Melissa & Dave’s Wedding

This gallery contains 26 photos.

What a privilege it was to plan and style Melissa and Dave’s woodland themed wedding at the Rodale Institute farm. For months I was fully immersed in planning every detail along with designing the invitation, styling the entire event along … Continue reading →

Hallelujah – 12 Days Till Spring

Colorful flowers are a great way to say goodbye to winter and hello spring! This combination of light pink tea roses, orange kalanchoe, blue grape hyacinth, and thistle in a birch bark vessel are the perfect combination of color, texture and fragrance.

If you’re looking for one of these custom creations, please look me up at Rodale’s General Store. I would be delighted to create one of these lovelies just for you!

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Pink…Feminine, Soft, Sweet

Last August I had the honor and privilege to design and create the bridal party bouquets for the sweetest of brides. For Tina and Miguel’s wedding, Tina requested pink for her bridal party. For me the hardest part of her request was focusing on the perfect combination of flowers and since there are a gazillion to choose from, I needed to create the perfect recipe for a perfect pink bouquet. Anyone who knows me knows well that I’m a gigantic mess before any wedding or event. This wedding was no exception and ultimately, Tina loved the bouquets….phew!

Tied with pink fabric remnants from the bridesmaid dresses, Tina’s bouquet recipe included:

Pink Garden Roses
Dusty Miller
Calla Lily
Pink Dalia
Deep Pink Cockscomb

Tina and Miguel you are beautiful and thank you Candid Moments Photography for providing these stunning images of their special day.

Gussied Up Glass Cylinder Vase

Want to know how to dress up a plain glass cylinder vase?  Simply buy some decorative paper from your local craft store or download and print a vintage wallpaper image from the web.  Then cut to size and slide it inside the vase.  Your done!  Obviously this only works when you are arranging dried flowers.  No water needed for this beauty!

This arrangement features craspedia, brunia, thistle, hypericum berry and scabiosa.

Enjoy your weekend!

Sunday Flowers

This is going to be a quickie post but I wanted to share my latest creation. Today I whipped together two giant arrangements like the photo above using only free floral bounty I could collect locally — no store-bought flowers here! And no, I didn’t break any laws.

In a galvanized bucket, I arranged hydrangea, anemone, red wheat-head celosia and crab apple.

Happy Sunday!

Simple Centerpiece with Vintage Bottles

If you’re in need of a fast, simple and classy centerpiece for your table, try using vintage bottles. My cobalt blue bottles look perfect with some ferns and hosta leaves from my garden.

You can group all colors and sizes together on a tray or keep it simple by creating a small grouping.  Either way, you can’t go wrong and it’s sure to impress.

Sage & Pine Cone Centerpiece

Creating unique floral arrangements doesn’t necessarily mean a trip to your florist or grocery store. It may simply mean you take a little walk to your garden or farmers market to collect the makings of a stunning centerpiece. This sage and pine cone arrangement is perfect in its simplicity and would be amazing on any table whether it be summertime or winter.

Unexpected = fabulous!

Mason Jar Vases Wrapped in Book Pages

If you’re in need of a quick gift idea for Mother’s Day, a birthday, or just need a cool hostess gift. Then you’ve come to the right blog. Wrap some old book pages around a mason jar, secure it with twine, add grocery store flowers and you’re done! Mind you, I don’t go around destroying books, however, the pages I used were from an out-of-date encyclopedia that I annihilated when I was a child. Naughty, naughty.

Happy Mother’s Day, happy Sunday, AND happy day-after-your birthday Andrew!

Faux Flowers in Faux Water

Faux flowers in faux water…okay, not something I normally tolerate. However, I was looking through a high-end catalog and there they were…silk flowers in, get this ‘water illusion’. Let me tell you, they were outrageously expensive but admittedly looked stunning.

Being a crafty and thrifty person, I was determined to create my own ‘illusions’ but for a fraction of the cost. Here’s how you can do the same.

You’ll need:

• Floral resin. You can buy it on-line (here) or at your local craft sore.
• Popsicle or chop sticks.
• Wire cutters.
• Clear vase of choice.
• Faux flowers from the craft store or you can rescue some from a thrift store.

Here’s the how-to:

1. Clean your vase well.
2. Using a wire cutters, cut the faux flower stems to the appropriate stem length to fit into your vase.
3. In a well ventilated area and following the manufacturer’s instructions, mix the floral resin in a disposable bowl using a popsicle or chop stick.
4. Pour the resin into your vase – for mine I poured approximately an inch of resin into the vase.
5. Insert the flower into the vase and allow the resin to dry and harden for 36 hours.
6. Done!

Yes it’s a fake (sorry) faux flower.

Orchids

Lately I’ve had this urge to experiment with Orchids. Not anything involving lab beakers, chemistry equations or anything dangerous mind you. More like something creative and classy. Speaking of chemistry, did you hear about the chemist who was reading a book about helium? He just couldn’t put it down. One of my dad’s goofy jokes…sorry.

For this experiment you will find all of the ingredients at your local nursery, craft store, or back yard. You’ll need:

• Orchids
• Large glass container
• Potting soil for orchids
• River rock
• Sheet moss
• Sticks
• Twine

Now for the ‘how to’:

1. Place a layer of river rocks on the bottom of the container then line the sides with sheet moss. Using clothes pins, clip the moss in place at the top rim of the container to keep it in place.
2. Fill the vase with orchid potting soil.
3. Insert the orchids into the soil mixture.
4. Remove the clothes pins and finish off the creation with more moss to hide the soil.
5. Stake the orchid flower stems with sticks (I used curly willow branches) and tie them off with some moss secured with twine. PS: the moss/twine suggestion looks much better than the standard orchid clips usually sold with the plant.

Most orchids come with care instructions but my best bit of advice to keep them gorgeous for weeks on end is to keep them out of direct sunlight but in a well-lit area.  Water them once a week by placing three ice cubes (that’s 3 cubes per plant) on the soil.