Volunteering in Floriade

I've decided to volunteer at Floriade this year. Floriade is basically an annual flower festival that is held at the heart of Canberra every year. I've been going to Floriade every year since 2004 but have never volunteered before. I only applied this year because at the time I was only making jewelry and thought that some sunshine would do me some good. Though life decides to change drastically and gets very busy, I still don't want to back out- so here I am!

I have to work 4 hours every session for 6 shifts in one month. I don't know what my job is for the day until I sign in, and they change every time. On my first shift my first job is to walk around the park with a radio (which is really cool!) . On my second shift I had to sit in the exhibition marquee for 4 hours, and oh my goodness it was sooooo boring. I can't believe I had to leave early from work to do this stupid shift. I was sitting in a tent full of mannequin wearing floral outfits. It was during the week so there weren't very many people walking through the tent. I felt a bit left out being the only one who is not wearing flower outfits, but at the end of the day I felt like people were walking pass me like I was one of the display.

One very cold rainy day I was scheduled to greet visitors on the second busiest gate- and not very many people came. Half of the volunteers didn't turn up and I was on the gate by myself until a very kind lady decided to stay on the gate with me. I was VERY cold and miserable that day. I had to go again that Saturday and the weather was exactly the same so I was very naughty and decided not to go.

Then again, I got very lucky on one of my shift when they put me in the 'on the pantry' marquee. There was a guy there who did a demonstration on food decorating. He carves natural materials into interesting shapes. He's been doing this for 22 years and is VERY good at it. He carved out a peony flower out of watermelon in 5 minutes and 40 seconds! So I was there helping out with his presentation and when he finishes I helped clean up and shut the place. Before he left, he gave me a statue of a mini budha carved out of a butternut pumpkin. I thought that was super awesome so I brought it to work the next day.

Val told me that it's actually not a budha but a god of longevity, and Margaret told me that the huge forehead means that he is full of wisdom. Anyway, all budha look the same to me. Our customers enjoyed it which is nice. Most of them thought it was made out of wax, or candle. Who would have thought that you can cut up this statue and turn it into soup if you're hungry.

So today is the last day of Floriade, and it also happens to be my last day of volunteering. My job is to walk around Floriade for the last time with a radio. Sometimes Floriade feels like Heaven to me. There's a sea of colours every where you look, sounds of live music and carnival, smell of flowers and happy people everywhere- it's been a great experience and I'm glad I did it.

First month in Florever

I've been working in Florever florist for exactly a month now without much report on this blog. My employer is Valeria, an amazing lady from Ukraine... seriously, I really can't get over how amazing she is. She is as much of a  scholar as well as an artist. She earns a master in biology, a lecturer, a horticulturalist... and a lot of other things. I'm also working with Margaret- an amazingly beautiful and nice lady who owns a hairdresser with her husband. I really can't express how lucky I am to to be working with these people.

Val had been easy on me during the trial period- now that I'm hired she is seriously molding me. I just realized that during trial she lets me loose to see what I do without much instructions, but now she is very specific in how I do my job- and it's very hard for me to break my habits. I think her and I have the same way of looking at things, so whenever she gives me advice, I never question it. I really love and respect Val so disappointing her is the worst thing I could do, and sometimes I feel like I do it a lot.

As a florist, we only sell what we make, so being highly skilled and speedy would definitely be handy. Val and Margaret sometimes don't take breaks, or eat. I learnt my lesson on the second week of work. On Monday, I couldn't make a simple box arrangement ( until now I'm still learning) and I made myself do it over and over again- for some reason the more I tried the worst I get and I kept on getting yelled at. Val didn't take a break or eat and drink- so I didn't either. I was so stressed and tired I came home with a migraine that last till the next day. I kept thinking that Val hates me and I'm going to get fired.

Greg pushed me back to work the next day and when I got to work- my head hurts so much I started shaking and crying in front of Val and Margaret- and then I ran to the toilet to throw up- but didn't. I got even more stressed thinking, 'That's it. I suck, and my life is over.' Thankfully Val kept telling me, "What are you worried about? There is absolutely nothing to be worried about, we're all just human here." - We're only human? Really? That's encouraging- because I couldn't work without eating, sitting down for 8.5 hours, or a 15 minute daily doze of daydreaming. I'm so glad they were sympathetic towards me- they sent me home that day and I slept all day and all night. So lesson learnt.The next day I went back to work and didn't try to impress them so hard. I smiled to work, eat when I'm hungry, sit when I'm tired- and I definitely function a lot better that way.

