Harnessing The Power Of Plants

hanginplanter

How are your green-fingered skills? Mine are pretty shocking, both indoors and out and as much as I’d love to have a beautiful home full of calming, vibrant house plants, I fail dismally to have any of them survive for too long despite several valiant attempts over the years. Remaining undeterred, I popped along to the #PlantVitality event on Sunday morning in conjunction with The Joy of Plants and Red Magazine to see if I could learn more about how to make the most out of bringing plants into my home.

OneBelgravia

TheJoyOfPlants

OneBelgravia

After a full day of home renovations on Saturday, I was very much looking forward to getting away from it all on Sunday morning and Pete dropped me off at Bromley South station so I could take a quick train ride to Victoria and after a 10 minute walk I arrived at events space One Belgravia, intrigued to see what the morning would entail. After an enticing breakfast, we were separate into three groups which meant that my first session of the morning was a meditation workshop with wellbeing consultant and meditation expert, Emma Mills.

meditation

Taking place in a beautifully tranquil wood-panelled room fragranced with stunning Neom Organics candles, we were invited to seat ourselves on yoga mats on the floor as Emma took us through a relaxing mindfulness meditation, harnessing the power of plants and visualising using the five sense technique. I’ve never meditated before but a combination of a year of Pilates and my conscious decision to seek joy in the small aspects of daily life which form the basis of my Monday catch-up posts mean that I’m very able to remove myself to a peaceful and appreciative state. Having a plant as the focus can help further to focus your mind away from the noise of every day life as Emma invited us to touch, look at, smell and so on. It was such a relaxing start to the day.

TheJoyofPlants

Next up, it was time to get crafty. You may have noticed the 70’s revivalist trend and with this in mind, we were shown how to make stylish (and retro) hanging planters by interior stylist and creative director Sally Cullen. Again, the concept behind this is to focus on an activity which involves clearing the mind of the constant noise and pressures we can feel by indulging in something calming and creative.

TheJoyofPlants

As I’m not a particularly crafty person I was a little worried this task wouldn’t be for me but along with Josephine from Courage and Dash and Vikki from Style & Minimalism we set about creating our own hanging planters and I absolutely loved it! There will be a little how-to tutorial on the blog once I’ve replaced one of the pots that I accidentally smashed after I’d carefully transported it all home.

TheJoyOfPlants

Finally, a session on styling using plants for photography and Instagram by Hannah Argyle. As you’ll well know if you follow me on Instagram, styling is not a strong point of mine at all and no matter how many times it’s explained to me, I don’t think any amount of practice will ever improve it. It’s something that I see people have a natural eye for and Hannah helped to explain how lighting should ideally come from the side and how photos can be edited with apps like Snapseed. I do it’s an area of blogging that I need to improve but well, along with the many wonderful blog-based activities that are happening lately as well as work and our home renovation I think improving my photography may have to wait. It was so inspiring though to watch people who really know what they’re doing get busy and snap away.

stylingplants

TheJoyofPlants

It was such a wonderful way to spend a few hours on a Sunday morning (especially as Pete was back at home making runs to the tip and cleaning) and to reconsider the importance of house plants and how much of a positive influence they can be around the home. I’ll definitely be taking better care of mine from now.

TheJoyOfPlants

Thank you so much to Red Magazine for inviting me to participate in this event free of charge. All words, opinions and images are my own unless otherwise stated.

My colleagues & I are running the Richmond Half Marathon in Richmond for the NSPCC. PUR-LEASE donate a penny or two #kisses

Follow me on Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

Click here to visit our webshop, DaisychainBaby.co.uk

4 Comments

  1. mummyofboygirltwins
    May 24, 2016 / 9:37 am

    Looks great and so many varieties! Actually, the few that I bought a few months ago are STILL alive! Yes! I can’t believe it 🙂 Maybe I am more free fingered than I knew 😉 Looks like a great event xx

  2. Karen Clough
    May 25, 2016 / 8:23 pm

    Wow I’ve never seen hanging orchaids before! How amazing.
    We’ve only recently started to have success with indoor plants lately. One has died a slow death but removing it certainly leaves a void in the room. Plants give so much life to inteiors. I need to get better!

  3. May 26, 2016 / 5:47 am

    I have been embracing indoors pants since moving, I just love them! I also have some gorgeous moss ball hanging plants at the entrance as people approach my front door. I picked them up at a market in Tasmania and brought them back t Melbourne so they bring back great memories of a fab holiday too.

  4. June 1, 2016 / 3:59 am

    I loved this post the first time I read it and I have just read it again as you linked it up to #mg, it is so inspiring me to get more indoor greenery! Thanks for linking up xx

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *