I sent out the prints to my giveaway winners @Annamacbanana and @brownstheflorist recently! I asked participants to nominate their favourite small businesses by writing a sentence about why they love them. Anna wrote “incredible flowers and plants, incredible people, and a long history in Victoria! 💐” when she nominated Browns. I was pretty indulgent while illustrating all my favourite flowers and bouquets. Drawing all those little details always makes me so happy and I find it to be very meditative!

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For most of my life I didn’t like flowers. In fact, I refused to paint them when I began watercolour lessons when I was twelve. Why paint flowers when you could paint polar bears and eagles? I’ve probably disappointed a couple past boyfriends because whenever I’d get flowers I wouldn’t be excited since I’d feel bad about throwing out a dead bouquet in a few days. Even last year when I was planting a vegetable garden I did not plant any flowers. Reflecting on the past year I can see I’m changing from someone who was always rushing from one goal to the next to someone who is grateful to be where they are right now. The final months spent with my Mom before she passed taught me how to appreciate the little things in life that I’d often overlooked - days where you wake up without any pain, sunny breezy afternoons spent with those you love and appreciating flowers whenever they bloom! I now make a point to go on walks with Papa Lam as often as we can to see all the different blooms at Governor’s House or even just within our neighborhood. I’ve begun buying flowers for myself and for Mom’s grave, and have even planted a bunch of flowers in the garden this year. I don’t think I would’ve ever had the patience to illustrate this had I not begun appreciating flowers!