It was totally quiet at home when my week was coming to a close. I opened the shutters and the window all the way, so there was a nice breeze whispering through, and the only the light coming into the room was from the sun starting the set. I was at peace. At the same time, I was super excited to finally get my hands on the extra flowers I swooped up, to arrange just for fun, and just for me.
I had never before seen this type of Ranunculus, so when there was one bunch available at my floral supplier – Mayesh in Carlsbad – I picked them up. I also wanted to show my daughter Sachi since this is her favorite type of flower, and I knew she hadn’t seen a “Pon-Pon Clooney” before either. I decided that these blooms could be focal pieces of my little arrangement.
I doubled my floral order of Blue Tweedia for the little cake topper-wreath I made earlier that day, since I didn’t know the condition or the number of blooms I’d have left when I placed the order. The green leaves and color of the flowers are so pretty, and can vary per stem, so I’d use a bunch of what I had left in my mix as well.
It has been really hot out, and tends to be in this time of summer-to-fall transition. We hold onto every last minute of day light and always wish that days can be at least this long all year. It has me looking forward and out the window for the unbelievably beautiful, late-summer sunsets.
Here are a couple from earlier this month:
I’ll always go outside to our backyard and take a peek.
For the first time, with this arrangement, I used a “pin frog” at the bottom of my vessel to place stems. It was really easy to work with and I’ll definitely be using it again. I like the idea of reusable tools and I support the no floral foam movement. It keeps the flower placement appear more natural, and it helps the environment by using less plastic.
The pin frog was a little tricky, only for the Green baby Ivy since the stems feel like thin branches and have to be shoved into the metal pins rather than simply placed like all of the other pieces I’d work with.
As I was placing the pieces in the pedestal vessel, I started with the longer stems, to get the spread-out-distance I was looking to have with the Ivy. Next to be placed were stems of Snowberries. I chose them from the bunches of flowers at the supplier because once the end of summertime is here, I already have the idea that Christmas is only about 100 days away, so I chose these beauties to symbolize this as a reminder of hope and happiness yet to come.
The Tweedia and the Ranunculus both have delicate stems so they were placed carefully. I had some gaps to fill and wanted something a little different, so I took my clippers and went outside to my backyard, where the sun was fast approaching the horizon.
Right in front of me were shrubs of Linnaea Grandiflora. I waited for a hummingbird to take it’s turn and watched to see which stems had more auburn leaves with no little bees buzzing in them. They were a perfect filler and the little white flowers were a surprising and pretty addition to the story I was creating.
I liked the tint of pink to the whole picture, much like this other late-summer sunset that I captured just a couple of weeks ago.
There was just enough light still coming through the window to capture one more photo of the finished arrangement in the natural light of that moment. It was my little masterpiece of the day. My heart felt so full! It was a good gift to give myself some quiet time to do exactly what I wanted to do. I would let go of wishing that I had gotten more accomplished during the week. Whatever I could do was enough, and I was left feeling satisfied.
The next morning, I woke up early to deliver a cake order, and came home for some (you’re going to laugh) “Spic and Span Saturday.” I like to come up with dorky titles for what I ask my kids to do, especially if it’s not fun. We can make anything less dreadful with a little clowning around. Now that my kids are back in a school routine, they don’t have time during the week to do house-cleaning chores, or anything beyond tidying, so Saturdays have become our deep-cleaning days. I’m in the mix, working hard too. Ever since I was a little kid, I love and need a clean home, because if everything was feeling crazy around me, (under anyone’s definition I did endure some challenges around me) I could at the very least have peace with making my spaces nice and clean.
Right after our house work was done, I took a moment to take final-photos all around my little arrangement, in the morning light.
I thought the back was just as lovely. . .
The design was still so beautiful and happy. I added more cool water, and the very last Ranunculus from the bunch that I was holding onto for no good reason.
