My Poppy's Life

I am trying to be a better blogger and post messages more frequently, but my busy schedule is hindering me...I know you must think, yeah whatever, excuses.

So this morning I want to tell you a little bit about my life and things I've been working on.

If you read the about section of my website(by the way, I've been working on a new website, it's been months since last December, again I was busy so it won't be ready until a bit later...), you know a little about my background. But let me elaborate more here.

Being an only child in the family, my mom invested alot of money and time helping me to define my interest at a young age. She sent me to private art courses since I was little and I learnt oil painting, watercolor, pastels, charcoals, pencil sketching, sculpture, and Chinese brush painting. When I was in elementary school I won some drawing awards; and my high school student work was once displayed at the old de Young Museum and the Dublin Gallery. At that point, I thought I would become an artist for life. My high school art teacher encouraged me to move forward and challenged me with more competitions and I began taking some courses at Academy of Art and California College of Arts & Craft (today's CCA). But my Dad had a traditional thinking that it is difficult for full time artist to make a living, so he "redirected" me to the field of architecture. To be honest, it was not my first choice but I wanted to please my Dad and with a 3 year scholarship from the American Architectural Foundation, I went to Berkeley majoring in architecture.

When I was at Cal, I studied abroad to France. I stayed with a French family and studied architecture in Lyon for 6 months. Immediately after graduation, I worked at a prominent architectural firm in San Francisco, building hospitals. My first assignment was the replacement project of the Laguna Honda Hospital. Soon after I started this job, I knew it was not what I wanted to do for life. In 2003, I discovered another interest outside of architecture. My best friend asked me to do her wedding flowers and decor. It awakened my resting creative genes! I had so much fun and had decided to explore more about this new hobby. I began taking floral design classes at the City College of San Francisco and interned under other local floral designers. Meanwhile, more friends and family asked me to help out at weddings with floral decor. I started building a floral portfolio and by all means, it was much more interesting than my architectural portfolio!

Then I got married and had my first child in 2006. During my maternity leave, my boss urged me to get back to work, that's when I made a very important decision of my life - I quitted and decided to launch a floral design business of my own. It was not an easy decision but with all the encourgement from my husband and friends, assuring that I will do well in this field with my passion and sense for creative designs. And that was the official launching of Poppy's Petalworks. My husband picked this name for my business because Icelandtic poppy is my all time favorite blossom. I love its papery texture as well as its vibrant colors. Have you seen how an Icelandtic poppy bursts out of its shell within a short period of time? And just like the Forrest Gump chocolate theory, you never know what (Poppy color) you are going to get. That's what life and Poppy's Petalworks is about - come unexpected, filled with colorful surprises.

You think it wraps the story? Not yet. In 2008, I attended the American Institute of Floral Designers' (AIFD) national symposium in Chicago for the first time and it was truly an amazing experience. Came back fully inspired, I had a much clearer direction of what I want to become - a floral artist! I am a big adirmer of international floral masters such as Moniek Vanden Berghe, Geert Pattyn, Daniel Ost & Elly Lin. This may be the farthest dream, but they are my career goal. One day I want to have a floral gallery of my own with weekly exhibitions, host some workshops and teach some lectures.

With this well defined goal, I am working hard to follow my dream. This year, I will challenge myself to pursue the AIFD floral design accreditation in July. Meanwhile I am working on submission of my floral art work to an international floral art publication in September. I am also interested in participating at the inspiring Bouquets to Art again next year. Of course, I will continue to keep up with the latest American and international wedding trends as well as my floral design skills so I can provide my clients the best quality of service.

Personal life wise, I am a full time mom (well, when there are no weddings) so my 3 year old keeps me busy most of the time. He will be starting preschool this fall and we may move back to the city for convenience. Once my little one starts school, I will have more time in my hands and I will try to write more blog posts and share more exciting news with you all. For now, stay tune for our new website image which should launch soon. Hopefully. haha.

de Young Museum's Bouquets to Art Opening Gala 3/16

I had a wonderful time at de Young Museum's Bouquets to Art Opening Night Gala on Monday. I bumped into many great friends - my former floral instructors, old pals from school and friends from the industry.

