Hands Full of Flowers

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Hands Full of Flowers

Hands Full of Flowers Planet friendly flowers directed by the seasons between April & September. From October, dried flowers are available.

Visit www.handsfullofflowers.com for more details and to order. Thank you
Libby

📸 Cover Photo Lina Hayes Photography

03/01/2025

Enjoying looking back at some favourite bouquet and buttonhole moments, thinking forward with anticipation for some very exciting projects to come

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24/12/2024

Wishing you a Merry Christmas
💕
Libby

14/12/2024

A few more wreaths for next week's orders, and then I will be cleaning and sharpening my snips for a little festive break.

If you are still looking for a last minute gift, hop over to my website www.handsfullofflowers.com and order yours there. Please be very quick if you would like anything posted before Christmas.

Bringing a little behind the scenes of a wintery wreath studio.

All my work is always made to order. The potential wastage of beautiful ingredients that sit waiting for a lovely home makes me sad.

What makes me very happy is knowing that your purchases are as planet-friendly and biodegradeable as I can make them.

And here’s why it matters,

– Imported flowers and foliage will have traces of chemicals that have been banned in many countries. However, some countries can, and still do, use them on products that are coming into the UK. I don’t want these chemicals on my hands while I am working on your designs, and I don’t want to be handing them to you to bring into your homes.

– Floral Foam (Oasis) is a single-use plastic. Once thrown into land-fill it breaks down superfast into micro-plastics. Living by the sea, our community is super aware of the dangers of microplastics entering our waters. Our forebears used fresh water to keep their designs hydrated, and guess what? It turns out that your designs will last longer in water than in floral foam - who could possibly have guessed?

– Wire wreath bases are imported from somewhere far far away where they are made very very cheaply by people who are probably treated and paid very very badly, but a simple and natural wooden wreath is a thing of beauty all by itself.

–And icky plastic decorations - eugh just eugh!

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29/11/2024

I was going to promise not to photograph every wreath…and then I started photographing every wreath.

There is a reason for this manic photography. I use it to check for balance. It becomes a part of the ‘stepping away’ process in any creative practice.

A different perspective reveals the intentional spaces, the less intentional spaces, those that work, and those that need a tweak.

And candles. One of winter’s small pleasures.

I am very twitchy about naked candles and tinder dry winter foliage designs.

Having had a little fire on our Christmas table one year, I never ever have them around foliage, and I quietly shudder everytime I see designs with candles and drying winter foliage.

Please put the candle in a suitable container.

That Christmas table fire?

I had created simple terracotta pots filled with moss and the obligatory candle. Beautiful and simple, I loved them. Prepared days in advance, they had completely dried by the time I decorated the table for our Christmas dinner. Great, they wouldn’t leave any damp marks on the table. Except that the moss was perfect tinder as the little candles burned down, and the melted wax helped the mini inferno to properly ignite.

26/11/2024

When a couple share the photos from their day is always a tingly moment.

I could barely breathe when I opened the images from Aspen and Ian’s beautiful day captured so sensitively by Regenweibchen Photography
Having some of Scotland’s most talented photographer’s capture my work is the most, THE MOST incredible privilege and I love Karo’s work.
I loved working with Aspen’s palette of peaches and pinks and sage green’s. Tucking in a stem of Aspen for her bouquet was also very special. My heart ached with joy as I began working on their bouquets and buttonholes.
And beautiful hairstyling ❤️

So lovely to return to this wedding in Boat of Garten and September’s golden light. We can come back for more gorgeous images from this beautiful wedding

And…back to Winter Wreaths. Busy gathering and prepping foliage and making up bases. Oh, and planting some 1000+ tulip bulbs. November is tulip planting on my calendar, but it just hasn’t been cold enough. Now, all the jobs are backing up!

Thank you so much, as always, for all of your Winter Wreath orders 💕

01/10/2024

I know, it’s October, and no, I am not ready, not willing to think about it.

So, I am thinking of May with gorgeous images from this romanic early summer Highland elopement.

I am lucky enough to look out at a moody atmospheric Highland landscape every day, but I sometimes find it hard to look at yet another drizzly day and see the beauty in its light, to really appreciate just how stunning it is, and what a perfect place to capture our very special moments. So it really is special to be reminded of that occasionally!

I loved creating this bouquet.
. and I love when I can say that every single stem was grown in Ullapool.

I am less excited as I watch, right now, the last brave buds face the rapidly shortening days, the deer, the approach of unnecessarily excessive wind and horizontal rain, all that weather which simply makes far too much noise!! Every last mild autumn day is precious.

I can’t pretend the season hasn’t properly shifted, some flower growers have already woken to the first frosts that signal the end of the growing season for most British flowers.

The preparation for April next year has begun. The hardy annuals that will survive the winter need pricking out and potting on. The beds need covering for the winter, and the tulip bulbs have arrived.

While the fresh flowers for this year have ended. The store of dried flowers is nearly full, and there’s still lots and lots to do....

24/09/2024

A weekend off - almost...

When I began researching growing and selling flowers, I was aware that if I was visiting a friend, I would gather flowers from my garden as a gift because flowers from supermarkets simply make me shudder.

It was a miracle if any of those bouquets lasted any longer than our coffee because I didn’t properly understand about conditioning, or which varieties look fabulous in the garden, but don’t make great cut flowers.

