simple flower arranging

I love working with grocery store flowers in different ways. Here are two arrangements from a recent photo shoot. Simple orange spray roses in a small bouquet and some lovely purple agapanthus mixed with nandina berries from the yard.

 

Easy casual flowers bring life to a room for under $6!

Bright flowers work great in neutral spaces. Big flower heads like these agapanthus make a big impact and can be cost effective with the addition of some yard greenery like the azalea greens and nandina berries.

Easy flower arranging- from the grocery store

Pre-made "bouquets" are an easy and inexpensive way to get an assortment of flowers. Combining them with simple greenery from your yard and finding a little help in the produce section, can take pre-made to...  if not professional, at least pro-sumer. (pro-sumer is my new favorite word. I found it when I bought a new camera and I've been waiting to use it in a sentence!)

For a photo shoot this week with Marianne Strong Interiors, I picked up two "bouquets", a bag of peppers, some sunflowers, and spray roses from the grocery store and used the some yard shrubbery for four mix-and match-arrangements.

The 5 keys to flower arranging for me...

1. don't be afraid to cut the stems and don't be afraid to re-cut.
2. pick the height and the width and add two flowers to mark the size
3. group small flowers in three's to make a bigger impact.
4. use a cascading flower or greenery to cover the rim of the vase.
5. vary the greenery... and save money by picking it from the yard!

As seem in my drawing below for building a planter, the same principles work for flowers. The tall piece, the side piece for width and a cascader to cover the vase edges.

Here are my results~


The peppers were added to an all white and green arrangement to change it up a bit and make it more "kitchen-y".

White and green bouquet from the grocer was divided into two arrangements this one is more green and features a pink tinged ornamental cabbage. The other is a simple green and white- both for nursery flowers.

This is the largest arrangement. It incorporates the greenery from the bouquets, spray roses, sunflowers and the mini peppers. The peppers are on bamboo skewers. The flowers are held upright with a crisscross on tape over the vase before the flowers were added.

Great flower arrangements

Tomorrow brings a number of photo shoots, where I will be creating the flower arrangements for. I thought I would share my great finds!

Pretty flowers from Everyday Occasions blog by Jenny Stephens Hobick

I like the clustering of the flowers from Birmingham Blossoms.

I love purple, pink and lime green in flower arrangements

Great find by my friend Jan Gautro, from her pinterest page.

Very tempted by these Juliet roses from David Austin!

Country Living offered great ideas for simple arrangements!

Back to School: The Dorm - Senioritus and the bridge to adult digs

I always love the back to school issue of Seventeen magazine... long after I was 17! It was the issue that instructed how to take your high school look and elevate it to a college look. Taking that inspiration, I would like to share ideas from Senior year dorm life that transitions nicely to the first apartment and the real life.
Like learning how to wear your fave jeans to the office by adding the jacket from your interview suit, dorm decor can transition to the apartment with the addition of a "grown up" items. Hot pink, neon's and bold florals can be tempered with neutrals. Maybe neutrals seem boring, but everyone cannot be the star of the show. Make your favorite items from college be the leading lady and build a supporting cast of neutrals with fabulous textures.

Here's some mood boards to help create the blend!

A collection of decor from the Senior year dorm

Taking the parts of the hot pink college dorm room and creating a first gathering space!

 

Tribal chic lumbar pillows- ikats, suzanis and more

Etsy is a great source for pillows of all kinds- decorator fabrics, leather, pleather, hand printed, screen printed- and all hand made!  I am in love with the new tribal prints. It is a trend I predicted in 2008 and it is finally making it way into the mainstream. Here is a selection of great tribal prints pillows that will bring a one of a kind look to your home. Best part of a lumbar pillow is that it is easy to use and does not hide you other awesome pillows. These are more functional that square pillows!

Suzani print pillow from Trina Turk fabrics from PillowChix on etsy.

Fantastic tribal chic pillow created with various patterned fabrics from SisterBatik on Etsy.

I love a rich salmon and red ikat! This one is from PlayPurdys on etsy.

Grey has a way of freshening any tired space. This is a great option from ChicDecorPillows on etsy.

Great orange and cream ikat from WillaSkyeHome on etsy.

Tribal, check, recycled, check. Eco-chic, absolutely!
Funky vintage tribal needlepoint reclaimed by PlanetDaisyWorld on etsy.

Delicious embroidered suzani pillow from BertieWoodhouse on etsy.