flowers

Afternoon Tea and Cream Coloured Roses

Afternoon Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, the artyologist

Last month, when Spring had not yet arrived, (who am I kidding- Spring still hasn’t really arrived!!!) but we were aching for some sign of life, my mom splurged and bought a bouquet of roses. Although cut flowers don’t last for long, and can be expensive to buy regularly, they are such a nice treat during the long long days of Winter and the early days of Spring when there is nary a sign of green to be seen anywhere out of doors. It is amazing what a pretty bouquet of flowers can do to lift the spirits! And a bunch of beautiful cream coloured roses, with just a hint of blush pink in the centre, paired with a cup of afternoon tea- what a perfect combination.

Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, detail, the artyologist

You might think, judging by the photographs I often take, that all I do is drink tea. And yes- you would be correct. 😉 At any given moment of any day, you will most likely find me with teacup in hand, sipping away. The most often answered question in the house is, “Shall I put the kettle on?” And the answer is almost always a resounding, “Yes!”

For me, it must always be black tea (Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Ceylon or Orange Pekoe are my favourites), lightly steeped and without anything else added to it. (Although, yes I do occasionally enjoy a cup of green as well) I used to drink my tea strictly the English way- with milk and sugar, if you please, but now I enjoy drinking it plain. I once read that tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, after water- and I don’t doubt it! For me, it is most definitely the second most consumed- and some days I have to remind myself that water should come first, not tea 🙂

Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, teacup, the artyologist

What better way is there to spend an afternoon, than enjoying a pretty bouquet of roses, and a small tea party for one?

Do you enjoy drinking tea, and how do you take it? Do you do “afternoon tea” or do you just drink it whenever you feel like it? And do you like to get bouquets of cut flowers?

Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, roses and tea at desk, the artyologist

Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, roses closeup, the artyologist

Tea and Cream Coloured Roses, tea detail, the artyologist

Tea and Tulips on a February Day

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist

It is in February when I start longing for the sunshine and flowers of spring and summer. November and December hold the anticipation of Christmas and the snow is fresh and clean and appealing. January brings the promise of a bright New Year and fireside days. But, by the time February comes along, the snow is not a novelty anymore, and the days seem cold and lifeless. The weather warms up just enough to tease us with promise of Spring, only to freeze again. It is in the later days of February that we start to look towards Spring with expectation. I am not one to buy cut flowers often, but sometimes a bouquet of flowers is just the perfect thing to brighten up those long winter days. My mom surprised me and my sister this year on Valentine’s Day with a bouquet of gorgeous yellow and purple tulips. Yellow and purple are two colours that go extremely well together, and these tulips created a beautifully simple, yet elegant, bouquet.

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, tulip vase

I love tulips as they are one of those funny kinds of flowers that seem to have a mind of their own. As soon as you arrange them in a bouquet, they rearrange themselves and completely undo all the arranging you did to them. Tulips actually continue to grow in the vase, and these certainly did as soon as I put them in the vase. I promise you that they were arranged in some kind of order, but by the time I took these photos, they had drooped and flopped all over the place. It’s OK though, as it makes them seem that much more natural and alive; and they do give me hope that Winter is not forever!

What could be more inviting on a cold February day than a bouquet of Spring flowers and a piping hot cup of tea in a pretty china teacup?

Do you like to have bouquets of flowers in winter? And tea in a pretty cup?

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, vase and teacup

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, tulip details

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, teacup top view and vase

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, tulip detail

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, teacup and vase

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, horizontal tulips

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, teacup

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, tulip and teacup detail

Tea and Tulips on a February Day, the artyologist, top view teacup

Gathering Flowers in Floral: A Summer Uniform

Gathering Flowers in Floral: A Summer Uniform, the artyologist

I don’t like uniforms. I once worked in a job that required me to wear all black, and that was enough uniformness for me. I think that’s why I love vintage- just so I can be different from everyone else. 🙂 Thus, I am hesitant to even use the word “uniform” to describe my default summer look, but . . . well, it is a commonly used term. . .

