flowers for every holiday

This won't come as a surprise to many of you... that I've recently been following the whole flower farmer trend closely.  There are many, many flower farms with blogs, facebook and instagram and it's so inspirational to see what they do... including the actual finished arrangements or bouquets.  Whether you're a follower of this trend or buy (or if lucky receive a gift of) a professionally handcrafted arrangement the holiday seems like a wonderful time to add a bit of organic life to your home.

Because of my latest obsession I wanted to make a bouquet or two for my dining room for the Christmas holidays and used my silver and shiny brite obsession (how many of those do I have for crying out loud!?) as well.  Now obviously I don't have any flowers in my gardens right now but I did have lots of greens... we've had a number of windstorms so I didn't need to too far to find some branches on the ground... and two bunches of inexpensive grocery store bouquets.  Spray roses in pink and carnations in white and pink were what I picked.

The pink, a dark pink, plays well with the pinks in my ornaments and two vintage silver containers acted as vases.  One a topless, or should I say lidless, coffee pot and the other a very tarnished silver pitcher.  I used other vintage silver serving pieces to elevate the ornaments and group them together.

Originally I thought of using just white flowers but am happy I went with the pink... it really pops against the evergreen bits.  I also added eucalyptus that I salvaged from my Thanksgiving arrangement.

Spray roses are a fun and easy way to bring roses into your house and I do find them much easier to use in an arrangement than long stemmed ones.

And as I said, I've started on my new obsession with flowers bouquets, arrangements and growing of said flowers... I made an arrangement for the Thanksgiving table this year.

This also happened to be grocery store flowers... and here's that eucalyptus again.

The sunflowers and grasses would be wonderful all fall long.

I did add some of my own lavender from my porch pot to fill out the greenery.

  

And the final arrangement on my daughter's Thanksgiving table looked (and traveled well) good!

But flowers can come from all sorts of places... your garden, your neighbor, the side of the road, the grocery store or your local florist... bouquets you can arrange yourself or ready made to add that touch of nature to your home, your holiday, your event.  If you haven’t heard of them, flower delivery by BloomNation supports local florists through their online marketplace and is a wonderful one stop place to find and support your very own local florists!

As someone that hasn't received flowers too often over the year, it was kind of a surprise to myself when my flower obsession started this last summer when I made a number of arrangements, mostly with my own cutting flowers and bits from around the gardens.  I'm no professional but I was still pretty happy with the results.

Same basket of flowers, different chair.

I found different spots to bring them inside and display them (again with the chair!)... although it was difficult to find spots that were away from heavier sunlight to keep them looking their best.

This one was definitely a favorite with zinnias, cosmos and mums.

Another one for my sister in law in her own vase... using colors to play off the peach with dark sunflowers, yellow english roses and even branches from my elderberry tree that are almost black.

Here you can really see the elderberry branches and how lacy they look.

An attempt on a pastel arrangement... wasn't 100% happy with this one.  Zinnias and cosmos are usually a favorite of mine.

I think the vintage thermos was just too small of a container, neck/opening wise that is.

Flowers are also a wonderful way to remember a loved one, which like a holiday, is an important day too ... this one included raspberry vines, blueberry foliage and big pops of red.

A rustic galvanized farm bucket and a berry cart were inspirations in building this arrangement.

Love that red wheel...

The wooden berry crate came inside with the flowers and topped off my vintage coke crate.  All the yellows and reds worked well together.

And not every holiday is a party but every party should be treated like a holiday!  Including a baby shower held last summer with a farm theme.

And although it was for a sweet little boy, flowers were everywhere.  In simple jars...

Zinnias, the easiest and most prolific flower to grow!

That made a dramatic addition to my kitchen window sill after the big event.

Do you use flowers as part of your holiday or party decorating?  If not, you should give it a try!