Prop sale

 

We are selling some of the props we have used for photo shoots, weddings and magazines.

Some of the items have been featured in The Daily Telegraph, and The Daily Mail. We have yet to break into the left wing papers.

There are also ex-hire vases, and a duck/goose. Some greetings cards and the odd scented candle. Contrary to what he may tell you, The Hound is not for sale.

We are in desperate need of the space for weddings and because i have a habit of buying more things, and unlike Martha and her prop warehouse, i don't have a warehouse. also there is to be a thing here this weekend, and i definitely need the space for that.

So come on down, the price is right.

Tomorrow i will beguile you with pictures of recent weddings, it is to be a weekend of weddings, Kate Moss, the Monaco lot. Are you gripped?

I wish you were here

We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl.

Wednesday has become Pink Floyd lyric day, that's because my Tuesday evening's have become Pink Floyd lyric evenings. Passing on the love.

Sometimes people telephone to place an order for flower delivery. They open with

"I'm calling from London"

I don't know why.

Sometimes i reply with

"Oh my, all the way from London, isn't technology marvellous?" or

Sometimes i just shout "Margaret?....Margaret? there is someone from London on the phone. London i tell you"

For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of this fair land, London is 98 miles due South of here, people commute to London from here. Everyday. You can't move for former W11 girls in their Range Rovers.

Although to some people in London clearly the "Country" is the land of simple people.

Also thank you to several people that emailed to offer free stuff for my wedding in exchange for a "shout out" on the blog.

The clue was in the post title.

and scences from the shop, including tomatoes, just for my sisters.

If I were getting married today

1. Lillian and Leonard would take the group shots, i adore this photograph
2. I would wear a Rust wedding band of oak leaves
3. and a dress with sleeves
4. Bridesmaids dresses of gold from Adore Vintage
5. and a cake by Seven Spoons made of ice cream.

I'm not getting married today, but apparently it is one of the FAQ's i didn't answer.

and it is frequently asked.

and i thought i had posted this on Saturday, but seemingly not.

2 posts in 1 day  (sing that to the tune of Crowded house 4 seasons in 1 day.)

Crazytown.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

It is hot. Too hot. Last weekend it was too rainy. British weather, no wonder we spend all our time talking about it.

1. A single stem of a bush rose, it clearly has delusions of being a hydrangea.
2. I went to a city, there was a Paperchase.
3. A mad dog
4. Some like it hot.
5. Lunch with a dear friend and a very small person
6. Home cured bacon, not cured in my home, but devoured in it.
7. Homegrown raspberries, so very Tom and Barbara and hello pretty colourway of pale blue and raspberry red.

There was also an unexpected visitor, a rather marvellous evening in India, a dull Grand Prix, Beyonce at Glastonbury that had us all reaching for the stair master, and I turned down a television job. I used the words "not the right vehicle" clearly i need to be slapped.

This might also be the first time we have used a Noel Coward song, I will do it again.

And a very special Bon Voyage to a girl and a boy who are setting off on a romantic adventure.

Did you have fun? Did you survive the heat? Have you had a storm yet? Will we ever talk of anything other than the weather?

A short play

A man walks into a shop

Man: My wife doesn't understand me

Miss P.: She might, if you bought her flowers instead of just trying to look down my top.

One day an anonymously written book called Secrets of a Shopkeeper will appear on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

I will be anonymous.

You think your days are ordinary

 

And no one ever thinks about you
But we're all the same
And she can hardly breathe without you

Last night over a very late supper of piping hot roast chicken dipped in truffle oil we talked about the things that conspire to bring 2 people together. It was all quite deep and meaningful.

Keane played in the background, do you remember them?

Once upon a time I made a buttonhole for Wedding Magazine. I attached a tag.

The rest is history.

I made the bouquets too.

I know a mouse and he hasn't got a house

I don't know why I call him Gerald.


I had to google it too.

Some roses for tomorrow's wedding. Scented. If i were getting married today and all that.

Freidland Sweet Antike for the geeks.

I have made a dozen red, we don't do that sort of thing often. I counted the roses 11 times. Constantly paranoid that i have put in 13.

Today's fun has been freaking out foreign tourists by suddenly talking to them in their native tongue.

The good, the bad and the downright beautiful

This is not a wedding report. There aren't countless fancy pictures. This was a wedding of a wedding photographer, she hired Polly to take the shots. All the guests were wedding photographers. I wasn't pulling out my 40D in the presence of greatness, and there was much much greatness. These are the only photos i took.

