Nosegay

Heres a little history for you on the ol' nosegay.

A nosegay, posey (or posie, posy), flower bouquet or tussie-mussie is a small bunch of flowers, typically given as a gift. They have existed in some form since at least medieval times, when they were carried or worn around the head or bodice to mask the unpleasant smells of the time^{[citation needed]} - literally, to keep the nose gay (to keep the nose happy). . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosegay

So here you have it, my glorious nosegay arrangement, filled with david austin roses, peonies, hydrangea, lotus flowers and mulberries. Totes tussie mussie. Apparently.

Merry Christmas flower friends

Oz and mylee are working overtime on Christmas eve to bring you some seasoned greetings while holly is hollydaying in rainy Queensland. We hope you are flowering your faces off and enjoying christmas delights. Lots of love from the flowerbums xxxxx

Special Derivery

Where are maaa legs?? Maaa Frowers are better than youurs!!

If you want to order some Christmas flower bombs, flower lanterns, flower hugs or flower crowns, speak now! Delivery will be on the 23^rd of December. 

Email holly.hipwell@gmail.com or comment below. 

Free good special delivery smile to happy customers. 

Horty Culture 101

Shamefully, I didn't visit the flower markets this weekend. And I was walking around kicking rocks and looking at frocks all the while feeling desperately unfulfilled... I called mylee and said, "lets hit the Narrabeen markets." She said "which ones" and i replied, "you know, the crap ones... i want to buy some plants!!" When I arrived, I looked around and thought cheez wizz, where is everyone? Where is everyone? AT HOME MAYBE? 

The markets weren't even on. derrrr

So we decided on an impromptu excursion to the nursery. Backpacks packed with wrapped up lunches, notebooks in hand and pens behind the ear, a quick roll call, and vroom vroom we were off. We walked in, and instantly wanted to buy one of everything in each colour and every size. Cathy gave us a guided tour, we sniffed the plumeria's, poked fun at the bromeliads, made banana bread from banana leaves and passed out under the palms.

You must be this tall to go on the baby panda ride

Patting the dwarf bamboo. Yes, it feels very nice. Its also our new botanical club plant of the month.

Rocky Road having a chat with the buddha 

Our purchases. Just to give you an idea of how big these plants are, we put a real life elephant in there. Conversion, metric system. Centimeters meters kilometers meet the golden ratio.

follow me

Staff Appreciation Day - the BBQ

YUM YUM BBQ BUDS 

Thursday: Staff Appreciation DAY

EMPLOYEES OF THE WEEK

MYLEE GRACE: MOST FEARLESS

SELFLESSLY INJURED DURING A KNIFING INCIDENT WITH A DAISY

OZZIE WRONG: MOST IMPROVED

RECENTLY PROMOTED DUE TO EXTREME ENTHUSIASM 

HOLLY HIPDRUM: MOST RIDICULOUS 

PIONEER OF BAD FIRST IMPRESSIONS 

Derk Nord Geek, the movie

Sometimes when you sit in a room filled to the ceiling with flowers and the doors closed, accompanied by your co associate enthusiasts...things start to get a little tooo flower infused. At one stage I looked up to see ozzie making weapons of mass pollination, mylee was sitting there out of action due to a knifing injury so she was eating donuts  and i was sewing carnations onto a pair of pants that i was going to wear on my head. 

Here is a brief synopsis of the film you are about to watch - flower enthusiasts on a dangerous beach adventure where they defend their rock using flower flingers to shoot roses at their enemy targets. New York Times gives it 5 stars.

DERK NORD GEEK

ONLY 277 minutes until the first flowerdrum mini movie is filling your eyes with awesomeness. come back soon 

Grew SOME

My mate Fernando from the flower markets came up with a proposition for me the other day. He said, "Holly, make a flowerdrum post out of these roses. The only hitch is, the roses have to be at different levels and the same colours can not be next to each other."

Gee Whiz I thought. I thought Gee Whiz for ages. And AGES.

Finally I had an out of brain light bulb flash idea.. 

Luckily,  my mate Robbo aka RILEY BLAKEWAY the film extraordinaire was passed out on my couch�I woke him up� I said OI ROBBO! CHECK THIS OUT, the roses have finally started growing in the yard! He whipped out his fancy camera and snapped it up 

David Attenborough style.

Cherry Blossom

The other day i made a purchase so big that it made me worried.

I purchased some gigantic birds of paradise flowers. By the time I got home i was in a complete frenzy. "where the hell am i going to put these things? I dont even know what to do." I'd really bitten off more than I could chew, it was grinding my gears, totally burning my coffee you know?!  During ocean care day day, I ran into Cathy and told her about my catastrophe. She said super casually, oh yes strelitzia nicolai they are goooouuuurgeous. Instantly I knew that these humangasaurus strelitzia nicolai's did not belong to me. The belonged to Cathy.

