Terrarium Workshop #1: complete!
This past Sunday was the perfect way to celebrate National Plant a Flower Day! Creative juices were flowing, along with mimosas. The dreamy scent of blueberry muffins and cinnamon was in the air as we went to work in the cozy Willow Brook craft room. Participants chose between two styles of vessels and there were multiple plants up for grabs: silver lace fern, cyclamen, pothos and wandering dude. Along with embellishments I provided, I was so excited to learn that my previous blog post served its purpose and gave people a heads up to bring along some of their own little touches. Just as I had hoped, everyone left with their own uniquely designed, personalized terrarium.
We will be having one more closed terrarium workshop, which will be the last time it is offered in the 2023 season. If you missed your chance, join me this Saturday at Saxtons River Distillery from 3pm- 5pm! You can purchase your tickets right here, through our website!
Terrarium Workshop!
For the last several months, I have been researching, experimenting, foraging, and thrifting in preparation for my upcoming workshop topic: closed terrariums. This type of terrarium creates the perfect microclimate for tropical, high humidity plants. Mosses also thrive in this environment. Being a moist environment, there are precautions to be made to ensure there is no build up of unwanted bacterias. For example, adding a layer of charcoal is crucial, as it prevents these bacterias from forming. Also, fun fact: Moss has natural antibacterial properties!
The possibilities are endless with closed terrariums. There are a multitude of ways to make this vessel unique and representative of your style and aesthetic. Some suggestions that I have for you are:
Forage pieces of wood and sticks— Look for ones with cool jagged ends! You can make them look like large land masses inside of your container. I like gluing little colorful rocks to wood, so they look like a waterfall or geode. WARNING: When foraging, you must sanitize. I used a tiny bit of bleach mixed in with water and sprayed down the wood and let it dry before using it in the terrarium.
Gorilla Glue takes forever, but it dries clear and holds!
I glued rocks on some plastic in my recycling to create the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
Add creatures— I love this part, I love creating little forested scenes. I bought mine from Amazon, there are so many to choose from. They have some fun fairy things as well that I have yet to explore. I provide many options at my workshops!
Add some special rocks or seashells— Oftentimes, we collect little items on vacation as mementos. Do you have any of these lying around that would look cool in your terrarium?
Forage mosses— With just a tiny bit of superglue, you can attach moss to wood pieces or rock.
Make cuttings from houseplants— Look into houseplants you currently have! A Pothos is a popular one. If you just cut a little piece and put it in water, it will root. You can throw this in your substrate (growing medium) and watch is flourish. Just make sure to do your research and make sure that the plant you are using works in a closed terrarium.
Other materials:
Rocks for drainage
Charcoal— Larger chunks are better, as it will leach into your drainage rocks and turn them black.
Lanscape Fabric— I use this as a layer to protect the drainage rocks from the charcoal.
Flat, dry moss— I put this on top of the landscape fabric.
Charcoal— This goes on the flat moss.
Rocks for the scene
Substrate— You can get this at Amazon as well.
Orchid Bark— If you have a tiny orchid to throw in there!
See my prices in the video below:
I look forward to seeing the fun and amazing terrariums that come out of this upcoming weekend!
Winter Workshops
Winters here mark a time of renewal. Our couples of the the 2022 wedding season are gone and married, and now we turn our focus toward our 2023 couples. We are also given a chance to catch our breaths a bit, and to reconnect with our loved ones. As we reset, we think about creative ways to continue our outreach and community engagement. This year, Frank and I have been putting on workshops at various locations, like Willow Brook and Saxtons River Distillery.
There is a lot of thought and time put into each event. I want to make sure that it feels personalized and thoughtfully put together. For Instance, My first workshop was making dried floral wreaths. I foraged grapevines from our property and wove them into circles. I sourced dried flowers from Great Meadow Farm, which is located right here in Westmoreland (source locally when you can!!). I also had my own selection of dried flowers that I preserved myself. I foraged interesting fungi and mosses to add to the wreath as well.
Some Poppin’ Polypores
Dried flowers provided by Great Meadow Farm of Westmoreland, NH
I love seeing the ideas that everyone comes up with. I start by giving a demonstration, but I only use a tiny portion from the items available to everyone. These workshops leave room for participants to come up with their own design concept that is unique to the person!
My next round of workshops will be making terrariums! I plan to do a blog post on this subject before the workshop, to give my participants ideas ahead of time on personalized touches they can bring along with them.
This whole time, I have yet to mention Frank’s portion of these workshops. We often offer a dual workshop, where you learn 3 cocktails from Frank, followed by a workshop with me. You can get an idea of what to expect from Frank by looking back at our previous blog posts, which share his cocktail recipes he taught earlier on.
