The tulip series

When they were tight and fresh, the colour of these tulips looked so promising, I had to buy them. Unfortunately that beautiful pink blush colour faded as the days went on. I have enjoyed their presence in my home none-the-less. Fading flowers also have a certain charm.

Day 1.

Day 3.

Day 5.

Tulips continue to grow even once they've been cut. It can be necessary to keep cutting the stems so they don't outgrow their vase (cut flowers should be re-cut every other day anyway), but just quietly, I love what I call the 'drunken tulip' look that happens when they start to tumble from the vase. 

How stunning can yellow tulips en masse look? VERY stunning.

My favourite variety of tulips? LA BELLE EPOQUE.

See them this spring at TULIP TOP GARDEN IN HIDDEN VALLEY.

Kate  x

Styling and photographs by Moss & Vine

Another reminder, my personal suggested links are CAPITALISED, lowercase links are not designed and embedded by me. You may, or may not find them useful.

Best, Kate  x

Thursday (holiday) flower throwbacks

"A garden isn't meant to be useful, it's for joy."

- Rumer Godden

It looks like a tropical paradise or a film set. It's not. I took this (above) picture in the United States Botanic Garden in Washington DC. Put me in any city, and I will find public gardens.

When I lived in New Zealand for a year, my favourite place was the Winter Garden (below) in Auckland Domain. There is something magical about stepping inside a glass room overflowing with unusual plants and blooming flowers and creeping vines. A whole other climate exists inside. Temperate, tropical, sub-tropical, they're all wondrous places.

Purple delphinium, poppy pods.

Blue, white, and purple delphinium.

Foxgloves.

Kate  x

UNITED STATES BOTANIC GARDEN
AUCKLAND WINTERGARDENS

Just a quick note to regular readers of Moss & Vine. Links embedded in my posts that are suggested by me are now CAPITALISED, other links in lowercase that may appear from time to time are not designed by me. Use them at your discretion, they may be helpful to you, or they may not.

Best, Kate  x 

Can't bake a cake without breaking eggs

The weather outside is miserable. My cake baking hankerings are at fever pitch. But there is one particular recipe I am keen to try, and wouldn't you know it, I'm an ingredient short. I could don my rubber boots, a warm coat, and venture to the shops, but I'm a resident of Sydney, and everybody knows that Sydney-siders can't function in the rain. Why? I'm not sure. It's just an accepted truth. You will never encounter another major city coming to near-standstill just because a few drops of water fall from the sky.

As soon as the heavens begin cooperating with my food cravings, I'll be making this MILK AND CITRUS CAKE. Imen's blog FARMETTE is one of my absolute favourite food and lifestyle blogs. I cannot wait for her cook book to be available in Australia. It is sure to be filled with extraordinarily stunning food styling and photographs of the Irish countryside. In the meantime if you're hungry (pun) for more of this hearty, farm-kitchen style cookery and exquisite images, follow Imen's blog and INSTAGRAM feed.

I am also keen to try THIS just as soon as I can get my hands on some lavender free from nasty pesticides. Again, wishing I could time travel back to my OLD HOME to savour a backyard acreage of flowering rows of lavender.

And this heavenly looking LILAC PAVLOVA recipe will be attempted just as soon as the summer lilacs start to bloom. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!

Kate  x

Cake, styling and photograph by Moss & Vine

Cake originally appeared in THIS blog post.

In praise of simple pleasures

It might be the cold weather, the shorter days, or the inevitable mid-year slump, but we find ourselves indulging our desires more and more at the moment, and damn the calories consequences. Before I share what we are loving (and slathering in double cream) in our nest right now, let me just also note that we imposed a little dry period for the first few weeks of June. I am alcohol-free most of the time anyway, however Alex tumbled from the wagon when he had a beer with a seafood platter lunch. In his defence it was the long weekend, and the sun was shining. And we were next to the water, looking at pretty sail boats and a frolicking seal. But not all of our weaknesses come attached to excess calories. Mine are usually floral related. Or found in vintage and thrift shops.

I am taking full advantage of the early spring flowers that are available right now. I bought a bunch of poppies to give to my Mum on the long weekend. Then I snuck out to the camelia bush in my Nan's backyard to pick this pink beauty. It has resulted in a new appreciation for these wonderful and DIVERSE FLOWERS. If only they in turn appreciated being cut and put into a vase. Camelia is used almost exclusively for its leaves in floristry. The flowers have little commercial value as they die quickly. 

