fresh (paper) flowers

with the fast & dirty arrival of winter, i find myself longing for the sultry days, greenery, and florals of summer. while winter, too, is beautiful, and i have been enjoying the transformation of the local landscape into a winter wonderland, i am not fully prepared for the impending deep freeze and long winter months.

so when i happened upon these clever fresh (paper) flowers from design studio Itunube, i couldn't imagine a more delightful way of passing the Canadian winter. a collection of 32 flowers printed on newsprint, Fresh Flowers was designed by Sandra Bautista not only as a format to catalogue a series of photographed flowers, but also as a way of having a display of flowers on your table everyday, with a different flower for each day of the month. you simply choose one of the flowers, place it as the cover, make a roll with all the pages together, and display it in a vase. brilliant, right?

there is also something wonderfully practical about displaying paper flowers in a vase. not only do they not require water and will not wilt (although i think wilting and decay are part of the beauty of real flowers), but they are also safe for our feline friends. i've been reluctant to bring fresh flowers into the house ever since our cat, Hunter, was poisoned from eating lilies last year and lost one of his nine lives (although he was deathly sick, thankfully he pulled through and recovered!). if you have a cat like ours who will eat any fresh or leafy green thing, bringing fresh flowers into your home can unknowingly put them at risk if they turn out to be toxic. short of finding the perfect non-poisonous flower, perhaps Fresh Flowers is a good solution? 

the newsprint book would also make a lovely gift and is much easier to send by post than natural flowers. it would certainly brighten my day!

all photos courtesy of Itunube. 

flowers of instagram

credits: anabela (fieldguided) // jane (ill seen, ill said)


lately, my instagram feed has been coloured with photos of flowers: snapshots, still lifes, close-ups, and artful photos of bouquets. i have been reluctant to bring flowers into the house ever since i poisoned my cat with lilies last year, and i have always been the kind to spontaneously treat myself with a bouquet or even a single flower while walking through the city streets and running errands, which country living makes somewhat difficult. i am looking forward to Spring and Summer when all the neighbhourhood and nearby gardens, parks, and wildflowers will be in full bloom, but until then i was inspired to put together a few of my favourites in celebration of the soft, subtle, and sometimes vibrant beauty of flowers and the lovely ladies who so willingly and lovingly share these glimpses from their everday lives.

credits: teresa (stone & honey) // melinda josie
amy merrick // noemie (as ink remains)



credits: jane (ill seen, ill said) // sarah (saipua)
melinda josie // jen (honey kennedy)

credits: anntorian // anabela (fieldguided)
 jane (ill seen, ill said) // noemie (as ink remains)

credits: sandra juto // chelsae (frolic!)
amy merrick // sarah (saipua)

credits: emma (emmadime) // hannah (another feather)
bri (designlovefest) // kate (for me, for you)

Bri of designlovefest put it best when she shared the above photo: "six dollar afternoon happiness." her sentiment shows how easily it is to create bursts of happiness throughout what otherwise might be a mundane, exhausting, or evern stressful day. i feel aspects of that happiness simply by browsing through my instagram feed and sharing in these deligthful moments, so THANK YOU to all the wonderful bloggers, designers, and artists whose photos i have featured here for adding bursts of happiness to my long, work-filled winter days.

xo