You Can Do It: Flower Arrangements

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Having fresh flowers in my house is one of my favorite things. It’s a fairly simple but it feels like such a luxury to have something pretty around…and with Chicago winters, honestly, it’s just a good reminder that something is alive.

Usually, I buy a bouquet, come home, plunk it in a vase. Done. But with the holidays upon us, I got to thinking about if I could kick it up a notch and conquer an actual centerpiece. I swoon when I see big, gorgeous arrangements at weddings or restaurants but certainly, that could be something I could figure out how to do without the big price tag that comes from ordering them from a flower shop, right?

Right.

Adventures in Floral Arrangements. I knew I wanted to make something beautiful I could have in my home or bring as a hostess gift for less than $20. After procuring some floral foam from Michaels (any craft store will have it), I set out to Mariano’s, my favorite grocery store that also happens to have awesome blooms at killer prices. I mixed and matched, coming home with a dozen red roses, sunflowers and red spriggy thingys. What I was looking for was colors I loved together and a difference in textures that was going to make it interesting to look at. Real talk: whatever you love and makes you happy will be perfect.

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Next up: what to put the flowers in? I used a soup pot. Really. It was round and short-ish and wouldn’t show the floral foam through it. So anything that can hold water can work for your arrangement. If I were gifting this, I would buy something that I would leave with them.

After soaking the floral foam in the pot with enough water to fill to the top (do this for a few minutes, the foam absorbs a lot), I cut down the flowers to give the arrangement some height but still be anchored by the foam. Trial and error- cut a little, try it out, cut some more.

I started with the sunflowers because they were the largest stem and bloom. I spaced them out so that they would be seen evenly from each side.

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Then I filled in the gaps with the roses. I cut some shorter than the sunflowers to give the arrangement some depth but others I left the same height. Interesting and lovely is the goal here, not perfection.

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After I had a full vase of sunflowers and roses, I pieced in the red sprig thingys to add some texture. Again- I put them in where I wanted to and it just brought an interesting layer to the arrangement. (Ed. note: this is a highly technical post, as you can from the use of the words “red sprig thingys”.)

Moral of the story: making your own centerpiece is totally possible and totally easy. Having this on my table this weekend felt so fancy and I am already thinking about what I want to create for our Friendsgiving in a few weeks.  Mission accomplished!

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The Bouqs

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Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetI love flowers and, for as long as I can remember, I have made a point to pick up a fresh bouquet every week or two. It’s the simplest thing I can think of to brighten up a room or a mood. The same goes for when I need to send a gift- flowers are always the first thing I think of but if I am not familiar with a florist in the area and online deals end up being a bajillion times more expensive than advertised (looking at you, FTD), I end up going with a Plan B.

Enter The Bouqs, an online flower company that ships gorgeous bouquets for the flat rate of $40. When I first heard of The Bouqs, the whole eco-friendly, grown on the side of an active volcano thing, while super cool, didn’t entirely lure me…I just wanted to know 1) was this really going to cost $40? 2) travelling from such a distance, would they still be alive? 3) would they look remotely like the photos on the website? 

Answer? Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

My flowers arrived packaged within an inch of their life, gorgeous, bright and 6 days later, they are still going strong. AND it really was only $40 for everything- flowers, shipping, volcano transport, whatever. Awesome. And there’s a feature where you can set up flowers to be sent based on special occasion (if tend to forget birthdays or like to plan ahead) or every week/month if you want to get someone used to being treated to blooms all the time. I bring my grandma flowers every time I see her but as that isn’t as often as I like, Hazel might find herself enrolled in the monthly plan…

Check out The Bouq’s here and use the code WELCOME15 for 15% off your order.

This post has been done in partnership with The Bouq’s but all opinions and experiences are entirely mine. 

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Bargain Blooms

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I love having fresh flowers at home and since I was having guests this past weekend, I wanted something extra special (read: I was willing to spend more than my usual $5.99 at Trader Joe’s).  I typically view roses as being pricey but a dozen of these gorgeous blooms were only $9.99 at Dominick’s!  Are you kidding me?!

Beautiful and a bargain.  I’m in.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

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I had my fingers crossed all April that the old saying was true- if we were going to get so many damn showers, some May flowers was the least Mother Nature could do to make it up to us.

On our little walk this morning, it seemed as if Spring had literally popped up over night- I mean, when did the trees go from being bare to in full bloom?  When did the flowers become so bright?  It was so beautiful and much appreciated after an April filled with a record breaking 7+ inches of rain.

The month is starting out strong- I like the look of May already.