{"id":44318,"date":"2026-10-06T15:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/?p=44318"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:59:11","slug":"ikebana-pleasure-and-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/blog\/ikebana-pleasure-and-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikebana, pleasure and inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201eIf I had a flower for every time I thought of You, I could walk in my garden forever.\u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are countless poems about flowers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ladies, I couldn\u2019t live without water, and I don\u2019t think I could live without flowers either \u2014 otherwise, my soul would be completely dehydrated. \ud83c\udf38<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Love Letter is my little confession about what even the smallest flower can do to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, so little is enough to make us happy. \ud83e\udd0d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love,
MiMi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made this ikebana at our country house, on a completely ordinary Sunday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke up, made myself a cup of tea, and wandered into the garden. I picked the flowers my mother-in-law had planted there, one by one, without thinking too much about what they might become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vase was not really a vase at all \u2014 just an empty bottle of good wine from the dinner the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no plan. No sketch, no idea of how it should look. I simply followed the flowers \u2014 their curves, their imperfections, their unexpected directions. I let the shape of the bottle become part of the composition and allowed the flowers to tell me where they wanted to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no intention to create anything perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a quiet Sunday morning, a garden, a cup of tea, an empty wine bottle \u2014 and a little time to let everything come together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is what I love most about ikebana: when you stop trying to control the beauty and simply allow it to happen. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We are a sustainable brand in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only in the way we create our collections, but, more importantly, in the way we choose to live our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because how could we create sustainable fashion if sustainability wasn\u2019t part of the way we live?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love markets, seasonal vegetables, flowers that bloom in their own time, and things that come from somewhere close to home. We choose local products and small producers whenever we can, because we believe beauty doesn\u2019t have to travel halfway around the world to have value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We love to travel. And because we do, we also try to think about the way we travel \u2014 choosing more conscious ways of getting around, slowing down, and being mindful of the places we visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, sustainability is not something that begins with a new collection and ends with its packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a way of making choices every day.
What we buy. What we eat. Where we travel. What we wear. And, perhaps most importantly, what we believe is enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we believe that sustainable fashion can only grow from a sustainable way of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I think understanding the vase you are going to arrange your flowers in is just as important as understanding the flowers themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took me a little while to get used to this particular vase. Now I love it. I received it as a birthday gift from my friend\u2019s sons \u2014 the boys broke open their piggy bank and bought it for me. \ud83e\udd0d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, it has become part of our showroom, and over time I have learned to really understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike an ordinary wine bottle, this vase doesn\u2019t like anything too long. It simply doesn\u2019t suit her. The flowers need to be shorter, closer to the body of the vase, almost as if they need to embrace it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she loves big leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny how even a vase can have its own character. With every arrangement, I learn to listen not only to the flowers, but to the vase as well \u2014 to its proportions, its shape, what looks right in it and what suddenly feels like too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that is where the beauty of ikebana lies. Not in imposing your own idea on the flowers, but in pausing, observing, listening \u2014 and allowing them to show you where they belong. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I use things I have collected from the forest floor as decoration on our dining table instead of flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially when it\u2019s out of season, when everything is dry and there aren\u2019t many local flowers available. I actually love these moments because they make me look at my surroundings a little differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, instead of a vase, I used a simple bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The water hides beautifully inside it, so everything lasts much longer. And things we might normally walk past without noticing suddenly become part of the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, all you need is to look a little closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forest has so much more to offer than we sometimes realise. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And of course, nature is one huge beautiful Ikebana…..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now we are moving into our home, into the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the table is a glass vase, handmade by an Italian designer whose name, unfortunately, I can no longer remember after 25 years. \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought this vase twenty-five years ago. It was far too expensive for me at the time. But I fell in love with it, and I simply had to have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I bought it\u2026 and then I probably didn\u2019t eat for about two weeks. \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I think it was actually a very good investment. Because this vase has one wonderful quality: everything looks good in it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a perfect example. The flowers in this photo are a mix of things we picked on different occasions, in different places, at different times. We simply gathered them together and put them into this vase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And voil\u00e0…….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And those red roses? I received them for Christmas. I simply popped them into the vase as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t plan anything.
I didn\u2019t design anything.
No composition, no concept, no strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I simply respected the vase. :-)))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps that is exactly why it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you don\u2019t need to create anything. You just need to give the flowers the right place \u2014 and let them be themselves. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And this vase is a completely different story from the Italian one above. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s from IKEA. Cheap, simple, completely ordinary. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And into this very ordinary vase, I put moss that we collected in the forest behind our country house. I was a little inspired by The Little Prince<\/em> \u2014 by his tiny planet, where even the simplest plant can become its own little universe. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And do you know what I love most about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moss lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has already been here for six months, and it is still beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just mustn\u2019t forget about it. It loves moisture, so I water it regularly and let it live at its own slow pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that\u2019s why I love this simple combination so much \u2014 an inexpensive IKEA vase, moss from the forest behind our country house, and a little bit of imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, you really don\u2019t need anything more. \ud83c\udf3f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is beauty in simplicity. And perhaps that is what ikebana is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need to plan and overthink everything. Instead, let yourself be guided by nature, by the flowers, and by the moment you find yourself in. Respect their shapes, their beauty and their imperfections \u2014 and simply let things unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wishing you all a little inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most importantly \u2014 buy yourself some flowers. For yourself and for someone you love. Give yourself a little joy. \ud83c\udf38<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love,
MiMi \ud83e\udd0d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201eIf I had a flower for every time I thought of You, I could walk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"44255,44221","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45286,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44318\/revisions\/45286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafemmemimi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}