With that being said, I absolutely LOVE my job. I still can't believe that I'm getting paid to do something that I absolutely love. It's never a good day when Val is unwell or sometimes we have 'vampire' customers who's so mean they feed on Margaret's energy. But when customers pre-order their flowers, the shop front isn't busy and the weather is right, I feel like I'm just sitting in my own house listening to music that I like and just be creative with people that I admire.

So with that being said, I'm very pleased to say that I have landed on gold in terms of job. I don't think I could score a better place to work in. The florist is only 10 minutes walk from my house and I'm guaranteed 3 days of work per week- the rest f the week I can work on my jewelry. I really hope and pray that I can work in this shop for a long time.

Clare & Sven's Wedding

Straight after I drop by Canberra Handmade, I completely forgot about my jewelry and started concentrating on something else. That Friday was a huge day for me as it is the first time in my life I have to organize all of the bridal flowers of a friends wedding.

From Canberra Handmade, Greg's brother Luke drove me to Capital Flowers- THE hub of wholesale flowers near Canberra. I've pre-ordered the flowers so I know what I'm getting and how much I'm spending. I had to make a bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaids bouquet, 3 corsages, 2 large arrangement for the church, 8 posies for the church pews, and 7 table centers. I told this to my boss at work and she rolled her eyes and sarcastically said, "Good luck!"

After that I was running around picking up foliages, candles and vases and didn't start doing my work until 3pm. This is what my kitchen look like when I started:

and this is what it looks like 7 hours later...

That's right- I don't have a bin, so the floor will have to do.

The bridal bouquet is definitely the hardest one to make. It wasn't just a lot of pressure but it is very fiddly. I started by spiraling just white roses and freaked out cause I didn't like it at all! So I incorporate some misty and green berries to make the bouquet look round and less pointy. The other half of the problem is wrapping the bouquet with ribbon. It probably took just as long for me to wrap the stems as to make the bouquet- yet when it finishes it look so deceivingly effortless.

Clare and Sven came over to my house around 8pm to drop off some materials. When Clare saw some pussy willows sitting in my crate she suddenly felt very nostalgic about it, so I decided to incorporate some into her bouquet. I decided to make a wreath using the sticks to go under her bouquet- and I think it looks alright.

I kept on working that night and finally had a nap at 1am. Greg woke me up at 2 am and pushed me back into the kitchen. But I was so incredibly tired I couldn't even open my eyes! So I set my phone to ring at 3:40am and went back to bed. Why 3:40? We have a friend, Grace who's arriving from Melbourne by bus who needs to be picked up from the bus station at 4am- so that worked out well. I still can't believe that I really did woke up at 3:40am, had a shower and went back to work. Grace stayed awake with me the whole time. While I was working, we watched 3 movies together to keep us awake and amused- Tangled, Megamind and Narnia.

Just as I finished the final corsage it was already 10am and I had to see Clare at the hairdresser with her bouquet and then to the church to set up the flowers. Clare's dad was there to let us inside. When he saw my work he said to me, "Wow, this is really impressive! How long did it take you to do this? An hour?" I dropped my jaw in disbelief and Grace started giggling. "Aaaa... actually, it took me 15 hours... and I didn't sleep last night." Clare's dad just went, "O! Ok..." and walked away. I gave Grace this 'Did that really happened?!" - look and she just kept on giggling at me. Oh well... I guess some people really just don't get it. I hope he won't faint when I show him all of my flower shopping invoices...

Anyway, so these are my church decorations:

Little posies for the church pews

Large arrangement for the front of the church: 

My wonderful assistants =)

The overall look of the church during service... Ta Raaa...!!! 

This is truly a multicultural wedding. I didn't realize it until we had the bible reading. They read it first in Korean, then in German and finally in English. 

After the ceremony, Greg, Grace and I packed up all the church flowers and transport them to the reception venue. I really like doing that. Why decorate 2 venues separately when you can easily transport all flowers from one place to another and just cut the cost in half? At the reception venue I took over the kitchenette to make 7 table centers. I used low glass bowl to make floating orchids and candle centerpieces. Good thing they are very easy to make and cost effective so I didn't spend much time or money making it. 

Grace also had this great idea of putting red rose petals on the dance floor in the shape of a heart. Minimum materials for maximum result- I love it! Thanks Grace. =)

And this is what the bridal party table look like:

And we took advantage of it by taking this photo ♥

By the way, check out this amazing cake that Sven got as a surprise for Clare. 

... and yes, that is a mini water fountain underneath the cake with purple waterlilies surrounding them. This cake had just made my flowers look so boring in comparison :p 

While setting up, I was running around shoe-less spreading rose petals, lighting candles and what not. When some of the guests had arrive, Grace and I had a toast with a glass of champagne to congratulate ourselves on making it on the other side alive, and there is nothing else to do now but celebrate!!!

I was a bit over tired by this stage and truth be told, I did have a little more champagne than I should. I found myself laughing at everything, and danced to... pretty much everything. I did the macarena, line dance, YMCA, I even led the train for 10 minutes and convinced everyone to jump right behind me... well, everyone except the people on my table who knew and loved me... that includes my Greg, my Grace, and my piano student Tristan and his family. Maybe they know me too well to find me convincing at all...  :p 

Before the party is over I asked the MC to tell everyone not to leave before taking some flowers home- maybe people got confused and some went home without taking any flowers. So I run around the place asking people to take them home and turns out that I don't need to do much begging- most of them were just too shy to take them!

We were one of the last people to leave the place aaaand  pretty much collapsed when I got home. Congratulations once again to Clare and Sven and thanks for trusting me on your big day! Phew... that was a lot of fun!!! ^_^   

Getting Ready for Shop Handmade

My living room had once again turned into a wood shed this week. My jewelry to finally hitting shop handmade and I've been waiting for this moment for months so I'm a bit nervous. I had my jewelry with me for so long that giving them away is like taking my kids to school for the first time.

I've been putting a lot of thought in my presentation. Shop handmade is filled to the brim with so many wonderful interesting things from different artists that I felt the need to stand out quietly. I went to the shop a couple of times and with Rachel's permission, I took a lot of photos to survey on how other people display their jewelry in the tiny space they've been given.

Just like my last jewelry party, Greg is responsible to make my jewelry display. I drew some sketches of what I want then Greg and I discuss about the practicality side of things. The final result was something pretty similar to my sketch. Originally he was trying to make the frame in magnet so that I can re-arrange my jewelry however I want- but that idea didn't last for long.

I did a lot of paperwork on my side. I design my own name card using Illustrator, print and cut them with my trimmer.

I focused a lot on earrings- since I make most of them than anything else. I have 3 different size earring holder and to be honest, I don't really know what to do about the necklaces and bracelet until now. :p

My little blurb with Rachel in the shop about packaging a product encouraged me to go ahead with my idea of making origami envelopes using interesting papers. I really love digital paper products on Etsy so I browse around for a suitable pattern. I print them on my printer on normal A4 paper, and I went ahead and spent a couple of hours in front of the tv folding envelopes. I have to thank (out of all people) my pastor, Chris for teaching me the art of folding these pretty envelopes.

On Friday morning I went to drop off my preciousness to shop handmade. Julie and Rachel was there and thankfully they were very impressed with everything. My lease starts on the 1st of Oct till the end of December- I can't wait to see my things in action inside the shop soon! 

My Life is Sooo Boring...

... no, not really. I'm just saying that cause I think that I've got nothing to write on my blog... until now. I just found out that a friend of mine got into the local papers for visiting Floriade- a spring festival that all of Canberrans are most likely to visit and have experienced. It's not like The Canberra Times are running out of topics to write about! I have friends who are performing amazing live music in Floriade, another friend who is making costume out of flowers for an event, and I'm volunteering around the garden this year- why can't the papers write about us instead?

Then again this is a bit of a slap in the face for me. If the papers can talk about nothing then surely I have better stuff to talk about to you guys- I just don't see it.

Life had changed so much for me since I last post my blog. Today I came back from work at the florist at 6pm, made salad for dinner, fell asleep on my favorite large cushion, got woken up by Greg pulling my arms 15 minutes later going, 'Honey, we gotta go!!!" And off I went to play piano for the choir for the next 2 hours. I was so tired I felt like the conductor was dragging all of us with his high speed energy conducting skills.I came home to face my old nemesis- my dirty kitchen... and  it won.

I received my first paycheck from working in the florist last week. It was my first actual pay check in one and a half years, I kid you not. I was so ecstatic to see that I've got more than 3 digit number in my bank account. I also felt slightly delirious. I just realized that I've been living off free-lancing in the past 18 months and man it was tough! I'm just glad that I persevered, cause it looks like I've reached the end of the tunnel and it's all really going to happen from here... yay!

Psalm 107 : 8-9

My Roller Coaster Ride in Life

So this is how it goes... 

2 weeks ago, precisely on Wednesday night 3rd of August, I was a complete wreck. I was crying in the living room in front of my laptop with a sea of leftover wire and beads on the carpet and Greg was once again speechless at my uncontrollable tragic behaviour. Everything that I tried to do, went wrong. I couldn’t stand being a poor artist anymore but I couldn’t get a job that suits me.  My parents are fighting and I’m carrying their emotional burden, I spent 3 hours trying to learn how to make wire ring with minor progress. On the weekend I got told off at church for music practice then I got an email again giving me a ‘gentle nudge’ on my photography for church- but it came at a wrong time so that the ‘gentle nudge’ feels more like a punch in the face- and that's when I explode. 

