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”!  

"Can" Do!

I enjoy collecting cans and tins. They have a multitude of functions, and are really fun and easy to dress up in different skins.

 I sauntered over to the San Francisco Farmer’s market this weekend, and paid $22 dollars for 3 bunches of Rununculus, and 2 bunches of Tulips. These flowers bring complete spring joy with all their color and texture.

 

Once I got home, I gathered my tins, cans, left over ribbon, and wrapping paper, and started to play dress up. This is the part that I love getting creative with. Mixing and matching papers and ribbons to my heart’s desire to come up with some fun designs.

 A word of caution; some tin cans are not sealed, so make sure you test them before you dress them up to avoid any leakage or spillage. If the tin cans are not sealed, you can create a simple lining with a  ziplock bag and a rubber band:

 Once the cans were dressed to my satisfaction, I started to play with the floral array that lay ahead of me.

 

The moral of the story is, with a little bit of mix and match, you too “can” create great arrangements for any occasion!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is a holiday that revolves around food, food, and more food (in addition to the occasional drunken family member that makes it an awkward time for everyone… yep, you know who I’m talking about!). 

All joking aside it is a time to be thankful that your loved ones are near you, and that you are able to spend precious moments laughing and enjoying each other’s company (while sneakily gossiping about the hideous turkey print sweater that your Auntie has on....emmmm... uh.. seriously, why she would buy something like that is beyond me!?!?!)

The table setting for this day of feasting is as important (if not more important) than the bird itself.  One of my dearest family members always says “it’s all about the presentation!” and I couldn’t agree more, as the presentation is half the experience.

Early last week I received an email from resident SF Foodie Nimisha Ghandi of Club Dine In! to collaborate on creating the picture perfect Thanksgiving table centerpiece. So, on a sunny yet crisp Fall morning I gathered my $50.00 worth of Viburnum leaves, California Pepper Plant, Bright Orange Cockscomb, Pomegranate Bush bundle, candles, and ribbons and headed over to Club Dine In! HQ to set a gorgeous rose wood dining table. When I arrived I was thrilled to see that the host had set out a large pumpkin, mandarin oranges, decorative garland, maize husks, and other knick knacks to incorporate into the design.

As we chatted away, we each took on different aspects of setting the table, I snipped, tucked and placed flowers and foliage while Nimisha helped wrap recycled cans and yogurt tubs in wax paper that were to be used as our vases.  An hour and a half later, Nimisha’s husband walked over, took one look at the table and said: “I feel like we should be inviting Mayor Gavin Newsom over for Thanksgiving! This looks awesome!”

The perfect blend of simplicity and sophistication!

Don't throw out your wine bottles. Save them to use as candle holders!

Knick knacks from around the house (i.e. decorative balls) help fill in gaps

 This centerpiece is fully recyclable/compostable! (Some parts are even edible!!!)

Mini Apples and Pears are perfect accents for each place setting

As I finish typing up this entry, I am thinking of my loved ones near and far, and am thankful to have them all in my life. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for your presence in my life. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bon Appetit!

Spicy!

Fall is truly here. Crisp weather, wind, rain, boots, jackets, scarves, and the turning of colors! Just the right atmosphere for a cup of tea, a blanket, and a lovely flower arrangement on your coffee table to help you day dream about far away places while it’s gloomy outside…

This weekend I took my soon-to-be-married Cousin to the Flower Mart. We bundled up, got in her comfy car, turned up the seat warmers, and with lovely warm bottoms made our way down 6^th Street. The Flower Mart had picked up the Autumnal vibe, and everywhere we looked we saw pumpkins, corn husks, hay bales, and wheat stalks.

After much ooh-ing and ah-ing over pretty flowers we picked up a bunch of Milkweed (possibly one of the coolest looking plants out there), 2 bunches of Orange and Yellow Chili Peppers, and 2 bunches of a tall yellow grass that I don’t know the name of. (Any horticulturists out there that can help me out?)

I’d saved a few large jars that I wrapped up in some gold wrapping paper, and adorned with ribbon and twine to make my vases. Jars can prove to be better vases sometimes as they are not as malleable as plastic tubs, and don’t need reinforcement (rocks) in their base to weigh them down. 

 

Once the vases were ready, it was time to spice them up! 

Tip of the day: After touching Chili Peppers make sure you don’t touch your eyes. Been there, done that. Not fun! 

Women's Quarterly

A dear friend of mine asked me a very important question this weekend: “What gives you inspiration for your designs?” It took me a few seconds to really think of the answer, and I realized that I have a tendency to find a primary flower then find other flowers that would look good in concert with it. This is exactly what happened at the flower market on Saturday morning.

I recently joined a group named Women’s Quarterly; A fantastic group of smart and professional young women that gather once every 4 months to discuss a topic that is pertinent to our society and gender. Every time they pick a cause and through a prize drawing raise money and awareness for their non-profit of choice. This week I was asked to donate a couple of floral centerpieces to Women’s Quarterly as a prize to help raise money for GoInspireGo.

So, back to the inspiration for this weeks’ design; I found a really neat looking succulent that had deep purple and green leaves, and without any hesitation I decided it was going to be the centerpiece for this week’s centerpiece… (is that grammatically correct?)

Shopping list: Succulent, Peruvian Apple, Bells of Ireland, flowering pink Sedum, pink Amaryllis Belladonna

Price: $27.00 (I know, I know, I splurged. But it was worth it… I promise!)

This week’s vases consisted of two left over florist vases from a wedding I had done earlier this summer. With my vase and rocks ready to go, and the gorgeous succulent as my muse, I started to put the flowers together.

To help cover up some of the unsightliness of the flower stems I attached a piece of white ribbon to the mid section of the vase to help it look nicer.

Now, for some really cool news! I made a great connection today with the manager of Bay Area Bride Guide, and have agreed to blog for them! SUPER EXCITED! Stay tuned for the developments!

'Friendliest Flower'

Trivia: What movie is the following Quote from? (The winner gets a free floral arrangement…granted that you live within driving distance. Sorry to my overseas fans ;))

-“I love daisies.”
-“You told me.”
-“They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?”

This week’s shopping venture was the infamous Costco, where you can sample processed foods galore, buy a couch, and also do weekly grocery shopping to feed a whole nation! I had always noticed that they sell flowers at Costco but had never actually bought any there and really wanted to see what my $20.00 budget could buy me, and what variety I had to pick from. The variety was pretty generic and consisted of Roses, Sunflowers, Iris, and Daisies. Since it was a gorgeous summer day outside, I decided to go with the “friendliest flowers”; Bright orange Gerber Daisies, and white Marguerite Daisies.

Price: $18.67 (Score! Under budget by $1.33)

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been saving tomato sauce cans. They’re the perfect size for flowers, and have a lot of potential on how to “dress” them up. I had some left over silver wrapping paper from last year’s Christmas festivities, and a piece of left over Green natural fiber wrapping paper from another craft project that I had worked on. A pair of scissors, and a couple of pieces of tape later, I had my nifty little vases ready for their flowers:

As I was rummaging through my craft box, I found some silver wire that would be perfect as an accent to piece for the arrangements. I grabbed the closest pen in sight, and started to wrap the wire around it to create a coil:

Once the coils were ready, it was time to play with the flowers, and bring the arrangements to life:

Phantom delivery time!

Tip: Gerber Daisies tend to have softer stems and a heavy flower head that tend to droop after a couple of days. A way to reinforce them is to wrap the stems with silver wire to prevent them from drooping.