Floral Friday 1

Welcome to Floral Friday!

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some hints and tips in floral design and arrangement. I adore having fresh flowers around my home as well as in the gallery and shop. In this series of 3 tutorials I will show you how to use three bunches of store-bought blooms to create three different looks, demonstrating three different floral design trends. I will also be sharing some simple hints and tricks to make the whole task a little easier!

TREND 1 : Colour clusters.

For want of a better word I'm describing this trend as 'colour clustering'. In researching this project I had a lot of fun making a very inspiring pinboard on my Pinterest and I think these images I pinned demonstrates this trend beautifully.

(See Pinterest board for image sources)

Traditional arrangements often spread colours and blooms throughout an arrangement, interspersing them with other blooms and colours. This trend sees blooms of the same type and colour clustered together, often graduating in tones (purples spreading into pinks, morphing into whites, growing into greens).

This type of arrangement is high-impact and really allows the colour and texture of each bloom to shine.

Gather your supplies:

You will need....

Some cute vessels, mason jars are all the rage and make excellent vases, raid the china hutch and select vessels with pattern, colour and texture for an on-trend display.

You will also need some secateurs or sharp and strong scissors.

Jute twine or string is handy and adds texture, while stickytape is my top tip for larger displays.

Flowers - I chose chrysanthemums in magenta and vibrant green as well as some velvety sliver foliage (I think it's silverbeet!) to mix it up a little.

 Prepare your vessel.

I wrapped my huge jar in jute twine using a bit of stickytape to secure it. This adds interest to the vase as well as hiding any unsightly bits that might fall into the water through its lifespan. A variation on this might be to use ribbon or ricrac.

Next, using your sticky tape, create a grid over the top of the vessel. (Thin tape is better but I was all out.) Inserting your blooms into the grid will hold them exactly where you want them and stop them flopping all over the place.

Adding a bit of sugar, or bleach to the water will help your blooms last longer, as will keeping them in a cool spot. Strip off any leaves that might sit in the water as this will make it yucky and cut your blooms to length at an angle, this will help them soak up water and removes any stem with air bubbles inside it.

Add your stems in layers with flowers that will sit lower in the arrangement first adding each type of flower at a time.

 After tweaking, turning leaves and adjusting blooms I added some structural loops of an ornamental grass that grows in my garden and sat back with a cup of tea to enjoy my new floral display. It's now 3 days later and they still look as great as when I first made them!

X Steph

Tutorial - 'Bricks For Chicks'

I'm really excited to share todays tutorial, I love a good DIY as much as the next creative chick and learnt some new skills last weekend that I'm dying to share!
As I said in my last post I'm currently building a wood-fired pizza oven, it's no small task and involves skills I don't have much practice at. However, after a chat with our friend and pro-brickie Andrew I felt pretty confident that this was one new skill I was keen to try my hand at... bricklaying!
With the ethos of giving it a red-hot go, I'm now proud to give you 'Bricks For Chicks'- a beginners bricklaying guide.

The first step is to prepare a nice level surface, a concrete slab, paving or existing brick base is perfect. Make a string-line where you want your bricks to go, this will help you make a straight line of bricks.
1. Mix up your mortar. I used bags of pre-mixed lime, sand and cement so all I had to do was add water. It's a lot like baking a cake, start with a mound of dry materials on a scrap bit of board or sheet metal, make a crater in the center and add water gradually folding in the dry materials. You don't want the mix to be too 'loose', if it's too runny it will run off your bricks. A stiff batter-type consistency is perfect, your brickies trowel should be able to stand upright in the mixture. CAUTION Always wear gloves (and a mask with dry materials) when working with mortar as the lime can give you nasty burns!
2. Now you are going to 'ice' your cake. Spread a layer of mortar 2.5cm deep where you intend to lay your brick. Work in small sections of a few brick-lengths at a time. Using your trowel, spread the mortar evenly right to the edges. Spread a 2.5cm layer on the ends or sides of any bricks that your new brick will butt up against.
3. Plonk your brick on the mortar. To get a nice level surface place a spirit level on top of the brick and tap it down into the mortar until it sits level. I have to confess I was pretty slap-dash with this part of the job... I was using very uneven, recycled old red bricks so didn't worry too much about the wall being level and went for a more organic approach, only leveling every few rows.
4. To finish, patch any gaps in your mortar and run the point of your trowel along the mortared cracks in the wall. Once the mortar has stiffened a little you can use a stiff brush to remove any mortar on the sides of the brickwork.
5. Cup of tea time!
Good luck! It's a LOT of fun!
X Steph

