definatalie.com » flowers

Detail oriented

Natalie — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:22:36 +0000

I took a bunch of photos at Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens the other week and most of the photos I took were of details. You might have noticed, but I am a fan of finely detailed things. I thought I’d post some of these just in case you’re inspired by details in nature too.

Whimsy boxing

Natalie — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 08:33:52 +0000

You might have noticed lately but my posting is all over the place, and lots of the regular stuff hasn’t been so regular. I haven’t been feeling very well and so today Nick took me out for a change of scenery. Brisbane is lucky to have lots of gorgeous parks, and one of the most loved is New Farm Park.

Not only does it have expanses of lovely green grass that touch the Brisbane River, the Powerhouse and some of the nicest homes in New Farm, there’s also a magnificent garden of roses and other flowers.

Unfortunately it’s such a nice place that lots of people visit it and picnic there, get married in the rotunda and play football amongst the rose beds. If you want some peace and quiet, the best thing to do is lie down on the grass, pop your earphones in and search the sky for nothing in particular.

Though if you’re like me, you’ll probably go stalking through the gardens looking for pretty things to take photos of, and then you’ll come home and put them through the whimsy filter in Photoshop.

I hope your weekends have been, if not full of nice stuff, at least a little bit touched by beauty.

Dahlia salad, anyone?

Natalie — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:10:47 +0000

Today I bought two bunches of lovely dahlias at the markets. I have long loved them but have never seen them to buy them and bring them home and gaze at their loveliness!

When I was unwrapping them and snipping the ends off to put them in a vase I discovered that they drop their petals way too easily. I ended up with a lot of bald flowers. A little googling tells me that the flowers that lose their petals are old flowers that are beyond usefulness.

Though as I was cleaning up, I noticed the petals had a very peppery scent. You must be able to eat them! I checked the wikipedia page and it says

The Aztecs gathered and cultivated the dahlia for food, ceremonies, as well as decorative purposes, and the long woody stem of one variety was used for small pipes.

What a handy little flower :)

Another Saturday in Brisneyland

Natalie — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:48:03 +0000

The last few times we’ve been to the markets I forgot to pick up flowers, but today Nick helped me pick out the blooms! I actually saw the green chrysanthemums and grabbed them but didn’t know what to pair them with. Nick thought they’d go well with some white oriental lilies, and what do you know? They look very pretty! We are indeed a budding floral design couple.

I’m still in love with the Hipstamatic app. This is taken with the Kaimal Mark II lens and Ina’s 1969 film.

Taken with the John S lens and Blanko film. Life is simpler through the Hipstamatic’s viewfinder!

It’s so bright and sunny and hot today! We’ll probably be going for another swim at the local pool later.

We are made of star stuff

Natalie — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:25:07 +0000

I have loved space since I was a young girl, and things like this make me feel so connected to the cosmos even if we are a tiny part of it! This was posted somewhere else by a friend of mine and I just wanted to share it with everyone because it’s awesome.

Today is my pre birthday! That’s right, it’s the day before my birthday that I am claiming as being part of my birthday so I can demand things all weekend! I bought myself some flowers and arranged them with some clippings from our garden. I may not be a good florist, but I am awesome at my birthday.

Oooh ETA! This is somewhat related to star stuff… it’s Amanda Palmer singing about pop music and art and I love the sentiment!

Totes houseproud

Natalie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:02:13 +0000

The weekend means mystery flowers from the market! The sign in the bucket said “Lizzies $5 or 3 for $10″, so I bought three for a very plump looking arrangement. I did a bit of a google for Lizzy/ Lizzie flowers but the image search results turned up some flowers that didn’t look like these at all. Apparently Lizzies are part of the Impatiens family, and there are quite a variety of flower heads within the genus so they could well be Lizzies… who knows?! Do you?

Here’s a closer shot so you can have a look at the buds and flowers.

The other week I was introduced to the wonder of kumatoes: small and round tomatos with a brown or striped skin. They taste crisp and sweet, perfect in salads if you want something crunchy and fresh in summer!

I love colourful foods, they make life so much nicer.

These muffins look better than they taste unfortunately. I didn’t have any buttermilk and I forgot to whisk the egg. ALWAYS WHISK THE EGG! It makes things much fluffier.

And now… I must do laundry. Fancy’s on weekend :P

You’ve got red on you

Natalie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:05:43 +0000

I bought these lovely velvety, brainy-looking Celosia from the markets because they are such fascinating looking flowers! The stems are green but have threads of the red through them and they reminded me so much of rhubarb that I wasn’t surprised to read on the wikipedia page you can eat some variants of these flowers.

Brains! Also velvet.

And then I dyed my hair Red Corvette, for a lark!

Let’s play a game

Natalie — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:39:05 +0000

We went to the markets this morning and I bought some more mystery flowers! Remember the mystery flowers from last Saturday? Amongst the suggested species: sweet pea, snapdragon and ranunculus; but the closest suggestion was from ozjoe who said they could be Stock flowers. The photo on the wikipedia page wasn’t convincing but after browsing Google image search I’m beginning to think they could indeed be a variety of them!

Now I implore you to continue the greenening of my opposable digit! What are these flowers? They have a very sturdy flower head with stiff, card-like petals. I remember these from my childhood as being the scratchy things that would rudely brush past us whenever we would trample people’s gardens.

I could ask the flower sellers at the markets… but that’d take the fun out of the game and deny you the opportunity of being a smart arse ;)

This little piggy went to market

Natalie — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:17:52 +0000

I was in a shocking mood this morning but we went to the markets and bought loads of beautiful fruit and veges (and flowers!) so now I’m feeling a lot better. Included in our market booty: pomegranates to make pommie cupcakes, and besan flour to make delicious vegetable kofta balls. I took some photos of my haul to further enhance my cheering and then I whimsyfscked them (ie: put a bunch of colour layers over the image to make it look hip and vintage).

Nick enjoyed his wurst and sauerkraut immensely!

Now while I go bake a zebra cake for my friend’s birthday party tomorrow, you must tell me what these flowers are!

Fanciful Friday: Floral Headpiece edition

Natalie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:11:47 +0000

This week I’ve been seeing some fantastical floral headpieces, so I wanted to spotlight the fanciful world of flowers-on-people’s-heads! You don’t need to be a bride to plop some flora on your noggin either – every day is an excuse to be fancy.

⇒ I wish I could tell you where this headpiece came from, or who the model and photographer are, but like a lot of posts on tumblr this was uncredited. Still, beautiful!

⇒ I adore Grandiflora‘s flowers-as-headwear! This is from a shoot in Vogue Australia.

⇒ This stunning photograph was taken by inverselive.

⇒ My gorgeous friend Zoe sporting a floral headband by my other talented friend Kiki! She’s just opened up a store on madeit.com.au under Elastic Wasteland. I’m waiting for Kiki to put up some of her headpieces so I can buy one!

⇒ Combining two of my favourite things: paper and flowers! Katsuya Kamo styled this headwear for Chanel’s Spring 2009 Couture Collection.

⇒ DIY some fancy: Grosgrain Fabulous graciously posted this tutorial on making felt poppies. I think you could easily turn these into an incredible headpiece. I’m going to attempt it in the next week!