Arrange and Sip at Willow Brook in Westmoreland, NH.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, you can do so by heading to our events page. This will give you information on upcoming workshops and how you can purchase your tickets. Also, please feel free to comment on any workshops you would like to see that we aren’t already offering! I hope to see you there!
Arrange + Sip: A Floral Arranging and Cocktail Making Workshop Series
We are so excited to be presenting to the community our workshop series, Arrange + Sip! Arrange + Sip is a series of traveling workshops where you will be taught our crafts: floral design and mixology. The floral classes present an array of workshops which include fresh and dried flowers, terrariums, and more. All the while you will learn hard skills, make some friends, and get to take home the design you had worked on! When it comes to cocktails, you will learn how to make three unique drinks at your very own bar station. That’s right! We will provide all the tools and recipes necessary for you to try your hand at making a proper beverage.
You can learn more about our upcoming workshops on our website under the events tab. We look forward to meeting you and teaching our craft!
Where It All Began: Kristen's Story
As a wedding planner, floral designer, venue owner and flower farmer, I find my days busy and fulfilled. I am very grateful that I am somehow lucky enough to spend my time doing the things that I genuinely enjoy. There were lots of arduous, long days and nights before I got to this point. While I don’t miss those days, they were eminent in making me the person I am today. They developed my character and gave me the experiences I needed to run my business successfully.
I grew up working in my father’s restaurant in central Massachusetts where my priorities were a little different. At the time I enjoyed arranging deep fried frog legs on a plate in shapes that resembled synchronized swimmers. When I was in high school, I had differing interests. I became a vegetarian and wanted to explore a field where I was surrounded by nature. For this reason, I took on an additional job.
My second job was at a place that I had always loved going to as a kid. It was packed to the gills with flowers. My favorite part was their woodsy display of shade grown plants, trees and shrubs. With decor sprinkled throughout, I felt like I was in a perfectly curated, mystical forest. Working at this garden center assured me that I do love working with flowers and plants. I love every aspect: tending, shaping, designing, seeding… I used to take home little stems that had fallen off of the plants. I would make mini bouquets to put in my bedroom. The vibrant colors of chrysanthemums and dahlias were the first to catch my attention.
I certainly enveloped the “work hard play hard” aspect at a young age, which I have since grown out of. I was very social. With my father’s restaurant in a different town, I had a wide range of friends. My parents were just as social, which left me with an empty house on the weekends. This is when I developed my affinity for party planning. It wasn’t until many years later that it proved to be a useful skill.
In the spring of 2008, I graduated and went off to Green Mountain College, where I received a degree in environmental studies with a focus on policy. In my time there, I found myself gravitating toward sustainable agriculture, more parties, and Frank Riley. At the age of 19, who would have known I would have my whole future in front of me? All of my interests had been unveiled and I just had to figure out how to make them all fit together.
I spent a summer interning at a community garden in Atlanta and catering weddings. For the rest of my time in college, I would continue to help build and maintain community gardens in my surrounding area. I also continued to build a beautiful relationship with my future husband, who was also interested in hospitality.
Frank and I settled in my family’s farmhouse in Westmoreland, NH in 2013. It was the perfect place for us as we love nature, and there is plenty of land. It allowed me to explore what I like to grow, and how to grow it. We started various landscaping projects on the property over the years, the first being our perennial garden, then our rose trellis, then our outdoor cocktail garden where an old barn used to be. While tending to the land during the day, we spent our evenings serving and behind the bar.
By 2021 I had worked at various restaurants interacting with a myriad of personalities. I found and accepted early on that because I was a young woman, there would be different rules for me. I will have to work a thousand times harder in order to “deserve” that lead role. If I get it, I will be questioned by all staff, sadly men and women. I have always just kept doing my job, because I was held to a different standard than my male colleagues, or my manager’s next side piece. I knew this industry wasn’t always (or ever, really) fair. I knew if I let it get to me, it would swallow me whole.
These jobs shaped me. It feels so good now, knowing that my husband and I have a business that we built together. It also feels good that we can employ young women who can feel valued for their hard work. In an industry that has such a way of making their talented employees feel dispensable, my husband and I aim to make our employees feel valued and appreciated. We work toward creating a safe working environment where we encourage our employees to put out their best efforts.
If I can give any advice, it would be to get your partying phase over when you are younger so you can stay laser focused on your goals. Never get distracted by the naysayers that will always be lurking in the shadows. In the words of the great Kandi Burress, “I rise above all the haters. It is beneath me.” Your true friends and supporters will be there, and that is all you need. When you do inevitably have that moment of self doubt, just go do that thing that makes you happy. For me, I go to my garden because the only thing that can happen in there is the growth of a beautiful flower.