Back in May, after participating in Me Made May, I decided that I needed more knee length skirts, as this black floral one is my absolute favourite and it is in constant rotation in my closet. So, I made a few more (the dutch wax, the vintage sheet, and I am currently working on another in denim), and they are getting their fair share of use over the past few months. Thus, I realized that I do, after all, have a summer uniform, er, “signature look”, and it consists of: a solid coloured t-shirt and a knee length full skirt. For the casual days of summer, it’s just perfect.

The nice thing about a simple combination like this, is that each time you can change it up with different accessories. On this occasion, I added my new leather obi belt, which coordinated perfectly with the cinnamon browns in the skirt, a long pendant necklace of a Victorian lady in a ridiculous hat, some flat comfortable loafers, and my woven straw carryall. (And no, the straw bag did not work very well as a flower gathering basket, but it was all I had, and it looked pretty, so that’s all that matters- right?)

summer uniform, new belt, the artyologist

Speaking about flower gathering, a few weeks ago, the county announced that they were going to be mowing the ditches, which was pretty sad news, as the country lanes are so much prettier overgrown with wildflowers, but I guess it had to be done. (Nooo! Why did it have to be done?!) Before they could get out with the mowers though, I decided to go and gather a few bouquets of flowers. I don’t usually go and pick wildflowers along the roads, as if everybody did that, then there would be no more flowers left to enjoy in nature. However, if the flowers were going to be sacrificed to the lawn mower, then I was going to save them! 🙂 And I also decided to take advantage of the beautiful backdrop it would make for photos. Although, what you do not see in these romantically styled, pastoral images is. . . the mosquitos! They were out with a vengeance that night, but the photos made it worth it . . . maybe 😉

Do you have a summer uniform? Or a winter uniform if you are not in summer right now? What pieces do you always find yourself reaching for?

T-Shirt: Company by Ellen Tracey, Made in Canada, and strangely enough, it’s from Costco

Skirt: Made by me

Shoes: Hotter Shoes, it looks like they don’t have them anymore?

Necklace: Chain from a thrift store, pendant from Michael’s craft store (they sometimes have really great pendants!)

Basket / purse: flea market

summer uniform, gathering flowers, the artyologist

gathering flowers in floral, a summer uniform the artyologist

a summer uniform, the artyologist

country lane, gathering flowers, the artyologist

a summer uniform, the artyologist

fleabane, gathering wildflowers, the artyologist

cutting flowers, a summer uniform, the artyologist

gathering wildflowers, asters, the artyologist

gathering flowers, a summer uniform, the artyologist

 

 

Technicolor Flowers

Grandma's bright pink rose, Technicolor Flowers, The Artyologist

My Grandma and my Mom are amazing gardeners. I am not a gardener. I don’t enjoy digging in the dirt and planting, and watering and weeding and all of the assorted chores that a garden entails. However, I do absolutely love the flowers that result. I also enjoy being in the garden, and I especially love to take pictures of the flowers that grow. (As you can probably have guessed by now, considering the number of floral themed photos that appear on this blog!) This means that, even though I don’t personally enjoy gardening, I will always have flowers, as houses and yards without them, are so cheerless.

I am constantly amazed by the rainbow of colours in nature, the enormous variety of species, the unique details of the petals. . .  I like taking photos of flowers as they are so easygoing: they don’t move out of frame (unless it’s windy I guess), they sit nicely while I compose my shot, and I don’t have to worry about them not smiling nicely 🙂

Both my Grandma’s backyard, and my Mom’s garden are full of such vibrant flowers – so, today’s garden is brought to you in technicolor!

purple daisy technicolor flowers, the artyologist

Magenta Purple Daisy

purple and yellow lupin and orange lily the artyologist

Orange Lily & Hybrid purple and yellow Lupin. I say “hybrid” because the first year, they were purple and the next year they grew up, both purple and yellow combined.