Here they are in their new home-  Cherry Blossom (Cathys shop)

Cherry Blossom is the coolest shop in the southern hemisphere. I can safely say it is definitely the coolest because I have been to every store on the south side of the planet. 

1186 Pittwater Rd, NarrabeenNSW AUSTRALIA. Get in your helicopter and check it out. 

GUEST Editor: Associate Flower Enthusiast MYLEE

LESS DRUM MORE MUM

LESS DRUM MORE MUM

LESS DRUM MORE MUM

Chant Ozzie and Rocky as i carefully attach garden flowers to a discarded drum rim our drummer left lying around. Vaguely I hear voices in the distance.

"I'm hungry"

"My pants are dirty"

"I need a hug"

My families needs will surely be met...

Right after this flower trance subsides. For now, the almighty powers of petals prevail.

Ice ice baby- a cool adventure part 2

IF you suffer from road rage, you should probably go and look at another blog because 
I am about to start tooting my own horn here! Excuse me, but how good is this iced flower lantern I whipped up? About 10 goods ? Yeah id say so, if by 10 you mean 10 gazillion.

ORDER NOW- 1800 FREEZING FLOWERS

if you are confused by this, as most people are... its a block of ice with flowers frozen inside and a nifty little hole in the middle to rest a candle. do you get it now?? also, i tried to palm this off as a birthday cake the other night... it wasn't very well received. 

mega super razzle dazzler

Check out Mylee aka flowerdrum associate flower enthusiast being the coolest thing since packed lunch. Mylee Grace, or Mylee & the milkshakes or whatever shes calling the band these days played down at Manly on Sunday for Ocean Care Day. Hey Lucy Perrett, im using your photos... sorry i didnt ask first, i couldnt control myself. LISTEN HERE NOW PLEASE

should i stay or should i go now?

If you are a serial snoozer like me, then you might be familiar with a little thing called "snooze brain"

Snooze brain makes the worst decisions, it lies to you and makes up terrible excuses, just so you can stay in bed for that little extra minute longer. Does this sound familiar?

"If I just hit snooze for another ten minutes then I can lay in bed and plan todays outfit, then i'll have a shower and then i'll be all set. And the before you know it zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz your already late for your 9 am meeting. 

So yesterday morning, i hit the snooze button about 5 times, snooze brain told me there was no need to visit the flower markets, he said "you have plenty of flowers already!" 
An hour later I realized... The People NEED ME! I jumped out of bed and went on my merry way. No thanks to you Mr Snooze Brain!!

Please note, snooze brain told me there was no need to wash my hair and instead i could just wear this hat. Snooze brain should go to jail for crimes against fashion!

Please also note, John going in for the reach around, and we only just met!

Get Smarter

Put your hand up if you are new. Ok, new people you need to go and read this >>

 PROVE IT LIKE A THEOREM

Now you are up to speed on my flowers make you smart theory, and ready for lesson two

Get your note books out.

If you want to be extra smart, you know, like if you want to get away with tax evasion, devise a bank robbing plan or just invent a super cool rocket ship then all you have to do is wear bigger flowers in yo' hair. LIKE THIS

IT REALLY WORKS, MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

Guest Editor: this is tubarosa

I met tuba many years ago... we instantly bonded over great haircuts, carrot sticks and 

taramasalata dip. We even formed a prestigious group titled "HATE CLUB" we would begin 

our meetings by raising our arms and crossing them over in this shape 

X

We would then sit around talking about peoples outfits that we hated and other mean 

things like that.

Everybody, please get your hearts out... you are about to fall in LOVE! Welcome TUBAROSA <<click here now!

Hi, this is Tubarosa. She likes dressing each day, sewing, baking, sleeping, watching 
Letters and Numbers on SBS and of course, flower arranging. Today she wears a typical 
breton style striped tshirt from Petit Bateau, blue rimmed glasses 
(quite high on her face...???) by Paul Taylor and a gardenia bouquet on her head - 
much like the one she got married with and much like her nephew who also likes to 
wear things on his head. She also has whipped up a batch of the aptly named Rose Bakery hot and spicy gingernut cookies especially for the Flowerdrum. 
These cookies evoke a peppery summer spice much like the scent of a gardenia. 
There's not much better things in life than smelling a gardenia in the summertime now, 
is there?

Gingernut Cookies

Makes about 24 cookies

200g Unsalted, softened butter

440g (3 cups) self raising flowers - oh i mean flour

150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

3 tblsp ground ginger

pinch of cayenne pepper (optional) don't laugh but I didn't have any  

cayenne, so did a quick twist of a black pepper grinder! I got  

seriously laughed at...

