DIY Floral Arranging Workshop

Last weekend I took the DIY Floral Arranging workshop at Botany Floral Studio. As with the other workshops I've taken there, it was a ton of fun and there was an amazing selection of flowers to choose from. In this class we each got to make two arrangements. The one pictured above is a wild ikebana-inspired arrangement in a footed bowl (I used a flower frog) featuring gigantic burgandy-green ranunuculus, super green roses, guelder roses, and scabiosa pods.

My other arrangement was a bit more in line with my usual tastes, pretty pastels in a white pitcher. In this arrangement I used: parrot tulips, sahara roses, guelder roses, scabiosa pods, a white hydrangea, pale pink ranunculus (these bloomed huge and had fringed petals), as well as some branches and greens.

Easter Flowers

Easter weekend I was excited to notice that the flower shop near my house started stocking Queen Anne's Lace. It grows like weeds in Ontario but it gives such a wildflower look to arrangements. I picked up three bunches and may have went a bit overboard...

Above is an arrangement in a ceramic watering jug/teapot with Queen Anne's Lace, white ranunculus, wax flower, thistle, and bill balls. I had been eyeing this vessel for a while at Botany Floral Studio and I broke the handle off within an hour of getting it home. Fortunately my handy boyfriend super glued it back together and you can't even tell because of the crackled finish.  This baby went on one of the tables at my fam's Easter dinner.

This arrangement uses the same flowers, but I popped it in a mason jar. The Easter tablescape was white, yellow and blue and I think these guys worked perfectly. 

I used the odds and ends, including a beautifully bloomed but broken stemmed ranunculus, to create a mini arrangement for the kids' table. My one and a half year old niece spent a good deal of time picking out the stems to smell one by one and hugging/guarding the vase. She got to take this one home :)

A Touch of Pink

Last weekend I made a couple of gift arrangements which all had a touch of pink. The arrangement above was for my boyfriend's parents for their Easter table (since we were missing dinner this year) and features bright pink ranunculus, some very vivacious tulips, wax flower, veronica, Queen Anne's Lace, and some fillers. 

The second arrangement was a birthday gift and was mostly the same flowers, minus the tulips and plus some white ranunculus and billy balls. 

The last arrangement was for me, and contained various leftovers from other arrangements plus some lovely garden roses I had picked up for myself. Although this bouquet didn't photograph as vivid as it was in person, I was actually pleased with how the colours came together since I wouldn't have ordinarily grouped them but for having extra flowers. Instead of looking too busy, there was a nice wildflower feel to this one. I think the lesson was I need to get out of my normal colour combination box every now and again.

Nesting Baby Shower

A couple of weeks ago we held a baby shower for my younger sister. She loves birds and is expecting a boy, so it was a nesting theme with blues and greens. I went DIY extreme for the shower, making the flower arrangements, other decorations (bunting flag, painting wooden bird houses...), baking multiple quiche from scratch, carrot cake, bird's nest cupcakes.... But it was a success so all the work was worth it!

I made a number of flower arrangements, which doubled as prizes, using a mixture of blue hydrangeas, green roses, white veronica, wax flower, cherry blossom twigs and greenery. Once again I had trouble with the hydrangeas and 4 out of 6 of the blooms I picked up the day before the shower flopped and had to be tossed pre-party. But it was lots of fun making them and my dining room looked like a floral studio preparing for a wedding for a few hours.

Unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures as I was using my mom's camera and working with a very poor lighting. The arrangement in the middle of the table was actually in a water glass covered by a hollowed log vase holder giving it a woodsy look. After a couple of days the cherry blossoms bloomed which was really beautiful.  Below is a pic before the last of the sandwiches and salads made it to the table.

Anenomes

I love anenomes. Unfortunately I never get to use them in bouquets because they can be dangerous for cats. This week I picked up some lovely white and fushia anemones for a birthday bouquet for a cat-less friend. I made this bouquet in a mad rush so I could get to dinner on time-ish, but I was happy with the result. In addition to the anemones, I used ranunculus, rice flower, veronica, heather, mini artichoke (I think?), and ilex greens. Close up below.

Footed Bowl

I have been wanting to get a footed bowl for flower arrangements for a while, but for some reason I just couldn't find one. Well, I finally got one yesterday and for a great price too! I also picked up a flower frog and had my first experience with it yesterday. I have to say I much prefer it to the foam.

This arrangement features peonies, parrot tulips, tuberose, skimmia, ivy, billy balls, and a single white rose. It was a particular hit with the kitties who spent the evening taking in the lovely scents. At one point I walked by the dining room to find Precious literally hugging the bowl! Too cute! At least she seems to have stopped munching on my bouquets for the most part.

Fancy Cheese Party!

This week is my amazing boyfriend's birthday and we got a head start on celebrating over the weekend with a fancy cheese party. We love us some good cheese. 

I picked up a variety of cheeses from Nancy's Cheese, which were all great. I particularly enjoyed the Raspberry BellaVitano - basically parmesan soaked in raspberry ale. As a cheeseboard accompaniment we had honeycomb from the farmer's market, which we discovered tastes out of this world good when spread on Ace Bakery Olive Oil & Sea Salt Crisps and topped with 2 year old cheddar.

I recycled old wine corks to make cheese labels and used a rustic wood cutting board to display the cheeses. Not shown in these pictures are the vintage cheese label bunting flag, top hat cupcakes or cheesy sign I made to get the point across that this was a fancy, CHEESE party. Gosh I'm lame.

 

As far as flowers go, I made two mason jar arrangements. I had a very particular colour scheme in mind (think, cartoon-y yellow/orange cheese colours), so I had to visit a few different flower shops to get what I wanted. I ended up using yellow ranunculus, sunflowers, billy balls and roses.