At the Opening Night Gala, there were approximately 20+ floral gowns made to reflect the current Yves Saint Laurent's fashion exhibition at de Young.

I made a floral dress inspired by an evening gown from the YSL couture collection. The original was a black lace dress. I crafted mine with hard glue embellished with natural skeleton leaves to create the look of transparency(for the presentation, my model wore a silk underdress). The floral gown was finished with white phalaenopsis orchids, wax flowers, and a pair of red rose petal bows on the side. I purposely reversed my dress to white because I want my gown to be an inspirational piece not a straight replica. I want to translate the YSL fashion style into a petal language. To my surprise, together with matching headpiece and glove, my floral dress turned out very much like a wedding gown!

A matching headpiece

Me and my model Susanna

I really like the glove I made to match the dress. This can be a nice floral accessory for brides to wear.

There were many other dresses I like by other talented designers. Unfortunately the museum was too packed without enough room for mannequins...it is a pity that we can't show off our floral costumes during the Bouquets to Art week. So I can only show you pictures of what were presented at the Opening Night Gala.

Models at the backstage -

Of course you can still visit the museum for its current exhibtion of floral art. Bouquets to Art ends this Saturday at 5:15pm, don't miss it!

Have a peak at some extraordinary designs from Bouquets to Art...

The gorgeous bark dress on the right is by my friend Leila Simms. You can see how it relates to the painting behind.

My floral design instructor, Jenny Tabarracci, created the beautiful succulent urn on the right.

Bouquets to Art 2009

de Young Museum's annual Bouquets to Art week is going to be next week (March 17th-21st)!!! I am very excited about this special floral event - this year is their 25th anniversary and there will be 150 floral designers from all over the bay area, each will create a floral art piece to complement an assigned painting or sculpture. The museum will be turned into a heaven of flowers!

I am creating a floral dress for the opening night gala. Unfortunately the museum will be too packed with too many floral pieces and will not have enough space for extra mannequins for the rest of the week. You won't be able to see my floral couture dress unless you are coming to the gala. But for sure I'll take pictures and share with you all what I have been working on for weeks!!

See you at de Young!

March Wedding

It's definitely a blog day for me! I got another wedding to share:

Venue: Cliff Hotel, San Francisco

Style: French

Colors: Black, white, silver

Classic Party Rentals Open House

Classic Party Rentals had an open house event on Tuesday, March 10th. I was invited to provide arrangements for two of the tables. There were approximately 800-1,000 wedding professionals from all over the bay area gathering at Classic's Burlingame warehouse to check out their fabulous collection of linens, china & furniture. It was a wonderful night catching up with old pals and meeting new friends in the industry.

Image of my tables taken by Orange Photography
Images by photographer Augie Chang
There were so many talented local floral designers at the open house. Here are some of my favorite tables:

February Wedding

Ceremony: Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, Oakland
Reception: Palace Hotel, San Francisco
Style: Classic, romantic, elegant
Colors: White, green, bronze

Spring 2009

It's been a while since last time I blog! I had a terrific holiday season and I hope you did too! We are entering Spring and it is definitely my favorite floral season! Many of my favorite flowers are or will soon be available in Spring - icelandic poppies, peonies, ranunculus, lilac, cherry blossoms, dogwoods, sweet peas...ah, it puts a smile on my face just to think about all these beautiful Spring blossoms.

Our Spring & Summer schedule had filled up quickly with several weekends left. If you are planning your summer wedding for this year, contact us soon to check our availability. We are now booking for Fall & Winter 2009 as well as weddings for 2010. Generally brides contact us 6-12 months ahead to reserve the date and it is always nice to plan early.

March is an exciting month for me. I am working on a couple incredibly fun projects. I will upload pictures and keep you posted when the time comes! I have a beautiful February wedding soon to upload, but I am still working on sorting out the pictures, I'll do that soon (after this week's wedding, I promise)! Here's a sneak peak of a ring cushion I did for that wedding (by now, you probably know custom designed ring cushion is one of my floral design signatures). I was so in love with it and I almost didn't want to give it away!

I hope you like it as much as I do.