We've been eating SCONES too. Quite a few scones actually. Two batches and counting. The food related indulgences have me most worried, because it's not limited to scones, jam and cream. There is also an increase in the amount of crusty white bread being eaten. Melting moments, FUDGE, chocolate brownies and copious amounts of french onion dip have also made appearances. 

The up-swing of scones is the chance to indulge my current obsession with silver spoons. Jam spoons, teaspoons, mustard spoons. I want them all. My preoccupation with CUTLERY is unshakeable. I'm having a serious love affair with cutlery right now. HERE, HERE & HERE.

It is funny almost sad how excited I can get over a good INSTAGRAM hashtag these days. I think the lack of flower flinging in my day-to-day life recently has left a creative void that needs filling. I am attempting to self-teach better prop styling and photography. Instagram hashtag competitions are a wonderful prompt for this practice. I love the monthly #7VIGNETTES, and @ITS_MY_WEEK run a fantastic weekly competition with a new theme each Monday. But given my adoration of vintage cutlery, I participated in #THESPOONSERIES tag with much enthusiasm. My entries? HERE, HERE and HERE.

Other tags I recommend exploring?

#MYMONTHOFSUNDAYS

#FRIDAYFAFFINGCOMPETITION

#SEEKTHESIMPLICITY

&

#PROPSTYLERS

The gym is calling me back.

Kate  x

Styling and photographs by Moss & Vine

Fudge (pictured) from TILBA TREASURES Ulladulla Aus

Moving images

It's a long weekend! Here are some short videos that I have stumbled across this week. There's one for every mood. Enjoy the weekend.

Serenity: FLORET FLOWER FARM

Fun: THE FLOWER DRUM

Motivation: I WILL WHAT I WANT

Awe: CUSTOMS HOUSE Vivid 2015

Wonder: CHATSWORTH GARDEN AT CHELSEA

Current literary crush: POLDARK

Kate  x

Styling and Photograph by Moss & Vine

Links to love: June edition

This We Fell in Love FEATURED WEDDING is very lovely.

What can I say? THE CUTTING GARDEN.

THIS shop makes me want to up-sticks and move to Bath. Also, THIS does. And, AUSTEN does too, obviously.

Some garden envy happening HERE.

A link for the FUTURE. Where I will buy my old rose varieties for my dream garden.

I can't get enough of these CUTIES.

I'm pining for my very own KUMQUAT tree to cut branches from.

Some NAUTICAL NICENESS.

This is nothing short of exceptionally CUTE.

I know I say it every month, but how WONDERFUL to be a farmer florist.

Fellow flora enthusiasts rejoice, the beginning of winter means the sweetest smelling ERLICHEER is just around the corner.

Keep warm,

Kate  x

Flowers, Styling and Photograph by Moss & Vine 

Science

Get a clean beaker, 

pour in two parts H2O (also known as water for the laymen amongst us)

+

three parts pink bouvardia

=

Native to Mexico, bouvardia means enthusiasm // zest for life. 

Prettiest science experiment I ever conducted.

Kate  x

Flowers, Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

How old is your soul?

"My soul is from elsewhere,

I am sure of that,

and I intend to end up there."

-Rumi

Kate  x

Photograph by Moss & Vine

Links to love: May edition

May is only eleven days old. But i've fallen in love with so much over those beauty-packed days. Here are some links to some of my new loves.

The Mrs Box has a new collection of HEIRLOOM VELVET RING BOXES. I still absolutely adore my green "Gardener" ring box (pictured above), but my new favourite colour has to be the stunning HUGUENOT. 

I recently discovered and fell in love with the King of aesthetic perfection STEVE SINCLAIR who owns and executes SINCLAIR AND MOORE EVENTS with his wife. Their daily life is an exercise in beauty. Read more about their life and business HERE and get a taste for their attention to detail HERE and HERE. Not only does Steve love interiors and decor, he is a self taught floral designer, designs and styles weddings and events, and makes his wife DRESSES FROM SCRATCH. He even made her WEDDING DRESS. If I could clone him for myself, I probably would.

