Simple flowers

I like getting flowers on a regular basis, and I've come up with a few ways to dress them up simply.

Recently, I got a bouquet of pink carnations from my husband.  They were simple, fresh and lovely.  I decided to arrange them nicely using a milk glass vase leftover from my wedding.  A single type of slower is often quite striking when arranged in this manner.

Simple flower arrangement instructions:

Materials:

• a good sharp pair of scissors, kitchen shears or a knife and cutting board
• floral or other sturdy wire
• mushroom bird, brooch, butterfly or bird's nest
• ribbons or lace
• Pretty vase or other vessel

1) Place the flowers in water while you work with them to keep them fresh.
2) Cut your first stem so that it peaks over the edge of your vessel by a fair bit.  Cut other stems to match until you have a ring around the outside of your vessel.
3) Cut other stems just a bit taller to put in the center and give your arrangement a rounded shape.
4) Take your bird, nest or other ornament and secure it to the wire.  I threaded the wire through the bottom of my bird's nest.  Hot glue may also be helpful to secure it, if you don't mind getting glue on your ornament.  Cut the wire so that the ornament sits neatly on the surface of your flowers.
5) Add ribbon or lace streamers as desired.  I chose to tie a bow with mine.  Place the ornament in your arrangement and trim.

Tips:

• When dealing with more shallow vessels, it is sometimes helpful to use floral foam so that your flowers don't fly out.
• Your flowers will keep longer with a homemade or store-bought flower preservative.  Some recipes for homemade flower preservatives can be found here.

I have returned

Sorry for my long absence.  I've been busy with family, having a wedding and making discoveries about things like what the heck mooncakes are.  The dear husband and I are somewhat settled in again and I shall attempt to return to blogging like a good girl.  I have been making a lot of discoveries in the kitchen lately and have big plans for recycling my wedding crafts and making more useful, everyday objects of them.

wedding hair

I've been wrapping up some of my wedding crafts (including some awesome handmade cake stands) and getting details like hair attended to.  These are some pictures my dear little mama snapped of my intended wedding hairstyle.  It will have a white orchid and black feathers in it on my wedding day.

summer lovelies

I've been quite busy again with the impeding wedding and the impending  move.  However, I take time to walk along the trail near my house now and then to see what I might discover.  There are lots of lovely, tiny  things hidden in the grass.

Moving and marrying

My love and I are having a wedding and then moving to the other side of the country entirely.  I have not only been busy with the impeding move, but with sightseeing.

It may seem odd to go sightseeing so close to home, but it occurred to me that in my 15 years in Colorado, there have been a lot of things I've missed.  I think most people probably go on vacations away from home and take far less time to look at what is actually around them.  We've discovered a lot of loveliness on our recent adventures.  I hope we can fit in a few more before the wedding.

This is a lovely dried seedpod we discovered while exploring.  I wanted to take it home with me, but it was park land, so that would be naughty.  My love photographed it for me instead.

I get dancey sometimes.  (I think I'd just done a pirouette.)

1908

This postcard was used in 1908.  It appears Mr. Earl Fulk had a friend who liked to write upside down.

Ancient Mariner

I made a larger version of this to print for my wall after my recent re-reading of Coleridge's poem. I thought it would serve as a reminder to be gentle and kind in my dealings with others and the world around me.  (Bird image from The Graphics Fairy.)

Coleridge's poem Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner has always been one of my favorites.  My father recited bits and pieces of it to me throughout my childhood.  When I got older and finally sat down and read it through, I was impressed by its beauty as well as the thoughts and values expressed by it.

The Romantic movement in literature and art, with its emphasis on nature, appeals to me greatly.  Coleridge's poem ties the idea of the sacredness of nature to an almost medieval version of Christianity with saints and hermits and prayers to the Virgin Mary.  Harmony with nature and respect for it are equated with goodness.  It is also a tale of redemption in a way.  Through his experiences and the penance that follows them, the mariner not only redeems himself, but comes to have a greater understanding and love of nature.


