Best Mom Contest!

For the past week cyberspace has been flooded with love-letter-status-updates for “The Best Mom in the World!” Profile pictures on Facebook have been changed to show photographs of millions of lovely mothers, and I have to say it truly is heartwarming.

This year, I was commissioned by a soon-to-be dad and very good friend to create two mother’s day floral arrangements; one for his lovely lady, and one for his lovely mother.  So, off to the flowermart I went where I picked up a two bunches of pink Snap Dragons, one bunch of pink Wax Flower, one bunch of Snow Flower that had been enhanced in the color department to give it a very light purple hue,two bunches of Crespedia (Billy Balls),  and two black bowl vases.

 These arrangements were begging to look whimsical yet to have an organic look and feel to them.

Since these arrangements were going to be picked up, I needed to create a safe way for them to travel in the car without the vases breaking. So I decided the best thing to do would be to dress up the boxes that the vases came in.

Tools: Boxes, Wax Paper, Scissors, Tape, and Ribbon

I cut the flaps off of the boxes, wrapped them in wax paper, secured the wax paper with scotch tape, and tied ribbon around them… Voila!  The prettiest carrying case you’ve ever seen!

Happy Mother’s day to all the “Best Moms in the World”!  

For Mom

“Roses, 5 Dollars” “Tulips, SPECIAL 6 Dollars”, “Hydrangeas for Mom”….These were just some of the signs that were lining the entries to the wholesaler stalls this morning at the SF Flower Market. Vendors were helping customers decide if they should get roses or tulips, while children were picking up what they could from the floor and arranging mini bouquets as they were waiting for their parents to pay. The vibe at the market reminded me of the scene out of “My Fair Lady”. I felt breaking out in song and belting out “Now woooooooooooouldn’t it be loverrrly?” (Audrey Hepburn would NOT be pleased with my singing!)

As I walked among all the gorgeous flowers, I thought that roses and tulips have been done 1,000,000 times over, and that I would work with Kale for Mother’s day. Yes, that’s right, KALE!

So here we go…

Shopping list: Flowering Kale (and you thought I was kidding), Bells of Ireland, Tritoma

Cost: $19.50

Tools: Flowers, Scissors, Recycled Containers, All Natural Wax Paper, Rubber Bands, Raffia:

Step 1: I grabbed a Trader Joe’s Hummus container, a Pavel’s Yogurt container (Low Fat of course), and a couple of Folger’s Coffee/Del Monte Peach Mason Jars and wrapped them in all natural wax paper. To make sure the paper held, I secured them with a rubber band around the top:

Step 2: Since Kale was at the top of my shopping list this week, I decided that the it would be the focal point of my arrangements and made sure that the Tritoma and Bells of Ireland accented it in all the right places:

Step 3: This is the first week that my alter ego “Phantom Floranista” and sidekick sister “Fish” dropped off the flowers at people’s doorsteps with a sign reading:

As I finish up this entry, I’m wishing that my mom was here in the US so I could gift one of the arrangements to her. Seeing as she’s thousands of miles away, I dedicate this week’s blog to her. I LOVE YOU MOM! (P.S. Thanks for all the Kale soup when we were kids…)