I stumbled upon the website for POLLON flowers and was instantly taken aback by the innovation of floral designer Nicholas Minton Connell. There's always something new to learn in floristry. I love that it is an industry driven by trends and ever evolving design influences. Check out the wedding gallery on the Pollon website. And the 'PRESS' link is something else. Talk about vision and talent. 

My current flower crush is less of a specific flower and more of a colour palette. Plum, burgundy, deep-purple. I'm in love HERE and HERE and HERE.

My current foliage crush is weirdly left-field: OLIVE TREE FOLIAGE. I don't enjoy eating olives but I sure do admire the silvery-grey quality of olive tree leaves. So versatile.

I was never an admirer of DISBUD CHRYSANTHEMUMS, but having just been slammed working the Mothers Day rush in the wonderful, busy, florist shop of my home-town (COOMA FLOWER SHOP), I have a new appreciation for the huge, soft, fluffiness which characterises this amazing variety of the humble chrysanthemum. 

Currently in love with: 

VELVET RIBBON,

this Justin Alexander WEDDING GOWN,

 this Jesus Peiro WEDDING GOWN,

 these ANEMONES from Bathtub Gardens,

and THIS instagram account.

Also, my uber talented BROTHER now writes frequently for Rolling Stone Australia. HERE is his latest piece. 

Enjoy the sheer exquisiteness hidden behind these links, until next time,

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

Mother

We inherit our genes, and other traits from our Mothers, but from mine I also inherited an appreciation for:

Books,

Flowers,

Collectables,

Blue & white.

Happy Mothers Day.

Kate  x

Photograph and Styling by Moss & Vine

A never-ending list

I know, I know, I already gave you the somewhat definitive list of my favourite flowers HERE, but it turns out there were some notable absences. Like I said, it's a difficult list to contain.

Lilac

Hellebores

Freesia

They all deserve a loud and enthusiastic shout-out. It is a constantly evolving list as I learn about new flowers, handle new blooms, and continue to peruse on-line wedding flower inspiration. My current favourite sources? WE FELL IN LOVE and THE KNOT. *Swoooon* worthy, indeed!

Today I came home with a much needed bunch of sweetness in the form of hyacinth. Sydney has been experiencing biblical amounts of rain recently. And the perfect antidote to that is the heavenly scented, cheerily pretty, spring hyacinth. So that's one more to add to my list of favourite flowers.

World Hyacinth Day is celebrated on March 7th, when hyacinths are blooming in abundance in the northern hemisphere. According to the Victorians, hyacinth means: constancy, sportiness, impetuousness, and "I am sorry". They truly smell uplifting. Better than any perfume you could buy.

Kate  x

Photograph and Styling by Moss & Vine

May?

It's May already. Really? I feel as though it was only last month that I was sat cross-legged on the lounge room floor wrapping Christmas gifts in brown paper. Now autumn is in full swing. Even with the startling amount of rain we've been enduring lately, I still love and embrace this season in all its glory. I adore autumn and the filtered sun that accompanies it. I love the crisp morning air, and the promise of snow soon to settle on the mountains back home.

I drove home to the mountains for a fleeting visit last weekend, hopeful that even with the approach of winter there would still be something interesting flowering in the garden that I could cut to bring back to brighten our little city flat. 

Sadly but not unexpectedly, anything that had flowered and flourished over the summer had retreated beneath the cooling ground in anticipation of early frosts. The vegetable patch was almost bare, save for the small clump of rhubarb that seems to defy all seasonal obstacles. Over the fence in an abandoned backyard, however, there was an ancient very old apple tree heavy with an abundance of blushing apples. For me, apples are synonymous with autumn. I didn't hesitate to take advantage. I returned to Sydney with a gluttony of refreshingly imperfect fruit, and little idea of how I am supposed to eat my way through them before they start to go bad. I've been eating them fresh for breakfast all week. And I keep meaning to stew some to have with porridge. But I also wanted to turn some of the apples into something slightly delectable and otherwise banned from our diet. Something naughty.

I carefully halved and cored a handful of them before baking them in the oven to eat with butterscotch sauce. I appropriated THIS recipe for butterscotch sauce. It's not the healthiest way to enjoy apples, but I don't regret it one bit. It is definitely a sometimes only food. Until next autumn...