I began researching growing and selling flowers more deeply. I also began researching design styles. Traditional florisrty also leaves me fairly cold. There seemed to be a disconnect between the incredible flowers that we can grow, and the rigid gaudy stems that we are offered.

During that early research, I found The Floral Appreciation Society based in Hackney. Their style and sustainable ethos fitted exactly with all that I was searching for in natural design and sustainability.

This weekend felt like closing a circle from those early days as Alice & I spent an afternoon of sheer flower therapy at their studio. We were each presented with a mixed bucket of seasonal deliciousness. We created bowl arrangements and bouquets, and simply enjoyed colours and textures for a whole afternoon.

14/09/2024

Selecting each stem to go into the bridal party flowers is a very special privilege.

Making up the bridal bouquet is my favourite, favourite of all. The process is very different to any other bouqet, and so it should be. Wedding flowers have to work hard. They are going to be held in warm and sometimes nervous hands. They will be passed from hand to hand, waved in the air, and hugged - a lot! They are sometimes filled with ingredients that mean something very special to the couple, a memory, a person, a colour, a name, and sometimes, they are then going to be dried as a keepsake, their own special memory. As I create this bouquet, I stand in front of an old mirror, and each stem is placed and checked to see how it will look when the bride is holding it.

The beginning is a very unromantic spreadsheet, working to the couple’s brief, building up a balance of shapes and textures, colours, tones, and stem counts. All the while thinking of everything that I have growing, or plan to have growing that will work well in a bouquet for this date. Balancing this alongside the style and shade of the Bride’s and Bridesmaids’ dresses and theme for the day. I will probably order a delicious mixed box of extra beauties from Valerie & Kelly . I can’t tell you how excited I am when their boxes of beautifully packed flowers arrive. Unpacking this is my treat. My favourite is to order their Mixed Bucket of whatever is looking good on the farm that week. The day before the day before, I put that spreadsheet into action as it becomes my cutting list. Everything is cut into water and left in my cool dark studio to hydrate overnight. I will probably have cut the foliage even the day before that, as some foliages need an even longer time to fully hydrate.

I leave everything prepared for the morning. A studio full of flowers will greet mein the morning. As I open the door cup of coffee in hand, I often think of the tale of The Elves & The Shoemaker. I’m still waiting for them to pop in. One day, I will open the door to find a bench full of beautiful bouquets waiting for me.

While we wait for them, some more from Aspen & Ian’s beautiful forest wedding.

10/09/2024

A little snapshot of this weekend's beautiful wedding in Aviemore.

I only ever use Highland, Scottish, or UK grown flowers. This may not be the best fit for everyone, and if your style is a white rose and gypsophila in December, or orchids and no foliage any time of the year, another florist will definitely be a better fit for you.

But, if natural, seasonal, and a little more sustainable is your inspiration…

…here is a little snapshot of some natural, seasonal, and sustainably grown early September buttonholes and Aspen's delicate flower crown.

UK grown actually gives you so very much more to choose from.

Tucked into these micro bouquets you will find all of these ingredients,

ling heather, apricot limonium, euphorbia, daucus, box, rosemary, wrinkled cress, eryngium, ammobium alatum, hare’s tail grass, foxtail grass, periwinkle, and dusty miller.

Aspen wanted to dry her flowers, so each ingredient was carefully selected with this in mind.

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19 Corrie Heights Braes
Ullapool
IV262SZ

Website

http://www.handsfullofflowers.com/

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Pre-order your Winter Wreaths They also make great gifts and can be posted within the UK Order through the website, link in my bio. Would you like to make your own? DM me to join a creative workshop making your Winter Wreath, share some festive nibbles and a glass of something festively bubbly. All the ingredients are carefully edited to ensure that your wreath will stay looking beautiful if you decide to hang it inside where it will dry gracefully. Each wreath is entirely biodegradeable. When you decide it is time to take it down, you can put the whole wreath onto the compost heap. I love choosing those ingredients very carefully, and here’s why… …I love making wreaths, less delighted with being pricked by spiky holly or prickly pine, neither of which dry particularly gracefully. Something very much more elegant and luxurious is worthy of your festive decorations. I even still have last Winter’s Wreath. I enjoy watching the colours gently fade. When Spring is showing signs of returning to us, I will re-use the base to create something that celebrates the return of lighter days. Love an option almost as much as I love making your wreaths.

There's always room for one more Hellebore!! We've had a lot of weather this winter and we are all ready for some more daylight, more sun, and definitely more flowers. Early on in my practice, I made the decision to work with the seasons. I am enjoying the hellebores in their winter, but I am looking forward to each flower that is to come in its own season. We have stepped away from eating produce in it's season and expect that it will all be freshly available all year. But this comes at a cost. A cost we sometimes choose to look away from. Each year I take a look at small steps to make this small business more sustainable and tuned in to the seasons. I love to notice the small shifts and changes in the nature around mean that show us the season is turning. Not so long now! What flowers are you most looking forward to? https://wix.to/u6bqOEb

A little look back at some of my favourites Transforming flowers, one bouquet at a time! 🌸💚 Make a positive impact on the environment with our planet-friendly bouquets. #highlandweddings #highlandweddingflorist # scottishweddingflowers #sustainableweddingflowers #ecoweddingflowers #locallysourced #elopement #highlandsdestinationwedding #intimateweddings #elopementflowers #handsfullofflowers #elopetoscotland https://wix.to/NaZY9l8