Gloria Battista-Collins

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:08:00 +0000

I’m going to refer to her as the Phoenix of Flower Design.
Her individual approach to unique and natural flower design is what separates her from her contemporaries.

Her back ground is not typical to your regular flower designer but then, neither is Emily! A self taught flower designer schooled in sculpture, she truly understands the technique of strong form and composition needed to produce elegant pieces for all to enjoy.

Our journey into the deep recesses of her brilliant mind begins with a quick overview of her extensive travels. Her imaginary customer would want these kinds of arrangements, she says with a smile. The rooms she speaks of, are an archaeological ruin in Greece, none other than the Parthenon. “I imagine the flowers would have looked like this,” she points out. For her, the room is “the” most important consideration when creating.

Emily, then proceeds to show us how she does it, work her magic so to speak.
After her drawings are complete, and her explanation of visual usage of shapes explained, she begins the process of placing the first stems in the container.

One student asks, “How was your experience of providing the flower arrangements for the White House?” Her response...“Very stressful,” even with a support staff of six and a hundred-odd volunteers. “It’s hard to really work on what you personally have to design as you are overseeing the work of others,” (she says in a rather matter of fact fashion), mind you, she’s pretty young to be taking on such a challenge.

“You know what? I’m going to stop because this is ‘your’ class and I want to see ‘your’ designs and see how you express yourself using flowers,” she says to her class of eight.
“I can’t use purples” she points out to the class as she talks about one student’s design, “but you use it so beautifully.”
Her fixation on “Boldness” was evident. “I want you to think about making bold statements and not follow the rules”.
This is my kind of girl, I thought to myself.

I left this class, given by the Flower School of NY, bursting with an overwhelming desire to express my inner voice for beauty through my medium, which is flowers.
If you love flowers and wish to purse a career with flowers, I urge you to follow your dreams and take their classes.

~ enjoy ~

Flower School of New York

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:14:00 +0000

I'm so excited to share with you my recent course experience on

Consultation to Execution: A Full Event Design Class.

This event design class brought students through the consultation, proposal and event storyboard, planning and finally the execution of a fully designed event.

It took place at my favorit school the Flower School of New York. This little gem of a school is tucked away in a historic part of NYC, Tudor City. It's quaint story book setting is perfect for letting your imagination fill with floral whimsy while creating a perfect event..

My class was headed by non other than David M. Handy, please make sure you check him out on FB too because his work is high end all the way and in my opinion one must learn from the Masters.

His proffetional approach and willingness to share so much of his personal experiences made me feel I was heading in the right direction with my flower business.

Thank you David for hydrating my passion for beautiful blooms.

Now please take a look at what the students created. I'd like to mention each of us stayed on budget.

Some students have apprenticed with great mentors already.

Some students took a crack at flower design classes for the first time with such passion and desire to learn,

I enjoyed watching them take this difficult task on and do so beautifully at it.

I wish you all the best in your career with flowers.

Others continue to mature in a rewarding career that is all to do flowers.

These where my designs done specifically for a Modern chic couple.

Thank you Cal and all the members of your school for making the experience chuck full of pointers.

I believe one can never stop learning and your school is a real treasure trove of ideas for anyone thinking about a career with flowers.

~enjoy~

Make your office a happy place with Chinese Lanterns

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:57:00 +0000

I was thinking about the folks working in this office and

wondered how flowers could makes them feel a little happier during the day.

These Chinese Lanterns are doing their job by bring sunshine and a bit of playfulness.

It's about making our lives just a bit nicer, simply by stopping to look at the flowers.

~enjoy~

Our local Food Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:37:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to spend a perfectly foodie night at the one year anniversary for a local business,

The Food Evolution.

Our mutual passion for food is what brought Diane, its founder, and I together and our regard for healthy food has helped to firmly cultivate our friendship.

Both of us met at a time when many like minded folk were feeling the global pull for change regarding food, its consumption and its production.

Call it the food movement of its time, without a doubt, it managed to root itself and open dialogue for the awareness of local groups who brought a deep passion to the subject.

Ignited by groups such as the Slow Food Movement, movies such as Food Inc, Michael Pollan and Joan Gussow created a deeper food awareness for many of us.

These agitators or pioneers if you may, also, I'm sure, contributed to the formation of a local organization such as The Rockland Farm Alliance whose mission is to bring back local farming to my home county in NY, Rockland.

It was at one of these RFA meetings where I was introduced to Diane.

