January gives us permission to pause, just as our gardens do. But for me the  stillness gets me excited for new garden projects and finding new flowers for my spring and summer gardens.  I’ve been busy pouring over seed and plant catalogues which seems to offer  the  perfect remedy  because there’s nothing like the middle of winter to inspire gardeners and get that vision of more vibrant days flowing.

Each bouquet and creation reflecting a moment of beauty in my garden, soft memories of golden evenings spent picking lavender, and flowers and gathering bouquets under the watchful eyes of my sweet farm cats, Tiggy, Tiger, and Fiona.

And each and every arrangement I create feels like a love letter to those moments — a gentle way of preserving joy and the quiet poetry of nature.  In every dried petal, I find traces of my journey, woven together in shades of memory and light.

At the beginning of my career, Massimo Vignelli advised me to “go to Venice, Florence, Paris, walk down the street, and you’ll learn more than at any design school. Not everyone comes back a master of the Renaissance, but something sticks.”

I did what he said.   Thirty years later, I am so grateful to continue doing what I love — being a stylist and sharing beauty through my floral creations.

Textile Obsessed!

From 1997 to today, a thread of beauty winds through every piece, every petal, every detail.

When I think back to 1997, it’s not just a date – its the moment a dream began: to curate beauty, nurture hand-made, and build and brand a business that feels like a bouquet of joy.  Now featured on the cover of Where Women Create, I get to share the joy of styling and my floral creations with all of you.  Almost 29 years of making beauty happen, one tiny wow moment at a time.

My home and gardens lay the foundation for my styling and floral creations.

My international design business includes an emporium of handmade works of art, lighting and textiles from European artists. My greenhouse, and shop  also showcases my new dried-flower creations on vintage mannequins

My businesses are shaped by creativity and my passions for beauty, home and flowers.

 

I spent my early career around the New York fashion scene, working at Condé Nast magazines such as Vogue and Architectural Digest.

It was a job styling the window displays for the luxe Henri Bendel department store “Street of Shops” that solidified my love of interior design and styling and ultimately led to an international design career and the founding of my business, The Lisa Fontanarosa Collection

A favorite point in my career was when the Paris boutique, Colette, asked me to style an exhibition.

 

  Swooning!! Octopi for the discerning eye: I can’t help but smile every time I see Marie Christophe’s squiggly sculptures.  They take me to my happy place.    

Flowers always whisper beauty to the world even as they rush to fade