A perfect season

I love an Australian Autumn. The season brings it's share of cold, blustery and rainy days but there are some gems in there too. Those clear, blue-skied, sunny days that are just perfect in every way, warm enough for shorts and tshirts but no need to crack out the sunscreen.
Being from a colder climate I call the season here 'English Summer'. This year I am excited to be having two summers, and Australian and an English one... Well, at least part of one.
It's been six and a half years since I migrated here and it feels like a lifetime... In a good way. But I am still inspired by my British roots in so many forms, my mother is the worlds most amazing gardener. With the greenest of thumbs and much hard work she fed our whole family on home-grown, organic fare... Year round. Twenty years before it became trendy, back in the days when growing organic food was considered mildly nutty!
This perfect season has inspired me to do some serious work in the garden before the ground gets cold and the days too soggy.
At the Red Brick we love our Secret Garden, a magical and tiny courtyard surrounded by huge red brick walls, coated in wisteria, ivy, rambling rose and jasmin it's an absolute sun-trap in winter and a shady haven in summer. We were lucky enough to inherit an established and beautiful garden from the previous inhabitants and it's my all-time favourite spot for cups of tea, chatting with friends and nurturing its flowers, succulents and mosses. These past few weeks I have been a busy little bee building a new picket gate, laying red brick pathways, sowing, pruning, feeding and mulching.

One of the best parts of being in this part of town is our neighbours. We have built a great and supportive network on our little corner and are always there to help eachother out. There is a little stretch of dirt which joins the rear of the buildings shops and homes and we are beginning to create a shared garden space where we can relax on summery evenings, grow veggies and pretty stuff and share a wood-fired pizza or two!
This past weekend myself and my enlisted helper Mark have been mixing concrete and laying bricks begining 'project pizza oven'. We are using recycled red bricks from Marcias renovations at her Victorian cottage and Im a true sucker for free materials. We have a long way to go, but a few more afternoons of work and we should be there... Let me know if you need an invite to the Red Brick pizza night! X Steph

Insta-awesome!

 One of my fave things about blogging has always been looking at other bloggers beautiful photos and I have recently discovered some of my favourite bloggers also sharing their images an ap called 'Instagram'.
I am a recent convert to the Iphone revolution and I am having a serious love affair with Instagram... You can follow my feed via my username... theredbrick
Here is a peek of some of my recent images...

For me, the most wonderful thing about Instagram is that its so... instant! I can snap a pic, put over a cool, retro filter, adjust the focus and upload to my live feed in a moment. Being such a visual person I love it. I shall be posting my weeks fave pics here from now on. What's your fave ap?!

x Steph

Craft it up this Christmas

We are keen to celebrate all things hand made this Christmas.  Who cares if it's a bit bung looking, have a crack, get crafty and have fun I say.  I've been looking around the net for some inspiration and there are some very clever Christmas Crafters out there that's for sure and then there are some who have just given it a bash ;) but go them :)

Whether it be to pass the time and entertain the kids during the pending school holidays or while away the hours on the few days your office shuts over Christmas or perhaps you just want to lock yourself away from the maddness that is too many relatives in an enclosed space over Christmas day and boxing day... this year let your inner crafter freeee and see what you can come up with.

Check out the cool Christmas tree over on larritt-evans blog... With all the timber in my back yard and lack of Christmas tree action in my house, I may need to steal this idea ;)

http://larritt-evans.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

Here are some more Christmas tree ideas

Cut up some cards or get some cool paper

Made from Corks... yeah... have a wine or 20 and then get crafty ;)

Try your hand at crocheting or making your own decorations.

Marshmallows are handy for lots of things

Try some Christmas cooking... hey it's all creative, it's all craft, just because you can't get into crochet doesn't mean you have to miss out:)

The more Macabre or Zombie lovin' folks can get in on this action as well........

Or the totally whacky and unexplainable... for any one with a rubber chicken just layng around o_O

Whatever the reason, get into the season. Pull out the felt or make your mouth melt and happy crafting :)

PS send me pictures if you make stuff and I'll include them in our blog - Marce