In Search of Summer...

I went out to buy a flower arrangement for a friend...and as I looked at the roses, the lilies, and the carnations that were all thrown into pretty little bunches I did not see anything that reminded me of her. There was a bunch of brightly colored flowers that were marked as a manager's special and were just wrapped haphazardly together. I browsed through the wide selection of containers, from glass to ceramic to woven baskets with cheap plastic liners, and finally decided on a simple, small glass bowl. And, drawing from my floristry class experience in my senior year of high school, this is what I did to create a beautiful arrangement that not only cost a total of seven dollars, but came out to be the perfect gift for a fun person that means alot to me. I was looking for a fun, bright, and summery theme, since winter's been so dull and cold lately, I thought she could use a friendly reminder that summer is on it's way!

When I got home I discarded all of the plastic wrapping, trimmed the flowers to a general height that corresponded to the height of the glass bowl, stripped any excess leaves off of the stems, and separated the three different flowers on the counter.

Sunny yellow daisies. Don't these just make you feel happy?

Chrysanthemum green buttons; so much fun. These make me think of fresh cut green grass.

And typically I detest dyed flowers, but these vibrant blue daisies were startlingly beautiful. Summer sky blue and each petal was crinkly from the dye with an occasional cloudly white streak.

I started with my base (the buttons), cutting some shorter, and placed them in an even first layer.

One by one I placed the daisies, spinning the bowl every flower or so and ensuring that the colors were distributed evenly. I poured some water into the bottom of the bowl and voila! an arrangement of summer love: with a subtle reminder of sunny days, lush green grass, and clear blue skies. :) Oh summer, I miss you.