The Power of the Flower

When my family arrived last Friday to help us celebrate the centennial of our home, my parents brought with them bucket loads of cut flowers from their gardens!  Now I knew my mom was going to cut some of her blooms so that I would have some fresh flowers for the party…but I didn’t expect how many actually showed up!  Several weeks ago I shared my mom’s beautiful gardens…I guess I should have known that there would be plenty pretty posies for cutting!  I LOVE using flowers whenever I can…they just seem to make any space look lively and fresh and can make any event look grand!  It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a full blown celebration or just a casual dinner at home, a bouquet of flowers can do wonders!  I definitely planned on using several bouquets for our gathering, but was AMAZED at what I was actually able to work with…thanks to my mom & dad!  So before I share ALL the centennial fun, I’d like to show you how we created some sweet and simple bouquets that did more than just look pretty!

beautiful & bountiful blooms…

when my parents rolled in, this is what they brought with them…wow!

i had already prepared some mason jars to use as hanging vases…

some on a couple of garden hooks in the yard…

AND i had plenty to make extras to use on all the pillars of my patio!  after we had the porch painted and decided to leave the curtains down until next spring i was left with a bunch of empty curtain hooks…but not for long!  the jars filled with flowers gave those hooks a purpose again!

i love they way they look…it’s such a simple thing to do and you could hang one just about anywhere!

i also used some of the flowers with longer stems on the food table.  it’s not unusual to see flowers on buffets, but i made mine do double duty by standing in as food labels!  on friday i shared this photo of a soda bottle wrapped with a strip of craft paper & fabric tape…

and by adding a chalk tag i have a simple vase that labels the treats!

and after the party…i just removed the labels and clustered my bottles on my patio table!

and i’m sure you can guess i still had plenty left over…so i filled my maple syrup buckets with them too!

and useful once again, these pretty petals were loved by the bumblers who will keep on pollinating!  look at this little guy and all the pollen stuck to his body…he was a busy bee!

so i got lucky due to the bounty of my mom’s garden…but even one or two stems can brighten any space!  so don’t forget to treat yourself once in a while to some…

flower power!

i’ll be taking a couple of days off as my family and I celebrate the life of my Great Uncle, WW2 veteran, and author, who lived to be almost 97 years old!  i’ll be back on friday to share all of our centennial party fun!  So until then…have a great week everyone!