GO JOE!

My uncle is one of the most encouraging and kind men I know. While chatting over the phone with him last week he said: “I love your blog idea, and I’ve been following you. I have a question for you though; where do most Americans buy their flowers?”

It took me a split second to respond: “Grocery Stores!”

So, this morning I decided to take a nice brisk walk to Coit Tower with a dear friend (gotta get the cardio workout in), then head to the local Trader Joe’s in our neighborhood to see what my $20 budget could buy me. After scanning the selection of flowers and calculating prices with our fingers, my friend and I walked out with a great bunch of Parrot Tulips, Yellow Asiatic Lilies, and Purple Snapdragons.

(Props to my incredibly talented friend (founder of www.goinspirego.com) for helping me set up the still life photo shoot in the parking lot under the doggie bowl sign!)

The great thing about Trader Joe’s flowers is that they’re great quality and are locally and sustainably grown! Go Joe!!!!

Cost: $20.22 (Yes, I was over budget by 22 cents, however –for those of you that are paying attention- last week I was under budget by 50 cents, so it evens out.)

Tools: Keeping with the theme of what everyone can use that is local and accessible; I started to rummage around in my kitchen to see what I can use as vases for the arrangements. POTS! The rest of the list included a shawl I had in my closet that was the same color as the Snapdragons, rubber bands, and scissors.

I placed the two pots close each other, then wrapped my shawl around them and secured them to the pot with a rubber band around the rim of each:

I then started to arrange flowers in both pots simultaneously to ensure that the arrangement looks in sync and that they don’t look disjointed:

Remember that an arrangement for your table can easily be turned into small gifts for friends, family, or totally random strangers in your neighborhood. Just transfer them to recycled jars, containers, or bottles, wrap them in some left over gift wrap paper or wax paper, slap a bow on it, and you’ve got yourself a lovely gift arrangement.

Off I go to places these ones on doorsteps in the neighborhood…..