to, it's thick. Like it's clear. Can you see that? It's a bubble. I just hit mute with the book. So thick. So beautiful. But every single page has gorgeous little illustrations.

So, Keeley, I'm going to show you the first page. Can you see?

Oh, it's the robin.

It's the robin. One of the chapters, it has little bluebells around the numbers. One of the chapters has little dandelions. It's absolutely beautiful. But then... The highlight is not is it just like illustrated. It also has these interactive elements. One of the first interactive elements is a two pager, like a drawing of the town of Thwaite.

And then you've got the moors. And on top of this is a map that you fold out and there's like little pieces of tissue paper that are keeping the map safe but it folds out and it's so beautiful and it's got an

illustration on both sides but you fold out and it is the garden so I'm gonna hold it up and show you Keeley

Oh, wow.

But it's, like, folded. And so then you fold it back into, like, a little secret hidden map.

That is stunning.

Yeah, I've not read it and played around with all the interactive elements yet. So I will have to feed back on that. But one of them is a cut-out doll of Mary. And you can dress her. And, like, put, like, a different little hat on. And I used to just love stuff like this as a kid.

I remember having a little... book all about fairies and you could when you opened up the book there was a little crown for you to put on and it was just I loved it it was so special so it just gave me a flashback to that but it also it made me think about how I'm quite bad

for keeping things for best so as a kid if I got a pack of stickers I would never want to use them up because then I'd be like oh well they're wasted but then you kind of grow out of it and then you have never used your stickers and that's quite sad.

And Scott knows I'm really bad for this. So he will sometimes buy me two versions of the same thing on one of the islands off Scotland. And we went to a gin distillery and I got a nice bottle of gin. And I was just like, that's so beautiful. Like, I don't want to open it.

And Scott kind of had like a bit of an eye roll and then went and bought me a second bottle. So then he's like, now you've got one to drink. And then he got me some cocktail glasses a few years ago. And I was just like, they're really pretty.

And I want to use them for like my morning orange juice. But then I also want a set that won't get chipped and won't go through the dishwasher. And so he got me two sets of two. So I've now got some that are ruined by the dishwasher and then some that are hand

wash only that stay in the cupboard. So yeah, with that context, I, I think, I think I am going to go through and cut all the bits out in the secret garden and play around and actually use it the way that it's intended to because that's going to give me the

most enjoyment really absolutely so can you does it have plants in there that you can like pop out and move around as well or is it just mary i bet there is you know because growing up we had this book and i loved it and i used to sit at the end of

the hallway at the bookcase and play with this book And you could pop out the flowers and design your own gardens. And I have not been able to find it since. And I've like looked, I have Google search everywhere, cannot find it. And no one can remember what it was.

I'm like, I know I didn't make it up, but it was the best fun. So is that what this book does? Because if it does, I'm getting it.

Do you know what? I'll have a look for you. I mean, it's quite big, so it might take me a while. But I've just found one of the pages has a sundial and it shows you the life cycle of of a rose oh that's so beautiful right I will set it as homework for me I'll read

the book and I'll get back and see if you can plan out a garden yeah because that

would be amazing your little secret garden and then another thing that has been

inspiring me and you're honestly gonna think I'm just the most morbid person ever But Scott and I took a trip down to Oxford. I'm obsessed with Lord of the Rings. So I went and found Tolkien's grave and it was actually really special.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, but it's well signposted and it was quiet. It was a cold, like wintry morning. So it's absolutely perfect. And it was quite quiet. There was only like one other person around. so went and found the grave and it's him and his wife Edith in the same plot and it

was I was just really moved by it there were little tokens like little um pine cones and natural kind of elements that had been left um there were a couple of pennies and things that had been left and then there was some handwritten letters so there's one and it was like addressed to the professor which

for people who don't know people refer to Tolkien as the professor and then someone had planted a hellebore like straight into the ground on the grave and it was just so beautiful and I took a picture of it it'd been a bit wind battered like it wasn't the prettiest looking hellebore but there's just something really special and

about plants on graves and I think that kind of just feels a bit more eternal and then I'm not going to rant about this but there was a few people who'd left flowers which is a lovely thing to do but they were still wrapped in plastic and it just it

felt quite jarring especially when you know other people had left like paper or pine cones or leaves and things that would you know disintegrate over time and so it just felt a little bit jarring and I think, you know, really nice to leave flowers,

but you could buy them where they're not wrapped in plastic and that just feels a little bit more mindful. But yeah, just seeing, there was just something about, there was a little bit of wind and it was catching the hellebores and it just, it was just a moment.

And I honestly found myself getting a bit choked up and it was just, yeah, it was kind of lovely to just experience flowers. don't know just being there and like the solitude and just knowing how many other people had been moved by Tolkien and his work it just yeah it just felt really

special and I like the idea of planting flowers or trees like in someone's memory

that feels really special yeah absolutely yeah I love that how amazing to have created work that's had such an impact that it lives on after you.

Yeah, absolutely. And the fact that people still, like, take meaning from it and take so much comfort from it as well. Like, I remember during lockdown, I, like, I mean, I reread the books quite often, but I rewatched the films and reread the books during lockdown. And I just remember, like, just the themes of, like,

how can we recover from such darkness that, like, light always prevails. It just really lifted my spirits. And yeah, I completely agree that I can't think of anything like a higher honour than having your work kind of live beyond your life. I think that's what makes me want to write a book.