I was exactly like the movie “Julie & Julia” in the scene where Julie had a melt down crying in the kitchen over her aspects and stuffed chicken when suddenly her phone rang- just as I thought I couldn't be more of a wreck, I got an sms. I read it while still sobbing, it says, 

“Hi Fionna, awhile ago you applied to work in our florist in Dickson. We currently have an opening. Please let me know if you are able to come for an interview- Valeria”

Greg just looked at me and go, “Now you’re even more confused aren’t you?” – I looked at him and sobbed even more than before like a deranged child. 

I had so many bad, half-hearted interviews in florists and one very bad trial that made me think that florists are beautiful business on the surface that are run by a bunch of heartless ogres. Although if I pass, of course I will be happy, but if I don’t- would I be able to handle another disappointment? But I just got given an opportunity in front of me- it’s like a half open door already, how can I resist not trying to open the whole door? 

I had a surprisingly pleasant interview with them that Friday, and on Tuesday the week after, I had my first trial. I was completely terrified before I went in I paced around outside the shop like a nervous lover before I close my eyes and jump in. I was working with the owner, Valeria and Margaret and found that they are both so incredibly nice. They ask me back again the next day, and the day after that. I really love the way they work. They are very straight in their opinion. If they don’t like something they will say it, but if they like something- that means they REALLY like it. I managed to do one modern arrangement that they REALLY like and I came home feeling very good about myself for once.

Yesterday I had my fourth day of trial. I was working with Valeria the whole time. I have suppressed myself from getting my hopes up that when she asks for my tax file number, I didn’t really understand what she was getting at. When I finished my shift she asked me back again after I get back from holiday. I was like, “What? Am I still in the middle of the trial? Or... do I get the job?”. She nodded with a smile.Oh my goodness, I feel like I was flying!!! I hugged her with a big squeal and excitement I nearly cried. The iceberg of burden in my back for the past few months slowly melt away and I was SO relieved. Val hugged me back and said, “You deserve it, you really do- and please don't cry...” (haha...) 

And tomorrow I’m off to Brisbane for a 10 day holiday before I come back home for my first day of work- and just like that, life is good again.

God is so incredible on how he plans his timing so perfectly. I really think that if He wants me to get a job earlier He would’ve made it happen, but in this 10 month period of being 'jobless' I’m able to do a lot of things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Granted that I was absolutely miserable in the process, but I can see now how it all worked out for the best. 

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” Proverbs 19:21

- Oh, and for those of you who are curious, this florist job only a casual position, so that I can still spend the rest of the time playing music and run my jewelry store. =) 

Money and Music

"Ok, Greg... from now till the end of August, we have to be super, duper incredibly stingy. Ok? ... do you think we can get through with only spending $25 on groceries per week?"

I've seen people's post comments on facebook about buying really expensive stuff and contemplates about eating 2 minute noodles for the rest of their lives. Yup, that's us! And we're not even joking. JB Hi-fi was having a big sale tonight. And I don't know how I let Greg walk out the store with a $1300 TV. We also bought a new microwave last weekend- all this after learning that our landlord is increasing our rent. I can go through winter without a microwave, and I was happy with our free box TV, but nooo... let's risk our next rent and bills for all these new stuff... siiiigh... -_-;

Though, I have to say- I haven't seen my husband this happy since our wedding day- so that makes everything all the more worth it. He's been working hard and he deserves another new toy. So yeah... I now have a huge flat screen TV in my lounge room... something to get used to.

Tonight at JB CD's were 20% off so I couldn't resist either... (naturally). I subconsciously bought 3 CD's of 3 different artist that sings and play the piano. Sara Bareilles, Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum. I also wanted Stevie Wonder but didn't get it.

I've just discovered Jamie Cullum a few days back, and when I listened to his CD, I got slightly obsessed. The next day while making jewelry I've watched all of his youtube clips. Music videos, live shows, interviews... eeeverything. That night, for the first time in... I don't know how many years now... I sat on the piano, sang one of Jamies song and I didn't want to get off for like 3.5 hours. I feel that he just unlocked my passion for music. One of the main thing that I learnt from the music school was that I had a crap pitch. It is written several times in every single report. But after listening to Jamie's music, I don't really care anymore. Yesterday I finally found an ending to my song, "Tulip Tree"- I first wrote it 4 years ago.

All this music talk and no sound. I should face my other mountain and try to record it...