The poem at Project Gutenberg

Shy lady

This image was taken from a turn of the century postcard in my collection.  I chose this one for the color of the lady's dress and her elaborate hair comb.  She looks to me as if she is not quite sure what to make of her suitor.  Note the sweet little bird couple in the nearby tree.

Sweet Spring

When I was a young girl, I hated spring. It was cold and damp, the flowers were slow to bloom, and the world was gray with a haze of green creeping over it far too slowly. Somehow I find that has changed now that I am a little older.

Spring is gray and cold in my part of the world, but it symbolizes so many things for me. Rebirth, new life and the power of nature and beauty shine through even the damp drear of springtime. Persistent, brave little flowers manage to peep out of the earth, although the temperature is discouragingly cold.

Life has many endings and many days without sunlight or cheer. New beginnings are difficult and the world is harsh and cold, yet beauty always manages to find its way.

details: tea and kisses

This little scene from my home includes a rather tiny thrifted Lenox china frame, a vintage teacup and a red votive holder.  An assortment of antique medicine bottles form the backdrop.  This shelf is constantly being re-arranged as we gather new objects and find new uses for the old ones, but I think the combination of gold and red here was very pretty.

A joyful May

May Day is coming soon.  I have fond childhood memories of leaving baskets of flowers on doorsteps and dancing around the maypole with my pretty ribbon.   I still love May Day.  Spring following winter is a wonderful and joyous thing.

I found this lovely little illustration from a 1911 children's book entitled Fun and Thought for Little Folk.  It reminded me of my childhood observance of May Day.  While there are many wonderful traditions surrounding May Day involving flowers, song and dance, it does not seem to commonly be observed anymore.  I think our modern May Days ought to involve a few more flowers and ribbons, at the very least.

 

May Song

(It is traditional, and comes in many versions, but this is how I sing it.)

We have been rambling all of the night
And the best part of this day,
And we are returning here back again,
And we've brought you a garland gay.

A bunch of May we bear about
And here at the door it stands.
It is nothing but a sprout, but it's well budded out.
It's the work of God's own hand.

For the life of a man is but a span
He's cut down like the grass
For he's like unto the green leaf of a tree

For as long as life shall last.

And now our song is almost done

We can no longer stay.

God bless us all, both great and small

And we wish you a joyful May.

Quite busy

I've been quite busy recently with finishing school, falling in love with a sweet, gorgeous foreign boy, getting engaged and setting up housekeeping with my dear.  I intend to revisit this blog as I have time.

I'd initially intended to keep a wedding blog but I really want to attempt to pat attention to this one again, if I can help it.  There may be occasional future posts about wedding related things.

My wedding will be vintage themed, with black and various shades of white and cream as the colors.  Vintage milk glass and postcards will be involved, as well as well as generous amounts of lace.  Oh, and lots of mushroom doves nested here there and everywhere.

 

Papered notebook

I had some vintage from a children's book papers laying around so I decided to pretty up a notebook for class. I painted it with gesso and placed the papers over it, adding some vintage lace and some sort of child like flowers drawn in colored pencil.

I like how it turned out, however, I should have used a brush and not my fingers for the gesso, as it turned out a little lumpy.

Christmas

It was a lovely day at my mother's with all seven of my little nieces and nephews and their parents. Children make Christmas so much more lively.
I wrapped my gifts in tea dyed tissue paper with bits of old sheet music and vintage, yellowed lace. It was difficult to use the delicate tissue paper, but the result was very pretty.
My culinary contribution was the Swedish rice. It's a traditional pudding our family makes by cooking rice in milk for a seemingly endless amount of time. The result is lovely, light and fluffy. It's served topped with a lovely, bright dollop of tart lingonberries.
In spite of all the hassle and difficulty of Christmas, it is lovely in the end. I think the important parts have more to do with joy and family.

( Oh, and the mulled wine recipe I tried this year was fabulous:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mulled-Wine-230571 )

Thrifted pretties: electric lamps

I discovered an electrified oil lamp in one of my local thrift stores. It is on my little nightstand, now, with a velvet posy beside it and a black crocheted doily underneath.

