Creating with Flowers~Day Eighteen

White is a favorite.  Pure. Quiet.  Elegant.  It pairs nicely with green.  White is simply the absence of color.

 A simple glass was covered with a four sided grater and  filled with White Cone flowers, Feverfew, White Salvia, and Sweet Autumn Clematis.

The greenery is Japanese  Fern and blades from Siberian Iris.

 

White speaks for itself and gives you a break from all the other colors.

White represents clouds and dreams.

White can signify cleanliness.   Do you suppose that is why sinks and basins for washing were painted white?

 

 

 

The final resting place for this arrangement was on a shelf in a green cabinet with some other lovelies.

 

Have  a lovely day,

 

grannie m

Creating with Flowers~Day Seventeen

I've been a little side tracked lately and I've been waiting to post when I get into town to save on my data usage on my internet plan.  My old/new headboard finally got finished too, so I was busy filling it up with pretties and cleaning out closets.   I usually make several bouquets and post one a day...so now I will do catch up so I can still get my thirty in thirty days in the book!

Scrounging through the thrift store I found this vase...it was cracked at the top,,. but the texture and color intrigued me.

 

Finding the right colors to go with it was harder than I thought it would be.  These sunflowers contrast nicely. 

 

To the sunflowers, seed heads from older flowers were added to give the bulk that was needed to fill the vase.

The purple leaves and blooms are from  a Genovese Basil, possibly Red Freddy from seeds of a friend.

The shiny green leaves with burgundy stems and blooms is Malabar Spinach which vines and spirals nicely in the garden.  Lucky for me the steers were grazing in just the perfect spot in the background.

One more shot....

 

and a final resting space.   Although sunflowers make lovely bouquets,  their pollen leaves big messes and sometimes stains too. 

 

Back to closet cleaning!

 

grannie m

Creating with Flowers...Day Sixteen

My thoughts today went to Back to School days.  First on my agenda was gathering the items that reminded me of going back to school.  I gathered the usual pencils, crayons, scissors, rulers, and then of course the apple for the teacher.

But of greater interest I gathered the McGuffy Readers that were the ones that my Grandma used when she taught country school.  The tin pail and lid is what my mother-in-law said was a lunch pail used by her family to carry a sandwich in to school and maybe a cookie or an apple.  The can is about 3 inches around and about that tall.  Not at all like the big lunch bags of today.

The flowers for today's bouquet are red dahlias, yellow marigolds, Strawberry Fields gomphrena, and purple hoary vervain ( a weed or a native depending on your outlook).

I learned to read at home using the McGuffy Readers and then later in school using the Dick, Jane and Sally series.  Funny, funny Sally was always my favorite.  I once left McGuffy's Third Reader Book out in the lilac bush where we had our pretend school and it got rained on.  The pages were wrinkled, but the book and I both survived.

The vine you see in the above picture and in some of the others is Malabar Spinach.  Some time soon I will pick some leaves and see how they cook up or taste in a salad.  It has shiny green leaves, burgundy stems and an interesting bloom.

The table quilt used today was made when my oldest child graduated from high school 14 years ago.   

Another picture.

And another.

 

 

And the final stop for the day.

 

 I miss going back to school.

 

grannie m

 



 

Creating with Flowers....Day Fifteen

Floating flowers was the easy peasy choice of the day along with a quilt gifted to me by my garden buddy. 

  Floating in the water today are nasturtiums 'Aloha Mix' from Renee Garden Seeds ,  yellow zinnias, feverfew, a few orange tassel flowers,  and reddish/purple scabiosa.

Picasa 3 is the free software program I use when I "play" with the photos.  I can never quite find the exact color I am trying to get.  Keep at it and I might.

I didn't realize nasturtiums had such a strong spicy scent until the first time I used them in a bouquet and brought them in the house.

The colors  in the above photo were enhanced and those below are the original colors straight from the camera with a bit of vignette on the corners.

The stove below was in the dining room of my childhood home.  It's missing many of its' parts, but I have fond memories of taking a bath in an old metal tub next to it.  The radio also stood next to the stove.  That was back in the day when radios were about 3 ft high and 2 ft  wide and we didn't have  television.  I can still smell the fuel oil and remember watching the flames in the tiny windows. 

Every bouquet has to have a final resting place and this one ended up on the table in the entry way.

 

 

Good to BE!

 

grannie m

Creating with Flowers...Day Fourteen.