Diane's vision and dream then was to open an establishment. Call it a public kitchen, call it her kitchen even, but to make it a learning center, accessible to the neighborhood, in which all could enjoy a fruitful learning experience and cook healthy nutritious meals together.

Well, I'm proud to say that The Food Evolution is just that, a public kitchen where food is no longer a mystery but a more down to earth style setting to eat up your creations while mastering techniques and enjoying food for real.

Thank you Diane for a beautiful night and

for awakening our senses with your passion for healthy nutritious food, but more importantly for believing that with food, friends and hard work anything is possible.

XoXo

~enjoy~

Bronze tones for the home

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:09:00 +0000

I share with you these beauties to start the

Fall Season

Blooms a perfect accessory in any room.

~enjoy~

Remember the Meat Ball

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:48:00 +0000

Yesterday morning as the boys left for school the bittersweet reality hit me like never before, I would not have them with me from day till night. Our days would not be ruled by our imagination, nor our lazy attitude to naturally slow us down.

My sons couldn't stop thanking me with hugs for a wonderful summer.

"Thank you Mom, it was the best summer."

Their sincerity and deep feeling of gratitude left me speechless. My husband and I had in fact created beautiful memories for our boys.

Wow.

Their sad eyes longing in memory for what seemed to be an endless summer, were hopeless.

So, I asked how could I make them feel somewhat better; the littlest one looked at me with his deep blue eyes and said, can we have meatballs tonight?

So, yesterday as I wrote and sketched a little picture for this entry in my blog, the scent of meatballs and sauce permeated the kitchen to welcome them back home, the safest place they will ever know.

Our slow home continues creating beautiful memories for us all.

~enjoy~

Birds of a feather will flock together.

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:48:00 +0000

Our potential to soar inflight is endless, but together our flight formation creates the spectacular oneness brought on by the beauty of togetherness.

Thank you Jean,

for a beautiful day spent yesterday getting to know you.

~enjoying the slowness of friendship~

Will you have a cup of tea?

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Afternoon tea in Ireland is more than just having a cup.

It's really about sitting down with family or friends to just slow down for a chat.

It's a little ceremony giving us a treasured simple moment to recharge from the day.

A piping brewed cup with a simple biscuit is all one needs, however, when a Granny wishes to show her littlest grand daughter the art of making a cake, this is what they would serve.

Slow Home Living

at its best.

~enjoy~

Garden flowers for evening drinks

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:58:00 +0000

Arranging blooms from the garden should be relaxed and carefree.

These are my favorite arrangements.

Summer entertaining brings guests outside to explore the beauty our gardens offer and company with friends makes home grown meals a delight for all.

~enjoy~

"Fountainstown" a place to grow up in

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:19:00 +0000

My Husband's childhood Summer

home.

This home has the views of eternal beauty.

Beautiful mood last night

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:19:00 +0000

Lunching in Currabinny with views of Crosshaven

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 00:03:00 +0000

Seconds in nature that take your breath away

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:42:00 +0000

From my eyes to yours while staying in CrossHaven

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:04:00 +0000

Good God, life is good.

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:48:00 +0000

CrossHaven this afternoon.

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:41:00 +0000

The spirit that never dies

is called the mysterious feminine.

Although she becomes the whole universe,

her immaculate purity is never lost.

Although she assumes countless forms,

her true identity remains intact.

The gateway to the mysterious female

is called the root of creation.

Listen to her voice,

hear it echo through creation.

Without fail, she reveals her presence.

Without fail, she brings us to our own perfection.

Although it is invisible, it endures;

it will never end.

6th Verse of the Tao

Happy Birthday Leslie

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:38:00 +0000

You are a host of beauty.

#Brimfield Vintage Garden

Good Morning, Morning Glory

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:56:00 +0000

These beauties only lasted seconds before they started to wilt.

Minutes come and then they go, some with a huge impact in our lives.

~enjoy~

From a small leak grew a vintage garden

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:40:00 +0000

Recently, my husband and I were forced to plunge ahead and replace the liner in our pool.

Every year since the leak started we would patch it up and hope for the best. Unfortunately, this year we were forced to take the plunge and replace it entirely. We also accepted the fact that this project was likely to be borne at a significant expense and reluctantly moved ahead with its replacement which, in turn, lead to multiple other "adjustments" to our garden.

The dream to create a more visually organized plot in which I would grow food and flowers for my family was now beginning to take shape.
It presented the perfect opportunity to have the whole garden re-evaluated and create different rooms as any well designed garden should be.

At this point my ego needed to step aside and stop thinking that I could do this all on my own. I needed the assistance from someone that I could work closely with and assist me in creating the vintage country garden that best suited our home and life style.

I strongly believe in collaboration. It's huge in achieving any major goals. Combining thoughts and ideas helps to make any dynamic project a success.

I consider myself to be a knowledgeable
"Plantswoman" in the garden.

My "hands on" experience in many gardens I’ve tended, chatting with friends who freely volunteered advice and countless hours reading gardening books, has helped me to get to this point.

However, there comes a time when a keen plan, or a road map, is needed. Therefore, the presence of a trained professional observer is a "must."

To achieve this goal, I recruited a landscape architect who could help organize the whole plot, complete with measurements, an eye for symmetry and ratios to a totally non-symmetrical house. In other words, to help refine the rooms I initially created by giving them more definition to help serve their purpose with the appropriate flow from one to the next and, subsequently, a more defined relationship to the house.

Luckily I had just the person in mind, Susan Cohan. I had met her through my Social network community (Twitter). Susan Cohan aka @susancohan on Twitter, is professionally trained as a Landscape Designer but more importantly became my friend through Social Networking. Together we came up with a plan that satisfied the utilitarian use for each room within the space, increasing productivity, along with my personal planting style.

The Vintage Garden.

In the vegetable garden the most important design element to change was the way in which the vegetables were grown. To increase productivity, minimize weeding time and direct watering, we agreed that boxes would provide the solution. Six 6'4" boxes were built to hold many of the new vegetable plants.

This year I managed to plant cucumbers, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, potato, eggplant, lettuce, beets, squash, carrots,zucchini, fennel, onions, beans, tomatoes, blueberries,raspberries, apples and pears. Most self contained easy to weed and a bit less accessible to all the bunnies.

Learning from choices that at the time seemed like a good idea is a part of life.
~

Let me explain.

The patio you see bellow is the entrance from the street to a mud room and my studio.
I attempted a do-it-yourself project to save some money and hired laborers to lay down the stone, under my supervision, What did I know? Well, not enough, they had no clue either and as a result for three years I lived with a complete mess and a costly choice.

The Patio

The Court Yard

Now, thanks to the expertise of Jim Osborn our new landscaper and his crew, the land is pitched with stones laid correctly which include three new beds.

This courtyard room is solely planted with herbs. Now beautiful herbs fill this newly designed space making it welcoming, cozy and a pleasure. I particularly love this room in the morning, all the birds come to visit while they stop to sip water or gather seeds from the feeders.

#Brimfield Finds

The pool

It was important for us to keep the old world look to the new pool area and not have it become the focal point of the garden.

More importantly, it was to become a room which provided sophisticated tranquillity. Few materials were needed to reflect the old world charm in a house of this era like bluestone for the surround combined with a grey liner to create the effect of stone and a simple grass edge.

Not bad for the first season in the "Vintage Garden." Great fun to collaborate with such fantastic people and to see it evolve into a dream come true.

Blueberries for breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:51:00 +0000

To me nothings starts the day better than knowing I had something to do with growing the food I feed my body.

These Blueberries I hurried to pick before the birds did.

Yes, it does take time on ones part, but well worth it.

~enjoy life~

Brimfield

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Thank You too...

For putting this FAB event together in Brimfield MA.

I've never been before and it is surely to become my antique mecca for years to come.

Unbridled excitement thrilled me as my eyes bulged at all the great stuff for sale.

Thanks to @twitter, these two friends

@The daily basics and @gaubuchondesign introduced me to Brimfield.

They organized a Tweet-up. For those that aren't familiar with the term, a tweet-up is a location where all of us who tweet (speak) on @twitter can meet face to face.

Couldn't park car fast enough to get down and dirty in these endless parking lots filled with treasures to be picked through.

Love this chair from Long Ranger Antiques Dania, Fl.

This table was made using drift wood and would look amazing while dinning alfresco.

The most amazing bedding! Simply beautiful.

@pandoradebaltha

My finds from

Mike & Jodie Roberts

traveled from MI.

Great vintage picks for our garden.

Cast iron bench, trough, cupola and urns.

I met Lucianna Samu from

@ReallyatHome

using Benjamin Moore Paint (which I happen to frequently use

in all of my do-it-yourself projects.)

Her passionate work to re purpose unwanted furniture was an example for us all to be mindful and not be so quick to throw out unwanted pieces.

My latest project in the vintage garden has been to paint the vegetable beds using their paint.

The benefit for me is it's totally eco-friendly! No worries of harmful chemicals leaching into my plants.

Then it was Shelley Holmes' turn to get down and dirty and just look at what she came up with.

In the end, Brimfield became a venue for connecting with new friends and finding treasures for my new vintage garden.

But guess what, I also connected with the local farmers market and

purchased from this nice local farmer, cabbage, kale, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, patty pan squash, pole beans, squash, onions, leeks, swiss chard and different varieties of eggplant & herbs to plant in it.

You know me, I'm always looking for Real Food which is beneficial toward healthy living. Note this truck-vendor's fresh sandwich whose ingredients were prepared mindfully, insuring a line of happy customers.

Slow Food is the substance which produces a slow lifestyle.

Life is good when I see this.

Wish you all could have been there to feel the buzz and excitement of this Antique Fair.

Why do I push myself to be better?

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 12:50:00 +0000

{via Tinywhitedasiies}

When I think about what creating a Slow Home involves and what the concept really means, I recognize that perhaps more clarification is in order.

The concept of Slow Home for some could be an oxymoron, mostly because the word chaos comes to mind at the thought of all the pending activities, chores, bills and overall mayhem taking place in most homes today. This sounds more like a Fast Home. The difference is that a Slow Home has a certain feeling. Whichever home we talk about, my home or yours, it’s really about creating a serenity within the walls. A peace exists, only attainable by how I’m feeling myself, which in turn, allows me to create the very essence of what I’m trying to duplicate for others in my home and for my readers.

Slow Home I’m realizing is more about spirituality and the purpose of my life. It is honestly more about the feeling one has deep inside about why we are here taking up space in this universe we call our home. It’s about asking deep questions.

Why does this matter to me?

When will I see a difference?

How do I start?

Which ideas do I want to delve into first?

Am I happy with my home? This translates into... am I happy with myself?

Our homes are like the mirrors of our souls.

If we feel comfortable in them, then we are comfortable.

If it is pleasant for us when we entertain, then we are relaxed and anticipate openness with one another.

If it is neat and tidy, then we are organized inside.

If the windows are left open to receive the fresh air, then we welcome freshness in our lives.

If we encourage our family members to relax and enjoy the space, then we are generous in our lives.

If we fill it with the aromas of real food, then we nourish our bodies.

It’s impossible for one to work without the other. I purposefully will myself to create serenity with in myself through meditation and affirmation that speak to my inner spirit. Always looking for the kinder words; always looking for the answers on how I may improve myself and consequently helping others.

What does your home reflect about your soul and what are you willing to do to improve your inner self today?

Spring is everywhere and I'm loving it.

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Have a happy day!

Thankful everyday to enjoy what I do for work.

Daffydowndilly. Do you know what this means?

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:52:00 +0000

Recently I was given a beautiful book by a very

Dear friend.

We both love old books especially poetry ones, in it I found this.

In Shakespeare's day the country folk of Warwickshire called daffodils by the unusual name daffydowndilly,

and children chanted on their way to school:

Daff ~ A ~ Down Dilly

Has now come to town

in a yellow petticoat

and a green gown.

William Shakespeare

~Thank you~

Spring is in the air.

Enjoy!

How deep down do you really clean?

noreply@blogger.com (GBC Style) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:44:00 +0000

A Slow Home is cared for in every way.

Cluttered minds produce cluttered homes.

I choose simpler solutions to produce bigger returns for my slow home, working constantly to de-clutter my life and my "stuff." Needless to say, I often reflect on the value that our "things" provide the family.

via design sponge

The more stuff we own the more energy we require to maintain our sanity. The more I clean!

Cleanliness and neatness go hand-in-hand to produce tranquility in any Slow Home.

Simply put - if you see it, clean it.

via Martha Stewart

By continually challenging myself on a daily basis to live a more mindful, deep approach to engaging a

slow home life style...the more

my home is gradually becoming a peaceful haven.

Spring is a good time to begin the clean up with the outside world the perfect starting spot.

It's at this time of year that a multitude of treasures can be found in your yard.

Well, not really, but I DO find "stuff."

Items that need to be put back in their proper place.

Shovels, doggy land mines, items the boys took out to play with in the snow. Paper, wrappers, empty bottles, twigs,any number of things.

Now is the time to get out there and pick them up.

I get the entire family involved, giving everyone ownership in keeping things neat and tidy.

via Pinken tacel

The idea is to start thinking Spring.

Spring cleaning CHECK LIST.

Slow Home Living is...

… learning about how you can make small choices that can change the world, one step at a time.

GBC Style is working to bring Slow Home Living choices, no matter how small, into your home.