Floral arrangements and designs by Agnes Stillfried

Agnes was born in Germany and worked as a Master florist in Hamburg. While living in Germany Agnes had 2 flower stores and a thriving floral arrangements and designs business.



20 years ago Agnes moved to a farm in Virginia where she resides now. That's when she started her US floral arrangements business. At her beautiful Travelers Rest Farm Agnes grows all sorts of flowers, herbs, beautiful flowering bushes and trees. She makes frequent trips to the ocean to collect sea shells for her wreaths and flower arrangements.



Agnes gets inspired by amazing nature of Virginia, old wooden barn structures, ocean shells and aquatic life. She is a huge fan or recycling, upcycling and sustainable living. She turns old wood, last year's flowers, walnuts and pine cones into unique and beautiful wreaths and home decoration pieces.

Upcycled cashmere by Irina Baranova

Richmond, VA is famous for it's beautiful James river, southern cuisine and historic landmarks. It's now getting more and more attention for its vibrant arts and creative talent community. With the local university (VCU) art's school being ranked among the top art schools in the country and a number of local companies attracting international talent the city is turning into a very cool place to live in.



One of the very talented and unique local textile artists is Irina Baranova who is originally from Russia. Irina works with luxurious textiles like cashmere, silk and linen turning them into wearable pieces of art.



Irina upcycles items donated to her by friends and clients turning them into completely new designs. Mixing different fabrics, colors and fibers Irina creates stylish and beautiful sweaters, coats, skirts, vests that look luxurious and cozy at the same time. Every item turns out to be unique and special. Her style is instantly recognizable and you might have seen women and men wearing her designs in the streets of Richmond.

Clematis flowers in purple, tender pink and white

I love taking pictures of flowers. Most of the flowers are so exquisite, tender and glamorous! Even if they are not flowers still somehow radiate positive energy and happiness. Clematis with its wide range of purple, violet and pink hues definitely deserves to be noticed. A unique shape of the flower's petals and stamens makes it a great object for macro photography.

As a result I've got a number of abstract images of clematis colored mulberry, orchid, pale pink, purple and white. All the curves and twists add sophistication to the images.

The flowers could be a great inspiration for artists and craftsmen. Their tender color mixes and delicate lines could inspire jewelry makers, felting artists and many other wonderful members of hand making community to produce unique and stylishly colored pieces.

There are over 200 pieces of Clematis that comes in a wide variety of shapes and colors. The plant is relatively easy to grow. It doesn’t take too much space. Clematis is a climbing plant that could be grown into a beautiful fence in your yard.

Deep greens of the summer

With spring bloom almost over we are moving towards a more subtle green summer season. However, greens are not boring! The deep green color of leaves, grass and trees comes in a lot of different hues.

We still can find fresh and young leaves that have this optimistic color of lime. They are tender and fragile and it will take them some time to turn into deep green mid summer leaves.

Don't get upset that all the spring flowers are gone. Take your camera and go for a picture hunt in the green of the summer! I promise you will find lots of cool green objects worth to be displayed on your living room's wall.

Virginia Dogwood in bloom

I've never seen a dogwood in bloom prior to moving to Virginia. However, in Richmond, VA dogwoods are everywhere. Beautiful in their simplicity dogwood flowers add color to our backyards. They come in all shades of pink, white and even greenish colors.

April is the dogwood month as all the trees start to bloom. One can see spots of red, pink and white in the otherwise bright green palette of spring forests. In the fall dogwood's bright red berries will be an excellent source of nutrients for birds, rodents and other small animals.

Covered with many large and beautiful flowers dogwood trees look rather like brides waiting for something great to happen in their life. Plant a dogwood in your yard and you will have a fairy bride coming to your yard every spring.