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

Bowerbird

I was in a city bar recently, two glasses deep into the house-white when someone amongst our party asked the group what they thought their spirit animal is. I had immediate flashbacks to an exceptionally awkward job interview where a similar out of the blue question was asked. 

Out of the blue. It's from the blue that my answer comes. I'm a bowerbird, fussing over my nest, filling it with beautiful objects (blue, and otherwise) that I've scavenged from just about everywhere. Yes, I relate to the bowerbird completely. The "otter" in the group replied, "that seems like a very florist answer".  Is it? I think I was a bowerbird loong before I was a florist. I'm less a florist, and more a nester, a home-body, a frustrated interior designer. I only believe in beautiful things.

This past year, I overhauled the cutlery drawer by purging it of all plastic. I replaced the ugly plastic divider with a nicer wooden version and put baskets either side. All plastic handled cutlery was thrown donated in favour of silver spoons, bone-handled knives, and wooden serving utensils. It was a total gentrification of the top kitchen drawer. My inspiration for this project was Catherine at In The Fields, previously A Country Farmhouse. The images from this post of her own kitchen drawer sparked in me a burning desire to cultivate my own rustic, beautifully mis-matched top drawer.

I'm not sure how many readers out there would get similarly excited over something as mundane and utilitarian as the cutlery drawer, but a true nester, a fellow bowerbird would understand irrevocably. Catherine is my style idol. The queen of collectables. And a fellow flower enthusiast. To say that I am a big admirer is falling short of the mark. Catherine and her husband are currently undergoing a second home restoration. Their first home featured on her A Country Farmhouse blog was something dreams are made of. Impossibly impeccable.

I try to hold most other aspects of our own nest to a similarly rigorous aesthetic standard. It is not always an easy task, because the man in my our home doesn't recognise why the sheets and covers on the bed need to match, or why I need to buy another lamp, and trying to convince him of the beauty of coloured depression glass will be eternally futile. In his defence though, he thinks nothing of my buying yet another wicker basket, is in full-support of my quest for the perfect wing-back arm chair in which to read, and has readily accepted that the entire contents of our recently gentrified drawer require hand-washing and can never under any circumstances be put through the dishwasher. He's easily trained. I think i'll keep him.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

Bottoms up!

We are officially back in the "big smoke".

Our little (temporary) apartment has little more than a few white goods and a bed at the moment, but we are once again Sydney-siders.

I've been slow to dive back into the rush of city living, I dipped a proverbial toe in the waters first.

But, I'll admit to be being a little excited to experience some new aspects of Sydney living.

Cheers!


Kate  x


Styling and Photograph by Moss & Vine

Good taste

When I was growing up this painting hung on the wall above the television. I didn't pay much attention to it, frankly I didn't care for art very much.

I feel differently these days of course. I squealed with delight when I found a room filled with Degas in the Met when I was visiting New York. I am consistently green with envy when I see beautiful paintings on Antiques Roadshow. And I often think art collecting would be an exciting hobby if I ever had the money.

My Mum has wonderful taste. This painting belongs to her.

The delicate blue plumbago seemed like a pretty accompaniment. 

I've just spent a few weeks at her home on the south coast, picking flowers and taking photos. I can't wait to return at Easter time and see what is flowering then.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

Valentine's Day wrap // The Snail & Petal

I love love, so I love being a florist on Valentine's Day. Shout out to the man who bought his fiancée a stem of ornamental kale because she isn't a 'rose sort of girl'. You're my kind of outside-of-the-box guy. Shout out to the silver fox who came into the shop with his young son to buy his wife a rose, and got each of his little girls a rose too. And a big shout out to Anna at The Snail & Petal for saying goodbye to me with the most scrumptious smelling candle I've ever smelt. Canberra ‪people, if you need flowers, choose The Snail & Petal. My time doing wedding work there was wonderful. Happy Valentine's Day lovers.

Kate  x

Styling and Photograph by Moss & Vine

Candle from The Snail & Petal, Hackett

Small packages

Are most definitely the best packages!

If you are a regular reader of Moss & Vine, firstly thanks, secondly you'll know I've been lusting after the beautiful velvet ring boxes from The Mrs Box for quite some time. You will also know from this post that it was my birthday last month. Some girls drop hints to their men about jewellery. I dropped hints about the vessel jewellery is traditionally presented in. 

