Bright Beautiful Bunches

  I love Jane Austen. In my fantasies I am one of her heroines; the kind of girl who plays piano, carries on a conversation in French one moment and German the next, holds dances & dinners. All while being fabulously witty and clever.
  It's this absurd idea that is in the back of my mind as I browse blogs, maneuver through magazines, peruse the paper. Searching for chic hairstyles, new recipes, entertaining and etiquette tips, books to read, and places to see.. It's with this lofty goal that I'm always attempting to make my life a prettier place
  I know. Weird.

And so I am posting on flower arranging. I hate how I see all these pretty arrangements that look like someone just ran out and picked some wildflowers and they fell effortlessly into place inside of a rustic glass jar. It doesn't  just happen that way, because believe me I've tried it!
So I'm bringing together some interesting tips I've come across on how to replicate that "I didn't try hard at this I just naturally rock at everything I do" look when it comes to flowers.

1. Apparently there's an art to choosing the flowers. I read you should choose your "star flower" or the flower you want to highlight in the arrangement (such as roses) There should be a "supporting actress" another flower that is a different shape or size that accents the star flower (maybe some lilies).
Then there is the "behind-the-scenes" aspect of the bouquet which is the foliage. This helps create a fuller bouquet but doesn't take away from your main focus.
You can obviously have as many main, supporting and behind the scenes aspects as you like, but once you have these three roles in your head its pretty easy to spot them (and hopefully recreate them) in pretty arrangements.

Some even suggest collecting branches & foliage from your yard to use as filler.
2. Try out interesting "non-vases" such as varying sized jars, vintage cans, teapots, gourds, egg cups etc. These often make the arrangement all the more charming and give you a chance to bring in more color in the decor or coordinate with a theme.
3. No flower food? A few drops of bleach will discourage the growth of any bacteria in the water ( I know this sounds the opposite of good for flowers right?)
3. Another odd trick is to spray PAM (cooking spray) on tropical blooms such as Birds of Paradise. Apparently it seals the pores and prevents the flowers from drying out quickly. It also makes them shiny!
4. For an easier arrangement just pop the heads off of some pretty flowers and float them in an cute container (I'm imagining teacups here)

5 Use a clear ponytail holder to hold the stems together. Place it just about 4 inches below the blossoms and right at the water line so it will go unnoticed.
6. Bouquets from the grocery store can be more affordable but aren't always arranged nicely. Buy one and reconstruct it into something beautiful! Or if the wrapping looks tacky (aka the clear or colored plastic stuff!) re-wrap it in nice brown butcher paper. Or just tie a color coordinated ribbon around it with no wrapping.
Hopefully this was helpful. Thanks to Country Living & Yum Sugar for the inspiration & tips

5 comments:

Daydream Believer | June 7, 2010 at 4:46 PM

What an awesome post!! I, too, loves me some Jane A.

Anonymous | June 7, 2010 at 5:12 PM

Ooo, thanks for the tips!

Gorgeous Glam | June 7, 2010 at 5:17 PM

Great post! I love Jane Austin!
p.s. I'm not sure how people get songs either but we got ours because we kept playing it over and over a million times while we were dating and it came out that same week we met. crazy, I know. xoxo

Laura Loo | June 8, 2010 at 4:53 PM

Ooh yay I love floral arrangements! My mom is very into them and making fake flower/fruit/woodsy table arrangements and they're beautiful! but when we do them together, it takes AGESSS because we're perfectionists, and don't want it to look like we tried to hard but we also want it to be even and filled and aesthetically pleasing! haha :) thanks for the tips girly

p.s. do you have to click on the individual post to leave a comment? when im on your regular page w/ all the posts, i don't see a 'post a comment' link. haha whats up with me having issues with your page, am i dense!?

Jessica | June 8, 2010 at 6:25 PM

Remember that movie Bed of Roses? Ever since I saw that Ive wanted to work in a flower shop. I LOVE flowers!

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