Okay!  So today isn't pink!  The inspiration started with a small pitcher and bowl from a collection that belonged to a dear lady who was gone long before her time.  It's a nice reminder to cherish the day.

The flowers in the arrangement are Profusion Zinnia-Apricot, Button Box zinnias, feverfew and verbena bonariensis.    Today I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 



Blessings,

grannie m

Creating with Flowers... Day Thirteen

I had this white ceramic statue that was found at a thrift store. Shortly after it was bought I realized that it was faulty and nothing would sir on the crooked top.  I knew that if foam was used it would not  matter that it was crooked.

 

After putting the arrangement together I got a couple of photos of the arrangement.  Then a gust of wind came up and that was the end of the little cherub.



Luckily though the foam kept the arrangement intact and I just plopped it into another vase that allowed for the same effect.  This time I quickly took one outdoor shot and then too the arrangement indoors.

This  is my favorite photo of the bunch.

The arrangement started with perennial sweet peas and Walker's Low Nepeta both trailing . Pinca Zinnia and purple coneflowers were added for the larger upright flowers.  The final touches were sprigs of a Dappled Willow and the blooms of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate.

The arrangement looks graceful on the glass shelves in the bathroom.  These shelves sit on a cabinet built from recycled lumber from a hog shed. 

The final two photos are the arrangement sitting on a cake stand on the ledge of the tub surround in front of the window.  Some days I spend more time "playing" with the photos than actually making the arrangements.

Another pink day!

grannie m

Creating with Flowers...Day Twelve

I had some down time between shifts of work this week and since it didn't make sense to drive all the way home I spent the time browsing the thrift stores.   Today's arrangement was inspired by my "find".

This  wall piece I am sure was originally meant to use with votive candles.   But I immediately saw it as vases for flowers instead.


After making the wall arrangement I filled my watering can with some additional flowers and then played with what I could find to add to the entrance display.

Brewster, my rooster seemed to fill one spot and the doll crocheted by my son's Grandma filled another.

Please don't think that I rearrange my porch décor this often.  I'll usually make some seasonal changes, but never weekly like it has been lately.

But the challenge has been fun.

The three vases are arranged with the same basic number and size of flowers.  First to go in was the white phlox.

To this I added the peppermint stick zinnias that were part of a mixed package and Red Cap zinnias from Seeds Savers Exchange.






The greenery is the trimmings from a boxwood bush that keeps growing faster than the three others that it is growing with and thus needed pruned.

The watering can has the same flowers as the little vases with the addition of daisies, white marigolds, Meteor Zinnias from Baker Creek Rare Seed Company, and Polar Bear Zinnias from Renee's Garden Seed.

 
 






This guy has been around for a very long time.  He's never been able to keep his hat and bib overalls on.  He's even cuter when I can find them!

 

 

Brewster's had his fair share of adventures too over the years.  He seems to look quite handsome in a variety of settings.

 

Take time!  Enjoy your day.

 

grannie m

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Creating with Flowers....Day Eleven

Twenty minutes was all I had to throw this bouquet together and take a few photos.   Work has been keeping me busy.  I was able to do the photo edits later.  I'm sure if I was a professional florist that twenty minutes would be way too slow.

I had this little red wagon with pens sitting near my computer and that began the inspiration for this quick and perky arrangement.

The arrangement started with floral foam in the wagon and a test to see if the wagon would really hold water.  Yep!  Good start.

Normally the next step is to add the greenery around the base of the arrangement.  I wish I had, but I hadn't and it was harder to add later.  In this case though I walked all over the yard looking for something with the right shape, size, and color.  This low growing sedum (cultivar name escapes me) worked nicely though to cover and hide the foam and fill in the bases.

The red in the arrangement are Meteor zinnias from Baker Creek Rare Seed Company and Redcap Zinnias from Seed Savers Exchange.

 

 The yellow flowers are 'Granny's' Bouquet Zinnia from Renee's Seeds, heliopsis 'Tuscan Sun', 'Henry Eilers' rudbeckia, a few native yellow coneflower,  and  tickseed coreopsis.

The grass heads in the back of the arrangement are Northern Prairie Dropseed  from Prairie Moon Seeds

This arrangement went to work where I was filling in at a house with very dedicated staff.  They deserve a bright spot in their day.   The thing is though the song, "Jumping up and down in my little red wagon" keeps playing in my mind.

Wishing you sunshine in your day,

grannie m