I didn't want a ring. 

I wanted a ring box. 

A velvet ring box made from French velvet estimated to be between 40 and 100 years old, just to be precise. He's a switched on man, this man of mine. Actually, I wasn't overly subtle about my desired birthday present. He'd need to be really quite dim not to have grasped my hints outright requests for my very own Mrs Box.

I think it must be the most beautifully tactile object I own. I can't stop looking at it, turning it over in my hands. It is stunning.

If you're getting married, you should put your wedding bands in a Mrs Box for the wedding ceremony.

If you're planning to propose, you should do it with a Mrs Box.

If you already have a cherished ring, you should have a Mrs Box to put it in when it's not on your finger.

Shout out to The Mrs Box for dreaming up and producing such an exquisite thing!

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

'The Gardener' Mrs Box from The Mrs Box

On the move again

We've never been the type to live in one place for too long. Secretly this frustrates me no-end. I'd like nothing more than to stay in one location and make a beautiful home, plant a colourful garden, and adopt a dog. As it is, we've lived in three different cities in the past five years: Sydney, Auckland, Canberra, and now, Sydney again.

I know, I've just finished praising the benefits of Canberra living, and now I'm back in the very city I  was dissing a few months back. But, needs must. Alex has been offered a fantastic new job opportunity that was, as they say, too good to turn down.

And so we find ourselves becoming Sydney-siders once more. Back in the rat-race. In truth, I'm not over the moon about being back in the big smoke, but, between you and me, I've been promised adequate compensation.

There are a few obvious benefits to being back though. I once again have the Sydney flower markets at my disposal. In our new neighbourhood is the beautiful Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden. And I'm hopeful that one day soon I'll be able to secure a fun, inspiring and challenging new role in the floristry industry. I am hungry to learn. Hungry to grow my skills and responsibility level. Hungry to make floral friends. I am particularly eager to get much more hands-on wedding experience.

Thanks to all those who made our (short) time in Canberra a wonderful one.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

26 nectar moments OR comparison is the thief of joy

 It's my birthday! I am 26 years old.

 My twenties (so far) have been more wonderful than not. I am healthy, educated, fiscally fit, and happy. It is more than many people get in a lifetime. But there has also been an abundance of self-doubt, and harmful comparison of my life with other "more successful" people that I know. I am gradually realising that it is far more useful to focus on the things you have accomplished, than to always look to the things you hoped to have already achieved.

Have you heard of the Nectar List?

It's the opposite of a bucket list. It's fun, and if you do it right, it breeds a feeling of satisfaction and, even more rare, contentment.

So for my 26th birthday, I sat down and wrote 26 entries on my very own nectar list.

1. I've photographed the rooftops of Paris from the Eiffel Tower

2. I've had a brilliant view of New York's Central Park from a plane window

3. I've had a bonfire in my garden

4. I've watched the new year fireworks beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge

5. I've had jewellery bought for me at Tiffany, 5th Avenue

6. I've lived in a multi-generational household

7. I've climbed to the top of St Paul's Cathedral, London

8. I've swum in a muddy dam

9. I've swum in an infinity pool

10. I've fed the monkeys at the top of Murugan temple, Kuala Lumpur

11. I've dined at Rockpool

12. I've dined at the Auckland sky tower revolving restaurant

13. I've lived abroad

14. I've seen the Olympic torch being skied down a mountain

15. I've rode on the back of a camel on the beach

16. I've walked The Mall, Washington DC

17. I've felt euphoric with the realisation that there are empty seats next to me on a long-haul flight

18. I've perused Degas' famous works at The Met

19. I've been brought to tears by music

20. I've been brought to tears at a wedding

21. I've chopped my hair off with reckless abandon

22. I've seen Girl Reading by Renoir (one of my favourite paintings) in the Musée d'Orsay

23. I've held the soft-cover, published work of my brother in my hands

24. I've bathed by starlight in a hot mineral spa on the edge of Lake Rotorua

25. I've watched the sun set over the Indian ocean

26. I've planted a herb garden

Of course, there is far more to my life (and everyone's life) than those 26 simple things. I could probably write a list of 260 things and still not be done. 

I'm hopeful that my 26th year will bring more nectar to my existence. 

Let's eat cake!

Kate  x

Flowers, Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine