So this is Christmas, and what have you done…So far it’s starred leafy surrey, a classic old school telephone, a country house hotel and a roaring fire. A discussion over Agatha and Tabitha, a dash to Ghost, scrapping kitties breaking antiques in our absence, a bit of Parke Pyne investigates…and now a train ride through the country.

Can’t wait. Am hanging my blogging dish towel up until around the 4th. So see you then.

Happy New Year and love to you from a flower girl.

xxx

Blogger…the one where I ask Captain to dust off his decks, put his floristry scissors away and get musical. With three days to go we need a bit of a disco prod and who better to ask than the resident DJ??

When Tamsin asked if I’d like to contribute to Gypsy Rose Writes on a Christmas theme, I hesitated not. Despite six weeks working at Garlands Florist on Queens Road Weybridge circa 1990, I don’t think flowers is the best subject. Or anything to do with design as chance would have it that most of my objects d’art have been hidden or destroyed since I moved onto this here boat. So I’ve chosen to write about my very favourite Christmas music, seven songs a singin’ and all that; it goes a little something like this, hit it:

1) When I was growing up, the most regular noise heard at Christmas time was my brother and I bickering. If you grew up in the US of A however, it seems your Christmas fun was soundtracked by a moustachioed jazz musician. Vince Guaraldi – for it was he – composed the music for the animated Peanuts cartoons, including the Charlie Brown Christmas special which seems as ubiquitous as Top Of The Pops, er… used to be over here. I spent one Christmas in the USA; it involved a truly memorable Christmas Eve spent in a Polish church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Anyway, the whole soundtrack is great but this is a proper winner:

2) Nostalgia, as the joke goes, is great, but not what it was. Ever the sentimentalist, what could be more nostalgic than a nostalgic song about being nostalgic at this most nostalgic time of year? ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! – we’re talking about you. How quaint does it sound now, in these days of ringtones and downloads, that it was released as a “Double A Side” with ‘Everything She Wants’ so radio stations played that once the New Year arrived and people kept buying it. While I like the video in the snow with Andrew and George and Pepsi and Shirlie and all of that, here it is performed by a truly great artist, an epoch defining legend of our times, Crazy Frog… No, not really:

3) Up until about five minutes ago, I was not only convinced that ‘Greensleeves’ and ‘I Saw Three Ships’ had the same tune, but that both were composed by King Henry VIII. Thanks to the interwebs I now know that both my facts were incorrect. Great. Anyway, I Saw Three Ships is my favourite Christmas carol, even if the picture it paints is rather unlikely – Bethlehem isn’t near the sea. But then again, did the Little Donkey really have a heavy day? Did Cherubim and seraphim really throng the air? Either way, here are some very polite looking choirboys singing it. Interested to reflect that ten years later they’re probably all chain-smoking hoodies, lingering unsavourily outside the KFC in Cambridge. Especially the one guy with the glasses:

4) I could be here until next Christmas going on about Donny Hathaway. Instead, this is him singing ‘This Christmas’.

5) Why oh why do people like to bleedin’ go on about how ironic it is that ‘A Fairytale of New York’ continues to top polls of things like the best Christmas song ever, when it’s all about drunks and sin and misery? In my experience, that isn’t too far removed from the reality of Christmas, especially the first part. But my favourite Christmas song isn’t – as the lyrics say – about Christmas at all. Take an authentically smudged Spectoresq Wall of Sound production complete with Christmas bells and add a rather droll tale about driving through Scandinavia and you get Low’s ‘Just Like Christmas’. They chose the band’s ‘Little Drummer Boy’ for the Gap Christmas ad, but they should have gone for this one. Just love those drums:

6) On the subject of mad bad Phil Spector, I have to include a song from ‘A Christmas Gift to You’ which I got as a Christmas gift to me when I was about 16. ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Sleigh Bells’ and so on may be the best known, but I’ve had a soft spot for Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans’ take on ‘The Bells of St Mary’:

7) When I was growing up, my father would always reply “peace and quiet!” when you asked him what he wanted for Christmas. Not this year though, it’s a book about Picasso. But what do you think a new guitar (which won’t play out of key), a basket three feet tall, some shoes with lots of sole and some mistletoe have in common? Well…

And so there you go. Merry Christmas and thank you Tamsin

PS Not sure how I forgot about this one.

It’s our last week at Bluebird, so birds, seem apt. I love these pretty creatures and wish I had needle and thread time to make a whole sky full of them.

Tweet tweets for a sunday…

xxx

There comes a time just before Christmas for flower girls where you’ve feel like you’ve done a whole years work and it’s deja new years 2010.

This is when in a feverish flurry of flora you start singing bad Billy Joel songs (you never knew the words to before) at your boyfriend and feign non fatigue.

Let me tell you any sense of mixing and matching goes out the window only to be replaced by fagin fingers, chapstick and hand cream. At times like these it really is better to embrace the weather, pull your leg warmers up and dance on.

I really adore these wonderful mitts from Bud and Branch. Practical and pretty. And as I lay out my flower shop thermals at night, my furry monkey boots and now cardboard petticoats – I know they’ll pull me through.

Freezin with flowers on a friday x

Last week of wreath making is upon us which is kind of sad….but also good, I don’t think our boat could take another pile of nordic spruce and my mannequin hands are looking rather worse for wear.

So here’s some of my favourites so far….missing is Captain Peacock but once I’ve given his plummage a ruffle, I shall post.

Happy wreathing!

xxx

So yes, I’ve been a bit rubbish on the old blog of late so I’m having a full on typewriter moment to make up for it. And, I’ve been asked if it’s all wreaths ‘n blooms at Gypsy Rose. It’s not there’s always room for a bit of vintage schmintage. Here’s more of what’s in store at at the lovely Bluebird store.

Exploding fiery russets, red ilex and amaryllis, know your place. The season can be really rather peaceful.

xxx

I’m having a Christmas calendar moment, thank goodness for a drop of snow… and thanks Jamie, these made my day.

xxx

So, our popeye boat move is imminent…and paint charts are making me think.

That grey would be pretty okay with our two cherry blossoms swaying.

Our records, books and vases, wonky vases and junk, so, paintbrush ready.

The twee jam jar country living implications are tenfold but with a porthole?

Yes, the vibe’s okay, but a putty, chalk or pavement grey? xxx

Fresh from my new crush on pinks I got asked if my blog header was this gardening flower girl and O at the weekend…I wish.

A far more celubrious couple, a carnation grower and his squeeze.

Jeeps, the old school similarities are endless…are we falling in love again?

xxx

In winter in the cold, studded with cloves, the colour of a raggedy headscarf I saw in a shop window , my grandmothers favourite couture moment and a sneaky sunset the colour of apricots at about three forty last thursday…did you see it?

Week three in chelsea… hot elderflower on the hour, soggy thermals under frufru skirts, resisting the urge to cry out luckee ‘eathers, a rather rosy complexion and snoreroo, Mabel twirling and tarting about like a tickled taxi.

Hmm, this blog has become all about the stall but I have been doing other things too, styling for Christmas, partying with tan tan and the rocking and blues merchants and contemplating bumpy life changing events.

This week stallside it’s Arthur Radmore music sheets, amaryllis, babycham bulbs, dovecotes and burnt orange rose domes posing in cricket tankards. Pretty.

A preposterous murder mystery read, dried orange slices at 10p, a moment of a mardiness with a chelsea madame and a proper pining for my old aga.

Who’d be a flower girl.

xxx