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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.

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.

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.

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!