Like the idea of that it just feels quite, yeah, quite everlasting. And then I was over in Edinburgh, I think it was last week, to meet with a couple who are getting married later in the year. And they are having such a fun wedding.

They both seem quite relaxed and I don't wanna share details too much because I think it would be exciting for all the guests to arrive and to be completely like in the dark. It is, they're taking inspiration from Wicked and they asked, they basically were like, we've got this idea, it's gonna be a bit bonkers.

do you think you could do it? And I was just like, yes, absolutely.

I am the person for this.

And so then I don't get over to Edinburgh that often. So I was just like, I'll go for a bit of a walk. And it was quite a nice day. It'd been a bit rainy. So there was a nice rainbow out. And I went over to the Palestine Museum,

which I'd been meaning to go and visit for quite a while. It was really special. There was quite a few pieces of artwork that just gave me pause and, you know, I took a bit of time. But then there was one and it was a painting of Cyclamen by a Palestinian artist called Karim Abu Chakra.

I think that's how you pronounce his last name. And it just, I think because flowers are special to me anyway, that it kind of made me pause and think, And it was just this kind of, I know cyclamons as something that my grandma used to grow and I would kind of

associate them with like Christmas and you'd give them as a Christmas gift. And so I pulled out my phone and had a bit of a Google and then found out that they are native to Palestine. I think there's a Persian cyclamen that you can get.

And it just made me think of like the connection between home and nature and how I don't know the sense of like rootedness and belonging that comes through, through flowers. And it's just, I don't know. It just, it, it, I don't know. Flowers are just so special.

Like that sounds so lame to say, but they're just such as a mark of identity and home. And it just, it really, it really moved me. And so we'll share a link to his work and, and it was just, yeah. How something quite simple.

could it was just a pot of flowers but yeah it just really stuck with me and I carried on thinking about it for quite a while and it was nice for me to then like think more deeply about it and read about it and then I was just like oh this is a

flower that I'm gonna have to know we'll have to do an episode about it definitely

Keeley, what have you got coming up? I have so many different inspirations and ideas and daydreams and things like that that I absolutely want to bring to life. And this year I am very excited to dig in or lock in, as the cool kids say, and get things happening. But at the moment, right now, I have...

kind of imploded a little bit over the last couple of months. There's been so much going on. I lost my wonderful, beautiful auntie right before Christmas and I then, you know, obviously Christmas itself was quite big and then I was planning a wedding and so

there's just been so much going on that I've kind of dissolved and I would say I'm a bit burnt out and so... I am absolutely looking forward to starting my floristry school again this term. So it starts in like two days from now is the time of recording.

And I'm so grateful to be going down that path into floristry and I still kind of can't believe that that's happening. But right now I'm just finding my feet, I think, and then I'm hoping that over the next couple of months I'll be able to start putting work back out into the

world and sharing but so yeah it's a bit of a watch this space right now as I kind of internally rebuild.

It's so exciting and I think what I was talking about earlier like with winter you need that calmer period as well that where it looks like you're doing nothing but actually rest is just as important but I feel like your mind is probably racing as well with ideas.

And sometimes you just need time to think and yeah, not be putting stuff out into the world. So yeah, I'm excited for you to see what comes. But I also think you definitely had a lot on your plate. So take the time to rest.

Yeah, yeah. What have you got coming up?

So I'm going to have a new series of workshops out soon. So the Mother's Day one is already on sale. And for people in the UK, that is going to be Sunday the 15th of March. My gift vouchers are now automated.

So it's a really easy process for both me, but then the people who are purchasing gift vouchers. So if you're near to Glasgow and you don't know what to do for Mother's Day, come along to a workshop or get a gift voucher. That would be fantastic. And then I'm also working on a DIY wedding course.

It was meant to be out in January, but I just got so busy with admin. And so that should be out in February. And I'm hoping to do like a companion podcast to go along with that. So then even if you don't want to purchase the course, you can just listen and get some inspiration from the podcast.

Because I just, I love talking about DIY wedding flowers.

And you're so good at it. Can I just say... Sarah helped me so much in the lead up to my wedding. So definitely if you are looking at doing your own wedding flowers, I would absolutely recommend working with Sarah or connecting with Sarah through her course because she is definitely a huge help and inspiration.

That was so kind. That was really sweet.

So Sarah and I are both a bit nerdy, but we're also pretty nosy. And we would love to hear your stories and connections about flowers. So if anything that you've listened to today has inspired you or sparked something in you to think, yes, I have that connection or that moment with that flower or flowers in general,

just we would love to hear from you. So please reach out to us. Our email address is flowersandfolklorepodcast at gmail.com. that will be in the show notes as well or you can of course reach out over instagram you can send us a voice message or just written that is fine too so yeah

definitely reach out thank you so much for listening today we have loved chatting to each other we could talk to each other all day long so it's just so nice that you want to listen as well If you would like to give us a follow on Instagram, we are flowersandfolklorepodcast. You can also find us on Substack.

There'll be a link in the show notes. We would love it if you could share this episode with a friend or if you could subscribe to the show. You're also welcome to leave an excellent review for us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to the podcasts.

you also can do none of those things and that's totally fine we're just really pleased that you listened to this episode and we'll talk to you again soon