Intrigued by the concept of electrified oil lamps, I looked into their manufacture. You can, apparently, buy kits to make an electric lamp out of an old oil one. The electric component just screws on to the top.

I think it's a wonderful idea, and looks charmingly old fashioned. Now I'm on the lookout for a pretty pair of oil lamps to make into electric lamps for my living room.

A little note on seasons and preparations

All Hallow's eve has passed with cute little lady pumpkins with stars on their cheeks, chocolate, and bits of lovely black lace and tulle. I'm beginning to plan Christmas preparations. I think they will entails some velvet roses, as always, but I'm not sure what else.

Now begins the season of making sweets. Lefse, fruitcake, plum pudding, all sorts of lovely thing can go into Christmas preparations. Only lefse and a dish called Swedish rice are considered essential in my family. My mother and I have a merry little holiday cooking session every year. One of us rolls the lefse out into neat rounds, and the other puts it on the griddle and tries to make sure it cooks evenly.

The leaves turned to bright brilliant colors and have fallen off almost entirely. We've had two little snowstorms that felled the last of the flowers and stripped the trees bare of leaves, and sometimes branches. Now we have bare branches against a sunny blue sky. Soon we will be deeply into winter.

Decorating: my frilly bathroom project

I've been slowly redecorating my bathroom. So far it is developing a theme of shades of pink and blue and a tendency to have fleur de lys on everything.

I purchased pink and blue towels and mats, as well as a pink glass toothbrush holder and soap dispenser. I looked for something readily available for wall art and found some pictures I had taken of the spring flowers blooming outside of Notre Dame. They were lovely and pink against the blue sky. The frames I found were of silver brushed metal with little fleur de lys at the corners.

This is my most recent addition.


I had a very difficult time finding a curtain in the proper colors so I decided to pretty up the old one. I found the fleur de lys shower curtain hooks at Ross for about $4 and bought two spools of ribbon on sale for $1. It turned out to be much cheaper than buying a new shower curtain and I think it turned out to be quite lovely and sweet.

I've already begun my next project, which is to pretty up the mirror. I purchased a vintage lace window valance and tea dyed it to make the color more similar to the shower curtain and give it a pretty antiqued look. I intend to gather it up into a pretty silver button in the center (I know I have some lovely Art Nouveau lady buttons stashed away someplace.) and perhaps add beaded dangles. Then I'll string it up over the mirror with blue ribbon and secure it on either side with a bow . . . Hopefully.

little fleurs

The pretties I planted are starting to get some lovely, lovely blossoms on them. When I was trimming off the dead blooms the other day I decided to bring some into the house. I put them in a little vintage teacup I keep on the bottom tier of my plant stand.

I especially love the little purpley black pansies.

where the colombines grow

Spring's coming around and, hopefully, we'll have flowers soon.

Living in Colorado, with its rather usual climate, I've ended up learning a lot about native plants. Initially it was just out of a desire to find things that could survive our scorching summers and lack of rain. However, I've found that a lot of pretty, odd, delicate native plants were available through local nurseries and that there was a sound ecological reason for using them.

Native species of plants can die out due to the effects of human settling and cultivation. If we keep some of the wee delicate blooms in our garden, we are helping to ensue their presence for future generations. They are also quite delightful and out of the ordinary.

I've discovered many dainty little plants that rather like the dry climate, high altitude and hot weather. It's nice to have something a little different, and, because they often take less water, its very handy in times of drought.

Most areas have a native plant society that can help provide information on what's available locally. Locally run plant nurseries are often helpful as well, carrying an array of native plants.

Colorado Native Plant Society

new pretties

I found some lovely vintage teacups to do odd things with. I think I'm pleased with the result.

I think I would usually be rather disturbed to find a bird had built its nest in my teacup, but he liked how the flowers matched his little blue feathers.

Perhaps this is the result of a little too much fun gardening.