1 1/2 tblsp baking soda (bicarb)

240g golden syrup (warmed)

40g treacle (warmed)

Preheat the oven to 160 C.

Line a baking tray with paper.

Process the flour, sugar, ginger and pepper, baking soda and the  

butter in a food processor. Otherwise cube the butter, mix the dry  

ingredients together and rub in the butter with your hands.

Add the golden syrup and treacle - bring together.

Shape dough into 3cm balls in the palm of your hands.

Place well apart on the tray and bake for about 10 minutes.

They should be crisp on the outside and a little soft and chewy on the  

inside! YUM!

flower head

"Look with your eyes, not your hands!"

This is a quote from the mean lady who sells flowers at the bondi markets. 

One day when i was there, i heard her telling someone off for touching the flowers.

OK maybe it was me she was telling off...sometimes I just cant help it.

my new friends

i thought you might like to check out some of my mates from the flower markets

Below we have Gus (thats not his real name, he never told me, so i made it up)

He tried to tell me that the plant in his hand was called a pepperoni plant. 

I said, "hey for real? like salami?" and he said "yeah!" Im pretty sure he was pulling my leg 

and im also pretty sure hes sponsored by adidas.

This is fernando, hes the MAN!

This guy just has cool stuff, he looks like a JERRY

And this guy got so jealous because i took a photo of Mr Pepperoni, so i had to take his photo also. He looks very neat. 

ice ice baby- a cold adventure part 1

So if you were wondering who is smarter than the guy who invented electricity, i can tell you the answer. WE ARE

If for some reason you didnt already know it, i am a genius and mylee is my associate genius.  HERES WHY

We just made floralistically infused icy poles.

Your heard me, rose petal and lavender infused elderflower icy poles. 

Additional ingredients include cherries and berries... cause they were just hanging around

taller than a friend of mine

this weeks family photo 

tee pee'onies

you know how sometimes you can hear something weird going on in the neighbours yard, and you cant help but grab a chair and peek over the fence. well, if someone was watching the sunday afternoon adventures of the flowerdrum they would be saying-

flipping hell, shes lost the plot. is that a flax flower teepee shes building? 

are those peonies shes prodding? is that a fire she's starting? someone call the cops!!

Check out our mug shots

 

return of the flower bombs

Ahhhhhhhhh the flower bucket girls have a surprise for you!!!

Unlock your doors, get the house looking tidy, sweep the crumbs under the rug, get the broccoli out from in-between your teeth ! 

We have a present to give you!! This is part one of the flower bomb structure, you are just going to have to sit tight in those stripey shorts of yours for part  two!!

Get ready, we are on the way to YOUR HOUSE*

*When I say your house, I actually mean your computer, and when I say on the way, 

we are already here, frantically ringing the door bell.

 Have you ever tried to hitch a ride with a plank of wood and 5 flower bombs?

Holly: Whats the address again? I thought it was flowerdrum road, flowerdrumville?

Mylee: No, no its flowerbucket street, flowertrumpet town.

Thank you saresy for being a master photo taker and traffic deathdifyer

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

The lovely Grace of Design*Sponge asked me to contribute a little thanksgivingy post on their site. 

Boy oh boy i was so excited! So excited that I couldn't eat my lunch and i wanted to vomit.

Once I calmed down, I whipped up some slap happy fancy free turkey headpieces, 

AND taaa daaaaah! 

Lets all give thanks to me for being awesome. Actually, Mylee too, shes is also awesome

Check out the link here - http://www.designspongeonline.com/

or direct - TA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Guest Editor - Rocky River Wright

hi, my name is rocky river and i am about 2 and a half. due to popular demand, holly asked me to guest post on the flower drum. i am really stoked because i love computing, but i was running out of things to look up in wikipedia. this me in the photo on the left wearing a flower crown and eating an egg (can you believe this is my passport photo!) i would say about 65 % of the day i am wearing some kind of headwear, usually its a bucket or a helmet, but sometimes flowers are ok. Sometimes. Now, dont get me wrong, i like flowers just as much as the next guy. But seriously, holly comes over with bucket loads of flowers and just makes a mess everywhere. Her and my mum are just flower crazy. They can sit there all day talking about flowers. I mean, are you kidding? i could talk about buzz light year all day, but FLOWERS? REALLY? My dad thinks they are craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy

here i am helping holly build her structure, i gave her that small paint brush because she had NO idea what she was doing.

 heres the structure before I knocked it over, im not supposed to show you this yet, ohhh welll

jazz it up! ha ha get it?

alright, things are getting weird in here. 

1. who let the tiger inside

2. why am I wearing a bloody onezie

Thats a wrap from me, stay tuned green thumbs!  

Peach out, Rocky.