pink coneflower, technicolor flowers, the artyologist

Coneflower

purple daisy, technicolor flowers, the artyologist

vibrant pink roses, technicolor flowers the artyologist

I have no clue what variety this rose of my Grandma’s is, but it is absolutely stunning. The entire shrub is just covered in hundreds of bright pink blossoms, that fade to a delicious pale pink. The first picture in this post, is also from the same rosebush.

blue cornflower, technicolor flowers, the artyologist

Soft Blue Cornflower

blanketflower, the artyologist

Such vibrant colours in this Blanketflower

blue cornflower and sweet williams, the artyologist

Cornflower & Sweet Williams

yellow lily, technicolor flowers, the artyologist

Turk’s Cap Yellow Lily. It’s called ‘Turk’s cap” because the lilies hang downwards instead of up.

allium, technicolor flowers, the artyologist

Allium, or Ornamental Onion. One of my favourites as they are a large, 4″ balls of spiky flowers!

*All technical and horticultural information in this post, brought to you by my mom. I did not remember what all of these flowers were and so I asked her for the names of them 🙂

Dorothy and The Yellow Surrounded Road

Image of Gingham Pinafore- Dorothy and The Yellow Surrounded Road The Artyologist

I finally got my sunny pictures in the bright yellow canola field! And, I had the perfect outfit to wear with the field. (There I go again- matching my outfits to the farmer’s field!) Well, that is not the whole story. The real story is, I thought to myself, “What could I wear for pictures in the sunny yellow canola field?” A cursory examination of my current wardrobe revealed that I had nothing that would coordinate or contrast with a bright yellow and blue background, that I haven’t already worn a billion times, or catalogued on the blog here before. (And I really wanted to do the field justice!)

canola and navy gingham pinafore the artyologist

So, what to do? Why sew something new, of course! I had an old, 1980’s, baggy, rayon, navy gingham dress in my stash, that I had purchased from the thrift store with the sole purpose of refashioning into something new, and I decided that now was the time. It had been sitting there for a couple of years, waiting for the right project- and this was it! (I will detail that project’s process later.)

So, I had a pinafore, a white blouse to match, and then of course some white sunglasses as it was bright out there, (and I am nothing if not colour coordinated) and a straw sunhat to finish off the look. It was the perfect 1940’s Hollywood interpretation of a farm girl or a milk maid. (Which means that it is nothing like what a real farm girl or milk maid would actually wear, but there is nothing better than a fake Hollywood interpretation of reality, right?) So, that leads me to the title of this post- Dorothy, of The Wizard of Oz. I was almost done making this pinafore when I realized that my outfit looked very fairytale like, although I couldn’t place my finger quite on which character. At first I thought of Alice in Wonderland, but then I remembered that Alice has a solid blue dress with a white pinafore. So then I was trying to remember whose dress mine looked like- and then I realized that it is strikingly similar to Judy Garland’s outfit in that movie- and it was completely by accident! 🙂 I don’t have a yellow brick road, but I do have a road surrounded in yellow- so does that count?

Do you have any dresses similar to movie costumes, either on purpose, or by accident?

Blue gingham pinafore: refashioned by me

White blouse: thrifted

Hat: thrifted

Earrings: gift from my parents

Shoes: Hotter Shoes, “Shipley”

Sunglasses: bought online several years ago

hat white sunglasses and gingham pinafore the artyologist

image of the back of gingham pinafore the artyologist

sunglasses in navy gingham pinafore the artyologist

field of canola landscape the artyologist

pocket detail and canola field the artyologist

sunglasses and pinafore in the canola field the artyologist

shoes with navy gingham dress and canola field the artyologist

landscape in yellow field of canola the artyologist

gingham pinafore dress and country road the artyologist

walking away in gingham pinafore the artyologist