About. My first floral workshop.

Last Saturday was a very special day for me: I hosted my first floral workshop! 
It took place in a Spanish bookstore/library called Bartlerbly & Co where I go often to pick up lending books. 

Back in December I was there one day to give back a couple of novels when Ana, the owner of the shop, told me that she had seen my blog where I published flower arrangements I made. She said she liked them very much. Suddenly she offered me her space to give a floral workshop. She caught me completely by surprise (Thank you very much Ana for the surprising proposal). 

The great opportunities come like this: unexpected. And if there is something I know it's that catching the unexpected is often the successful path to grow up.
I accepted the offer and started to prepare everything. I designed the content of the workshop and the strategy to put together the materials for a reasonable price.
The fixed date was getting closer while I was getting more and more excited.
Manfred helped me a lot. He gave me strength and support. He also spend that full day with me, carrying stuff and looking for Fauna (and also Deacon). Thank you husband of mine. 

You know what? It was a perfect day. As soon as the workshop started I felt relaxed. I could enjoy every minute and I had a lot of fun. We all did.
We were five persons because the room couldn't hold any more but I think that it was a good amount for the first time. All the girls who came loved flowers but never tried to work with them before. They were complete novices and this was a good thing. What I wanted to achieve was to create a joyful atmosphere were they could delight themselves creating beauty. I gave them some basic and important information about the tools we were using and I offered them some visual inspiration. For the rest, I let them do. And sometimes I gave them some advise. I didn't want to bore them with to much knowledge about design and composition.
When they finished it, each got a little arrangement to take home. One of them did even two. When the class was over I did one arrangement with what was left. Would you guess which is the one I did?

Since that day, my head is spinning around. I am thinking when I will make the second one. What would be the next exercise. Which other ways I can sell my floral work. Etc.
Because there is something sure about this experience: That I want to make a living out of floral work.

Personal. Fauna, 9 months.

Winter gets me like this: uninspired, uncommunicative, unmotivated. Anyway, I will make an effort to tell you the latest things happening around here before this blog dies completely.

Fauna is 9 months old and she is growing very fast. Her first tooth is already visible and a second one is on its way (which is a source of frustration due to the pain). She knows how to crawl. She already has a enormous spectrum of feelings and expressions. She is showing us that she has a strong character, full of power. She loves shower/bath time, even more now that she knows how to splash water all over. She is a very good eater who likes everything we offer her. She enjoys to eat by herself so, at least once a day, I give her things that she can hold with her little hands (boiled carrots, banana, little pieces of chicken meat). Now that breastfeeding is not her main source of food, I enjoy it on a new level. It's a very intimate moment of love. I am more relaxed since I don't feel under the pressure of it anymore. She is more distracted, of course. She tends to release herself from the nipple. Then she looks up to me, smiles and makes sounds: da, da, daaa. Often she also does blows raspberries next to my breast. She has discovered the presence of a couple of guitars in the house and she goes to them and play the strings very often. And she does it quite good. But, for sure, her interest is on the most dangerous stuff around. Things like power plugs, cables and loaders, sharp furniture's edges... But on the other hand she can be entertained by herself considerable amounts of time. When she is quiet for too long it is better to go on spying her to she what she has found.
Manfred and I are continuously amazed by her. We have a lot of fun because well, as any parent, the things your child does are just really funny.

January was a month to be at home with friends. My friend Maria came from Madrid to make us a weekend visit and we celebrated the birthday of another friend from our neighborhood back there who lives here too. 
February is a month of work and challenge for me. This is always a good thing: to go out of my comfort zone. I am excited because I am going to host a little floral workshop. It will be in a Spanish library, here in Berlin. I am deadly nervous but looking forward and preparing everyday.
But honestly I am counting the days for winter to be over... However, it is being a nice winter. There are many bright days when the sun shines with all its power. I think the season is having mercy on us. Perhaps the worst weather is about to come. You can never know for sure...

Agains the winter, flowers.

About the flowers which inhabited my home during January.