It’s April’s First Friday Introduction at Mej Mej and our shop is in full bloom … overflowing with big beautiful hand-painted flowers. We named our newest collection Flower Shop, because you can visit this cute little cyber shop and choose the perfect floral design for your favorite new baby girl. You can create your own meadow, or choose a modern bouquet. Either way, the flowers are so big, that you might feel like you are a butterfly.
We think of our new collection as a farm to market shop. We plan to add new flowers seasonally, just like Mother Nature. Our first arrivals are Icelandic poppies and aubergine tulips. The color palette is perfect for the popular coral and teal nursery, or a peach and mint playroom, or a pretty lavendar accent wall. And, of course, you can never have too many flowers for a boho chic children’s space.
And if you are wondering, how does your garden grow? Here are a few pictures to show the creation of the artwork from its inspiration to a full grown collection.
First, I needed some real flowers … and, I already had Icelandic poppies on my mind. I love their tissue-papery petals and their soft peachy colors. Plus, they look so delicate in airy bouquets, as well as dancing in a meadow. If you would like to read more about them, here is a wonderful poppy primer by Floret, a family run flower farm in Washington’s beautiful Skagit Valley. However, I live in already summer-like Texas, so I thought they might be hard to find, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I went to my go-to shop for flowers, Austin Flower Company, and asked if they carried Icelandic poppies. The friendly helper said they actually do, but they probably wouldn’t be arriving until May. So I just poked around the refrigerated-room for other flowers that would work … and guess what?! I found a poppy! One single perfect poppy. It was inside a flower bunch from Grassdale, a flower farm for the artistic floral designs of Petals, Ink. I learned that Grassdale grows Icelandic poppies AND they are right outside of Austin! I can’t wait to visit. In the meantime, I let this one early bloomer be my muse.
When it was time to paint, I started with lots of different poppy poses. Jules and I already knew we wanted to offer some giant oversized blooms that parents could repeat in a grid or place freely on the wall. So this was a perfect place to start, plus I could practice my poppy painting technique. I purposely used different pinks and corals so that the flowers could blend with all kinds of room decor.
From there, I added tulips and alstroemeria and little waxflower … and some eucalyptus leaves for their excellent silvery patina, which is so perfect for pink and gray nurseries across the land. After painting a field of flowers, I passed them on to Jules to add her magic. Soon, the first arrivals for the new Flower Shop were ready and just in time for April’s First Friday.
Then before we could send our flowers out into the world, we needed some precious girls to model our new bouquets. And, lucky us … we found two sisters who arrived with their very own flower-covered Mexican dresses. Of course we had to add some flowers to their hair, because who doesn’t love to wear flowers?
So happy First Friday … or, better yet, Happy First Flowerday. We hope lots of children around the world will enjoy waking up to springtime blooms, no matter what time of year it is.
And, if you live in a place where the blossoms are still hiding under the snow, we hope that our fresh springtime flowers will brighten your day.