Instead, this is a little tale of a florist at a wedding.

I was honoured when Emily asked me to do her wedding, then she said it was camping, and i remember saying "how wonderful" but thinking "bugger" I have never done camping.

After 6 1/2 hours of being stuck in traffic, being offered sexual favours by men in vans, I finally arrived at a field in Sussex, in torrential rain, wearing flip flops and a short sleeved cotton top. Everyone else was in proper wet weather gear and wellies. We had a campfire, and drank ale, i lost my camping cherry right there.

The next morning at 4.30 am i set out my work table, and started. It was glorious sunshine. I was cutting sloe branches from the hedgerows and long meadow grass It couldn't have been more "lifestyle".

Then it rained on and off all morning, and i took cover in the van, and watched my work rained on, blown by gales, and wept just a little. I know what you are thinking why didn't I run out and rescue them? I did the bridal party flowers, but the rest i left.

I had moved them in and out of shelter 27 times by this point. I was working on the principle of natural selection.

And then my flower prep table became the altar, and the sun shone and 5 minutes before the bride arrived i realised i was still in my pyjamas.

and the ceremony was beautiful, and the dress, and the bridesmaids dresses and the songs, and the ribbons and the corsages.

There is a saying somewhere that says if you want the measure of somebody you should look at their friends. I don't think i have ever spent a weekend in the company of people so amazing.

In summary, the good was meeting so many people, in particular Charis and Owen off of O&C photography, Christian, and Allison off of The Peoples shop, and dressmakers extraordinaire, and Martin and Lynne off of Stef's Aunt and Uncle, and campfire toast.

The bad was the weather, and the beetle in my bed.

The beautiful? Everything.

Thank you to The Wedding Reporter for the picture of Emily and Stef,.

and to Mr Ferrari, and Lapelman and Ghislaine, and Angela, without whom i wouldn't have even got to Sussex, but that is a whole other tale......

Wedding Flowers magazine - multicoloured

And it had colours of multi.

and some Amy Butler fabric wrapped around it for good measure, you will recall the behind the scenes post.

and the purple jam jar got another airing.

Brilliant.

No matter how many times you work appears in print, it is always just like the first time. Excitement.

Somebody emailed me after seeing the table centre to ask if i thought wood was the next big thing in containers? I do love wood, and i hope it is, but i used the wooden urn as it was only 99p in Age Concern, and if i didn't get it back it didn't matter. I did get it back, it lives on to fulfil it's potential as a big thing.

That's how trends start.

This will be the last post for a few days, Sussex is calling, a field, a yurt, some flowers, a floral dress, a panama hat, and a striped blazer. Maybe wellies.....

The Hound has checked into the Mayr clinic.


#notyetbuiltabridge

What a bitch

If people talk about me they normally say things like

That Miss Pickering is so sweet, such a lovely girl, marvellous manners and she has that beautiful dog.

That's because they don't read my tweets, or look deep enough into my eyes to see the murderous look i sometimes get. I try to keep this side of me hidden, but sometimes even i, sweet Miss P. can just be a plain old bitch.

Like this morning at the vets, i waited 30 minutes for my appointment, and then she told me The Hound was fat. I wasn't pleasant back to her, i was wrong, i have now have to go back and apologise. I hate that.

Then 2 brides emailed me this morning, one was Emily who i know very well, one was somebody i don't. They both got similar emails, that to all intense and purposes said:

I am going to ignore every word you say, because you are now only 3 days away from your wedding, and you are therefore irrational. All brides are. Don't worry about the flowers, let me do that, you should be worrying that you are about to commit yourself to a man for the rest of your life, and be drinking champagne.

Emily totally got it, the other bride, did too. Thank god.

I now need somebody to be a bitch to me, I am stressing that i still have nothing to wear to Emily's wedding, is he coming with me or not? Have you seen the price of flowers this week? The vet practically accused me of neglect, i have eaten many carbs before marbs.

Thankfully The Mother Hen is popping in. I am hoping for a slap, and a pull yourself together.

In other news, i have more medicine bottles, these have coloured liquids in. Let's not go there.

and copper pans, i hung up the rack, we are taking bets on how long before it comes crashing down, and also how much damage it does in the process. Science corner has become domestic science corner.

See Jenny, it's not always rainbows and butterflies here, don't be homesick. x